Getting your list in
Pageant Alert never replaces your registration. It takes whatever registration produced. There are five ways in and you only ever see the one that applies to you.
If your entries came from a form builder
Export your submissions as a CSV — every form tool has this — and drop the file in. You do not need to tidy it up first, rename columns, or match a template. Jotform's layout is recognised as-is.
Columns we do not recognise are shown to you rather than silently dropped, so you can say what they are or ignore them.
If your list is a spreadsheet you keep yourself
Upload the file, or just select the rows in Excel and paste them straight into the box. Column order does not matter and a header row is optional.
The only thing genuinely required is a name and an email address per girl. Everything else is optional and can be filled in later.
If your entries came in by email and on paper
Type them in — name and email, one at a time. For twenty girls this takes a few minutes and is the fastest route for a director with a stack of paper forms.
If you have no list yet
Create the pageant and put your Pageant Alert link straight on your own registration page or entry form: while you are here, sign up for pageant alerts. Girls opt in themselves as they register.
This is the lowest-friction path in the product — no import, no invite emails, no bounces. Your roster starts empty and fills itself, and that is normal, not a problem.
Do both, and do not worry about duplicates
The best-run pageants use both doors. Put the link on your registration page from day one so girls sign up as they enter, then import your finished entry list later.
Importing after girls have already signed up is safe. Matching email addresses merge into the existing record — she keeps her phone set-up, and she does not get a second invitation.
The one thing to watch is email addresses. If a girl signs up with her own address and registers with her mother's, that is two different people as far as any system can tell. When we spot the same name and birthday under two addresses, we show you both and ask — we never merge on a guess, and we never split a family without telling you.
Ask for the same email address on your entry form as girls use to sign up. It removes almost all of this.
Bad rows report, they never stop the import
A missing email or a typo does not abort anything. The good rows land, the bad ones are named, and you fix them or ignore them.
Invitations that bounce come back to you with the address, so you can correct it or pick up the phone.
Your list can be bigger than your entry list — that is good
Girls who signed up for alerts but never actually entered are flagged separately. They are not errors. They are the most interested people who did not convert, and they are the best names you will have in January.
Questions directors ask
Will importing twice create duplicates?
No. Contestants are matched by email address, so importing again after new entries arrive simply tops up the list. If you are unsure whether your export is current, the answer is always to export again.
Do I have to send invitations right away?
No. You can bring the list in and send nothing at all. A director who only ever banks her list for next season is using the product exactly as intended.
What is the minimum information per contestant?
A name and an email address. Birthdate is worth adding when you have it, because it determines whether a guardian needs to be on the account.
Last updated 2026-08-23.