Bulk importing contacts: how to tell is emails in a list already exist on my HubSpot

[HRichthe2nd]

Hello,

My team are bulk importing contacts into HubSpot.

However one of them recently did an unsuccessful bulk import, as he did a "create only" import for a list of emails that already existed on our system.

Is there a way for them to know automatically before importing if a email in their import file already exists on our HubSpot?

[RBozeman]

 Hi @HRichthe2nd,

I would say that the easiest way to do this is to use the "create and update" setting, which will create new records but will also update any existing ones that have the matching email address. 

Also wanted to mention that Insycle could help with this. Full disclosure, I work for Insycle. But you can choose any field as an identity field to help reduce duplicates. So you could use email, phone numbers, addresses, names+companies, whatever makes the most sense of your use case. And you can also clean and format the data on its way into the CRM.

Hope that helps. 

[HRichthe2nd]

@FLangley Thanks very much for your response

For point 4, can you expand a little?

I thought you had to have emails uploaded on HubSpot for them to added to a list?

[Mahipalrav]

Below are the basic steps you want to do before running an import.

1. Create a file for a new contact and select update contact. 

2. Download the existing contact and remove the duplicate contact before running the import.

3. Run an fresh import then merge them afterwards.

Some reference:

• When contact added via import:
  • If a contact already exists in your account with the same email address, the new contact information will be added to the existing contact record. For example, if you import a list of contacts that includes "admin@hubspot.com," and an existing contact in your HubSpot account has the email "admin@hubspot.com," the imported information will be added to that existing contact record.
  • If you're using a contact's secondary email in HubSpot as their unique identifier in an import, if you include both the secondary email and Record ID as columns in your file, the secondary email will replace the primary email when imported. If you don't want the secondary email to overwrite the primary, do not also include the Record ID column in your file.
  • If you do not include the Email property in your import, each row of your import file will be imported as a new contact record.
  • If multiple records already exist with the same email address as a contact you're importing, you'll receive an import error and that contact will not be imported. 

[FLangley · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can avoid importing duplicate names or emails in HubSpot by following these steps:

1. Use "Create and Update" Import: Instead of "Create Only," select "Create and Update" during the import. HubSpot will automatically update existing contacts with the same name or email instead of creating duplicates.

2. Export and Compare: Export your current contact names and emails from HubSpot and compare them with your new import list in Excel or Google Sheets to find duplicates before importing.

3. Enable Update Existing Contacts: During import, check the "Update existing contacts" option. HubSpot will check for matching names and emails and update them rather than creating new ones.

4. Create a Pre-Import List: You can create a list in HubSpot with the names or emails you're importing. HubSpot will flag any existing contacts in the list.

These steps will help you avoid duplicate names and emails, ensuring a smooth import process.