Import customers and grant product access

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

1. Open the Customers section in the menu. You will find the Import customers button in the top right.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. On the same page you also decide about access and emails, see below.
5. If your import sends emails, Tentary shows you at the bottom how many it will send at most. In that case, confirm that these emails should be sent and that you are allowed to email these people. Then start the import with Import customers.

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 an access 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.

You also 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 emails

Independent of access, you decide in the Marketing emails section whether and how the imported people receive your marketing emails. You have three options:

• No marketing emails: the people are imported as contacts only and do not receive your marketing emails.
• Ask for an opt-in: the people receive an email that says where they know you from and asks if they want your newsletter. Only those who confirm are subscribed.
• Already subscribed: the people already subscribed to your newsletter with another tool, such as Mailchimp, Brevo or CleverReach. They receive a short message that your newsletter has moved, and after that your marketing emails straight away, without having to subscribe again. See Taking over existing subscribers.

For Ask for an opt-in and Already subscribed, enter under Where do they know you from? where the people know you from, for example your website or the name of your course. This appears in the email, so your contacts recognise you right away.

You adjust the subject and text in The email to your contacts, and the Preview shows you right away how the email looks. If your text leaves out the button or the source, Tentary adds both automatically. Tentary keeps your text as the template for your next import.

Taking over existing subscribers

If you are moving your newsletter from another tool to Tentary, choose Already subscribed. Your subscribers then do not have to sign up again. For this, we need proof that they gave you their consent.

Under Proof of consent, upload a file, for example:

• an export from your old tool with the signup date and the opt-in status
• a screenshot of your contact list that shows the opt-in status
• a screenshot of your signup form

PDF, PNG, JPG, CSV, TXT or XLSX files up to 10 MB are accepted. Under Signup page (optional), you can also add the page with your signup form, if it still exists.

We review every import of existing subscribers by hand before any email is sent. This takes up to one working day. Until then nothing is saved and no email is sent, so you can simply close the page. You find the result in your Import history.

Once the import is approved, your contacts receive the message about the move and are subscribed to your marketing emails from then on. Every one of these messages contains a link that lets them unsubscribe with one click.

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.

Tip: 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. With Ask for an opt-in, that only happens once someone confirms. With Already subscribed, you take over an existing subscription after we have reviewed your proof. The access email is independent of this, it only delivers the access.

What happens to people who unsubscribed from me?

An import never subscribes anyone again who unsubscribed from you. These people also receive no request and no message about the move. Anyone who is already subscribed to your emails does not get another message either.

What happens if my proof is not enough?

If we cannot confirm that the people gave their consent, the import is not carried out. No customers are created and no emails are sent. You see the reason in your Import history.

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. See Grant access manually.

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.