Importing Contacts from Excel
Step-by-step: bulk import contacts from an Excel file, with automatic phone number cleanup and upsert.
This guide covers bringing an existing contact list into Mersal in bulk, using an Excel file, instead of adding contacts one at a time.
What you'll need before starting
An .xlsx file with your contacts, and at least a phone number or email column for each row. Having a group in mind to assign them to also helps, but you can create one during the import.
1. Go to Contacts
From the dashboard sidebar, open Contacts. This is the main CRM screen where all your contacts live, grouped and searchable.
2. Start the import
Use the import action on the Contacts screen and upload your .xlsx file. Mersal reads the spreadsheet and maps its columns to contact fields — standard fields like name, phone, and email, as well as any custom attributes you've defined for your account.
3. Map custom attributes
If your spreadsheet has extra columns beyond the basics — things like customer tier, order history, or any field specific to your business — you can map those columns to custom attributes on the contact record during import, instead of losing that data.
4. Assign a group
Choose which group the imported contacts should belong to, or create a new one as part of the import. Grouping at import time means the list is immediately usable as a campaign recipient group, without a separate organizing step afterward.
5. Run the import
Confirm and run the import. Mersal processes the file and handles two things automatically:
- Upsert, not duplication — contacts that already exist in your account (matched against existing records) are updated rather than re-created, so re-importing an updated list doesn't leave you with duplicate entries.
- Phone number cleanup — phone numbers are automatically cleaned and normalized during import, correcting common formatting inconsistencies from spreadsheet exports.
6. Review the results
After the import finishes, check the Contacts screen to confirm the new or updated contacts landed in the right group with the expected fields populated.
Common mistake: inconsistent phone number formats
Spreadsheets exported from different sources (an old CRM, a point-of-sale system, manual entry) often mix formats in the same column — some numbers with a country code, some without, some with dashes or spaces, some stored as numbers that dropped a leading zero. While Mersal normalizes what it can, the safest practice is to standardize your source spreadsheet to full international format (e.g. +20...) before importing, so numbers match reliably and nothing gets silently miscategorized or split into a duplicate contact.
Next steps
- CRM & Contacts — the full picture of how contacts, groups, and custom attributes work together.
- Sending Your First Campaign — put your imported group to use as a campaign recipient list.