Importing data from a spreadsheet (CSV) file

The spreadsheet (CSV) file data source allows you import your customer/people and organization data from a CSV file to your Ortto account’s customer data platform (CDP).

CSV file prerequisites

This process assumes that you have a valid CSV format file whose first row of columns match* field names for people and organizations defined in your Ortto account’s CDP. Each "column" represents a set of vertical values down each line of the CSV file, delimited by the same number of commas from the start of each line.

Your CSV file does not need to contain every field defined in your CDP. Only a subset of fields is required for people data only as well as organizations and people.

If you are working with a spreadsheet file, then use your spreadsheet application to export each of the spreadsheet file’s relevant pages into individual CSV files, and upload each one of these CSV files separately to Ortto.

People only

A CSV file with People data only must meet the following criteria:

• At least one field matches the People unique identifier set under Settings > Customer data > Unique identifiers > People.
• The format of your date data must match the format set in your General settings.

If you are setting the Language field value for a person, the value must be an ISO code. For example, to set a person's language as English, use en, or Spanish, use es. You can also specify region-specific language values, e.g. en-gb for British English. See the List of languages for a full list of the supported ISO language codes.

Organizations only

A CSV file with Organization data only must meet the following criteria:

• At least one field matches the Organization unique identifier set under Settings > Customer data > Unique identifiers > Organizations.
• The format of your date data must match the format set in your General settings.

Organizations and people

Importing data associated with People and Organizations must be accompanied by people who will be linked to these organizations.

A CSV file with People and Organization data must meet the following criteria:

• At least one field matches the People unique identifier set under Settings > Customer data > Unique identifiers > People.
• At least one field matches the Organization unique identifier set under Settings > Customer data > Unique identifiers > Organizations.
• To link multiple People to a single Organization in your CSV file, specify the same Organization's unique identifier value for each linked person.

 
Name, Email
My Company, chris@example.com
My Company, alex@example.com

Upload your spreadsheet (CSV) file

Assuming you initially followed the Configuring a new data source procedure, use this procedure to complete importing and integrating your CSV file’s data into your Ortto account’s CDP.

1. After having clicked through Popular / CRM  Spreadsheet import  Get started (from the New data source page), on the Upload spreadsheet page, drag and drop your CSV file into the dashed rectangular area of this page. Alternatively, click the or browse for the file on your computer link in the center of the page to browse for your CSV file to upload to Ortto.
2. Click Next to open the Map the columns to a field page. On this page, Ortto attempts to match the columns defined in the header of your CSV file to field names defined in your CDP. If matches are found, then Ortto automatically applies the appropriate fields defined in your CDP to the field names defined in your CSV file’s header, indicated in the Spreadsheet columns section of the page.
   
   3. If any of these field name matches are incorrect, then drag the appropriate field defined in your Ortto account from the CDP fields section of the page over the field name defined in your CSV file’s head in the Spreadsheet columns section. The existing mismatched CDP field is replaced with your new choice, and the old CDP field moves back to the CDP fields section.

1. Click Next.
2. On the Tag page, click Add tag to begin adding a new tag (by typing its text and clicking Create to create the new tag) or selecting one from the existing list of tags. Similar to searching existing CDP fields in the previous step, if the list of existing tags is extensive, you can filter this list itself by typing one or more consecutive letters into the Type to search box.

   TIP: Tags help you filter and group people and organizations (records) in your CDP.

   For example, you can use tags to:

   • Move records between playbooks.
   • Control which records enter a playbook.
   • Group records from different CSV imports.

   When you import a CSV file, a tag with the file name, date, and time is automatically applied to all people and organizations data in Ortto.
3. Click Next.
4. On the Select a merge option page, choose the appropriate merge option and merge key strategy to determine how Ortto behaves when integrating any existing people or organization data in your CSV file into Ortto. Learn more about the merge options.
5. Click Done to start the import.
6. Once the import process starts and your CSV data is initially uploaded, then synced, and completed when Import complete is shown, click Done again (or X at the top) to return to the Data sources page.

Merge options

Import and merge new data only (recommended)

When a record exists only new data will be added. If the record doesn't already exist, it will be created.

Import and merge new data for existing records only

This option allows you to add new data only to existing records. If a record is found, only new data will be merged based on the mappings provided (see the example above for details on how data is updated).

The key distinction between this option and the previous one is that it does not create new records. If a record cannot be matched using your unique identifiers, it will be ignored during the import process.

Import and overwrite any data that exists

When a record exists all mapped fields will be overwritten. If the record doesn't already exist, it will be created.

There are two scenarios where existing values will not be updated during the import process (this applies regardless of the merge option you've selected):

1. The field in the CSV file is empty: If the corresponding field in your CSV file is empty and you map it to a field that already has a value, the existing value will remain unchanged. In this case, the field will not be overwritten and will not become empty.
2. The field in the CSV file was not mapped: If you choose not to map certain fields from your CSV file, those fields will not be updated in Ortto. Only the fields that you map will be considered during the import.

Import and overwrite any data that exists for existing records only

This option allows you to overwrite any data only for existing records. If a record is found, data will be overwritten based on the mappings provided (see the example above for details on how data is updated).

The key distinction between this option and the previous one is that it does not create new records. If a record cannot be matched using your unique identifiers, it will be ignored during the import process.

Import new records only

If a record already exists, it won’t be modified. This option only imports new records.

Searching existing CDP fields

If the list of CDP fields is extensive, you can filter this list itself by typing one or more consecutive letters into the Search box, and any of these fields whose names do not match these letters are dynamically excluded from the list as you type.

You can then select and/or clear the remaining CDP fields on this list.

Clearing the Search box, or clicking X restores all CDP fields to the list.

Adding a new CDP field

If your Ortto account’s existing CDP fields are not suitable for one or more columns of data in the CSV file you are importing, you can create a new CDP field to map to your CSV file column.

To do so:

1. Click Add a new field.
2. In the New custom field dialog, specify the Field name and Field type for your new CDP field.
3. Click OK and the new CDP field appears at the top of the CDP fields section list. You can now drag this field across to the appropriate CSV file column in the Spreadsheet columns section of the page.

Field formatting recommendations

Here are the formatting guidelines for Ortto's supported field types during import.

Text fields

• Text field values must be 500 characters or fewer. Values longer than 500 characters will be truncated. For longer text, use a Long Text field.

Date & Time and date fields

• To import date or time values correctly, use the format set in your account settings.
• You can find this under Settings > General > Date and Time.

Boolean fields

• Values can be formatted as Yes/No, True/False, or 1/0. These are not case-sensitive.

Phone number fields

• You can import phone numbers with or without a country code. During the import process, the map step lets you choose how to handle phone numbers without an explicit country code.
• You can decide whether to import the numbers as they are (without a country code) or have the first digits interpreted as the country code.

Single-select & Multi-select fields

• Values must already be added to the field before importing. Unrecognized values will not be accepted.

Link fields

• URLs must include "https://" to be accepted.

Adding contacts into an audience

Contacts enter an audience based on the audience's entry conditions.

If an entire CSV of contacts needs to enter a specific audience, one option for doing so is to use a tag.

To do so:

1. Update the audience's People enter when: settings to include the "Tag is [Tag-Name]" condition, replacing the placeholder value with the tag that you'd like to use.
2. During your import, apply that tag to the contacts in the Tag step of the import.

This will allow all of the contacts in the CSV file to meet the audience's entry condition for the tag once the import has completed.

Troubleshooting CSV file imports

Too many rows without merge keys

If you receive an error saying "Too many rows without merge keys", this means that Ortto cannot find in the CSV file enough data matching your account’s unique identifiers to be able to create or update records in your CDP.

To be able to create meaningful CDP records, Ortto requires the following minimum fields:

• For people: First name, Last name, and Email address.
• For organizations: Name (of the organization), as well as either the Email address or Phone number of the person being linked to this organization.

By default, Ortto uses the following data values as unique identifiers:

• For people: their email address, followed by their phone number (as a fallback), and
• For organizations: its name.

You can modify the default identifiers under Settings > Customer data > Unique identifiers.

As such, the likely issue causing the error is that your CSV file is missing identifier data, e.g. people’s email addresses. When you’ve updated your CSV file to include the missing data, this should resolve the issue and allow you to complete the import.