Use Profiles and Traits with a CSV file

Use the CSV Uploader to add or update user profiles and set subscription states.

When you upload a CSV file, Engage adds new profiles and updates existing user profiles. Each CSV row corresponds to a user profile and columns to an identifier in your identity resolution configuration.

You can also set subscription states for each email and phone number that you upload in the CSV. Subscription states help you track which email addresses and numbers you have permission to market to.

Upload a CSV file

Use the Upload CSV page to upload a CSV file in your Segment space:

1. Navigate to Unify > Profile explorer or Engage > Audiences > Profile explorer.
2. Click +Add Profiles.
3. Download and fill out the CSV template.
4. Upload your CSV file.

1. Download your CSV template

Click Download Template to download a CSV template with identifier columns from your identity resolution configuration. Engage adds subscription columns next to email and SMS identifiers, where you can update subscription states for email addresses and phone numbers.

Navigate to Unify > Unify settings and select the Identity resolution tab to view or add identifiers in your Segment workspace.

2. Fill out your CSV file

Enter values for the identifiers in your CSV file. You can also set email, phone, and WhatsApp subscriptions using the email_subscription_status, sms_subscription_status, and whatsapp_subscription_status columns.

A few guidelines to keep in mind as you fill out your CSV:

• Leave any unknown values blank to avoid bad data. Engage can create a user profile from a single identifier in your CSV.
• Enter phone numbers in your CSV in a format that’s consistent with your Segment space. For example, if existing profiles in your workspace are in E.164 format +15555550123, enter numbers in your CSV using the same format +##########.
• The template won’t include duplicate custom traits, traits with trailing, leading, or multiple consecutive spaces between characters, or unallowed characters.
• Custom traits column headers are case-sensitive. For example, first Name, FIRST Name, and First Name would all be different traits in the template.
• Trailing, leading or multiple consecutive spaces between characters are not allowed.
• Make sure you’ve added an identifier column or anonymous_id in your identity resolution configuration.

3. Upload your CSV file

Upload a CSV file to Twilio Engage in two ways:

• Drag and drop the CSV file in the dropzone.
• Click Browse to locate the CSV file.

Engage processes CSV rows sequentially. Column values, except for a blank subscription status, override previous values for a user profile.

A blank subscription status in the CSV doesn’t overwrite current email or phone subscription states in your Segment space.

4. Name your custom trait

Every time you upload a file, you have the option to add a custom trait to user profiles in the CSV. Use custom traits to help you create audiences or send messages to a specific group of users. You can also add an existing custom trait name from your Segment workspace to the list of users in the CSV file.

Custom traits display in the Custom Traits tab of a user profile in the Profile explorer.

Work with the CSV template

Keep the following in mind as you fill out your CSV template.

Allowed CSV file characters

You can use these characters in your CSV file:

• Alphabetic English characters in both upper and lower case
• The numerals 0-9
• These special characters: !@#$%^&*()_+-=[]{}:\\|.`~<>\/?
• The following non-English characters:

àáâäǎæãåāçćčċďðḍèéêëěẽēėęğġgg͟hħḥh̤ìíîïǐĩīıįķk͟hłļľl̥ṁm̐òóôöǒœøõōřṛr̥ɽßşșśšṣs̤s̱sțťþṭt̤ʈùúûüǔũūűůŵýŷÿźžżẓz̤ÀÁ ÄǍÆÃÅĀÇĆČĊĎÐḌÈÉÊËĚẼĒĖĘĞĠGG͟HĦḤH̤ÌÍÎÏǏĨĪIĮĶK͟HŁĻĽL̥ṀM̐ÒÓÔÖǑŒØÕŌŘṚR̥ɌSẞŚŠŞȘṢS̤S̱ȚŤÞṬT̤ƮÙÚÛÜǓŨŪŰŮŴÝŶŸŹŽŻẒZ

View Update History

Use the Update History page to view CSV file uploads in your workspace over the last 30 days.

To view the Update History page:

1. Navigate to Unify > Profile explorer or Engage > Audiences > Profile explorer.
2. Click View update history.

Select links to view CSV files and any associated error reports. View the status of the file upload and the custom trait name added to user profiles in the CSV upload.

Error reports

Use error reports to fix invalid rows and quickly re-upload data.

From the Update History page:

1. Select the link in the Report column to download an error report CSV. All rows not present in the error report were processed successfully.
2. Correct data in the invalid rows.
3. Remove any extra columns such as row_number, error_message, and error_code.
4. Click Update subscription statuses, and select Upload a CSV to re-upload the file.

Engage uses the following error codes on the report:

You may also encounter the following validation errors:

Set user subscriptions

Use the CSV Uploader to set subscription states for user email addresses and phone numbers.

For each CSV file, Engage adds:

• An email_subscription_status column next to the Email column.
• whatsapp_subscription_status and sms_subscription_status columns next to the Phone column.

In the email_subscription_status, sms_subscription_status, and whatsapp_subscription_status columns, set subscription states for email and phone numbers with the following values:

• subscribed: The user has actively subscribed.
• unsubscribed: The user has actively unsubscribed.
• did-not-subscribe: The user has provided their contact information but didn’t actively subscribe or unsubscribe.
• No subscription status (blank value): The user’s profile exists in Segment, but they haven’t explicitly provided their contact information, and no subscription information is available.

Engage accepts both uppercase and lowercase subscription status values.

CSV upload guidelines

Please note the following limits as you upload CSV files to Twilio Engage:

• You can only upload .csv files.
• Files can’t be empty and must have at least one header and one row.
• You can’t have multiple columns with the same header.
• CSV files can’t contain extraneous column headers.
• CSV files cannot exceed 1 million rows (plus one header row), 1000 columns, or 100 MB in file size.
• You can only upload one file at a time.

• If you upload the same email or phone number with different subscription states in a single CSV file, Engage doesn’t guarantee the subscription status result.

• Add an identifier column or anonymous_id in your identity resolution configuration.

Message consent

Segment recommends sending to subscribed users. If a recipient deletes or flags an unwanted message as spam, inbox providers might start to filter your messages straight to spam folders. View more SendGrid delivery Best Practices to prevent email from going to spam.