Standard Upload

The Standard Upload process in Convergence Cloud lets you properly import an Excel spreadsheet of constituents to a data extension in Marketing Cloud. Once you’ve completed this process, you’ll be ready to send an email to that data extension.

Most constituents already have records in Salesforce Service Cloud, the CRM database for Marketing Cloud. Using data extensions and Convergence Cloud is important to consolidate and prevent duplicate records.

In Service Cloud, constituent records are distinguished by a unique Salesforce ID. The Standard Upload process captures the unique Subscriber Key associated with a record in Service Cloud and passes the key to the data extension in Marketing Cloud, using Salesforce ID as the Subscriber Key. The upload simultaneously imports any other columns of data on your constituents from your Excel spreadsheet.

For example, say you have 10,000 records with First Name, Last Name, and Email Address in your Excel document. But you don’t have the Subscriber Key yet. You’ll use a Standard Upload to capture that Subscriber Key for all 10,000 records. 

Follow these 3 steps to complete a Standard Upload:

1. Create your target data extension in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
2. Create your data file of constituents.
3. Upload your data file into Convergence Cloud.

Step 1: Creating your target Data Extension in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

1. Navigate to EmailStudio within Marketing Cloud.

2. Click on Subscribers.
3. Click on Data Extensions from the drop-down menu.

4. Create or navigate to the desired folder for your new data extension.
5. Click on Create on the right side of the page.

6. Select Standard Data Extension. 
7. Click OK.

8. Under Creation Method, select Create from Existing.

9. From a dialog that will automatically appear, choose the Shared Data Extensions folder and click Convergence Cloud. 
10. Select Convergence Cloud Template. This data extension has settings already configured for your standard upload. 
11. Click OK.

12. Type a name for your data extension. 
13. Add an optional description.
14. Leave External Key blank. Marketing Cloud will generate an external key.
15. Make sure Is Sendable? is selected.

16. Under the Data Retention Policy tab, leave Retention Setting as off.
17. Click Next.

18. Under the Fields tab, leave all fields and settings as they are. 
19. Click Create.

Step 2: Creating your .csv data file 

1. Download this .csv file, which will be your template.
2. The file contains these 5 fields: 
   1. 1. Contact.firstname
      2. Contact.lastname
      3. Contact.email
      4. MC_Data_Extension__c.business_unit_id__c
      5. MC_Data_Extension__c.external_key__c
   
   
   Note: the character limit for the First Name field is 40 characters, Last Name is 80, and Email Address is 254.
3. Add your constituents to the spreadsheet. Start by adding their first names to Column A, last names to Column B, and email addresses to Column C. NOTE: Only add real records (rather than test records) to upload to the CRM.

4. Find your business unit name in the upper right corner. 
5. Add your business unit name  under column header: MC_Data_Extension__c.business_unit_id__c
6. Be sure to add your business unit name for all records in the spreadsheet.

7. In Marketing Cloud, navigate back to your target data extension. 
8. Open the data extension and copy the External Key.

9. Return to your Excel spreadsheet. 
10. Add the External Key under column header: MC_Data_Extension__c.external_key__c
11. Be sure to copy-paste the same External Key to all records in the spreadsheet. NOTE: If you choose to use the Excel feature that drags the External Key down the cells to copy-and-paste,  make sure the External Key remains the same and numbers do not count up. 
12. A basic spreadsheet would then look like this:

Step 3: Uploading your datafile into Convergence Cloud

1. Go to One.iu.edu and search for Salesforce CRM. 
2. Click Start and log in.

3. Click the square of dots and select IU Convergence Cloud.

4. Click on the List Uploader tab.
5. With Standard selected, click Upload.

6. A dialog box will appear for you to locate your saved .csv data file.
7. Click Open.

8. The data and constituent subscriber keys should then be added to your target data extension. Marketing Cloud will send an automated message to your inbox to indicate the import was successful. 
9. Review your data extension to ensure records are there. Your data extension is now ready to be sent an email.