Uploading contacts into Maileon can be done manually or automatically. In the tab Developers Information you find more details on an import via a FTPS-server or an API Interface. This article describes the manual import.


Go to the main menu 'Lists & Contacts'  and select in the submenu ' Contact Import'. On the import page you see an overview of all manual uploads. For more details double click on the name. 


Contact import overview (home page)


Here you can see an overview of all contact import that have been done as well as a button "Start new contact import". Per import you see the import name, the progress, start date and time of the imports, the user who carried out the import (usually an email address) and report icon. If you click on this icon or on the import name a pop-up screen shows the Contact Import details. 


 

New contact import

1. There are two methods to start a manual contact import. By clicking the grey plus icon or the button 'Start new contact import'. 


2. After clicking one of them a pop-up screen appears with three options:

  • Regular contact import
  • Unsubscriber import
  • Bounce counter reduction



3. Select 'Regular contact import' and click on the 'create contact import' button.


You are now step 1 of the workflow, follow all steps from left to right and from top to bottom per step. You can move forward of back in steps by selecting the step on the top of the page or by clicking 'back' or 'continue' on the bottom of the page.



Step 1: Upload file


Here you can upload your contact file into Maileon in CSV, TXT or ZIP format. Note that email address is the key identifier for Maileon and  a mandatory value is in the upload process.


  1. Add a name for your import in the field ' Import description', we recommend using a 'Naming convention'. 
  2. Select your import file by dropping a file or clicking the button 'from the local disk'. 
  3. If the upload is successful, this is indicated by a green tick, followed by the addition “Contact file name, File size and the message 'upload to server successfull!'. You also see the option “delete file”, if you have any reason to not upload this file. 
  4. Click 'Continue'.


Step 2: text conversion


Maileon recognize the file formatting information automatically. 

  1. Check the representation of your import values in the contact preview. 
  2. If you see see any errors here, you can adjust the file formatting via the first three fields.
  3. If your import file has a header, tick the box  'header available'.



Step 3: contact fields & options


In step 3 - Contact Field assignment, Maileon maps the data of your import file to the data fields in Maileon. You see an example of the data from the first contact of your imported file.

  • If you have selected 'Header available' in step 2,  you see all the field headers of your imported file in the first column.
  • Column 2 shows the value of those field.
  • In column 3 'Contact information' shows the selected Maileon field. You can select another field or choose 'Skip', Maileon will not upload that field.


  • With the button 'Add new contact field' you can create additional contact fields and immediately carry out the mapping on them. 


Contact import options

Various options are available for importing contacts with regard to the handling of forms and unsubscribers, and contact import filtering and tracking.


  • Add contact field value, all contacts of this import will receive the same value when using this option. This is handy if you forgot to add a value in the import file.
  • Click on '+ add value' and select the right field and choose a value.



  • Contact import option: Here you specify how the system should behave when contacts are imported that already exist in the account. You can choose between the following:
    • “Update existing contacts”, contacts in Maileon will be updated with the values from the import file.
    • “Update existing contact" (ignore meaningless values),  same as option one, now empty values will be ignored.
    • “Update existing contact only" (ignore new contacts), only contacts known in Maileon will get updated with the values of the import file. 
    • "Do not update existing contacts", only new contacts are uploaded into Maileon.
  • Unsubscriber protection: Maileon ignore already unsubscribed contacts and will not reactivate them. This option is checked by default. Only deactivate the unsubscribe protection if you have new permissions for the affected contacts.
  • Contact Import Filtering:  Maileon will exclude the import of contacts with non-importable values. 
  • Contact unsubscription: Be aware Maileon will unsubscribe all contacts in the from the Maileon database that are not part of the uploaded contact list.

Click 'Continue'.



Step 4: Permission & Import


The contact import is now almost complete, but some essential information is still missing.


Permission handling: Select the right permission method for your contacts. Keep the GDPR rules in mind (in which country are your contacts located?). If contacts are known in Maileon and have a permission status, it will not get overwritten. 

You can choose between the following Permission methods:

  • No permission available: contacts are uploaded with the status opt-out.
  • Single opt-in: a one-time consent, for example by entering the e-mail address on the registration page. It is not guaranteed that the person registering is actually the same as the owner of the e-mail account.
  • Confirmed opt-in: a confirmation email is sent to the registered email, but without a "Confirmation Link" for confirmation. Is often abused by spammers. The recipient must actively object to this in order not to receive advertising emails. This method is not legal in Germany!
  • Double opt-in: a confirmation email including a "confirmation link" will be sent to the specified email address. The registration will only be valid if the recipient clicks this link. This ensures that the recipient actually wants to receive your e-mails. 
  • Double opt-in including consent to individual user tracking: this is the recommended method, as otherwise a large number of important reports would not be available. Accordingly, the following is displayed below the selection window: "If there is a permission without individual user tracking, many evaluation potentials based on contact response characteristics are not available."
  • Other method: use this if you import a list if you do not known when and how the contacts opted in.


Permission update: Select this option if you like to update the known contacts in the list with the selected Permission method.

Send DOI mailing and get DOI permission: If you have created a Double Opt-In (DOI) mailing, you can use this option to send the email and receive Double opt-in permission from your contacts.


Contact import tracking: If you are uploading contacts for a specific campaign, use this option. Maileon can create directly a contact filter (which is needed) and a mailing, test or default list. 


Agreement: the checkbox must be selected here in order to be able to carry out the import: "I hereby assure that the information on the type and scope of the permission given above fully corresponds to the facts and is verifiable". Since the legal situation in Germany prescribes a verifiability of the permission (and possibly the consent to individual user tracking), no addresses can be imported without this declaration. Now you can start the import by clicking on the "Import contacts" button. The contact import overview is then displayed again.


Click on 'Import Contacts'





2. Import of unsubscribers as part of a list of e-mail addresses

Here you can copy & paste the e-mail addresses of unsubscribers, for example to compare them with your CRM system. Please note the information in the import mask: - Please use either a line break, a comma or a semicolon as a separator. - Important: A maximum of 70,000 contacts can be unsubscribed per unsubscribe import! Confirm the action by clicking on the "Unsubscribe contacts" button.



Contact import report