Importing your Contacts' Details into the Mail House

Quick Checklist:

• You have a CSV. file with appropriate data formatting for importing contacts.
• You are aware of each Data field/column in your File that you want to import.
• You have identified that each Data field/column has a corresponding Mail House Field (i.e existing custom fields that will be used to store the contacts' data).
• Existing Mail Group: You know the name of your Destination Mail Group.
• New Mail Group: You know the Folder name that you'd like your New Mail Group to be placed into, and the what name you'd like to give your New Group. New folders/groups can be created during import.

Is your list prepared? Skip ahead to Step 1.

Step 0: Preparing the Spreadsheet to import

Before you start the import you should prepare your list for uploading.

You may want to clean up the file:

• Email field is required for every import list.
• Remove all duplicate entries and empty rows.
• Remove any unnecessary characters in your data entry: " " ' ' . , ( ) etc.
• Ensure each data field is separated. For example, separate columns for First Name and Last Name.

Note: If you are using Special Characters/Languages, ensure you save the CSV with UTF-8 format so that foreign characters will be uploaded correctly.

 

 

Check to see that each field in your File exists in the Mail House:

To check this, go to the 'Custom Fields' tab: find out more here. Custom fields can also be created during import, however it is best that existing fields are used whenever appropriate.

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Save the file:

Save your list as a CSV (comma separated version), Tab-delimited or Pipe-separated file. It's easiest if done in Google Sheets/ Microsoft Excel. Make sure you close the file after saving/before importing.

To save a .csv in Google Sheets:

1. Open your document in Google Sheets
2. Go to "File" > "Download"
3. Select "Comma Separated Values (.csv)"

 

To save as a .csv in Excel:

1. Open your excel document in Microsoft Excel.
2. Go to "File" > "Save As"
3. Select the destination you would like the file saved.
4. Down the bottom of the save window you will see "Save as type" [Microsoft Office Excel Workbook (*.xls)]
5. Click on the dropdown and change the type to [CSV (Comma delimited)]
6. Click "Save"

 

STEP 1: Upload the File

Go to Import/Export > Import. Drag and drop your file, or click the Select CSV file button to browse for the file on your computer.

STEP 2: Map the Data

Mapping data: the act of assigning each field in your File to a data field in the Account.

Optional: If this is a reoccurring import, in which the file data is always laid out the same, a Map can be saved for re-use. However, for most imports, the layout will differ.

Below, you will see a few entries from your file displayed. It will appear as if your file has been rotated to the left. 

In the first column: Column Header, you will see the First Row from your file - Here you can choose to 'Ignore' data fields from your file.

In the middle: Column Sample, you will see the next few rows in your file so you can be sure the data has come through correctly.

In the last column: Mapped Data Field, you will be tasked to select which Mail House field to place it in.

An "Email" field must be assigned:

Contact data in the Mail House revolves around the Email Address as the contacts identifier (except for in Transactional accounts - in which it is the External ID). It is required that the 'Email' Field be assigned in every import.

If an Existing Contact's email address is included in your import file, their details will be updated.

Creating a Custom Field for your data:

If you cannot find an appropriate Mail House field for one of your data fields - Create a new Custom Field. Please note that Field Type cannot be changed once created.

 

When you are satisfied that each field from your File has been assigned a Mail House field, click Continue to proceed.

 

STEP 3: Select a destination

Find your destination Mail Group:

Search for your Mail Group/s by name using the "Select Mail group/s" option, or filter by selecting a Folder to look at. 

If your destination Mail Group or folder does not yet exist,

Create a new Folder and/or Mail group:

New Mail Group, Existing Folder: Select your Folder from the drop-down. With a folder selected, you will be able to 'Create new mail group' for this folder.

New Mail Group, New Folder: Click to 'Create new folder'. With you folder selected, you will be able to 'Create new mail group' for this folder.

 

Next, Select whether or not to:

• Import previously bounced: if deselected, Contacts that have been marked as 'Hard Bounced' in the past will not have their details updated.
• Blank fields overwrite existing data: If selected, any instances of a "Blank" entry in your file WILL overwrite any existing data. This option is used exclusively with the intention of cleaning contact data. 

Please be mindful of this warning:

Do NOT import into Mail Groups that are currently being sent to, or who are queued to be sent to.

 

STEP 4: Review

Once you reach this page, you may exit, the import will continue in the background. If you hang around, you will see your Import Report appear, and you can review the results of your Imported file.

Head to the Import Queue to see your accounts Import history, and review your Import Report.

 

Import Report

Was it a success? How many new people have been added? What Mail Group did I select?

Here you can see a breakdown of what happened during your import

Total Records 
How many records, or lines are in the imported file. This includes empty lines.

Accepted Records
How many records or lines are in the imported file, and are in an acceptable format for importing. 

• New Records Added: How many new Contacts have been created during the import
• Existing Records Updated: How many Contacts have been identified as already existing in your Mail House. If field data differs from the existing data, their details have been updated.

Rejected Records
How many records or lines are in the imported file, and are NOT in an acceptable format for importing. A high number here generally implies that the Email addresses were not in the correct format (perhaps there are multiple emails listed in the one data field, or their are some odd characters).

• Duplicates: The same email is listed for multiple contact in this file.
• Invalid Email/Mobile: Some email addresses in the "Email" field of your file are not in the correct format (a single email address, no additional characters). Heading rows are often present here.
• Previously Bounced: Email addresses that belong to an Existing Contact - and is identified as "Hard Bounced" from an email.
• Empty Rows: Rows in the file that contain no data.

Import Destination

Here you will see where your imported contacts have been placed.

Mapping Report

Here you can review the data assignments selected in Step 2.

 

NOTE: If your import is failing please try to do empty cache and hard reload on your browser or use a different browser like Chrome, Edge or Firefox.