01. Importing Contacts

Every Account in the Studio has a centralized Contact database (repository) which is used by any applicable marketing program within that Account. You can add any number of Custom Fields to your Contact database, to hold Account-specific information about your Contacts.

As Programs are executed, Contact behaviors are collected and stored to enrich the Contact's profile. This information can then be used to improve subsequent campaigns and to make follow-up communication more specific to individual Contact behavior.

The Contact database can be initially populated by Contacts interacting with Inbound Elements, which get added as new Contacts, uploaded or manually entered by Users, or synced from third-party customer relationship management (CRM) applications (like Salesforce.com), and so on.

When Contacts are added, they are intelligently de-duped using User-controlled rules. Contacts may be edited, updated, or flagged as deleted using tools provided by the Workflow Designer’s Contact Management section.

Instructions:

Add Contacts Using a Comma-delimited (.csv) File

1. Click on the Contact Management tab in Studio

Tip: 

Since the MindFire Platform is contact-centric, a Program does NOT need to be open in order to upload contacts.

2. Select "Import" and click "Choose File"

3. Browse to the file, and click "Open"

4. Select “Load File”

5. Map the columns to the corresponding Contact fields

The system will try to do this automatically. If a column/field selection is incorrect, click on the column header,  and select the correct field.

For fields in the file that are not included in the Standard Fields, Custom Fields will need to be created. How? 

Note: 

If Custom Fields are created at this time, the column heading drop-downs will not refresh automatically. Please start again from Step 2 above.

The system will attempt to validate the contents of each field based on the parameters for each field. If any field generates an error, it will appear here.

6. When all fields have been correctly assigned, You can move on to importing the file

7. It is important to have a name for this import (e.g. "Test Import") for easy access in the future. Also, check the box to include the list in the Standard Filter (this means that this group of users can be considered a distinct group, if necessary)

8. If you are only adding new records, select "Add" and click on Publish

Note: 

Make sure you are ready to import the file when you click on Publish. Even though Studio gives you the possibility to cancel the Publish command, the Contacts are imported so quickly, that it will most likely be too late for you to cancel the command.

9. The Import Progress screen will be displayed. Click "Refresh" to see the current status of each import

Tip: 

When the import is complete, the Admin for this account will be notified by email.