Recipients - Managing customer data > Import function for recipient data > Creating a new import profile > Determining the process settings

Determining the process settings

The Mode selection list controls how OpenEMM integrates the imported recipients into its database. You can choose from the following modes:

Only add new recipients
Add new recipients and update existing recipients
Only update existing recipients
Set recipient to status Opt-Out
Set recipient to status Bounced
Add recipient to blacklist

This opens up many possibilities for you to keep your recipient data up-to-date. It often happens that recipients do not register via your website but send you an e-mail with a request to be included in the mailing list. Entering a single recipient is not much work; but when you receive dozens of such mails, it's easier to collect these users in a list in a spreadsheet and then enter them all at once into OpenEMM.

If you want to add new recipients only to a database but do not want to change the information on existing recipients, choose the entry Add new recipients only. This is for example useful when your CSV file contains information on new customers and existing ones whose data should not be changed. The option Add new recipients and update existing recipients goes a step further. OpenEMM adds the new recipients to its database in exactly the same way as the first option, but in addition checks whether your CSV file contains new or changed information on existing recipients. In this case the system updates the information on the recipient concerned. If you want to update your mailing list but do not want to add recipients, choose the option Update existing recipients only.

It is also possible to update the status of recipients who want to be removed from your mailing lists but who are unable to, or do not want to, do this themselves. The options Set recipient to status Opt-Out and Set recipient to status Bounced are provided for this purpose, where Opt-Out should be used for deregistration and Bounced for recipients who cannot be reached. It is also possible that a recipient contacts you who not only wants to be deleted from the list, but simultaneously threatens legal steps should he receive further e-mails from you. In such cases, the option Add recipient to blacklist is a certain way of excluding individual recipients completely from further transmissions and of protecting yourself against unpleasantness.

The selection list Null-values in CSV file is also used for control of the import. This deals with those recipients who are already present in the database. Two recipients are for OpenEMM identical when they have the same email address.

Assume that in the database, recipient Hank Miller has Dr. entered as title. In the CSV file the entry for a Mr. Miller also exists, but here the title is missing, the field is empty (null-value). The selection list allows you to decide what should happen in such a case.

The standard setting is Overwrite existing records with null-values. This loses the content of the corresponding fields when importing into the database. This setting makes sense in most cases, because ultimately you want to update the entries in the recipient database with the import.
The second option Ignore null-values in imported records applies to special cases. For example, this could be when you know for certain that changes have been made in the database that are not contained in the import file.

OpenEMM checks whether two recipients are identical using a specific field. The one that is to be used is determined by the selection list Key-Column for Duplicate-Check and Updates (see next chapter). As standard, the system uses the field email.