Importing Multiple Lists Into One & Setting Preferences for Each List

Details

If you are starting fresh & only creating one list from one import spreadsheet, then you can set a user's preferences at the time of import. However, if you are importing multiple lists or updating a list, then you will need to follow the directions provided in this guide.

There may come a time when you're looking to combine multiple lists into one master list, but you want to utilise our Preferences feature and set preferences for each contact as they come into the system.

For the purposes of our example, let's say you have three spreadsheets of contacts to import into one main list. These spreadsheets are called 'Newsletters', 'Sales & Promotions' and 'Recipe Club'. Some contacts are in all three spreadsheets, while others might just be in one or two of the lists you're importing.

Let's say that you also have these setup as Preferences in our platform (as shown below) - and you want to ensure everyone from the 'Newsletters' list is assigned this preference, everyone from the 'Sales & Promotions' list is assigned that preferences - and so on; remembering that some contacts might have one, some, or all, of your preferences.

Read on to learn how to set this up.

How-to Guide

1. Open each of the spreadsheets you wish to import, in a spreadsheet application such as Google Sheets, or Microsoft Excel.
2. Add a new column to the end of each of your spreadsheets. The column heading should be named with the preference and should be unique - as we don't want data from one spreadsheet import to go into the wrong column. These extra columns (fields) are only temporary - they're purely here to help us search for and apply preferences later in the process.
3. For each contact in that spreadsheet the data under this new column heading should read TRUE, or YES. In other words, some means of identifying if the contact has that preference. Our example spreadsheets with this configured, are shown below:
   
4. Save the spreadsheets.
5. Import each spreadsheet into our platform one by one, into the same single list. Ensure that during the import (when our platform asks you to map the columns / fields), you import the new columns that you created in Step 2, above. In the case of our example, our contact list now looks like this:
   
6. Now that each of your spreadsheets have been imported into your list in our platform, it's time to apply the relevant preferences to your contacts. This is done by searching for contacts that have a YES in one of your new fields, applying the relevant preference - and then repeating this process until you've done it for all of the preferences. Let's begin by opening the search function.
   
7. Next, search for a YES in the first of your newly created fields.
   
8. After conducting the search, contacts that meet the criteria will be shown. Select all of the contacts.
   
9. From the Actions dropdown, select Update preferences.
10. Your various preferences will be shown. Tick the corresponding single preference you'd like to apply to the selected contacts (in our case, it would be 'Newsletter') and click Save. The selected contacts will now have that preference applied.
11. Repeat steps 6 to 10 for each of your newly created fields (one at a time) - making sure you set the correct single preference each time. In some cases, the Preferences dialog may have ticks or dashes in some of your other preferences. If so, leave these as is & just tick the preference you need and ignore the other preferences.
    
    
12. Once the process is complete, check your list to make sure contacts have the correct preferences assigned. You can do this by clicking the Table Settings (small ⚙️) icon towards the top-right of the table and click on the Preferences field. Scan your contact list to ensure everything look correct.
    
13. If everything is correct, we recommend deleting the various temporary fields that you created earlier. This can prevent confusion down the track - especially if others from your organisation use the system. To do so, select Lists and Forms from the sidebar.
14. Double-click on your list to go into Forms view.
15. On the right, you'll see a list of fields attached to this list. Click the bin icon next to your temporary fields to delete them.
    
16. Click Save when done. You've now completed the process - nice work!

Further Reading

Send To Segmented Contacts or Contacts With Email Preferences.