Importing New Details to Update the Information of Subscribers

The video will show you the following things:

1. Importing the details of your subscribers that you previously forgot to import
2. How you can use several former databases to build your subscriber list

After watching this video, you will be able to import a .csv file of your choice to update, modify, or even delete the details of your subscribers.

To learn about importing new subscribers into a SalesAutopilot list, read this article: Import data into list

The Content of the Video

[0:00] Hello everyone! This is Alex. In this tutorial, we are gonna look at how you can expand a list by importing new information. So instead of importing new subscriber, we are gonna add new information to the subscribers we already have. Let's get started!

[0:16] I'm gonna be using Google Sheets along with my SalesAutopilot account, and you will see why in just a minute. Before recording this video, I already imported a list of subscribers into my SalesAutopilot list. So in this video, we are not gonna look at importing new subscribers, but importing new details to already existing subscribers. If you need help with importing subscribers, you can find a link to our related tutorial below the video. But for now, let's look at the subscribers I already imported. The only information we know about them, as of now, is there email address, first name, and last name.

[0:55] After importing these subscribers, one of two things could happen. You may realize that you actually know more about these subscribers, you just forgot to import all the available information. Or maybe it's not that you forgot, you just simply have the information stored in a different software. Like you could have 10,000 newsletter subscribers in your email marketing software, with their name and email address and a 1000 customers in another software with their name, email address, phone number, and other information. In such a case, you would first import your 10,000 newsletter subscribers, and then update the details of those who are also on your customer list. That way, the additional fields in the customer list, like the phone number, address, etc. would be added to your newsletter list, allowing you to customize and personalize your emails better.

[1:45] To illustrate the situation I just described, I added a second sheet to my Google spreadsheet. On the first sheet, where I had my original list of newsletter subscribers, there was no header in the first row. All we had was the email address, first name and last name. But when we go over to the second sheet, we see that the first row serves as a header, and there are also two additional columns. And as I said, I've previously imported the subscribers on the first sheet, and now I want to update their details with the additional columns on the second sheet. Here in the first row, you can see the header, which contains the field names. So I will have to add enter that right here. How? I go to my list, I go to Settings, and select Edit fields. This is where I see the fields of my list. So this list doesn't have an international phone number or a city field field, so I have to add those two now. I add the international mobile field first. And then I add the city. So the city could either be billing or postal. Use billing if you are B2B company, and use postal if you are B2C. I select this one now.

[2:59] Next, I need to go back to my spreadsheet and add the field name right here. So I go to my list and just copy and paste this right here. And there we have it. Obviously, I prepared this spreadsheet before shooting the video, so I didn't have to do this for every field. But you will have to go through these steps for each one. Once you have filled out this spreadsheet, you need export it as a CSV file and then import it into your SalesAutopilot list.

[3:28] I like to use Google Sheets, because I can count on it exporting the file in the right format. On the other hand, I've experienced all sorts of errors when I tried to use various spreadsheet software on different operating systems. But Google Sheets is a very reliable solution. So I always first import my spreadsheet into Google Sheets, and then convert it to CSV format. How? It's very simple. You go to File… Download as… and select Comma-separated values. So I have exported my spreadsheet into a CSV file. And the next thing is to make sure I don't forget to hit the Apply changes button right here. So once again, I added the international mobile and the city fields. And I'm also gonna check these two boxes, the Listed checkboxes. That way, these fields will be listed on the Subscribers tab of the list. Now I can save my settings. This takes me to the Subscribers tab of the list. Here I can see the two fields I just added. And there is no information in them as of now.

[4:33] So I have exported my spreadsheet into a CSV file, and now I can go ahead and import it by going to the Import list tab. I'm gonna select Update existing list. It's very important that if you are not using the list for testing purposes or just for playing around, then make sure to create a backup. But now, since I'm recording a tutorial, I'm not gonna create a backup. So let's move on.

[5:00] Now I have to choose the file I want to upload. This one right here. Since I'm uploading a Google Sheets file, its character encoding is UTF-8, so I select that option. And then we can hit the next button. The subscriber's email address, first name and last name are also listed here. The software automatically recognized the international mobile, but I have to select the right field type for this column. So this one is city. This is my email address. If there is any entry that the software cannot import for whatever reason, it will automatically send an error report to the email address you enter here. So let's go to next.

[5:48] Number of successfully updated entries, 5, that's good, it means that all the subscribers' details were updated. Number of successfully imported entries, 0, that means that there were no new entries imported. And there were no entries with an error. That means there won't be an error report sent either. So let's look at the subscribers now. Here you can see the newly imported details. So that's how easy it is to update the information of your subscribers by importing new details.

[6:20] Before we finish this video, I wanna emphasize two very important things. First, unless you are using the list for testing purposes, make sure to create a backup before importing new details. And secondly, the easiest way to avoid character encoding errors is to use Google Sheets for creating the CSV file you will import. I've never had any issues with it myself, no matter what platform I used. Whether I used Mac or Windows, it was absolutely reliable.

[6:48] Thank you for watching! Enjoy updating your list, and I wish you a lot of success in your email marketing!