One of the first things you must do when setting up your edrone account is importing this contacts database you already have.
Probably already you have a contacts database stored in your eCommerce platform, in a Marketing tool you have used in the past, or even a simple spreadshe.
Here you can find informations, how to prepare file for import.
The edrone system automatically collects data from each visitor on your website, creating a Customer Profile that is continuously updated over time.
Keep reading to know all about it, or click on the links below to jump straight to the section you need:
Downloading the contacts database you already have
This is the only step that depends only on you, since each eCommerce platform or Marketing tool will have a different way of storing and providing an existing contacts database. The important thing here is that you get a spreadsheet containing, at least, a column with email addresses.
Please note that there are no limits to how many contacts you can have on your database.
Formatting the file
OK, now it's time to format the spreadsheet in such a way that it will be processed correctly by the edrone system.
Once your spreadsheet is organized, you will need to save it as a CSV, XLS or XLSX file.
CSV files
If you save the file as a CSV, make sure the values in the file are separated by commas or semicolons and use UTF-8 encoding (no BOM) - if a different encoding format is detected, the import will automatically fail. Also, do not use special characters, including full stops, in the filename.
NOTE: Avoid characters such as ' (apostrophe) and " (quote marks) because they may create problems when importing.
Below is a table showing the mandatory and optional fields to be filled in the CSV file and how each field must be filled out.
FIELD | HOW TO FILL IT OUT | OPTIONAL / MANDATORY |
Valid email address | Mandatory | |
Name | Text | Optional |
Last name | Text | Optional |
Phone number | Only numbers White spaces and area codes are acceptable | Optional |
Gender | M for male
F for female
REFUSED for "refused to inform"
NIEZNANY for unknown
INNY for other | Optional |
Birth date | YYYY-MM-DD | Optional |
City | Text | Optional |
Country | Text | Optional |
Language | ISO 639-1 code (2 letters, e.g. EN for english) | Optional |
Email subscription status | 1, yes, tak, subscribe, active, toggle on, true, sim these labels you can use for subscribed status If this field is left empty, it will be considered "unknown" | Mandatory |
SMS subscription status | 1 for subscribed If this field is left empty, it will be considered "unknown" | Optional |
Email subscription request date | YYYY-MM-DD | Optional |
Email subscription confirmation date | YYYY-MM-DD | Optional |
Tags | Text | Optional |
XLS and XLSX files
If you save a file as an XLS or XLSX file and decide to import files in one of these formats, you must remember that NO column or NO row can be left blank. If any column or row is left unfilled, you will see an error and your import will fail.
Database formatting best practices
Put first and last names in separate columns. That way, you will be able to send out personalized messages using only the person's first name ("Hello, Mary!") instead of their full name ("Hello, Mary Ann Smith!").
Delete all columns that won't be imported into your CRM (e.g. address, social security number).
Remove all duplicates. While importing, our system will automatically detect duplicate emails and ignore them, therefore this is not a requirement. However, it helps keep files as light as possible.
All good? Great, now we just need to upload the file into the edrone system!
Importing the file into your edrone Workspace
To begin, log into your Workspace and go to CUSTOMERS > IMPORT. Click on the NEW IMPORT button.
You will be greeted by a very simple, 5-step process.
Step 1: Settings
In the first step, adjust the import settings for subscription statuses and duplicate behavior:
Subscription status
Specify subscription status for the entire file
Assign subscription status from column in file
Do not update subscription status (for new customers status will be set to unknown)
Negative values in the column
Treat negative statuses as unknown, which allows still sending transactional emails
Treat negative values as a unsubscribe status, that will block any communication with the customer
An example negative value is 0
Duplicates of customers already existing in the database
Do not overwrite data and tags - data present in the system will not be overwritten.
Overwrite - data already present in the system, assigned to customers will be overwritten (replaced with data from the file).
If you select the "Overwrite" option, the following settings apply only to tags:
Tags
Add tags to existing ones - tags from the import will be added to the customer card (will not replace those already existing).
Overwrite all tags assigned to customer - Important: this option will overwrite all tags present on the customer card with the tags selected during import. No tag selection or an empty field in this column in the file will remove all tags from customer's card.
Once you have made your selection, click the button CONTINUE.
Step 2: File upload
Now you will be required to upload your file. Click on SELECT FILE TO UPLOAD and choose your file.
NOTE: it is not possible to upload more than one file at a time.
As previously mentioned, you can use CSV, XLS or XLSX formats. Here are their constraints:
CSV files must be smaller than 60 MB
XLS files must have less than 65,000 rows and be smaller than 60 MB
XLSX files must have less than 1,000,000 rows and be smaller than 60 MB
For XLS and XLSX files, only the first sheet will be read
The maximum characters per row is 1024
NOTE: If the file is not properly formatted, the import will fail. Please refer to the formatting section in this article, or click How to format database file before uploading.
Once you've chosen the correct file, click CONTINUE.
Step 3: Fields mapping
Now you will be required to map each column in your file to the corret fields in the edrone system. The system will load the first 10 rows from your file to help you select the correct fields.
Select from the drop-down lists (1) the correct field for each column. If you choose "Ignore" (2), that column will not be imported.
If you select "do not update statuses" in the first step, you will not be able to select a column with statuses during mapping.
At the bottom the system will display the total number of processed rows, which should be equal to the number of clients to add to the database.
If you use a column separator other than comma, you will notice that the file does not separate columns during mapping. In this case, click Show advanced and select the appropriate separator (the same one you have set for your file). Here you can also set whether the system should skip the first line from the file by checking or unchecking Skip first line.
Below the table, you can see in red whether something else should be marked during mapping (for example, you can't skip the column with email addresses).
Once you're done with mapping, click CONTINUE.
Step 4: Tags (optional)
This step allows you to assign tags to the clients from the imported file. You are able to choose existing tags, add new ones, or do both.
This section also takes into account the settings for tags from the first step. If you chose the overwrite option then these tags will also overwrite those already existing on the customer's card. If you choose the add option, they will be added as another assigned to the customer.
Once you're done assigning tags, click CONTINUE for the last step.
Step 5: Summary
In this step you will see a brief summary of all the settings you have selected for the import:
If something is wrong, you can click the Back button and correct the settings.
If everything is correct, click Confirm settings and run import.
The import can take from a few seconds to several hours, depending on the size of the file. If all steps have been completed correctly, the system will display an "in progress" status.
Once import is complete, you will receive an e-mail notification.
That's it! Now it's time to engage with all those new contacts :)
Import history
All imports are registered in the Import history section inside Import settings (CUSTOMERS > IMPORT).
In the Import history table you will see the following information:
Import date: Day and time of import
Please note that the location (e.g. Europe/Warsaw) indicates the time zone
Filename: the name of the imported file
Status:
Completed – import was successful
In Progress – import is in progress or in queue
Canceled – import was canceled by the user
Failed – import was not completed due to errors
Rows: the number of rows that were processed
Import ID: unique code to identify the import inside the edrone system. This is used by edrone's support team to help solve problems.
Whenever there is a need to share the import ID with edrone's support team, click on the copy button to the right of this field.
Clicking the Dropdown button (the down arrow at the end of each row of the table with historical imports) unfolds a summary with information on what data has been imported and how many addresses in the database have been updated.
Troubleshooting
When importing your contacts database, you might encounter the following situations:
You've used an invalid separator in the CSV file
Our system accepts files with columns separated by commas, semicolons, spaces or tabs. If you have encountered this problem, you have two options: 1) try downloading the contact database from a source (e.g., eCommerce platforms) by selecting one of the above options as a separator for column; or 2) open the file in a spreadsheet editor and save it again by selecting the correct separator for column and proper formatting (UTF-8)
The field includes an invalid value
For example, in the edrone system, the Email subscription status field should have either "0" or "1" as a value. Any other value, such as "subscribed" or "yes" will generate an error. In this case, change the value according to the table from the formatting section.
The file size is larger than 60 MB
If your contacts database is too large (over 60 MB), please split it into separate, smaller files and try again.
The filename has special characters, such as dots
In this case, the contacts database will not be imported. Remove any special characters from the file name and try again.
The CSV file was not saved with UTF-8 encoding
Save the file again with the proper encoding (Unicode UTF-8) and try again.
Need more help?
If you have any further questions about importing contacts into edrone, please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@edrone.me