HubSpot

How to clean a CSV before importing into HubSpot

To clean a CSV for HubSpot: open it in Sift, approve the suggested fixes, dedupe contacts by email, normalize phone numbers and countries, map your columns to HubSpot's contact properties, and run the readiness check for required fields and value formats. Then export a clean CSV and import it. Sift runs entirely in your browser, so the file is never uploaded.

Clean your CSV in Sift →

Why HubSpot imports go wrong

Most failed or messy HubSpot imports come down to a handful of issues:

• Duplicate contacts, the same person under two email addresses or rows.
• A required property is blank, HubSpot rejects or mis-files the row.
• A value is not a valid dropdown option, e.g. a Lifecycle Stage that doesn't match.
• Wrong formats, inconsistent phone numbers, countries, or dates.
• Casing and whitespace noise, " JOHN " instead of "John".

Step by step

1. Load the CSV into Sift. It profiles every column in your browser.
2. Clean: approve trim, casing, fix-emails, normalize-phones, and standardize-countries, each with a before/after diff.
3. Dedupe contacts by email (exact or fuzzy) to avoid duplicate records in HubSpot.
4. Map columns to HubSpot's contact properties (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number, Lifecycle Stage, etc.).
5. Check readiness: Sift flags required fields left empty, wrong types, and values outside an allowed set, fix them before importing.
6. Export a clean CSV and import it into HubSpot (Contacts → Import).

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