Note: We use "Program" and "Member" as label-agnostic terms to refer to any marketing you are using Buzzbassador to facilitate, whether you refer to it as an affiliate program, influencer marketing, ambassador program, referral program, creator partnerships, brand reps, partner program, etc.
As discussed in this article about importing existing members, there are two methods to import members. The first method includes uploading a file of your existing members' information and mapping the values to the correct Buzzbassador datapoints. The following article details the step-by-step instructions for going through this process!
Importing Members by File Upload
1. Prepare Your File
If you are going to upload a file of your members' info, the first step is to make sure all of your info is in one sheet - whether it's a .csv, .tsv, .xls, .xlsx, or .xml. We recommend organizing your sheet file so that the columns at the top match the data that Buzzbassador supports. You can use the column titles in the following screenshot as a guide to see which data will be accepted in your file upload:
If the members you are importing have pre-existing Shopify discount codes, you need to include them in the 'Referral Code' column of your sheet. The codes will be handled according to the option you selected in this step.
If the members you are importing have never been assigned a Shopify discount code, Buzzbassador will need to create one for them. So, you will need to include what you want each member's code to be in the 'Referral Code' column of the sheet. The app will then create that code for them.
2. (Optional) Prepare Your Import Notification Email
Keep in mind that as soon as your list is imported, an email is sent to your imports (as long as you have the "You've been imported" email turned on). You want to make sure that email is edited to your liking BEFORE you do your import. Read more about that here.
Once you have your sheet/file ready and your "You've been imported" email customized, follow the next steps:
3. In your Buzzbassador account, navigate to the 'Members' page and click 'Import'
4. Fill out the pre-import pop-up
Before starting the import process, there are two configurations you will have to set.
The first configuration is choosing the particular program tier -- if applicable -- that you want to import this set of members into. Your default program will be listed first, but you can click the drop down to choose any other of your tiers. Keep in mind, any of the members you import can be assigned to a different tier later.
The second configuration prompts you to choose between two options: keep or delete & recreate any existing referral codes IF your members were already created & assigned a Shopify discount code to promote with before you installed Buzzbassador.
Keep existing codes external to Buzzbassador's referral code price rule: If you select this option, your members existing codes from before Buzzbassador will be kept active, but not included in your Buzzbassador referral rule. This means that any edits you make to your referral rule will not apply to all of your imported codes.
Delete existing codes and recreate them in Buzzbassador's referral code price rule: If you select this option, the members' existing codes that you manually created pre-Buzzbassador will be deleted, but they will immediately be automatically recreated by Buzzbassador, and included as a part of the Buzzbassador referral rule. The codes will have the exact same title -- the only thing that will change is the creation date and location of the back-end code. In other words, your members will not know the difference - they will still be promoting the same code (i.e. 'AK10') regardless.
**For more details on these two options, please check out this article.
Once you have selected from the options, click 'Continue'.
5. Upload your sheet into the top section
Upload your sheet file into the top section by either dragging it there, or clicking the 'Upload data from file' button and selecting a file from your device.
6. Identify whether or not your sheet has column names
The import bot will then ask you if your sheet has a header row (a row that has the title for each column, like "First Name", "Last Name", "Email", etc.) as the first row of the sheet.
If the first row of your sheet is the header row, click "Yes"
If you have another row in your sheet that is the header row, click "Select another row", and choose which row of your sheet is the header row
If your sheet does not have a row with headers for each column, click "No header row"
**Please note: on the dropdown that says 'Select Encoding', ignore that. Most files will always use the default 'ACSII' encoding method.
Once you have selected the correct button, you will be taken to the next step.
7. Match columns to correct data points
Each of your columns now needs to be matched to the correct Buzzbassador datapoints. For example, if you have a column that includes all of your members' email addresses, then that column needs to be mapped to the Buzzbassador 'Email' datapoint so that the app can recognize and log it correctly.
To complete this process, go to each column and select the dropdown menu where it says 'Lookup matching fields'. You will then see a list of options, which are all of the available Buzzbassador datapoints. Under each column, go through the dropdown and select the correct data point that matches the values in that column of your sheet.
Once the correct datapoint is selected, click the 'Confirm mapping' button.
**If you include any data in your sheet that is not a part of our available Buzzbassador datapoints, then there will not be an option to match that column with. In that case, you would select the 'Ignore this column' button.
Repeat this process for every column in your sheet. When you are finished, your screen should look something like this screenshot below, with all of the columns correctly matched and the 'Confirmed mapping' message shown.
Then, click the 'Review' button.
6. Review imported columns
Now that you have matched your sheet values to the correct data points, make sure you review your work. Sometimes, the import bot may point out an error, such as an invalid email address. Make sure to correct any errors that appear by double-clicking on that cell and editing the value.
Once you have reviewed your work and everything looks good, click the 'Continue' button.
7. Submit your import
Simply click the 'Yes' button to confirm your import submission.
8. Wait for your success email
Once your import has been submitted, all there is left to do is wait! You will receive an email from Buzzbassador when your import is complete. It usually only takes a few minutes. In the meantime, you can go back to work.
And there you go-- you're done with importing your members!
There are several other common questions or troubleshooting issues that may come up in this process, so make sure to check out the other articles about importing members.
If you need any further help, please don't hesitate to send us a chat at the bottom right corner of your app screen, or email us at [email protected].