The FTP Import feature lets you utilize our FTP servers to import data files that are too large to be uploaded. The "File Import" feature doesn’t allow importing data files with sizes larger than 128 MB. In such cases, an FTP upload can be used to overcome this limitation.
Things to Consider: To use the FTP import feature, you must set up the SFTP access for your FTP client. See SFTP Access for more details.
Importing Contacts Using FTP Import
Perform the following steps to import contacts into a list via the FTP Import method:
- To access the import feature, visit CDP > All Contacts from the navigation panel. You can also access the import feature by selecting Contact Lists under the same CDP menu.
- From the contacts index page, click on the Import tab to begin importing contacts to your account. You can also initiate the import process from the Contact Lists by first clicking on the Actions drop-down menu next to the list name and choosing Import Contacts.
- In the Import List dialog box, choose “FTP Import” as the import method. Then, upload the file, either in .txt or .csv format, which will be transmitted over the FTP network. Also, select the field delimiter that is used in the file.
- However, please note that when importing contacts from the Contacts menu, the Import List dialog box will display an additional List field. Here, you must select the list into which the contact should be imported. Click Continue to proceed ahead.
- On the FTP Import page, the system automatically fills in the uploaded file name, delimiter, and number of rows/columns. Next, proceed to select the following checkboxes as applicable:
Import New Contacts: This option imports new contacts only.
Trigger Journey Campaigns: This option triggers a new journey when onboarding subscribers through product purchases, surveys, newsletters, feedback forms, etc.
Update Existing Contacts: This option updates information on existing contacts in a list.
- In the Mapping section, select the default fields of the imported file you wish to match with the fields currently registered in Marketing Cloud. The standard default fields include name, email, phone number, subscription status, contact tags, etc.
- If you are importing contacts directly from the Contacts menu, you can change the list by selecting a new one from the drop-down list. However, if you are importing a new batch of contacts from the Contact List section, the List Subscription field will be grayed out.
- Optionally, if you have designated a custom field for your contact records, select the field’s name in your import file containing the member IDs, subscriber IDs, or any other profile IDs your internal system uses to identify each contact record uniquely. Once you have properly configured the basic details, contact fields, mappings, list subscription, and custom fields sections, click on Save.
- You can track the progress of the import by clicking on the notification icon. To view and download past imports, click on the See All tab under the notifications slider, which redirects you to the notifications page.
Note: The notification also includes information on the total records imported, total contact records subscribed to the list, total contact records unsubscribed from the list, total number of bad email addresses, and total duplicated email addresses.
A "bad email address" is an email address that fails the basic syntax validation or one whose domain is associated with a known spammer. You can download a file containing a list of bad email addresses and the reasons they were flagged as "bad."
Files stored in your folder on the Maropost FTP server are retained for a period of 395 days. Files older than this cutoff are permanently purged by a daily housekeeping task.