Import Unsubscribes and Suppression Lists

Here is what you’ll want to do to make sure your first email campaign has the best results when you make the switch:

Get a Suppression List from Your Previous Vendor

Make sure you get the suppression list from your old vendor. They should have maintained this for you, and they will usually provide it to you in the form of an Excel CSV file. A suppression list is a list of email addresses that have either unsubscribed from your mailings or are invalid addresses.

Import the List as ClickDimensions Unsubscribe Records

Using the Dynamics import tool, you can import the CSV file as unsubscribe records. You may have to do some minor formatting in Excel, such as adding column headers, so Dynamics knows how to map the data in the list.

Navigate to the Dynamics Import Data Wizard by navigating to Settings > Advanced Settings

In the new window, navigate to Settings > Data Management > Imports, and click on Import Data.

Browse to your CSV file and upload it to Dynamics and press Next.

You'll review the file and press Next.

Then select Default (Automatic Mapping) in the Select Data Map dialogue and press Next.

Then change the Microsoft Dynamics Dynamics Record Types to Unsubscribe and press Next.

On the Map Fields screen, map the email address column to the Email field, which is the only required field needed to create an Unsubscribe record via importing. You do not need to map the other fields – all we need is the email address. After clicking Next on this screen, you can ignore the warning about the unmapped fields.

You'll then be able to review the mapping summary. Press Next.

You'll then see the Review screen. You don't need to change anything. Just press Submit.

The final screen will pop up, just press Finish. Depending on the size of the list and your Dynamics server’s performance, the import job can take anywhere from 10 seconds to several minutes to complete.

When the import job is complete, you can view the new Unsubscribe records in Dynamics by going to Marketing > Email Marketing > Unsubscribes.

Link Imported Unsubscribes to Their Respective Leads and Contacts

If you’re using Dynamics 2011 or Dynamics Online, the Import Data Wizard has some extra capabilities that will let you actually link the imported Unsubscribe records back to a Contact or Lead.

NOTE: This will only work if you have Contacts or Leads in Dynamics with emails that are on the suppression list. See the last step below for what to do when you’re not sure.

Here is an easy way to do this:

Step 1

In your CSV file, copy the column with the email address into a second column. Here it is called Contact:

Step 2

Navigate to the Dynamics Import Data Wizard by navigating to Settings > Advanced Settings

In the new window, navigate to Settings > Data Management > Imports, and click on Import Data.

 

Browse to your CSV file and upload it to Dynamics and press Next.

You'll review the file and press Next.

Then select Default (Automatic Mapping) in the Select Data Map dialogue and press Next.

Then change the Microsoft Dynamics Dynamics Record Types to Unsubscribe and press Next.

In the Map Fields Window, next to "Contact" choose Contact (Lookup) from the dropdown menu. Then check the Contact box below it. Uncheck the Full Name box, and check the E-mail box. Press OK twice and then Next.

You'll then be able to review the mapping summary. Press Next.

You'll then see the Review screen. You don't need to change anything. Just press Submit.

The final screen will pop up, just press Finish. Depending on the size of the list and your Dynamics server’s performance, the import job can take anywhere from 10 seconds to several minutes to complete.

Step 3

Now, when the Import job is completed, Dynamics has created the Unsubscribe record and automatically linked it to the Contact that had a matching email address:

Step 4 - Helpful Tip

In this case, I had 3 email addresses on my suppression list, and all of them successfully mapped to a Contact. I can repeat the process next and try to match Leads, and then do a third import to get unsubscribe records into Dynamics even if there is no matching Contact or Lead. To save time and avoid trying to import records you have already imported, go to the import jobs list in Dynamics (Settings > Imports) and select the import job you just did. You can look at the Failures for the import job, export the error rows, and you’ll have a nice CSV file that contains only the records you need for your next pass:

In the CSV file that you export, change the contact column heading to lead and repeat Helpful Tip steps 2 & 3 above, this time mapping the lookup reference to the Lead’s email address field. Repeat this again if you still have unmatched records, removing the second column, and you'll get Unsubscribe records without any link to a Contact or Lead.

Step 5:

As a final step, if you want to be extra‐tidy in your Dynamics data, you can use Advanced Find to locate Contacts that have an Unsubscribe record and use Bulk Edit to update their Do not allow Emails field to Do Not Allow. Or use a workflow to handle this for you. Then have your sales and marketing team figure out if they should deactivate those old Contacts and Leads or if the customer has new contact information for you.

ClickDimensions will not send to an email address where there is a matching unsubscribe record, whether it is linked to the Contact or Lead or not. So now you can start putting your marketing lists together assured that you’ve translated all that hard‐won historical deliverability from your old vendor into your shiny new ClickDimensions solution!

One of the biggest selling points for ClickDimensions has always been the fact that it is built right into your Dynamics –no need for complicated and costly integrations or manual exports of your Dynamics marketing lists into your email marketing tool. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily make the transition from your old email marketing vendor to ClickDimensions, and going forward, future unsubscribes and invalid email addresses will be handled automatically!