How to upload numbers you’ve collected off-site

Here’s what we’ll need to upload numbers to your campaign.

We’re excited to offer a batch upload feature to take your existing database of phone numbers and add it to your Subtext campaign. This requires admin access, so contact hello@joinSubtext or your customer success representative if you want to do this.

Two things are required first:

  1. You sign our MSA indicating you’ve received permission to text these numbers.
  2. Your campaign must be free to users.

Alright, if both things are true, which they likely are if you’re reading this, then let’s talk through what we’ll need from you to make this possible.

We can upload phone numbers, names, email addresses, zip codes and any additional notes. Below you’ll find the requirements for the formatting of the data:

Labels for the columns must be: Phone, Email, First Name, Last Name, Zip Code, Note
Example of spreadsheet of data

The file information:

  • Accepted import file types: CSV, XLSX, ODS
  • Important: All import files must contain a header row, and data must be arranged in the following order (L →R): Phone, Email, First Name, Last Name, Zip Code, Note
  • Phone is the only required field; all other column headers should be included but left blank if information in unavailable.

The phone number:

Acceptable formatting of numbers include:

  • Country code + area code + mobile number = 12015550123
  • Area code + mobile number = (201) 555–0123 or 201–555–0123

The name and email:

  • First names and last names must be in separate columns
  • Names and emails will only be uploaded if your campaign is set up to collect names and email of new users. If you’re unsure if your campaign is, please ask your Subtext team contact.

The welcome message:

  • Imported subscribers will receive a custom “Import Welcome SMS,” if specified. Otherwise they will receive the standard Welcome SMS by default. Please email your Subtext team contact with your custom welcome message.
    Sample custom message: Hey there! <Insert company name> is reaching out to let you know that we’ll be sending you updates on our work via text going forward. Feel free to text any questions or feedback you have.
  • The Import Welcome SMS will not append the usual opt-out language “You can text STOP at any time to unsubscribe.”

For more elements of Subtext that require customer support to enable, go here.