Here is a short example (including some tips) of using a file and list, plus we have a guide here.
The first step is to create the list in your JangoMail account. Go to Lists and click Create New List.
Name the list with some useful words. A list name of “Chicago Customers” is obviously much more understandable than “List X432.” With your list name, you can have more than word, just separate them by spaces. Assuming you want to include first name, last name, and last 4 of an account number fields, you’ll have to add the fields to your list (you get emailaddress by default).
If you need to add more than one new field (your list has 10 columns, as an example), it is quicker to click the “Add New Field” icon 10 times (wait for each field to be added), and then go edit each one to rename NewField, NewField1, etc. to the names you want to use (for example, FirstName, LastName, Address1, and so on).
I use a field naming convention of “init cap” for each word, and field names are only one word (no spaces in them, and the words are combined if need be). I would name a “first name” field as FirstName, “last name” as LastName, a company name as CompanyName, city as City, etc.
As a tip, don’t upload columns you are not going to need or use in your campaign. If your original data file has 10 columns, but all you care about are the email address and first name columns, then save a copy of the file with just those two columns (no need to spend time creating fields in your list when you’re never going to be using them). Even better, when you save your file, put the email address in the first column. When a list is created in your JangoMail account, emailaddress is the first field by default. If your file’s column order matches your list’s field order, a lot of what follows next does not apply to you.
In the example below, note that the order is: emailaddress, lastname, firstname, and last4. But, when I created my list in JangoMail, the order is emailaddress, firstname, lastname, and last4. The FirstName and LastName fields need to be switched in their position, either by fixing the Excel file (the csv file I’m going to upload) or by addressing the ordering of the fields when I start the upload in JangoMail. I’ll leave the file as is and adjust the ordering of the columns during the upload process.
Start the process to upload your file. Select your list, click on the Edit icon, select the List Tools tab, then click Import Members. Since I am uploading a file, that’s what I click next.
I’ll use the multiple fields option (uploading more than just email addresses), and click that option.
On the next page showing the fields, you can drag a field from the left to the right, or click the Add All link to move all at once. If you drag one at a time, you can take care of the order then. If you click Add All, you can take care of the ordering as the next step.
With all the fields now added for upload, all I have to do is arrange them in the order for what my list expects. In this case, I need to move LastName up above FirstName.
The correct ordering is now displayed:
The next step is to browse to the file and upload it. There is one little catch though – the first row of my csv file has column headers. That row will be treated as a record, but will be ignored during sending because the record does not contain a valid email address. You can live with this in your list, or just remove the row from your file and not have the clutter in your uploaded list. In this example, I’m going to delete the row and re-save my CSV file so my uploaded list is cleaner, so to speak.
Quick detour – to save an Excel workbook as a CSV file, using Excel 2010 as an example – delete all sheets except for Sheet1, then go to File > Save As.
Then, select the file format as CSV (MS-DOS):
Browse to where the file is, and upload it.
If your list is large, the count shown on the main Lists page may lag behind the count you see when you go into the list via editing. The main lists pages is refreshed about once a minute, so give it time to show your count. However, you can go into the list, and when the number shown there is what you expect to see, your list is ready for use in a campaign.
Advanced feature (optional)
You can also use our FTP feature to upload a list. Start an FTP client, logon with your username and password at ftp://client.jangomail.com, and place the file in the GroupImportsAutoFTP folder. The list will have the same name as the file, and the fields will be the same as the column headers in the file. To simplify the upload, use a column name of emailaddress for email addresses and place the emailaddress column as the first column in the file. If you use a different name, we look for variations of “email address,” but to remove any guesswork, please use emailaddress. It can take a bit longer to upload a list if using the FTP method because all client FTP areas are continuously scanned for new files, and you will receive an email notification when the list import is complete (if you have notifications turned on in your account settings: Settings > Sending and Receiving > Notification Events).