List Management

Import subscribers

Importing subscribers

In Maxmail you can import your subscribers in several different ways in bulk.

• Import using CSV file
• Import using an Access Database file (.mdb only)
• Import from an email account (such as Gmail)

Import subscribers using CSV files

A comma-separated values - CSV(MS-DOS) file is used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists form, where each associated item (member) in a group is in association with others also separated by the commas of its set. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each field belonging to one table column. Since it is a common and simple file format, CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spreadsheet program.

If you have an excel spreadsheet with the following columns

First Name	Last Name	Email Address
James	Brown	James@brown.com
Sally	Taylor	sally.taylor@gmail.com

When this excel file is saved as a CSV file, if you view it (using Notepad or Text Edit) then the data will look something link this

"James","Brown","James@brown.com"
"Sally","Taylor","sally.taylor@gmail.com"

Once you have a CSV file, you can import it in the "Import from CSV" section.

After your file has been uploaded to our server (happens in the background) you will be asked to verify whether or not the very first row of your CSV file contained actual data or the names of the columns in your CSV file.

Once you verify this, you will be given the opportunity to map the columns in your file with the columns in the mailing list.

On the left hand side you will see the columns in the mailing list and on the right hand side will be the drop down box enlisting all column headers extracted from the CSV file you just imported.

Once you have mapped all the fields, click on the "continue" button to complete the process.

After the import is complete, your list will go through our standard post import process during which time it will be locked and unavailable for use in a campaign.

Import contacts from an MS Access Database

Maxmail also allows you to import contacts using an access databases that are in the MDB format.

MDB is a format MS Access uses to name its files, however, in the latest version of Microsoft Office you have to specifically save the database in that particular format for use in Maxmail.

When importing the MDB file, the process is exactly the same as importing a CSV file in terms of field mapping and the post import process.

Simple steps to importing from Access

1. Click on the manage Subscribers Tab
2. Select the list that you wish to add you new contacts to (single click on list, so that stats window opens)
3. Click on the ‘Add New Subscribers’ link
4. Click on the ‘Import MDB File’ button
5. Click on the ‘Choose File’ button
6. Navigate to where you MDB file is stored and select the MBD file
7. Click the Maxmail ‘Upload File’ button
8. NB!!! Check the button next to the contacts label
9. Click on the ‘Import’ button
10. Select ‘yes’ or ‘No’ depending on whether you have a header or not
11. Click the ‘Continue with mapping fields’ button
12. Map your required fields
13. Click on the ‘Import to my list’ button

Import contacts from your email account

Another nifty way to import contacts in Maxmail is from your IMAP compatible email account.

All you have to do is provide your IMAP email address and password and Maxmail will attampt to import all contacts you have sent emails to or received emails from and give you the option to choose which email addresses get imported into the list.

Note:

Currently Hotmail email accounts are not supported due to Hotmail's incompatiblity with the IMAP protocol.

Your email address and password information is NOT stored on Maxmail and is destroyed after the import process is complete.

The process of importing contacts using email accounts works on freemail addresses such as Yahoo, Gmail, Mail.com, AOL and all private mailboxes that have IMAP protocol enabled in their MX settings.

When importing contacts using this feature, for most cases, you will never have to specify your mail server settings as Maxmail will attempt to automatically figure that out.

In some cases you might be required to provide advanced mail setting information such as incoming mail server, server port and authentication type for Maxmail to appropriately establish connection with your mail server and go through the import process.

After you have gone through and imported the contacts you wanted to import, the list is put through our standard post import procedures before you can send a campaign to this list.

Simple steps to Import contacts from your email account

1. Click on the manage Subscribers Tab
2. Select the list that you wish to add you new contacts to (single click on list, so that stats window opens)
3. Click on the ‘Add New Subscribers’ link
4. Click on the ‘Import from Email’ button
5. Enter the email address of the account that you wish to extract the email addresses from
6. Enter the account password
7. Click ‘Go’ Button
8. Select the folders from where Maxmail is to extract the emails
9. Select the ‘sent to you’, ‘you send mail to’ and ‘cc’ options
10. Click on the ‘Import’ button

Post Import Process

After importing contacts into a list (regardless of the import option used), each list is put through a set of processes to ensure the list is clean and good for use in a campaign. The following is a breakdown of the individual processes the list is put through.

List Cleaning

Post import, every list goes through Maxmail's built in cleaning process which is the second generation of the Predictive Bounceback Handler you may have encountered in Maxmail 3. During this process Maxmail will automatically delete any blank records and flag invalid email addresses for your review.

One of the most common reasons for email addresses to be marked invalid is poorly formatted email addresses or addresses that contain typos. Hence, for most common typos, Maxmail attempts to automatically fix these for you.

However, in cases where we acquire reasons to believe that the email address being checked does not exist or is not currently active, we will mark those as invalid as well.

If the total number of invalid addresses in a list is greater than a certain threshold, then you will be required to manually verify those records before you can use the list in any campaigns.

Duplicate Checking

When importing records, Maxmail requires you to verify whether or not the data being imported is mainly to do with email addresses or mobile numbers. We ask this question to configure our duplicate checking process which uses either email addresses or mobile numbers as the unique identifier.

If duplicates are found the list is automatically locked down with a red flag until you manually decide what you wish to do with the duplicate records.

You can process duplicate records in one of two ways.

You can either tell Maxmail to keep only one instance of the record and delete all others with no bias toward any one occurance of the record.

or

You can merge duplicate records based on certain criterion being met.

When merging duplicate records you will be asked to select one of the instances of the duplicate records to be a master. All other instances of the duplicate record are then merged into the master.