CSV Upload

From the CSV Contact Upload screen you can upload your CSV contact lists to Ometria.

This article explains how to create a CSV contact file and how to use the upload tool. 

Note: CSV uploads are not completed instantaneously; they are queued and completed when resources are available. This could take up to 24 hours, please contact your customer success manager if you have any concerns.

See also: How to use a CSV upload as an automation trigger

Subscription statuses

Contacts uploaded via CSV retain their subscription status and timestamp unless:

• you select force subscribe or force unsubscribe from the Subscription mode panel, or;
• they are forcibly opted in or opted out via the Ometria preference centre.

Equally, if you upload contacts via CSV, the subscription value or status doesn't change later if subscription or unsubscription data is sent to Ometria via your importer.

For example, if jane@fashion.com is uploaded via CSV with an ‘unsubscribed’ status, and Jane later re-subscribes through your website, her re-subscription is sent to Ometria through your importer. Jane’s subscription status will not change and will still be ‘unsubscribed’.

Ometria’s standard rules of priority for contact listings are:

1. The Ometria preference centre
2. API, App, CSV
3. Ometria form
4. Importer (e.g. Magento or Shopify)
5. Third party sync

If there are two contact records with the same priority level, then the varying parameters from the most recent record are used.

For this reason, we recommend that you upload contacts via your importer (Shopify, Magento, or your custom importer).

Navigation

To access the CSV Contact Upload screen, click your account in the far right of the Ometria menu bar and select Contact upload from the dropdown:

Upload a new CSV contact list

Select CSV file

Click Select CSV file to choose a CSV file from your computer.

Upload requirements

File size: Maximum 10MB

Encoding: The following encoded CSV files are supported -

• Windows ISO-8859-1 (latin 1)
• UTF8

Note: Be aware that any blank spaces before or after text will be removed from values when the data is processed.

Headers

Your CSV file must contain headers in the first row.

The following headers are accepted by Ometria - they are case sensitive and must be written exactly as below.

Be aware that the email field is required for all CSV files.

Uploading and merging phone numbers

Be aware that if you upload a contact with a phone number which matches an existing phone number in your database, then the number will not be merged.

Example, if you upload the following two records, one in January and one in February, with the same phone number:

...then Ometria will only ingest the following information:

• id = 5678
• email = customer2@hotmail.co.uk

And not the phone number.

This is in order to avoid the duplication of phone numbers. 

There is currently no way to move phone numbers across or assign a phone number to the most recent profile.

For more context on how Ometria validates phone numbers, see Google's GitHub library for parsing, formatting, and validating international phone numbers.

ISO 8601 format 

Use the following formula to quickly re-format your dates:

=TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-ddThh:MM:ss")

Note: CSV uploads are not completed instantaneously; they are queued and completed when resources are available. This could take up to 24 hours, please contact your customer success manager if you have any concerns.

Add contacts to static segment?

Choose from any of the following options:

Merge mode

Note: Merge mode has the potential to overwrite your existing contact data. Think carefully before saving your changes.

When uploading CSV data, Ometria uses the contact's email address as the unique identifier.

This means that if a contact already exists in your account with an email address which matches one of the addresses in your CSV file, that contact and their data could potentially be overwritten.

You have the choice to select Only overwrite fields where a non-empty cell is provided.

In the example below, Jane Smith has an existing record in Ometria, but she has changed her name and her title since the last time her data was uploaded, and her 'id' has been left blank.

The following fields have changed:

• id - left blank ('empty')
• prefix - from 'Miss' to 'Ms'
• lastname - from 'Smith' to 'Smith-Jones'

• Where 'Only overwrite fields where a non-empty cell is provided' was selected, all of Jane's data has been updated, except 'id', as that cell was empty.
• Where 'Only overwrite fields where a non-empty cell is provided' was not selected, all of Jane's data has been updated, including 'id', which is now blank in the Ometria record. 

Subscription mode

Select a subscription method:

Note: The method you select applies to all contacts in your CSV file once you upload.

Data protection information

Before you can upload your CSV file, you must select both of the following checkboxes to confirm that:

• The list you are uploading was not purchased, rented, appended or provided by a third party, and;
• the contacts you are uploading are expecting to hear from you.

Once you have confirmed, you can click Upload to begin uploading your CSV file.

Note: Be aware that it can take up to 24 hours to upload a CSV file.

Video guide

Example CSV file

Click the attachment below to download an example CSV file with all headers and four rows of data: