Quarra Italia Contact Import Strategy

Overview

Quarra Italia is preparing an email marketing blast for a Milan design event (April 20, 2026), with the goal of sending invitations by April 15. Not all of their contacts are currently in Salesforce, so a bulk import is required. This article documents the decisions made around how to structure that import.

Key Decisions

Import as Contacts, Not Leads

New Quarra Italia contacts will be imported as Contact records, not Leads.

Rationale: This aligns with Quarra's broader strategic decision to de-emphasize the Leads object. Treating these as Contacts from the start avoids a future conversion step and keeps the data model consistent.

"Probably contacts." — Lincoln Durham, confirming the import approach

Add an "Italia" Checkbox for Segmentation

A custom checkbox field labeled "Italia" (or "Quarra Italia") will be added to the Contact object. Any contact belonging to the Quarra Italia division will have this box checked, enabling easy list segmentation for email campaigns and reporting without requiring a separate object or record type.

This approach was chosen for its simplicity — a checkbox is fast to filter on in Account Engagement (Pardot) and in Salesforce list views.

Import Process

Quarra Italia (Monica and Fede) will provide a spreadsheet of all contacts they want in Salesforce.
Karly will perform a bulk import rather than manual entry.
Imported records will be flagged with the Italia checkbox at time of import.
The list will be used to drive the April 15 email blast via Account Engagement.

Domestic List Consideration

Lincoln noted that most domestic Salesforce contacts are unlikely to attend the Milan event in person, but broadcasting the event to them still has value for brand awareness. Lincoln will query a refined domestic invite list from existing Salesforce records to supplement the Italia contacts for the blast.

The Milan event is a well-known design/fashion week. Quarra Italia will have a sculptor doing a live demonstration at the opening ceremony.
Media coverage (blogs, news pieces) from the event will be sent to Asymmetric for addition to the Quarra Italia website.
Recurring meetings between Asymmetric and the Quarra Italia team (Monica, Fede) have been scheduled to maintain momentum on the broader website project.

Action Items

[ ] Karly: Receive contact spreadsheet from Quarra Italia and send to Mark for import
[ ] Mark: Add "Italia" checkbox to the Contact object
[ ] Mark: Perform bulk import of Italia contacts as Contact records with Italia checkbox checked
[ ] Lincoln: Query and provide a refined domestic contact list for the April 15 email blast

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