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Subscriber Attributes - Custom Fields
Subscriber Attributes - Custom Fields

Custom Fields, Manual Imports, Attributes, Import, Delete Custom Data

Robert Lanckton avatar
Written by Robert Lanckton
Updated over 2 weeks ago

When adding subscribers to your organization's audience and when creating or updating segments, Organization Instances which have access to audience management have the option to include Custom fields in their Manual Import List uploads.

Custom fields allow you to add temporary data that can be used to filter your audience, create and manage Dynamic Segments with attributes that fall outside of the normal information that is available throughout most organization systems, and be used for Personalization fields in Blasts.

For information how to enable Custom Fields for your Audience Table and Personalization fields, or change the display name for Custom Fields inn Broadcast, please review: Attributes settings.

Getting Started

Custom Fields can hold letters or numbers, and can be used for temporary data not held in your people data system. There is a maximum of 255 characters for each attribute per subscriber.

Simply create a .CSV File with the first Column as Email, then include up to 5 additional columns matching the names: Custom 1, Custom 2, Custom 3, Custom 4, and Custom 5.

We recommend uploading Custom Fields in a file excluding other attributes to avoid issues when selecting Conflict Management settings.

Example Columns

This example includes Custom Data for Custom Fields 1 and 3.

Custom 1 is data that will be used to build an exclusion rule in a Dynamic Segment based on the Attribute Field String "Exclusion-1".

Custom 3 is temporary data for use in a personalization field in a Blast referencing the Subscriber's favorite color.

Email

Custom 1

Custom 3

Exclusion-1

Exclusion-1

Orange

Purple

Include

When you're ready, use the Import List option in Audience to upload your file: Importing Audience Lists.

Common Questions

As a part of implementation of Custom Fields, there are some important things to note:

How Does Merge and Overwrite Work?

You have the option to decide what you'll do with this data in the upload process, depending on your choice between Merge and Overwrite.

  • Merge will not change any data for Subscribers if they already have data for that field.

  • Overwrite will overwrite any data for Subscribers even if they already have data for that field.

  • For both options if a Custom Field is blank, this will fill the field for that Subscriber.

Why Am I Seeing A Warning Message

After a Custom field has already been applied by a previous upload by any team member, you will be provided a message before continuing with an upload. If any subscriber has data in a custom field which is being updated, even if the specific subscribers included in this file upload do not have data in the field currently, the warning message will appear.

Why are they Temporary?

As other team members can use Custom Fields, these fields are considered temporary, and may change. You can review what data is present for a specific user by enabling the Custom Fields for use in your Audience Table, then adding it as a column with the Edit Table menu. For more information, please review: Customize Your Audience Table Columns.


Deleting Temporary Custom Data

Option 1

You can clear all data for a specific Custom Field from the Attributes page. Find the Custom Field you wish to clear in your list of Attributes, then click theinfo icon to the right.

From here, a modal window will appear and you can select to Clear All Data. To verify, you will need to type in the text prompt requested.

Option 2

Create a file that includes the appropriate custom field column, and the entry for a subscriber is left blank in your file, select 'Overwrite' during the upload process. This will overwrite the data for the subscribers in your list - essentially acting as a "deletion" of the previously stored information. This will also overwrite any other fields if you include them in your file.


Deleting Custom Fields data cannot be reversed - however, If the data has been deleted, you can manually re-upload the data.


If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@cerkl.com or use the support Chat toward the bottom right-hand corner of any cerkl.com page.

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