Do you have a customer list from another platform, or people who bought from you somewhere else? The import adds them as customers, lets you give them access to a product in the same step, and optionally invites them to your emails. This article shows you how the import works and how the limit for external customers is meant to be understood.
- Before you start
- Importing customers
- Granting access to a product
- Emails during the import
- Active external customers: how your limit works
- FAQ
Before you start
The import requires an active monthly plan. If you work with a team, you also need the data import permission, which you assign in your team settings.
Only import addresses from people who gave you permission to email them. Bought, rented or scraped lists are not allowed. Too many bounces or spam complaints will suspend your email sending. You confirm this explicitly before the import, and any legal claims arising from an import will be passed on to you.
Importing customers
- Open the Customers section in the menu. You will find the Import customers button in the top right.
- Under How do you want to add customers?, choose how you want to hand over your data:
- Upload from file: a CSV or TXT file that you select or drop in. Comma, semicolon and tab separated all work, and a header row is detected automatically.
- Copy & paste from file: copy the rows straight out of Excel or Google Sheets and paste them in.
- Single customer: for one person you add by hand.
- In the Match your columns step you see what Tentary thinks each column is. Correct anything that looks wrong. Only the email address is required, first name, last name or a full name are optional. If your file has a header row, leave The first row contains column names switched on.
- In the Review step you see every row with its status, for example Will be added, Existing customer, Duplicate in file or Invalid email. You can deselect individual rows, and a counter keeps showing how many rows are selected.
- Confirm at the bottom that you are allowed to email these people, then start the import.
You can hand over up to 1,000 rows per import. If your file is larger, only the first 1,000 rows are loaded and you get a note telling you how many rows were left out. You simply import those in another run afterwards.
People who already exist as customers are not created twice. Tentary recognises them by their email address and reuses the existing record.
Granting access to a product
In the Give access (optional) step you decide whether the imported people get access to a product right away. Switch on Give these customers access to a product to do so. If you leave the option off, the people are imported as contacts only, without access and without any email.
You can select up to 4 products per import. Courses inside a selected bundle are included automatically.
Under Source you record why someone is getting access, for example Purchased elsewhere, Migration or Complimentary access. This is purely a note for you and is visible later on the customer page.
With Access started on you set the date from which the access applies. The access does not expire. The date matters most for courses with drip content: lessons that unlock a certain number of days after purchase are counted from this date. So enter the original purchase date to make sure a migrated group picks up exactly where it already was.
Emails during the import
Two different emails can be involved in an import, and you control them separately.
Access email. When you grant access, you choose between Send access email now and Grant access without sending an email. In the first case every selected person receives an email with their access link. In the second case the access is created silently, people can sign in on your login page at any time, and you send the email later.
Marketing opt-in. Imported customers do not automatically receive your marketing emails. If you switch on Send these customers a marketing opt-in, Tentary sends the usual confirmation email. Only once someone confirms is that person subscribed to your emails and included in campaigns and automations.
Active external customers: how your limit works
How many imported people you can have at the same time depends on your monthly plan. At the top of the import page you can see how many you are already using.
- Start: 50 active external customers
- Grow: 2,500 active external customers
- Scale: 10,000 active external customers
The important word is active. This is not a lifetime total across all your imports, it is an ongoing capacity. Someone only counts as external if both of these are true:
- You imported the person.
- The person has never bought anything from you.
As soon as someone buys from you, that person permanently stops counting towards your limit and frees up a slot again. That is the whole idea: the limit only ever covers contacts who have not bought anything yet. People who came in through your shop never count towards it.
If your capacity is not enough for an import, Tentary tells you in advance how many rows still fit. You can then deselect rows or switch your plan.
If you need room at short notice, you can deactivate individual people. Open that person's customer page and click Deactivate. Their data and course progress are kept, but the person loses access to all products, receives no more emails and no longer counts towards your external customers. If you reactivate them later, they count again.
FAQ
Do imported customers automatically receive my emails?
No. An import on its own does not subscribe anyone to your marketing emails. That only happens once someone has confirmed an opt-in. The access email is independent of this, it only delivers the access.
What happens to people who are already my customers?
They are recognised by their email address and not created twice. The existing record is reused, and if you grant access, it is simply added. If someone already had that access, the row is skipped.
My file has more than 1,000 rows. What do I do?
The first 1,000 rows are loaded and the rest are left out. After reading the file you see exactly how many rows were not included, and you import those in another run afterwards.
Does someone keep counting towards my limit once they buy?
No. With a purchase that person permanently stops counting as an external customer, and the slot is freed up again.
Can I take access away again?
Yes. Open that person's customer page, where you will find every granted access and can revoke them individually. Access that someone purchased is not affected by this.
What happens to course progress in a migration?
Progress from another platform is not carried over, your customers start the course from the beginning. For courses with drip content you should backdate the Access started on date so that the right lessons are available immediately.
