If you already collect newsletter subscribers elsewhere, you can import them into Steady yourself. How to export your contacts from Mailchimp, Substack and other tools is covered in How to migrate your contacts to Steady.
The Import subscribers button appears on your subscribers page as soon as your project qualifies – for example, once it has at least 3 active members or has been verified by us. If you don’t see the button yet, reach out to [email protected].
On the subscribers page in your Steady backend, click Import subscribers.
Confirm that all contacts have given you an explicit opt-in to receive your newsletter. Imported addresses are added directly to your subscriber list – Steady does not send them another confirmation email.
Upload a CSV file with your subscribers. It only needs two columns: the email address and the date of the opt-in. You can name the columns however you like – you map them in the next step. You can use this example CSV (semicolon separator).
Choose the separator your file uses (semicolon, if you use our example file).
Tell us which column contains the email address (in the example file: “email”) and which contains the opt-in date (in the example file: “opted_in_at”).
Start the import. When it’s done, you’ll receive an email listing all successful imports and any errors.
Importing via Zapier works differently: addresses that arrive through the Zapier integration automatically receive a confirmation email (double opt-in) and only appear on your subscriber list once they confirm. With the CSV import described here you confirm the opt-in yourself while uploading, which is why Steady does not send a second email. More on this: “How to import email addresses into Steady using Zapier”.
Addresses that are already on your subscriber list – or that already belong to members – are skipped automatically.
Newsletter subscribers on Steady only have an email address. We do not collect or store first names, last names or any other data for newsletter subscribers.
Coming from Substack? Besides your contacts you can also bring your post archive: “How to import your posts from Substack”.
