For the information in this article to apply to you, you must:
have had separate SMS contacts and email contacts.
send broadcast SMS campaigns.
not send triggered SMS in automations.
If you need help or guidance at any point, contact your Customer Success Manager.
The process
Your contacts that were previously stored in the SMS area of Dotdigital have been converted to mobile number only unified contact records. The process outlined here guides you to match these mobile numbers with any corresponding email addresses into single contact records, and identify and delete any duplicates.
To merge your data, you need to:
Create a data field which is used to identify potential duplicate contacts.
Create a segment to identify contacts who have only a mobile number (and no email address).
Manually match and clean your data, and add a column to the exported file to mark remaining mobile numbers as potential duplicates, then reimport the file.
Identify and remove duplicate mobile numbers from your account.
Reimport your contacts to merge your data.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
Mobile numbers you import must be in the international format, including the country code. For example, +44, or 44.
You must have a way to match mobile number with corresponding email addresses, for example, by exporting this data from your CRM.
1. Create a data field
Expand the User menu, and go to Settings > Contacts > Contact data fields. Then select the Custom data fields tab.
Select NEW DATA FIELD.
For Name, enter POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE.
Expand the Data type drop-down menu, then select Yes/No.
Expand the Default value drop-down menu, then select No.
Expand the Access drop-down menu, then select Private.
Optionally, expand the Folder drop-down menu, then choose a folder to store your data field.Select CREATE.
2. Generate a segment for contacts with only a mobile number
Create a segment called Has mobile number.
Learn more in Create a segment.Drag the data field block onto your segment include area. Then select the block to open the rule settings.
Select the Mobile number (MobileNumberId) field.
Expand the rule drop-down menu, select Is not empty, then select OK.
Drag the data field block onto your segment Exclude area. Then select the block to open the rule settings.
Select the data field Email.
Expand the rule drop-down menu, select Is not empty, then select OK.
Select SAVE, then GENERATE SEGMENT.
3. Export your segment
To export a segment:
Go to Audience > Segments.
Select the Has mobile number segment.
Select Display, and ensure you select at least the Email, POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE, and Mobile number data fields. Then select APPLY.
If you want to export a copy of all data field data you hold for these contacts, you can select Select all to include all data fields in the export file.
Expand the Export drop-down menu, and select Export all. You don’t need to Include marketing preferences.
Select CONTINUE.
On the Exports page, wait for your export to finish, then select Download. A CSV export then downloads to your local computer.
4. Edit and reimport exported CSV
In this step, we find and match up the potential duplicate contacts.
When a mobile number only unified contact is created from an old SMS contact, it's not possible to automatically establish a connection between this mobile number and a corresponding email address, where one exists.
To solve this issue, we mark these contacts as potential duplicates. This allows you to easily identify, delete, and then match them with the corresponding email addresses.
4.1. Match up contacts
Here you must manually match your exported mobile numbers with corresponding email addresses. For example, if you have a CRM or other system where email addresses and mobile numbers are already linked, pull your data from there.
4.2. Clean up your data
Open your Excel document.
Find and remove any mobile numbers that do not have a corresponding email address.
4.3. Identify potential duplicates
Add a new column in your Excel document named POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE.
If you are working in the exported segment file from Step 3, this column should already exist.For each contact you matched email addresses and mobile numbers for, enter YES in the POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE column.
Save the Excel document.
4.4. Import your Has mobile number segment
In this step, we reimport our contacts to match up the data.
To do this:
Go to Audience > Contacts, then expand the NEW CONTACT drop-down menu and select Import contacts.
For File, select CHOOSE FILE and select the same CSV file that you edited in the previous step.
Optionally, for Email address to notify, enter an email address to receive a notification when the import is complete.
Expand the Encoding type drop-down menu, then select Unicode (UTF-8).
Select UPLOAD.
Under Data mapping:
for Mobile number, expand the drop-down menu and select MobileNumberId.
For POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE, expand the drop-down menu and select potential_duplicate.
⚠️For all other fields, including Email, you must expand the drop-down menu and select Skip column. Do not skip this step. ⚠️
Select FINISH to merge your contact data.
5. Remove duplicate contacts
If you want to keep data field or list information from your contacts with only a mobile number, then add it to a unified contact when matching up email and SMS data, complete the steps in Merging to unified contacts: keep contact information from mobile number-only contacts before you proceed with Step 5.
To generate a segment to identify your potential duplicates:
Create a segment called Potential duplicates.
Learn more in Create a segment.Drag the data field block onto your segment include area. Then select the block to open the rule settings.
Select the data field POTENTIAL_DUPLICATE.
Expand the rule drop-down menu, select Is yes, then select OK.
Select SAVE, then GENERATE SEGMENT.
Before proceeding
Your segment must not contain any contacts with an email address. If it does, then do not complete the next step, and contact your Customer Success Manager or our Support team.
Go to Audience > Segments.
Select the Potential duplicates checkbox.
Expand the MORE ACTIONS drop-down menu and select Convert to list.
Go to Audience > Lists, select the checkbox for the Potential duplicates list, then expand the MORE ACTIONS drop-down menu, then select Remove selected contacts from your account.
⚠️This action deletes contacts with just a mobile number and permanently erases their engagement data. If you're unsure, contact your Customer Success Manager or our Support team for help.
Confirm you understand the conditions, then select DELETE CONTACTS.
Periodically refresh the Lists page until the contact count for the Potential duplicates list reaches zero.
Now, you must empty the recycle bin.
To do this:
Expand the User menu, then go to Settings > General > Recycle bin.
Expand the MORE ACTIONS drop-down menu, then select Empty recycle bin.
⚠️Depending on the number of contacts you are removing from the recycle bin, this process may take some time to complete. We advise that you wait for 15 minutes after emptying the recycle bin before proceeding to the next step.
6. Import your contacts to match data
In this step, we reimport our contacts to match up the data.
To do this:
Go to Audience > Contacts, then expand the NEW CONTACT drop-down menu and select Import contacts.
For File, select CHOOSE FILE and select the same CSV file that you edited and uploaded previously.
Optionally, for Email address to notify, enter an email address to receive a notification when the import is complete.
Expand the Encoding type drop-down menu, then select Unicode (UTF-8).
Select UPLOAD.
Under Data mapping, map the following fields:
Email address to email
Mobile number to mobilenumberid
Any other data fields you want.
⚠️You must map Email and MobileNumberId.For Potential_duplicate, expand the drop-down menu and select Skip column.
Select FINISH.