Get Started with Contacts

This guide will help you get started with the Contacts. Each section below outlines key concepts and contains links to other articles in case you need more details. 

Table of contents:

• Introduction: Contacts
• Step 1: Import contacts
• Step 2: Setup a subscriptions module
• Step 3: Manage Contacts, Lists and Organizations
• Step 3.1: Contact details and insights
• Step 3.2: Contact Lists
• Step 3.3: Organization Insights

Introduction: Contacts

The Contacts dashboard is where you can find and manage all the Contacts, Lists, Organizations and Media Database (MD) contacts. Contacts, Lists and Organization are your own Contacts: which you have added yourself, have subscribed via the Newsroom, or have sent an Inquiry. The MD consists of an additional 1 million journalists from over the world. MD is a separate product within Contacts, go to Get Started with Media Database for more information.

Contacts is fully integrated with the other products in the platform:

• Newsroom, visitors can subscribe to contact lists; 
• Email, contacts and lists can be added to emails and campaigns;
• Inquiries, (new) senders from inquiries are added or updated and messages can be sent via Inquiries.
• Analytics, on contact detail level you can see the engagement history from Email and Inquiries.

Step 1: Import Contacts 

If you have an existing database of Contacts, for example in another mail tool, you can import those contacts as comma-separated value file (CSV) in Contacts. Follow these steps: 

1. Prepare your spreadsheets of email contacts outside Presspage, then save it as a CSV. If you plan to add multiple lists, it is best to create separate CSV files for each. 
2. Upload the CSV to Contacts: 
   1. Import via Contacts: select Contacts in the left menu. In the Contacts dashboard click the Add Contacts button and select Import Contacts to upload your file. In the next screen match the columns of your import file to the fields of the contact details (A). The fields only have to be mapped once, but you can use the pagination to check the fields are assigned correctly. In the next screen fill out the Import options and select if you want to add the contacts to a new or existing list (B).
   2. Import via Lists: Select Lists in the left menu. In the Lists dashboard select the Create new List button. In the form fill out the Settings before clicking Create list. In the Dashboard, open the new list and select the option Import CSV file. Follow the same steps described under Import via Contacts.

After the import is completed you can view and download the import report. The individual contacts will appear on the Contacts Dashboard and the list in the Lists Dashboard.

Go to Add contacts to your contact database, Best practices for Migrating Contacts, Guidelines for importing a CSV file for details.

Step 2: Setup a Subscriptions Module

The Subscriptions module is a great tool to expand your email reach and grow your audience via the Newsroom. Visitors can sign up for one or more contact lists, which they will automatically be added to in Contacts. Examples of topics are: company news, product updates, or Investor relations news.

Subscriptions modules can be added in the side column of the Newsroom homepage, Articles and/or Custom pages. Per module you can add one or more lists for visitors to subscribe to. 

Go to Subscriptions module for details.

Step 3: Manage your Contacts, Lists, and Organizations

Step 3.1: Contact details and insights

In the section Contacts you can view and edit all your owned Contacts. Add contacts via the Add Contact Button where you can choose to add an individual contact via the form, or use the Import contacts option to upload lists. Organize contacts by ordering them at the top of each column or quickly find (a) contact(s) via the search or by using the filter box at the top of the screen. Inquiry only contacts have a red i-icon next to their name, those contacts were added to the database via Inquiries. They cannot be added as Recipients to Campaigns, because they haven’t given GDPR consent. 

When you click on a contact the detailed screen will open (A). On the left side you can edit any of the general information, or directly add or remove a contact from a list or tag. On the right you can see all engagements via the Email Statistics and the Inquiries tabs, and add background information via Notes.  

Inquiry only contacts

Contacts that have been added via Inquiries get the label ‘Inquiry only’ (B), shown below the name of the contact. The label gets removed if a contact subscribes via a Subscriptions module, or you can remove the label manually by clicking the x icon.

Tags

Tags are meant to build an internal structure for your contacts in Presspage. Tags are flexible and you can create and assign tags via the Tags field to a contact based on any categorization you wish to use. For example, you can use tags to identify some important contacts, or you can create a comprehensive structure to create different groups for your contacts. Once added you can quickly navigate to a group of tagged contacts via the filter box, using the Tags field. Some examples of tags you could use are: National, International, Press, Investor Relations, Key contacts, Influencer, Internal.

Sharing Contacts across accounts and languages

If you have an account with multiple languages, a holding with multiple accounts, or both: Contacts can be shared across those entities with the Account & Language Access in the contact details. Depending on your user access rights you can edit the access rights for each contact; you can only make changes for the entities you have access to. 

Hard bounces and unsubscribes

Lastly, ensure good hygiene of your contacts and lists by regularly checking for hard bounces and unsubscribes. Use the filters box to filter based on the status Hard Bounce or Unsubscribed. Hard bounces can be removed or updated. Unsubscribed contacts can safely be removed from the list and/or database. Even when they are readded their status remains unsubscribed. If an unsubscribed contact is accidentally added to a campaign the system automatically filters them out.

Go to Managing Email Sender Reputation, Account & Language Access for details

Step 3.2: Contact Lists

Under Lists you can find all lists that are used to send email campaigns via Email. On this screen you can create new lists, via the Create new list button. In the New List form, add a list title, an external list name to display in the Inquiries module, tags to internally structure your lists, setup the language/account access, or restrict access to only assigned users.

After opening a list you can manage the list settings on the left and search, filter, order, add, delete, or edit contacts on the right side. Contacts can live in multiple lists at the same time. When sending an email to lists with shared email addresses, the platform filters out those duplicates.

Go to Create Contact Lists, Restrict User Access for details

Step 3.3: Organization Insights

In the Organizations section your contacts are grouped per outlet. New organizations can be added via the Add Organization button or in the Contact details overview. The platform groups any contacts that are added to the same Organization.