Building the CSV for Mass Communications

Trevor Buckerfield
Trevor Buckerfield
  • Updated

Overview

This document provides all the necessary information on building the CSV used to tell gaiia which accounts will be part of the mass communication.

Other documentation on this particular subject will cover other areas of the feature and how to use it.

Why CSVs?

CSVs are an extremely flexible way to provide a list of data to gaiia that will accomplish a variety of different actions. They offer a means to provide a complex list of accounts based on broad or specific criteria of your choosing.

Guide: Mass Communications

This article is part of a larger guide covering the Mass Communication feature

  1. Mass Communications - Overview
  2. Building the CSV for Mass Communications
  3. Creating Mass Communications
  4. Managing Mass Communications

 

How Can I Generate this CSV?

CSVs can be generated in a variety of different ways, depending on your preferences.

To accommodate you, gaiia has built a flexible import process that only considers the UUID in the provided CSV.

This means that you can provide a CSV with additional columns, as they will be ignored and will not affect the import. This allows you to generate a CSV, validate it, and then import it without further manipulation.

A few means to generate the required CSV are:

  1. Downloading the CSV template and manually filling it out with the required information

    CSV TEMPLATE

    A button to download the template is also provided directly in the feature when building a new mass communication
  2. Using Snowflake to help generate the data for you.
  3. Using the Export feature within the Accounts page of gaiia. Simply filter the list by your specified criteria, and export it.
    Consider leveraging account Labels when using filters to quickly segment your customers
    The export will contain the data required for the mass communication feature
  4. Use the data from the provided reports that are generated through the Reports area of gaiia
  5. Using a combination of any of the aforementioned methods

If at any point, you need help with building your template, you are more than welcome to contact support and we would be happy to assist you.

You do not need to use the provided template, as long as the CSV provided has the accountId provided in the correct format.

 

CSV Data, Requirements & Considerations

In order for gaiia to process your CSV, it must meet the following requirements:

  1. Is in a CSV format
  2. Contains UUIDs in the id column
  3. Uses commas to separate the data
  4. The ids provided matches accounts within gaiia
  5. There are no duplicate accounts within the CSV

 

The Required id Column

As discussed throughout this document, the id column is what allows the feature to identify each account that will be part of the communication. It is used to pull all the necessary account information from gaiia.

This ensures that the most up-to-date account details are used, and remove the need to fill in some of these information manually.

The id is the account's UUID, not the Account ID.

It is the same id you get by exporting the list of accounts from the Accounts page, and the same column within reports generated through gaiia.

Check this article for detailed steps on how to find an account's UUID, or how to get a list of UUIDs: Finding an object's UUID

By using just the id, it allows the process to determine the most accurate information for each account regarding the following:

  • Contact details (email & phone number)
  • Basic account information (name & physical address for merge tags)
  • Contact preferences
  • Language preferences

Therefore, instead of needing to ensure these details are provided and accurate, gaiia determines them for you.

For example, gaiia will determine if an account should receive SMS communication or that a particular account should receive the English communication instead of the French one.

 

What gaiia Validates in the CSV Import Process

The feature supports sending communication to any account within gaiia, regardless of their status. Therefore, we always recommend reviewing the list to ensure all accounts should actually be receiving the communication.

As part of the CSV import process, gaiia will validate the following:

  1. That the account exists
  2. That the same account isn’t listed within the CSV more than once
  3. Which email/phone number to pull. The information associated to the account with gaiia is always used, regardless if this information is provided in the CSV
  4. What type of communication the account should receive and the language preference, if applicable
  5. Strips out any other columns provided within the CSV

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