Migrate Contacts

Use this workflow when moving an existing audience into PING8.

Before you start

Export from the previous system:

• Email address.
• Subscription status.
• Group or list membership.
• Tags or segments.
• Unsubscribe and suppression data.
• Optional attributes such as name, plan, region, or signup source.

Migration sequence

1. Create destination groups in PING8.
2. Create tags that match your targeting strategy.
3. Import suppression or unsubscribe data first when available.
4. Import subscribed contacts into the correct group.
5. Apply tags during import or through batch tag operations.
6. Spot-check several subscriber rows.
7. Confirm total counts against the source export.
8. Send only to an internal test tag before using the migrated group.

CSV guidance

Keep the first import simple:

email,first_name,plan,region
alex@example.com,Alex,pro,us
sam@example.com,Sam,starter,eu

Use attributes only when you plan to personalize or segment by them.

What success looks like

• Group counts match expectations.
• Subscriber statuses are correct.
• Tags can be used in campaign targeting.
• Suppressed or unsubscribed contacts are not included in campaign sends.

Common mistakes

• Importing unsubscribed users as subscribed.
• Creating too many groups instead of using tags.
• Not deduplicating before import.
• Sending to a migrated list before testing a tiny segment.

Next pages

• Subscribers
• Tags and Segments
• Suppression