Marketing preferences let you improve the targeting and effectiveness of your communications. You can create unlimited marketing preferences and categories, and then use them to organise your contacts based on their likes and interests. By correctly managing your contacts in this way, you're on track to boost engagement rates and improve ROI.
If you need to update or edit a contact's marketing preferences, you can do this quickly in the Single customer view.
Edit a contact's marketing preferences
Go to Audience > Contacts.
Find and select the contact you want to edit the marketing preferences for. You can use the Search field to locate the contact.
On the Single customer view, select the Marketing preferences tab.
Select or clear the checkboxes for the marketing preferences you want to add or remove for the contact.
Select SAVE.
Upload contacts in bulk with preferences
Before you start:
Make sure you know how to import contacts into Dotdigital. If you need a refresher, see Upload contacts.[link]
Before you import, check your file carefully, small formatting errors can cause imports to fail or create duplicate contacts. Use this checklist to make sure your CSV is ready.
Prepare your CSV file for import
When preparing your CSV file to upload contacts to Dotdigital, ensure the data is correctly formatted and includes the required fields. Follow these key guidelines:
Ensure field compatibility:
Fields like phone numbers should include the correct format, such as adding country codes.
Avoid invalid entries like N/A in mandatory fields like, email addresses and phone numbers.
Leave fields blank instead of using placeholders for unavailable information.
Data matching requirements:
Entries in the CSV file must precisely match existing records in the system to update contacts.
Include the First Name, Last Name, and Email Address fields to identify records for updating. Without these, updates may fail or create duplicate entries if fields differ slightly.
Troubleshoot failed imports:
Dotdigital notifies you of failed imports with detailed error reasons. Go to User menu > Settings > Notifications to view the import report and export it as a CSV for further examination. Look for specific issues such as invalid data formats or missing entries.
Add preferences to your CSV file
You can upload contacts in bulk with their preferences by including preference columns in the import file.
Learn more in Upload multiple contacts.
To create a source file:
Start all preference column headers with Preference:.
Make sure to include the colon at the end. The word Preference should be translated to match the account language you have set in your Account Settings.
Add your category name, if applicable, and your preference name after the Preference: column header. For example:
Preferences that are in a category must be formatted like this:
Preference:Camping>Tents
Preferences that are alone and not in a category must be formatted like this:
Preference:Tents
Add the opted-in or opted-out status for each contact in the column for the relevant preference. You must use one of:
True or False
Yes or No
1 or 0
The status can also be blank. Check out the tables below to see how blank statuses are handled.
Manage marketing preference statuses
If you use advanced settings for merging uploaded data, a blank status for a preference in an uploaded file is treated differently depending on which setting you choose.
You can only have Opted-in and Not opted-in as a status in-app for a marketing preference.
You can see the possible outcomes for a contact based on their marketing preference status in your import file, and their corresponding status in your account, in the tables below.
Update all data fields (default)
When you select this setting, a blank value for a preference in the import file overwrites the current status in-app, effectively acting as an opt-out for that preference.
As this is the default setting for imported files, this table represents the results you see when you do not change the data merge settings during the data mapping step.
Preference | Existing status in-app | Status in import file | Result |
Preference:Camping>Tents | Not opted-in | Yes | Opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Clothing | Opted-in | No | Not opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Rucksacks | Opted-in |
| Not opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Shoes | Not opted-in | Yes | Opted-in |
Don't update data fields with blank values
When you select this setting, a blank value for a preference in the import file is ignored, and the current status in-app does not change. Otherwise, statuses are updated to reflect the status included in the import file.
Preference | Existing status in-app | Status in import file | Result |
Preference:Camping>Rucksacks | Opted-in |
| Opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Shoes | Not opted-in |
| Not opted-in |
Don't update data fields that already have a value
When you select this setting, no values from the import file, blank or otherwise, affect existing preference statuses in-app.
Preference | Existing status in-app | Status in import file | Result |
Preference:Camping>Tents | Opted-in | No | Opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Clothing | Not opted-in | Yes | Not opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Rucksacks | Opted-in |
| Opted-in |
Preference:Camping>Shoes | Not opted-in |
| Not opted-in |
Export contact preferences
Contact preferences are included when you export contacts individually or in bulk. This helps with Subject Access Request (SAR) compliance.
Read more in How to process a Subject Access Request (SAR).
Individual export
Each of your contact's preferences are exported when you do an individual export. If you're using preferences in combination with ConsentInsight, then the contact's preferences are also included in the ConsentInsight collection JSON file.
Bulk export
You're asked if you want to include marketing preferences or not when you do a bulk export of multiple contacts.