SurveyMonkey

Adding Contacts to Email Invitations

Learn how to add contacts (recipients) to an Email Invitation so you can email people your survey.

To add contacts using an import method:

  1. Click the Add Contacts button in the upper-right corner of the message.
  2. Choose an import method (described in more detail below).
  3. Name the group (the email addresses will be stored in your Contacts).
  4. Decide what you'd like to do if someone already exists in your Contacts. You can either update contact information associated with the email address with the info in your current import, or ignore import information so the info you already have for that contact stays as is.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Read the section below if you see any errors.

You can type in or copy and paste a list of email addresses directly in the Send To field. Just pop them in and hit enter.

There is a limit to how many people you can send to, as well as how many messages you can send in one day: Sending, Import & Character Limits

  • Manual List (Simple Copy and Paste)
  • Manual List (Advanced Copy and Paste)
  • CSV Spreadsheet
  • Email Import

If you see an error about invalid emails or that “something went wrong” when you try to send or schedule a message, it means you may have:

  • Added duplicate email addresses
  • Included contacts that are opted out or bounced
  • Imported a contact list that wasn’t formatted correctly

You can send one invitation email per email address per collector, by default. When you Invite More and add a contact that was already sent an invitation from the collector, we automatically remove them from your contact list before sending your new message. Enterprise customers may be able to Allow duplicate invites when they choose to Invite More.

Anyone can create a new Email Invitation collector for the survey if you want someone to take a survey more than once. If you want to send someone your invitation message again, you can send them a one-off reminder.

Also, don’t send to a Listserv, distribution list, or email alias (since only one person from the list would be able to take the survey). Instead, add the individual emails from the list.

You can’t send messages to people who have opted out or bounced. Ask them to opt back in if they want to take your survey. Then, create a new email invitation collector to send them the survey (the old collector will continue to list them as opted out or bounced).

You can check for opted out or bounced emails in the Recipients tab under the Sent column.

If you imported or added a contact list that wasn’t formatted correctly, you won’t be able to send your message. Here are some tips to fix the errors, then try to add contacts again.

  • While there's a hard limit of 10,000 rows per spreadsheet, it may be helpful to break large lists down into multiple CSV files. We suggest files with fewer than 2,500 rows each and import them one at a time. Or copy and paste the rows of the spreadsheet using the Manual import option.
  • Delete the header row from your spreadsheet. Any formatting of the header row can cause errors.
  • Make sure you're using an accepted delimiter for the spreadsheet (colon, semicolon, pipe, comma, or tab), and that your character encoding is in Unicode ( UTF-8 or UTF-16).
  • If your spreadsheet includes Asian characters, make sure your character encoding is set to UTF-8 format.
  • If you're using a Mac, try saving your file as MS-DOS Comma Separated (.csv). Go to File > Save As > Format.
  • Review our import, sending, and character limits for more info on special characters and vanity domains.
  • If you're copying and pasting a list of emails using the Manual import option, make sure the email address is listed first, then you can add other info. Check out the example above.

You can remove contacts from draft or scheduled emails. From the Overview tab, click Resume and expand your contact group in your email invitation.

When you're sending a Reminder or Thank You message, you don't upload contacts from scratch. Instead, you can choose from the people you've already invited.

Click Edit Recipients in any Reminder or Thank You message to remove recipients. You can remove up to 1,000 recipients.

To update someone's data in the Recipients tab:

  1. Click your username in the upper-right corner to go to your Contacts.
  2. Find the email address, click the contact to make edits, and save.
  3. Go back to your Email Invitation collector.
  4. In the Recipients tab, you should see the new info. Any new messages you send will use the up-to-date info you saved in your Contacts.
  5. Export the data from the Recipients tab to use when analyzing your results. Contact details are pulled into survey results when a recipient submits their response, so they aren't updated when you make edits in Contacts.
  • Sent Messages