Importing Your Data

Importing subscribers

If you import a large number of subscribers, I'll temporarily disable your account so Buttondown can review the imported emails and make sure they're all up to code. The process shouldn't take more than a few hours!

Navigate to your settings page and click Import subscribers! You'll be prompted to upload a CSV:

A screenshot of the import subscribers modal.

Once you do so, you can map each column in your CSV, allowing you to bring in subscribers while keeping their existing tags, join dates, and metadata.

Importing tags

If your CSV contains a column for tags, you can import them alongside your subscribers. You can use these tags to include or exclude subscribers from receiving particular emails.

The column can be named whatever you’d like — you'll select the column while importing.

Multiple tags can be included in that column too! Just separate them with a comma, like First Tag, Second Tag.

Importing metadata

Metadata allows you to attach arbitrary additional information to your subscribers. You can learn more about metadata on the dedicated documentation page.

You can have multiple columns in your CSV that correspond to metadata keys, like Location and Industry. During the import process, you'll be asked to map columns to metadata keys. For example:

Email,Location,Industry
a@example.com,Seattle,Finance
b@example.com,New York,Construction
c@example.com,Springfield,Education

That means that metadata should be separated into columns in your CSV, not a single column with all metadata.

Importing archives

Navigate to your settings page and choose the appropriate service! (If you don't see the service you're looking for, just go ahead and email me — I'd be more than happy to migrate them for you!)

A screenshot of the import archives modal.

FAQs

Wait, what's a CSV?

Great question! A CSV is a comma-separated values file. It's a plain text file that contains a list of values separated by commas. You can open it in any text editor, and it's easy to create and edit.

Most online applications like Excel or Google Sheets have a way to export your data as a CSV. Here's an example of how to do this in Google Sheets:

If you're not sure how to do this, just email me and I'll help you out!

Assuming that the subscribers have already consented to receiving email (via double-opt-in or some other mechanism provided by your previous subscriber), no! GDPR-wise, their existing consent carries over to Buttondown.

Adding a listserv?

Be sure that folks on the listserv are expecting the subscription: if one of them clicks to unsubscribe from the newsletter, it will affect the entire listserv (since from Buttondown's perspective, the listserv is a single subscriber.)

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