Before you start
Export the collection from Swops (Export contacts to a CSV file), split Name into first and last name and remove the apostrophe in front of international phone numbers, as described in Prepare your Swops export for a CRM. In HubSpot you need permission to import and to edit contacts. HubSpot treats Email as the required property for contacts and uses it to recognise people who are already in your CRM.
Import the file
In HubSpot, click More, then Data Management > Data Integration. If there is no More, go straight to Data Management > Data Integration. You can also click Import at the top right of your contacts list.
Click Import data, then Advanced imports (all objects). Select Contacts and click Next.
Under Choose how to import, pick Create and update contacts. Contacts with an email that is already in HubSpot are updated, the others are created.
Click choose a file, select your CSV and click Next.
Check the mapping. HubSpot matches columns whose headers look like its properties. For each other column, choose a property in the HubSpot Property list, or Create new property for Priority, your notes and the analysis (see the table below). For columns you do not want, choose Don’t import column in the Import As list.
Click Next and give the import a name, such as the collection name.
Tick the consent checkbox. It confirms that these contacts expect to hear from you and that the file is not a purchased list.
Turn on Create a contact segment to keep everyone from this event together. If you import the Captured date, check the Date and time format setting: Swops writes year-month-day.
Click Finish import. HubSpot shows the import’s progress and an estimated finish time.
Prefer fewer options? Quick import (contacts only) on the same screen is a shorter route: upload, mapping, name and consent, without the segment and format settings.
Which column goes where
| Swops column | HubSpot contact property |
|---|---|
| First name, Last name (after splitting) | First name, Last name |
| Name (the original column) | Don’t import column |
| Company | Company name |
| Role | Job title |
| Phone | Phone number |
| Mobile | Mobile phone number |
| Website | Website URL |
| LinkedIn URL if your account lists it, otherwise a new single-line text property | |
| Address | Street address |
| Country | Country/Region |
| Priority | A new dropdown property, for example Priority, with Hot, Warm, Cold and Unrated |
| Notes | A new multi-line text property, for example Swops notes |
| Business analysis, In more depth | New multi-line text properties, or Don’t import column |
| Captured, Research date | New date properties, or Don’t import column |
| Collection | Don’t import column (the segment holds the event), or a new property such as Event |
Good to know
- Contacts without an email. HubSpot lists Email as the required contact property, so these may show up as import errors. Add them by hand, or add an email first.
- Companies. Company name is a text property on the contact. HubSpot can also create company records and link contacts to them by the part of their email address after the @, when Create and associate companies with contacts is ticked (settings icon > Data Management > Objects > Companies, in the Automation section). For free email addresses such as Gmail, it needs the contact’s Website URL, which is why mapping Swops’ Website column helps.
- Segments afterwards. Forgot the segment? On Data Integration > File imports, hover over the import, click More and choose Add imported contacts to segment.
- Errors. From the same list, More > View rows with errors or Download error file shows which rows did not import and why.
- Undo. Click the import’s name, open its records tab, select the contacts it created and click Delete. The tab also lists existing contacts the import updated; deleting cannot reverse those changes, so test with two or three rows first.
- Marketing contacts. If your account uses marketing contacts, the import can set the new contacts as marketing contacts. Decide on purpose: that status is what makes them available to HubSpot’s marketing tools.
Checked against HubSpot’s help pages in October 2026: Import records for a single object, Format import files, View and analyze past imports and Automatically create and associate companies with contacts. Menus change from time to time; if a step looks different, follow HubSpot’s own import guide.