If your client has existing text message subscriber data housed in a third-party solution, you’ll need to import them to Klaviyo. This page will cover the key points of importing text message subscribers, but will not cover the technical steps or offer troubleshooting help in detail.
Determine a cutoff date to migrate data
To ensure you are working with the most accurate data, it’s important to choose a cutoff date and note it so that you can reference when the migration happened. This is helpful incase there are unexpected delays in the transition period, and you need to know which subscribers have already been imported.
Export data and format for upload
Export the following SMS subscriber data from your client’s old SMS provider:
- Phone number
- Country (either in a column or as a country code ahead of the number)
- Consent timestamp, if possible (formatting guidelines here)
- Email address, if possible (this is recommended as it will allow Klaviyo to match data and merge profiles into one unified profile)
- First name
- Last name
Remove unsubscribes from the dataset and isolate
With all data formatted properly, isolate the SMS unsubscribes from the subscriber dataset and place these contacts on a separate .csv file. You will upload these profiles separately after you upload the opted-in subscribers who are eligible to receive messages.
Import SMS subscribers to Klaviyo
Navigate to Audience > Lists & Segments. Click the SMS Subscribers list (this was automatically created when you configured SMS in the account). Click Manage list > Import contacts. Import the .csv that contains the current SMS subscribers. Map the data to existing fields in Klaviyo. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the upload.
When uploading your SMS contacts, you’ll be required to confirm that you’ve received explicit consent to send SMS marketing to these contacts. Consent data on record (i.e., a consent timestamp) is always preferred, if you have it.
If there are any errors with your list upload, Klaviyo will show you an error message with exact reasons why the upload failed. This will allow you to easily go back and fix any errors that were detected in the source file.
NOTE: If you have already created any flows for your client that are triggered by someone being added to the SMS Subscribers list, or triggered by the "Consented to receive SMS" metric, you will want to turn these flows OFF before uploading SMS subscribers.
Import unsubscribes through SMS settings
After you’ve uploaded SMS subscribers to a new list, click the account name in the bottom left corner, then Settings > SMS. Scroll to the bottom of the SMS settings page to find the Import SMS Unsubscribes box. Upload the .csv file that contains the SMS unsubscribes here. This will ensure that all numbers who have previously unsubscribed from SMS will continue to be suppressed on this channel and will not be contacted via SMS.
For more specific details on how to migrate contacts from specific SMS point solutions, refer to the articles below: