You can upload lists of subscribed and suppressed contacts. One obvious benefit of uploading a "batch" of contacts is simply that it's quicker and less work than individually adding contacts to your account.

There are distinct processes for uploading batches of subscribed and suppressed contacts, as detailed below.

To upload lists of contacts:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Contacts > List.

3. Click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select Subscribed or Suppressed to access the list of contacts.

Watch the video

NOTE: This video is a comprehensive contact management overview. Manual contact uploading is discussed starting at 00:07:00.

Select a character set

When uploading a batch list of contacts, you can indicate which character set is used in the upload file.

• Normal Characters refers to an ASCII-encoded file.
• Western European refers to a Windows 1252-encoded file (which accommodates characters such as the Swedish Ö and the Spanish ñ).
• Non-Western European International Characters refers to a Unicode file (choose this character set if your file contains Asian characters, for example).

NOTE: If you choose the wrong character set for your upload file, the upload will execute, but email messages might display unexpected symbols instead of the intended characters.

Use Field Mapping

Mapping is a feature that enables you to "map" fields in your upload file to fields in your database.

Field mapping is based on column order, so to ensure the data in the upload file gets imported into the intended fields, arrange the columns of your upload file to align with the column order in your database. Take a look at the Contacts list page to see the how the columns are ordered.

TIP: Check the box for Save this mapping to preserve your mapping selections. It will be available (by name) from the Saved Mapping dropdown for future uploads.

The Custom ID field

If your account does NOT have Custom ID set as its unique identifier, you can ignore this field.

If your account DOES have Custom ID set as its unique identifier, you must map this field to the column in your database. You will not be able to initiate the upload if you don't. Any record in the upload file that does not have a Custom ID will be rejected but will not affect the upload.

Upload subscribed Contacts

Rather than adding individual contacts, you can save time by uploading a batch of contacts that are listed in a tab-delimited .txt file or a .csv file, or a .zip file that contains either of these.

1. Click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select Subscribed.
2. Click the upload icon above the Contacts list.
3. On the "upload" page, complete all sections.

Section 1: Select a File

1. Click Browse to locate and select your upload file. The file name will display in the field and above the Browse button, and the file size will display below the Browse button.
2. Accept the default (Normal Characters) or click to select the Western European or Non-Western European International Characters character set. Refer to the Select a Character Set section above for information.

Section 2: Map Fields

If your file has a header row (i.e., the first row is column labels), check the box to exclude the data in that row from the upload. Refer to the Use Field Mapping section above for information.

In this section, you must:

• Click the Saved Mapping dropdown to select a saved mapping OR
• Create a new mapping schema.

To create a new mapping:

1. Make sure Select mapping... is displayed in the Saved Mapping dropdown.
2. Click Select Field for each listed field and select a: Standard Field (the out-of-the-box mapping fields), Custom Field, Shared Enhanced Field, or Private Enhanced Field.

NOTE: If your database does not have any Custom Fields or Shared or Private Enhanced Fields, these options will not display. Custom Fields are created in Contacts > Tools > Custom Fields; see Custom Fields & Custom Date Fields and Personalization Keywords. Enhanced Personalization Fields are created in Contacts > Tools > Enhanced Personalization; see Enhanced Personalization Fields.

Mapped fields for saved mappings are always editable when you're on this page. You can click the field labels to the right of the arrow and select a different field for your mapping from the Select Field list.

TIP: You can save a mapping and it will be available from the Saved Mapping dropdown for future uploads.

Section 3: Contacts Options

You can choose whether to create a new group for these contacts or add this batch of contacts to an existing group.

To add contacts to a new group:

IMPORTANT: In order to ensure the success of your upload, avoid the following conditions when naming a group. These have been found to cause upload issues.
- Group name is too long; the allowed maximum is 50 characters
- Group name contains symbols
- Group name is a duplicate

1. Specify a name for the new group.
2. Accept the default (Main Folder) OR click Main Folder and in the dialog, use the plus signs to expand your folder hierarchy.
3. Select the target folder and click Select.

NOTE: You cannot create a folder during this process. To place the new group in a new folder, first create the folder and then return here and select it as described in step 3.

4. Click Next.

To add contacts to an existing group:

1. Click Add them to an existing group.
2. Click Select Group, choose a group from the dialog, and click Select.
3. Make your add and overwrite selections based on the following information.

Option	This will...
How should the contacts be added?
Replace the group ("overwrite all")	REMOVE all existing contacts from the group and ADD the upload contacts to the group.
Add contacts to the group ("overwrite none")	RETAIN all existing contacts in the group and ADD the upload contacts to the group.
Overwrite?
Do not update existing records ("overwrite none")	RETAIN all existing contacts in the group and ADD the upload contacts to the group, but do not update existing contact information if there is a conflict.
Update existing records ("overwrite as needed")	RETAIN all existing contacts in the group and ADD the upload contacts to the group and update existing contact information if there is a conflict.

4. Click Next.

Click Upload List on the confirmation page.

An "upload processing" message will display. When the upload has finished, a message displays the results.

In this message, you can click:

• Download rejected records to download the list of rejected records in a .txt file.
• Email Results to email the results to a colleague. A new email message will open in your default email program and the upload results will be populated in the body of the message.
• Manage This Group to go to this Group's information page.

• Queue Another Upload to return to the "upload" page.

TIP: After you've uploaded your batch file, verify that the contacts are listed in either the Contacts > Subscribed list (sort on the Subscribed column) or the Group Contacts page of the Group to which the contacts were added.

Upload suppressed Contacts

In addition to being able to suppress individual contacts, you can save time by uploading a batch of contacts as suppressed.

1. Click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select Suppressed.

2. Click the upload icon above the Contacts list.

Upload Suppression Lists page

You can upload a batch of contacts as suppressed. Before initiating the upload, make sure that the:

• Upload file is a single-column .csv file and
• Column values are either custom IDs or email addresses.

WARNING: If your file has a header row and you do NOT check the box, the upload process will assume that the first row is a valid contact. Because there isn't a valid email address, the upload process will reject that row and display a message that one or more contacts couldn't be uploaded. You can download a list of rejected records, and one of them will indicate that row 1 didn't have a valid email address.
Conversely, if your file does NOT have a header row and this box IS inadvertently checked, that first row of data will be ignored and that contact's information will not be uploaded.

To upload a batch of suppressed contacts:

1. Your account's unique identifier is preselected.
2. E-mail address Only is preselected.
3. Click Choose File to locate and select your batch file. The file name will replace the text "No file chosen" next to the button.
4. If your file has a header row, check this box.
5. Click Go to initiate the upload.

The upload will fail if you:

• Upload an invalid file type (i.e., something other than .csv)
• Upload a file with data in any column other than the first column (in addition to or instead of)

TIP: After you've uploaded your batch file, return to the Contacts > Suppressed list and verify that the contacts are listed. The quickest way is to sort on the Date column.

For more information on suppression, see Manage Suppression and Suppression Across Accounts.

View upload reports

After uploading a batch of contacts, you can view information about the upload.

1. Navigate to Settings > Reports.

2. Select Upload & Export Job Status.

The report for the latest subscribed and suppressed uploads will display as one-row tables with information about the upload.

In the Details column of the Uploads table, you can click the:

• Download icon to download the list of rejected records in a .txt file.
• Details icon to expand the table and see additional results.

NOTE: Below each table, click the display option to access other recent uploads.