Back to My Roxhill
close
Skip to main content
How can we help?

How to add Owned Contacts to the database

Create and manage your own private contacts – journalists and non-journalists – directly within the Roxhill platform.

On this page

What are Owned Contacts?

Owned Contacts allow your team to create and manage a dataset of private contacts within your Roxhill account. These contacts are visible only to your organisation and sit separately from Roxhill’s shared database — but you can use them anywhere in the platform, just like any other contact.
 
There are two contact types:

Journalist

Media contacts linked to outlets and desks. These also support social media usernames.

Non-journalist

Business or private contacts such as clients, stakeholders, or agency partners. Linked to companies and postal addresses.
If a contact you add already exists in Roxhill's database, our system will flag the match automatically and our Data Team will keep that profile up to date.

Adding a contact manually

Example of an Owned contact profile.
  1. Go to Owned Contacts in the main navigation menu.
  2. Select New contact from the dropdown, then choose Journalist or Non-Journalist
  3. Fill in the required fields. These are the same for both contact types.
  4. Click Save. The contact is now live in your Roxhill account.
Phone numbers must be in international format starting with + and no spaces or punctuation. Example: +447911123456, +1646 9657789, +97144443000

Bulk uploading contacts

  1. Go to Owned Contacts and select Bulk upload contacts from the New contact dropdown.
  2. Choose your contact type: Journalist or Non-Journalist.
  3. Download the CSV template and populate it with your contacts. Do not change the column headers.
  4. Ensure you save your file as a CSV.
  5. Drag and drop your completed file onto the upload area, or click to browse, then select Upload Owned Contacts.
  6. A progress bar will appear while the system validates and imports your file.
Country values can be entered as either the 2-letter ISO code (e.g. GB) or the full country name (e.g. United Kingdom) which can be viewed here.
Owned contacts are always private to your organisation. They will never be visible to other Roxhill users.

Understanding your upload results

Once processing is complete, click your upload to open the Bulk Upload Review page. This gives a full breakdown of every contact in your file.

Approved
Successfully imported and live in your workspace.
Duplicate
Already exists in the platform. Skipped intentionally — no duplicate is created.
Rejected
Contains invalid or missing data. The reason is shown on screen.
Use the Download rejected contacts button to export failed records, fix the issues, and re-upload as a new file.

Common reasons your file may be rejected:

  • Incorrect file type i.e. csv required
  • Missing required fields (email, first name, last name, country)
  • Invalid or duplicate email address
  • Multiple emails in a single cell

Common reasons a contact may be rejected:

  • Missing required fields (email, first name, last name, country)
  • Invalid or duplicate email address
  • Phone number not in international format
  • Unrecognised country value (Country values can be viewed here)

Using owned contacts in lists and campaigns

Once a contact is in your account, you can use them exactly as you would any Roxhill contact.

  1. From any owned contact’s profile, select Add to list to include them in an existing or new list.
  2. Owned contacts can be added to campaigns alongside contacts from Roxhill’s database using the search.
  3. From the Bulk Upload Review page, you can also select approved or duplicate contacts in bulk and add them to a list in one action.

ADDING OWNED CONTACTS TO THE DATABASE

Frequently Asked Questions

Check that all required fields are filled in (email, first name, last name, country) and that the email address isn’t already in use by another contact in your workspace or in Roxhill’s database.

Phone numbers must be in international format, starting with + followed by the country code and number – no spaces, brackets, or dashes. For example: +447911123456

Duplicates are expected behaviour, not an error. If an email address already exists –  – whether in Roxhill’s database or your own owned contacts – the system will skip it to avoid creating two versions of the same contact.

Owned contacts are visible to everyone within your organisation’s workspace, but are private to your organisation and cannot be seen by other Roxhill customers.
Yes. Open the contact profile and select Edit to update any field, add additional email addresses, notes, activities, or social usernames.