How to Import Contacts from Excel and Send Personalized Bulk SMS

“Dear Customer” is lazy messaging

People open SMS that uses their name and their amount. Yoola SMS supports personalized bulk sending: one campaign, many unique message bodies from a spreadsheet.

Prepare your file

1. Use Excel or Google Sheets.
2. Row 1 = headers: e.g. Name, Phone, Amount.
3. Phones in international or local format consistently (for Uganda, many teams use 07… or 2567… — stay consistent and follow dashboard hints).
4. Save as CSV if required by the uploader.
5. Watch Excel dropping leading zeros — format the phone column as Text before export.

Upload and map fields

In Yoola SMS, open contact import or campaign personalization, upload the file, and map columns to merge tags in your template:

Hi {{Name}}, your balance is UGX {{Amount}}. Pay by Friday. Thank you.

Test before the full blast

• Send to 2–3 staff numbers first
• Confirm spelling, amounts, and Sender ID
• Then send to the full list
• Review failed rows and clean the sheet for next time

Who uses this most

• SACCOs — loan balances
• Schools — student name + fee balance
• Shops — order ready + customer name
• HR — shifts or payslip notices (where SMS is appropriate)

Related reading

School fee reminders · SACCO loan SMS

Try it

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