How to bring your list in cleanly, tag it properly, and set up smart lists that keep themselves up to date.
Export your existing contact list as a CSV. Minimum columns: first name, last name, email, phone. Recommended columns: source, tags, custom fields that matter to you (industry, lead score, lifecycle stage). Phone numbers should be in E.164 format (+15555551234). Before importing, open the CSV and remove any rows without at least an email or a phone — those will not be usable.
Go to Contacts → Import. Upload your CSV, map each column to the corresponding VC Suite field, and set a default tag for the import (e.g. imported-2026-04). This lets you find or roll back the import later if something goes wrong. Run the import with Skip duplicates enabled unless you want to overwrite existing records.
Tags are the backbone of segmentation. A good tagging strategy covers: source (where the contact came from), lifecycle stage (lead, prospect, customer, churned), interest (what they care about), and campaign (which specific campaign they opted into). Tags can be applied manually, by workflow, or at import. Keep tag names lowercase and hyphenated so they are easy to reference in automations later.
Smart Lists are saved filters that update automatically as contacts change. Build one for every segment you message regularly: Active leads in last 30 days, Customers who have not purchased in 90+ days, Contacts tagged source:referral. Go to Contacts → Smart Lists → New and define the filter. Contacts that match the filter join the list automatically; contacts that no longer match drop off.
VC Suite deduplicates on email by default. If you need to merge records manually, open a contact and click the three-dot menu → Merge. You can only merge contacts with matching or empty primary identifiers.
List hygiene is not a one-time event. Every quarter: archive contacts with no engagement in 12 months, fix bounced email addresses, and review your tags for duplicates (e.g. customer and customers). A clean list deliverability-scores 20–40% higher than a neglected one.
Importing a list with invalid phone numbers makes every SMS automation fail silently. Using too many tags (300+) makes segmentation cognitively impossible. Not tagging source makes attribution impossible later. Fix these at import time, not after you have 10,000 contacts.
Prefer We Do It
If reading this and thinking "I'd rather someone just do it right the first time" — that's what we do. Book a call and we'll scope it.
Schedule A Call →