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New Contacts: Import, Segment, and Organize Easily

Desirée M Updated by Desirée M

Meet the New Contacts Feature

The New Contacts feature is your all-in-one workspace for managing customer data in Landbot - essential for running WhatsApp Campaigns effectively. You can:

● Store and update contact details

● Import large contact lists via CSV

● Group contacts into reusable audiences

● Filter and segment contacts for precise targeting

This feature is gradually being rolled out. If you don’t see it yet, no worries - it’s on its way!

Accessing New Contacts

You’ll find the Contacts section in the main navigation section:

When you first open the Contacts section, the view will adapt depending on whether you already have contacts saved.

If you haven’t started building your audience yet, you’ll see a prompt to start adding contacts:

If you already have contacts, you’ll see your list, along with options to manage audiences and contacts from the top right:

Creating & Importing Contacts 👥

Landbot gives you flexibility in how you add contacts. You can start small with manual entries or bring in a large list with a CSV import - whichever fits your workflow best.

Manually add a contact

You can include the + before the phone number or not - it will work both ways.

If you have multiple WhatsApp Channels, select here which one(s) you want the contact to be added to:

Import contacts via CSV

When you want to add or update contacts in bulk, you can upload a CSV file.

①  Upload your file

Start by uploading your CSV file. If you’re unsure about how to format it, check the CSV formatting tips at the end of this article. You can also download a template to help you get started. The upload box will turn green when the file is accepted.

② Map your fields

Mapping ensures your data lands in the right place in Landbot. Without proper mapping, your personalization and targeting may not work as expected.

Match each column in your file to a Landbot field. You can select an existing field or create a new one right here.

Selecting fields:

Creating a new field:

⚠️ Important: You must match at least one of these two fields 🗝️ :

@phone

@email

If a column is left unmapped, that data won’t be imported.

If the system finds a match for phone or email in your existing contacts, that contact will be updated instead of duplicated.

Duplicate entries in the file are ignored - only the first match is used. Phone numbers or emails are never overwritten unless the new value is complete.

③ Add to Audiences

After importing your contacts, you can organize them into Audiences for easier targeting in campaigns. You can do this right away during import or later from the contact list.

If you haven’t created any audiences yet, here you will be able to create your first one. If you already have audiences created, you can add contacts to one or multiple audiences at a time.

④ If you have multiple WhatsApp Channels, select here which one(s) you want the contact to be added to:

If you just want to upload a list of contacts, you don't need to select any audiences or Subscriptions, and simply click the Import button on the bottom right of the page.

Organize with Audiences 📂

Audiences let you group contacts so you can easily target the right people in your campaigns.

You can create or update an audience in different ways:

● From the Contact List: Select one or more contacts, open the bulk actions menu (three dots), and choose Audience from selection (to create a new one) or Add selection to audience (to add to an existing audience).

● From a Filter: Apply filters to narrow down your contacts, then save the results as a new audience.

● From inside an Audience: Add new contacts, import more, or manually add existing contacts by entering their phone number or email.

You also have the option to rename or delete audiences at any time:

Filter Your Contacts 🔍

Filters help you segment your contacts based on specific fields, so you can reach the right people at the right time. To start, click the funnel icon in the Contacts view:

Next, choose the fields you want to filter by. You can select multiple fields to narrow down your list.

Use AND/OR logic to combine multiple conditions for precise targeting.

● AND means all conditions must be met.

● OR means any of the conditions can be met.

This lets you create highly targeted segments for messaging or campaigns.

Once you’re happy with your filtered list, you can save it as an audience for easy access later. This way, you won’t need to set the same filters again, and you can reuse audiences in multiple campaigns.

CSV Formatting Tips ⚙️

Proper formatting saves you time and prevents import errors.

If you’re preparing a CSV for the first time, double-check these rules before uploading:

• Use one delimiter (comma, semicolon, etc.) - mixed delimiters may cause errors

• The first row must contain headers (e.g. name, phone, email)

• Only periods (.) are supported for decimal numbers

• If the file has inconsistent formatting, import may fail or be incomplete

• If exporting CSV from Excel, set column formatting to Text - using Number format can create issues.


FAQs & Troubleshooting 🛠️

❓Can I import Excel (.xlsx) files?

No. Only CSV (.csv) files are supported for importing contacts. You can export your Excel file as CSV and then upload it.

❓What’s the difference between a Filter and an Audience?

Filter: A temporary view of your contacts based on selected criteria.

Audience: A saved group of contacts you can target repeatedly.

❓Is there a limit to how many contacts I can import at once?

There’s no fixed limit, but very large files may take longer to upload and process. For huge lists, splitting them into smaller batches can speed up the process.

❓What phone number format is required in the CSV?

The phone number must start with the country code, followed by the full number (no spaces or special characters).

Examples:

🇪🇸 Spain → 34600000000 (34 = country code, 600000000 = number)

🇬🇧 United Kingdom → 447000000000 (44 = country code, 7000000000 = number)

🇺🇸 United States → 12025550123 (1 = country code, 2025550123 = number)

🇲🇽 Mexico → 525512345678 ✅ (52 = country code, 5512345678 = local number)

⚠️ Important for Mexico: Do not include the extra “1” that used to appear after the country code in older formats (e.g., 5215512345678 is incorrect and you will get an error message).

If the phone number doesn’t follow this format, the bot will go through the red path.


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