Move from another platform

Every email platform stores the same things: contacts, the people who unsubscribed, templates and automations. Moving them takes the same five steps whichever platform you're leaving. Contacts and unsubscribes take about 15 minutes; templates and automations depend on how many you have.

Step 1: Set up your sending domain#

Go to Sending domains, add the domain you send from, and publish the DNS records it shows you. DNS changes can take a few hours, so do this first and carry on while you wait. Authenticate your domain covers each record.

Your domain probably already has an SPF record for your old platform. Don't add a second one; a domain may only have one. Add our include to the existing record instead.

Step 2: Export everything from your old platform#

Look for an export option in the section your old platform calls Contacts, Audience, Subscribers or Lists. You're after up to three files:

• Your subscribed contacts, with every field (names, company, tags).
• Your unsubscribed contacts.
• Your bounced addresses. Some platforms call these cleaned, suppressed or invalid.

Some platforms put all three in one file with a status column. That's fine: open it in a spreadsheet and split it by status before you import.

While you're in the old platform, also:

• Export any templates you want to keep as HTML. Look for an export or "view code" option on each template. Many drag-and-drop builders don't offer one; see step 5.
• Write down each automation: what starts it, each email and the wait before it, and any branches. Copy each email's content. No platform exports automations.

Step 3: Import your contacts#

Go to Lists, create a list, and add a field under Lists›Fields for everything you want to keep beyond name and email. If your old platform used tags, add a text field called Tags.

Then import the subscribed file and map each column to a field. Import contacts covers the mapping screen, duplicates and rejected rows.

The Free plan holds 2,500 contacts. Every paid plan has unlimited contacts, so if your list is bigger, choose a paid plan before you import.

Step 4: Import your unsubscribes and bounces#

Go to Blacklist and import the unsubscribed file, then the bounced file. Put the email address in the first column; the Blacklist import reads that column and ignores the rest.

Don't skip this. Emailing someone who unsubscribed from you elsewhere earns spam complaints and may break the law, and emailing addresses that bounced damages your sender reputation. Blacklisted addresses are never emailed, from any list.

Step 5: Move your templates and automations#

Templates. If you exported HTML, create a new template, choose your own HTML and paste it in. If your old builder doesn't export HTML, open a sent campaign's "view in browser" page, view the page source, and paste that instead, then remove the old platform's footer and logo. Or rebuild it in the email builder, which is often quicker than cleaning up someone else's code.

Old merge tags such as *|FNAME|*, {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }} or {{ subscriber.first_name }} won't work here. Insert tags with the editor's personalization control; see Personalization tags.

Automations. Rebuild each one from your notes under Automations. Build a workflow explains the editor, and Welcome series is a worked example. Switch each one on here only when you switch the old one off, so nobody gets the same email twice.

Before your first send#

• Verify the list. Imported lists always contain dead addresses. Run email verification first.
• Warm up. Your domain is new to our servers, so start with your most engaged contacts and build up. Warm up a new domain has a schedule.
• Swap your signup forms for an IGSendMail form, or new subscribers will keep landing in the old platform.
• Keep the old account until your first campaign has gone out, then downgrade or close it.