Import external contact groups to Yapla Newsletters

If you want to activate the Newsletters feature and already have a contact directory organized by segments, lists, subscribers, or invalid addresses from an external provider, some configuration steps will be necessary to ensure your newsletter sends are set up correctly. In this article, you’ll learn how to import and organize your contact lists into the Yapla Newsletters feature.

When you activate the Newsletters feature, contacts already stored in Yapla will be automatically synchronized. Learn more in this article.

Import external contact groups

1. What is an attribute?

Attributes allow you to easily find a group of contacts for bulk actions, such as unsubscribing them, marking them as bounces, or organizing them into a specific sending segment. When importing an external list, it’s important to first import unsubscribed or bounced contacts using attributes so that Yapla Newsletters classifies them correctly and prevents accidental sends. You can do the same for any group of external contacts and assign them to specific sending segments at any time.

2. Prepare your import files and create attributes

We recommend creating one Excel file per group of contacts (e.g., unsubscribed, bounced, 2025 congress participants, media contacts, etc.). You’ll need to add an attribute to each import file to classify all contacts under that group. The attribute will be automatically created in the feature. Here’s how to prepare your file:

1. In your Excel file, delete all columns except for the email column.
2. Add a column with the name of the group to be imported (the attribute), e.g., "unsubscribe", and enter "yes" for each email in that column. Repeat this process for each contact group using separate files.

3. Import your files

1. Go to the Newsletters tab, then the Contacts tab.
2. In the left-hand column, select the target list if you have several.
3. Click the (+) at the top right, then click Import contacts.
4. Select the "Existing" option, then click Continue.

⚠️ It’s important not to import your contacts using the Add a new option, since contact count is calculated per list, even if the same contact appears in multiple lists.

5. Select the Paste from spreadsheet option.
6. Select your data from your spreadsheet, copy and paste it into the table shown. Click Next.
7. In the next step, review the data. Make sure the first column is labeled "email", and the second column contains the contact group name (the attribute) you're importing. Click Continue.
8. 
9. Confirm that you have permission to send emails to these contacts. You’ll be redirected to your contact list.

4. Create a segment

1. In your contact list’s left menu, click Create a segment.
2. Give the segment the same name as the attribute created (e.g., "To unsubscribe").
3. In the Select a condition field, choose the matching attribute, then set the next row to "Is" and the last row to "Yes".
4. 
5. Click Save and exit.

Once you filter your contact list using the new segment, you’ll see the imported contacts with that attribute. Their status will appear as "Active". You can now send newsletters specifically to this group.

Important: If you’ve imported unsubscribed or bounced contacts, you'll need to change their status to Unsubscribed. Here's how:

Unsubscribing imported contact groups

Filter your contact list using the created segment “unsubscribe” or “bounced” to display the imported contacts with those attributes.

To change their status from Active to Unsubscribed, select all contacts in the list, click Action at the bottom, then select Unsubscribe.

Your contacts now have the status "Unsubscribed".

⚠️ Keep in mind that if your list shows 100 contacts per page and spans 6 pages, you’ll need to repeat this step for each page.

About "Bounced" contacts

For the same contact list, you must repeat the process using a new attribute that matches your imported file, e.g., "bounced".

⚠️ Some contacts in the bounced list may be automatically flagged as invalid during import and won’t be uploaded. The rest must still be manually unsubscribed.

Good to know

It’s important to repeat the import process for each of your contact lists. For instance, if you're sending bilingual newsletters, you may have different lists for each language.

If you run into any issues importing contacts or want more help, feel free to contact our support team at support@yapla.com.

 

Want to go further?

• Guide | Yapla Newsletters technical glossary
• Create and use tags in your newsletters
• Create segments for your newsletters