Overview
If you don't have a CRM or if you have a list of people that you want to use in Apollo that are not yet in your CRM, you can import that list as a CSV into Apollo.
When you import CSV lists of people into Apollo, there are a few columns that are required:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Company
- Company Website
Apollo highly recommends that you also include the contact email if you have it as well.
With the data from these columns, Apollo can match the contact in the Apollo database and enrich the rest of the contact and account information.
Please note, if you only have the URL to a Contact's LinkedIn profile, Apollo recommends that you do not import this data from a CSV. Instead, you can use the Apollo Chrome Extension to save the contact directly from their LinkedIn profile. For more information, please refer to the "Apollo Chrome Extension Overview" article.
If your CSV file includes values that should be mapped to a checkbox in Apollo, enter True for checked and False for unchecked.
If your CSV file includes a column that features a Multi-Picklist field, each value in the cell needs to be separated by a semicolon.
Upload a CSV of Contacts
Launch Apollo and click Search.
Verify that you are currently on the People tab and then click the Import drop-down.
From the drop-down, click Bulk Import from CSV.
Click Select CSV File.
Select your CSV file from your computer and then click Open to upload it.
Use the drop-down menus for each of the fields to map your CSV column headers to the corresponding Apollo fields.
In the What stage would you like to set the contacts to? drop-down, select the contact stage that best represents the engagement status for all of the contacts in the CSV.
It is very important to set your list to the correct stage because it allows you to efficiently message people once they're included in an Apollo sequence.
Select the desired behavior from the If contacts already exist in Apollo drop-down.
When you update an existing record in Apollo via CSV, Apollo uses 3 sets of unique identifiers in order of most to least unique. Those identifiers include:
linkedin_URL-
first_name+last_name+organization email address
This means, if you include linkedin_URL, you can update all of the other data for a person. If you include first_name + last_name + organization, but you do not include a different linkedin_URL, you can update email address and other data. If you include only email_address and you do not include the linkedin_URL or first_name + last_name + organization, then you can only update other fields for the people in your file.
If you opt to update existing records in Apollo from your CSV, Apollo only updates records that have a matching email address, a matching name (first and last), and a matching company. You can also opt to skip updating duplicate records.
When duplicate people exist in your CSV, Apollo only accepts the highest row in the file to update the record in the platform.
Select a user from the If the owner value is missing in your CSV, assign owner to drop-down that should own the imported records in Apollo.
Select the behavior in the If existing contacts already have owner drop-down to control what Apollo does if it encounters records in your CSV that already have an owner in Apollo.
If you select the "Update Ownership" behavior from the drop-down, Apollo will assign the user that you selected in the If the owner value is missing in your CSV, assign owner to drop-down.
Select an option from the Auto-assign accounts? drop-down to determine whether or not Apollo should assign companies to the people included in your CSV.
If you have integrated Salesforce for your account, you will see an additional checkbox to determine whether or not Apollo should create and update records in Salesforce based on the uploaded CSV.
In the Add to a List? drop-down, enter the name of a new list or select one from the drop-down to add the contacts from your CSV to a list in Apollo. This step is optional.
Click Import to finish uploading your CSV to Apollo.
Your upload will now begin.
Most uploads only take a few minutes to complete, but depending on the size of your CSV and the time of day, it may take a few hours for your upload to finish. Apollo does not recommend uploading a file that includes more than 10k rows. Instead, you should split your CSV into two smaller files. You can check on the status of your upload by browsing to Settings—> Imports & Exports —> Contact Imports.
Search For Imported People
Launch Apollo and click Search.
Click Show More Filters.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Contact CSV Import.
Click the checkbox next to the CSV file(s) that you want to include.
Click Apply Filters to display the people included in the selected CSV files.
You have now found the contacts from your imported CSV file(s). From here, you can take action(s) on these contacts. For example, enroll them in a sequence or call them with the dialer.
For more details on how to leverage Apollo's engagement features in your workflow, refer to the Connect with Every Contact video.
Enrich the Records of Your Imported Contacts
If you want to enrich the emails and mobile numbers of your imported contacts, launch Apollo and click Search.
Click Show More Filters.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Contact CSV Import.
Click the checkbox next to the CSV file(s) that you want to include.
Click Apply Filters to display the people included in the selected CSV files.
Click the Saved tab and then click the checkboxes next to the contacts that you want to enrich.
Click the additional options (...) button, and then click Enrich emails or Enrich mobile numbers.
Click Enrich to confirm the email or mobile enrichment request.
Please note, when you successfully enrich an email, Apollo charges you 1 credit. When you successfully enrich a mobile number, Apollo charges you 1 credit. For more information about how credits work in Apollo, refer to the What Are Credits? article.
You have now enriched the emails or mobile numbers of the selected contacts that you imported from a CSV file.