By the end of this guide, you'll know how to navigate the centralized Contacts section, filter and organize contacts, edit contact information, use lifecycle statuses, perform bulk actions, and use the associated company field for efficient lead management.

The Contacts section is your centralized CRM hub in lemlist. Instead of managing leads scattered across individual campaigns, you can view all contacts in one place, track their lifecycle status across your entire sales process, enrich missing data, and push contacts to campaigns as needed. This centralization prevents duplicate outreach, maintains clean data, and gives your team a unified view of all prospects and customers.

Before you start:

Contact: A person stored in your lemlist CRM. This represents the actual individual with their core information (name, email, company, LinkedIn profile). A contact exists once in your database regardless of how many campaigns they're in.

Lead: An instance of a contact within a specific campaign. The same contact can be a lead in multiple campaigns. Leads contain campaign-specific information like "Reason to Outreach" or time-based data relevant to that particular campaign.

Example: John Doe is a Contact stored in the Contacts section. If John is added to three different campaigns, he becomes three separate Leads—but there's still only one John Doe contact with unified data.

💡 Why this matters: Edit John's company name in the Contacts section and it updates across all campaigns. But campaign-specific variables (like custom icebreakers) remain unique to each lead instance.

Step 1: Access Contacts

From the left sidebar, click Contacts. The main Contacts view displays all contacts in your lemlist database.

Step 2: View contact information

Contacts display in a table with columns such as:

Scroll horizontally to see additional columns. To view or edit a specific contact’s details, click the contact to open the right-side contact panel.

Step 3: Create custom lists

Click the "+" tab at the top, then click Create contact list to create a new list view.

In the Contact lists view, create filtered lists for specific segments (for example, "Tech Companies" or "Engaged Leads"). Lists help organize contacts by the criteria you use frequently.

Lifecycle statuses track where each contact sits in your sales process, independent of their campaign status.

Default lifecycle stages:

💡 Key distinction: Lifecycle status reflects your overall relationship with the contact. Campaign status reflects their position in a specific sequence. A contact can be "Opportunity" as a lifecycle stage while still being at a specific step in a campaign.

For individual contacts:

Click a contact to open their card, locate the Contact status field, then select the appropriate lifecycle stage from the dropdown. Changes save automatically.

For bulk status changes:

Select multiple contacts using the checkboxes, then use the bulk action bar to update their status at once.

Custom lifecycle stage management is available from your lifecycle settings. Create stages that match your sales funnel, then apply them across your contacts.

💡 Use case: Create stages matching your process, like New → Contacted → Meeting Scheduled → Proposal Sent → Won/Lost.

Step 1: Use the search bar

Type in the search bar at the top of the Contacts section.

You can search by:

Results filter as you type.

Step 2: Apply advanced filters

Click Filters, then click Add a filter.

Select from available filter criteria, such as:

Apply multiple filters to narrow results.

Step 3: Save filtered views as lists

After applying filters you'll reuse, save them as a custom list so you can revisit important segments without re-filtering each time.

Click a contact to open their card, then edit fields directly in the Contact fields section.

To update contact status:

Use the Contact status dropdown directly in the contact panel, then choose the lifecycle stage you want.

To change contact owner:

Find the Owner field in the contact card, then select the new owner from the dropdown.

To modify company information:

Locate the Associated company field in the contact card. You can view the linked company there and update it if needed.

Select multiple contacts, click More, then choose Change owner.

Apply the new owner to all selected contacts.

💡 Use case: If a sales rep leaves the team, you can bulk transfer all their contacts to a new owner instantly.

If a contact is missing an email address:

Step 1: Open the contact card

Search for the contact in the Contacts section, then click their name to open the card.

Step 2: Use Find Email

Click Find Email in the contact card. lemlist searches for the contact's email using available information like name, company, and LinkedIn profile.

This action uses credits.

Step 3: Verify the email was added

Confirm the email now appears in the Emails field in the contact card. A verification indicator appears next to verified addresses.

Select contacts using checkboxes, then use the bulk action bar at the bottom to perform actions like Add to list, Enrichment, Add to campaign, and Edit field.

Create new campaign or push to existing:

Change lifecycle:

Enrichment:

Change owner:

Export:

Add to list:

Delete:

Select multiple contacts, click Edit field, choose the field you want to update, enter the value, then click Update.

Scenario: Export contacts from a filtered segment for reporting or analysis.

Step 1: Click Filters, then Add a filter

Step 2: Apply the criteria you want

Step 3: Select the filtered contacts

Step 4: Export them from the bulk action menu.

Step 1: Select contacts

Choose contacts individually or use bulk selection. You can filter first, then select all matching contacts.

Step 2: Push to campaign

Click Add to campaign in the bulk action bar and choose the destination campaign.

Step 3: Launch campaign

Navigate to the destination campaign, review the settings, and launch when ready.

💡 Workflow: Contacts section → Filter by criteria → Select → Push to targeted campaign → Launch.

From a contact's card, you can:

Send email (if an email address exists):

Send LinkedIn message (if a LinkedIn URL exists):

Call contact:

💡 Quick outreach: Use these actions for one-off communications outside campaign sequences.

The contact panel includes an Associated company field so you can quickly see which company the contact is linked to while reviewing or editing contact data.

This is helpful when reviewing account ownership, qualifying a lead, or checking whether the contact is already linked to the correct company before launching outreach.

Issue: Can't find a contact in search

Root cause: Typo in the search term, contact not imported, or searching by a field that doesn't exist

Fix: Double-check spelling. Try searching by email instead of name. Verify the contact was imported to lemlist. Check whether the contact exists in a campaign but has not yet synced to the Contacts section.

Issue: Lifecycle status not updating

Root cause: Page refresh needed, dropdown not fully applied, or insufficient permissions

Fix: Refresh the page. Reopen the dropdown and reselect the status. Confirm you have edit permissions for contacts.

Issue: Email Finder not finding emails

Root cause: Insufficient information, email doesn't exist publicly, or credits are exhausted

Fix: Verify the contact has a company name and/or LinkedIn URL filled in. Check that you have available credits. Try manual research if automated finding fails.

Issue: Bulk actions not appearing

Root cause: No contacts selected, or selection not registered

Fix: Make sure at least one contact is selected. Refresh the page if the bulk action bar doesn't appear. Verify you have permission to perform bulk actions.

Issue: Exported CSV missing contacts

Root cause: Filters still applied, or selection cleared before export

Fix: Review active filters before selecting contacts. Re-select the contacts and export immediately without navigating away.

Issue: Contact appears multiple times

Root cause: Duplicate imports with slightly different data, such as typos or formatting differences

Fix: lemlist should deduplicate by email, but variations can still create duplicates. Manually merge or delete duplicates and clean data before import to prevent this.

Use lifecycle statuses consistently - Train your team on when to move contacts between stages so reporting and filtering stay reliable.

Create custom lists for key segments - Save frequently used filters as lists, such as "High Priority," "Tech Industry," or "Engaged Last 30 Days."

Review associated companies regularly - Make sure contacts are linked to the right company before assigning owners or launching campaigns.

Regular cleanup - Periodically export and review low-quality or outdated contacts to keep the database clean.

Enrich strategically - Email finding uses credits, so prioritize high-value contacts or campaign-ready segments.

Set contact owners - Assign ownership clearly for territory management and handoffs.

Use bulk actions for efficiency - When updating many contacts, use bulk selection rather than editing one by one.

Export before major changes - Before bulk deleting or making significant updates, export affected contacts as a backup