How to Import Contacts to ZOHO CRM? Easy Ways

  author
Rollins Duke   
Published: April 30th, 2024 • 6 Min Read

Want to import contacts to Zoho CRM? A structured and up-to-date contact list is necessary for any business. Zoho CRM, a customer relationship management tool, provides an effective approach to managing your connections. But how can you add your existing contacts to Zoho CRM? This article will take you through the entire process of importing your contacts, step by step.

Here we will also talk about how to convert vCard to CSV contacts for the users who have their contacts in VCF format. Moreover, we have discussed multiple scenarios, including all the major information you need to know before you transfer contacts to Zoho CRM, which will help you. So keep reading this blog.

A Brief Of ZOHO CRM

ZOHO CRM is a CRM application meant for the management of business-customer relations. These include sales, marketing, and customer support functionality, which allows for lead and contact management, analytics, as well as automation. It is easy to use and convenient as it is operated by a cloud that allows small companies to improve their relationships with customers and productivity.

Reasons to Import Contacts to Zoho CRM

  • Transfer contacts to ZOHO CRM to Optimize your data management. Update and manage all contact information in one location to avoid duplicates and errors.
  • Zoho CRM is designed to grow with your business. Zoho CRM can handle an expanding contact list easily.
  • Zoho CRM includes advanced data security protections to protect your valuable contact information.
  • Automate repeated processes, such as sending emails or following up, based on contact engagements to save time.
  • Assign tasks and track interactions directly in contact profiles to improve team accountability and productivity.

Export contacts to Zoho CRM, and you obtain a centralized, organized, and secure platform for managing client connections, resulting in increased sales, marketing, and overall business efficiency.

Before you Begin, Read This:

  1. Supported Formats: Before you import contacts to ZOHO CRM, make sure you have XLS, XLSX, CSV, and VCF formats of your contacts.
  2. Blank Rows: More than ten blanks in a row are considered at the end of this document by Zoho CRM. All information after that is ignored.
  3. File Size Limits: Make sure that the file is not larger than allowed.
    • CSV files: 25 MB for enterprise and ultimate, ten for professional and standard, and five for free.
    • VCF files: 5 MB for all editions.
    • Batch Records: For more than 5000 import records, you need to have a .csv file.

Note: Large CSV Files can also be Problematic!

For eg: If you have 50k-1 lakh contacts and you have already converted them into a csv file and now import contacts to ZOHO CRM, it will take a lot of time, and the process might also fail even if a single error occurs. In this case you would have to split the file into a few parts to make it easier and instant to import.

You can use any secure and smart tool to split these large CSV files, as per your choice. One of the tools that professional’s recommend is  CSV Splitter Tool. It can easily split a huge CSV Database into multiple smaller CSV files while offering you several advanced features to Transfer contacts to ZOHO CRM.

How to Import Contacts to Zoho CRM Manually?

ZOHO CRM provides two built-in features to ZOHO CRM import contacts. Either you can create contacts one-by-one with their details, or simply import whole.csv,.xls ,.xlsx, or.vcf files for bulk contacts. We have explained both of the methods step-by-step below on how to transfer contacts to ZOHO CRM.

Method 1: Export Contacts In ZOHO CRM

  1. Login into your ZOHO CRM Account.
  2. Click on “Modules” and then go to “Contact Module”.
  3. Click the “New Contact” button to import contacts to ZOHO CRM.
  4. Indicate the personal data like the name, e-mail, telephone number, etc.
  5. Associate the contact with an account, a deal, or other related records, optionally.
  6. Include in the post other information like lead source, description, and tags.
  7. To add the new contact to ZOHO CRM click “Save”.
  8. Now, you can add these contacts to your Contacts module.

Note: This method for ZOHO CRM import contacts is not recommended for bulk contacts, creating contacts one-by-one will take so much time and can be frustrating.

Method 2: Import CSV File to Zoho CRM

  1. Sign in to your ZOHO CRM.
  2. Go to “contacts”, and open the drop-down arrow at the rightmost corner of the screen.
  3. Click the “Import contacts” button to import contacts in ZOHO CRM.
  4. Select the CSV containing your contact’s information. Make sure that the file is in a supported format by ZOHO CRM.
  5. Match the CSV file columns to ZOHO CRM fields, ensuring correct alignment of the data.
  6. Check for import settings such as duplicate handling and validation options.
  7. To begin the import process, click on next.
  8. The contacts will be verified, validated, and imported into the ZOHO CRM. You will be notified once the import is complete.

Note: To follow method #2 to import contacts to ZOHO CRM it is important to have a CSV file. If your contacts are in other file formats, such as vCard/ VCF which is the most common file format for contacts, you need to convert them into CSV first. In the next paragraph we have provided the easiest way to convert multiple VCF/ vCard files into CSV at once.

Advanced Tool to Create a CSV File for Huge Database

If you do not have a CSV file, then BitRecover vCard Converter is the most suitable tool to create one at your convenience. This easy-to-use software enables you to transform your vCard / VCF files into CSV format, suitable for ZOHO CRM’s guidelines to move contacts into ZOHO CRM. This feature enables you to simply convert vCard contacts into CSV, and transferring thousands of contacts does not become an issue while ZOHO CRM imports contacts. This is especially useful for those users who must format their contact data in accordance with the import restrictions imposed on Zoho CRM.

Easy Procedure to Convert VCF to CSV

  1. Launch the given tool on your computer to import contacts to ZOHO CRM.
    open the tool
  2. Choose and import the vCard (VCF) files you want to take into the program from your computer.
    chose vcard file
  3. Click the “Convert” tab and choose the CSV for your output.
    chose csv and click on convert
  4. Select a destination where you would want to store this converted CSV.
    select destination path
  5. You have successfully converted all your vCard files into CSV.
    file is ready to import contacts to zoho crm

Conclusion

The above guide explains how to import contacts to ZOHO CRM while providing important information about ZOHO CRM importing contacts to ease and speed up the process. ZOHO CRM only allows CSV files for more than 5,000 contacts, and it encounters so many challenges while importing, we also provided a solution for this issue. The tools mentioned in the articles make the process much easier and faster and do not let you face any problems. Without any frustration, you can easily ZOHO CRM import contacts in bulk.