🎯 Goal
Import an existing list of companies and contacts (marketing list) into your Kato CRM in one go, bringing historical relationships, marketing lists, and contact data with you rather than manually re-keying.
❓ Why
Teams joining Kato with an existing contact database, from another CRM, a spreadsheet, an inherited list, need their data in the system from day one. Manually creating 2,000 contacts isn't viable; the bulk upload process gets it done in hours rather than weeks while preserving GDPR preferences and marketing list membership.
🔍 Overview
Bulk uploading contacts or marketing lists is an assisted process: ask Help@kato.app for Kato's spreadsheet template, fill it with your data, send it to the Kato support team, and the team loads it for you after verifying GDPR consent. Any data issues are flagged back before the live load.
📊 Required fields
For each contact in the spreadsheet, these must be populated:
Contact Forename
Contact Surname
At least one of: Email, Tel, or Mobile
Marketing Opt In — Yes/No
GDPR: Consent Given — Yes/No
Marketing List — name of the list this contact belongs to
📊 Step-by-step
1. Download the spreadsheet template
Kato provides a pre-formatted Google Sheets template. Your Kato support contact or Customer Success manager can send you the current link.
2. Organise your data into the template
Copy your existing contact data into the template's columns. Ensure all required fields are populated for every row. Save the file as .xlsx or .csv.
3. Send to the Kato support team
Via live chat within Kato (or support@kato.app), send the spreadsheet. The team will ask you to confirm you have permission to store the data.
4. Review any flagged issues
The support team reviews the file and sends back any issues (missing fields, formatting problems, duplicates). Fix and resubmit.
5. Go-live load
Once validated, the team loads the contacts into your live account. You'll see them appear in your CRM with the correct company links, marketing list membership, and GDPR preferences.
✅ You've done it when…
The contacts appear in your CRM with company links, GDPR preferences, and marketing list membership all populated, ready to be worked from day one.
💡 Common mistakes & pro tips
Clean your data before uploading. A pre-flight sweep for duplicates, missing GDPR values, and bad email formats saves a lot of back-and-forth with the support team.
Existing contacts aren't overwritten. If a contact you're uploading already exists in the system, their contact details remain unchanged — Kato doesn't overwrite. Worth flagging if you're trying to refresh existing records.
Marketing list name matters. Use consistent list names ("Q3 Pitch List", not three variants) so your imports collate cleanly.
GDPR consent is a hard requirement. Don't upload contacts without explicit consent — the support team checks.
For large imports (5,000+ contacts), warn your Customer Success contact in advance so they can plan capacity.
FAQs
Q. Are email addresses such as 'info@' 'sales@' or 'mail@' allowed on a marketing list?
A. Yes, all complete email addresses are acceptable.
Q. Can I create a blank marketing list and add contacts to it as I go?
A. Yes, but blank lists cannot be created from within the platform yourself. Let the support team know the name(s) you would like, and they will set the list(s) up in the system so you can add contacts whenever you need.
Q. Can I rename an existing marketing list?
A. Renaming a marketing list is not available as a user-facing option. Get in touch with help@kato.app and the team will make the amendment for you.
💬 Need Help?
📞 0203 772 8898