Email List Marketing. Address Import How To.

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Email list marketing is normally done with the use of email message templates and email address lists. Combined together they yield personalized email messages delivered to every person on the address lists. Email message templates can be easily created in any email program, text or html editor and therefore will not be discussed in this article. However the process of getting email address lists for most of beginners in this field is sort of pain-in-the-ass since it involves different types of data transformations. Email list distribution is not possible without a list of valid email addresses therefore let's talk about email address importing techniques.

Depending on the software you use to communicate with your customers, information about your recipients may be stored in a range of black boxes such as address books, XLS Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, databases and text files of different formats. On the other hand, email list distribution software is also a kind of black box you have to deal with. So, you have two black boxes you need to transfer your email addresses between. This raises a question: "What the hell am I supposed to do to move my freaking email list from one black box to another?". Many people start to do some weird stuff like changing file extension from XLS or DOC to a whatever type the email list distribution software uses, or selecting and copying everything in a spreadsheet to the pasteboard and trying to paste it in the email list distribution software. This results in nothing but crash. After doing all this stuff with no success, they ask a question: "What is the name of that moron who designed this bloody software?"

This happens because an average person simply does not understand one little thing. Data transfer between two black boxes is always done with the use of plain-text files in one of the standard formats: tab-delimited file format or CSV file format. Your goal here is to export your email distribution list from the first black box to a pre-formatted plain text file either CSV or tab-delimited and then import this file in the second black box. The reason why you must use the CSV or tab delimited file formats is that they have been standardized long time ago and are used in almost every software products including email list distribution software products as an import and export option. So instead of using a hammer to fix a watch use a watch screwdriver.

Address book export and address book import. The most common source of email addresses is address book. No matter what you use Windows Address Book on Windows or Apple Address Book on Mac, you have an option to export your email addresses to a plain text file having CSV file format or tab-delimited file format. Even if your address book cannot export your addresses in plain text format, you email list distribution software will do it for you. Many email list distribution software products support address book import and address book export. To perform address book export, you need to use the File-Export command in address book. To perform address book import, you need to use the File-Import command in address book.

Import from XLS Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. XLS file can be saved as a plain text file in CSV file format or in tab-delimited file format just by using the File-SaveAs command. It means that XLS to CSV and XLS to tab-delimited conversion is seamless. Sometimes you also want to perform a CSV to XLS or tab-delimited to XLS conversion just to be able to edit your email distribution list in Microsoft Excel. To import CSV or tab-delimited file in Microsoft Excel you need to use the File-Open command specifying the file format as plain-text. Then simply follow the import wizard instructions.

Import from databases. If you use a database to store customer information, you can easily get email list from it just by using the export feature in your database product. Most of database systems such as Oracle, IBM DB2 and Microsoft Access support plain text export. CSV export is widespread and tab-delimited export is also common. Use the Export command in your database system to get a CSV or tab-delimited file with your email distribution list.

Import from other file formats. The rule of thumb here is to convert the file you currently have to a plain text file. This plain text file then can be further converted to a csv or tab-delimited file, which is in turn can be imported in email list distribution software. Microsoft DOC and XLS files should be saved as plain text files using the File-SaveAs command. Most of software products allow you to export or save their native file formats as plain-text files. Do not try to simply change file extension from DOC or XLS to TXT. This is not going to work. DOC and XLS files are actually binary files that appear as text only when you open them in Microsoft Office.

Once you get a plain-text file with your email distribution list in csv file format or in tab-delimited file format, you can import it in your email list distribution software. All you have to do at this point is to use the File->Import command to initiate import and then simply follow the import wizard steps. This way you will convert csv file or tab-delimited file into another file format your email list distribution software supports. In other words you will get your email distribution list in your email list distribution software.