Required: Microsoft Outlook™ and Microsoft Excel™

Your Memberize account comes with our Newsletter Center* which includes its own Mass Email functionality**. This Memberize Knowledge Base Article will guide users through the simple process of uploading existing data from a Microsoft Outlook™ Contact list or any other tabular or database contact data that can be pasted or imported into Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format.

Part I: Exporting from Outlook

To export your contact list from Outlook in a format suitable for our purposes follow these steps:

1. From the Outlook menu select File, then Import and Export…

2. From the Import and Export Wizard select "Export to a file"

3. From the Create a file of type: list select "Comma Separated Values (Windows)"

4. In the "Select a folder to export from:" box highlight “Contacts”

5. Save the exported file to a convenient filename/location on your hard drive

6. During the next step select "Map Custom Fields"

The mapping process is important because if you allow Outlook to map all your contact data as it chooses the resulting CSV file will be overly cumbersome and formatted improperly for our purposes. By selecting only those specific contact fields we need in the order we need them we avoid having to rearrange them later.

7. Clear the default map so the right-hand “To:” box is empty

8. In the Map Custom Fields box find the “E-mail” value and select the small plus (+) sign to expand this listing. From the expanded list drag “E-mail Address” into the right-hand box with your mouse.

9. Repeat the process with the “Name” value, expand the list and select & drag “First Name,” then “Last Name”

10. Select either the “Home Address” or “Business Address” value to expand and drag the “City,” “State,” “Zip,” and “Country” heading over

11. If you are unsure whether to use Home or Business Address information, or feel like you need a combination of the two, create one file from each and you can merge this information later. You also need to pick just 2 phone numbers from the possible choices (home, business, cell etc.).

The benefit of repeating this process is Outlook usually remembers the last Map you created, so you won’t have to repeat the entire mapping process, making only those changes you need.

Part II: Saving and Uploading your CSV from Excel

Now, open Excel and find and open the CSV file you have created. Don’t panic, if you can’t recall where you saved it just repeat steps # 1-4 above, by default Outlook will display the last path and file you created. Make a note of this, press the “Cancel” button (or hit the ESC key) and return to Excel to find your new file.

To make this file compatible with your Memberize Newsletter Center simply add one row to the left of the "Email Address" column and name all rows accordingly:

Select Column A in Excel and right-click your mouse and click Insert to add a new column to the left of your email addresses. This new column A will be your List ID (as shown in the table above). Rename all successive columns exactly as above.

Now go to your Memberize Newsletter Center (just below the Member Center link on the Main Menu) and select or create a subscription list to obtain your unique List ID #:

1. From the Newsletter Center select “Create New List” from the Menu or skip to step # 2 if you want to append/update an existing list

2. Select the Edit/View icon from the “Total Subscribers” column in your Subscription Lists table for the list you want to upload to

3. From the List Subscriber Detail page select the “Import Subscriber List” link

4. On the Subscriber List Import page find your List ID number

Take this unique List ID number and copy it in every row in column A in your CSV file you have open in Excel. You only need to key (or copy/paste) this number once, just select all of the empty cells in Column A, if you hold down the CTRL key while you press the ENTER key all of the cells you select will get filled with the same data.

Now save your file in CSV format, return to the Newsletter Center, Browse for the file you have created and click the Import CSV File button to finish.