Bulk Update of Contacts

From arpReach 1.8.001 and #V2.0.8, contacts can be updated in bulk using the Trigger Action For Matching Contacts feature.

To access the feature, choose Trigger Action for matching contacts from the I want to… drop-down menu on the Contacts list screen.

Using this feature, you are able to do the following to multiple/all contacts at the same time:

  • Add/remove a tag/category
  • Add to/remove from the suppression list
  • Add a new subscription to specific autoresponders
  • Drop/delete a subscription or all subscriptions
  • Setup custom field values
  • Send the contacts data via HTTP post to a specified URL (this would allow you to export bulk contacts into a third party software)
  • Run a user function (#V2-exclusive feature)

Reminder: When your contacts list has no filter/segment in place (i.e., the Filter drop-down menu is set to [No filter]), the “triggered action” will affect ALL your contacts. Be very mindful of the filter settings before proceeding, as you cannot remove a “triggered action” that’s been scheduled or undo a “triggered action” once it’s been processed.

Creating the action to trigger

If you want to add a category, work with the suppression list, add an autoresponder subscription (and so on) in bulk, you need to have the appropriate action for it.

To avoid confusion, you can create actions that will be used specifically for this feature and label it strategically. The Event setting doesn’t matter, but it is recommended to select an option that you do not normally use (e.g., Remote call) so it doesn’t get triggered unintentionally. For example:

See Actions and Events for instructions on how to create an action.

If you want to send contacts data via an HTTP request, you have to create an action with the desired URL and POST/GET method.

Setting the target contacts

A triggered action will be applied to all contacts that match the filter in place when it was scheduled.

You can apply any of your segments or use any of the predefined filters on the Filter drop-down menu on the Contacts list screen.

To apply an action to an existing segment, use the In segment filter. See Segmenting Contacts for instructions on how to create a segment.

Reminder: Again, when your contacts list has no filter/segment in place (i.e., the Filter drop-down menu is set to [No filter]), the “triggered action” will affect ALL your contacts. Be very mindful of the filter settings before proceeding, as you cannot remove a “triggered action” that’s been scheduled or undo a “triggered action” once it’s been processed.

Once your desired filter is in place, you may now choose Trigger Action for matching contacts from the I want to… drop-down menu.

Scheduling the action to trigger

On the Trigger Actions For Matching Contacts page, you can see the filter applied and the number of matching contacts.

This feature doesn’t create new actions but rather schedules existing ones, which will be applied to the matching contacts at the time it was triggered/scheduled.

The Choose actions to apply checklist contains your existing, enabled actions.

Select the action/s to apply to the current matching contacts by clicking in the appropriate checkbox/es.

Once selected, click the Trigger Action button.

The scheduled actions on the queue will be processed during the next run of the arpReach script.

Important note: You can choose to trigger multiple actions in just one schedule (i.e. selecting multiple actions from the Choose actions to apply checklist), but the order of the actions that will be applied is not guaranteed.

If the order of the actions does matter, schedule the actions separately — one at a time. In this case, the actions will be applied in the order they were scheduled (i.e., the first action scheduled will be applied first, then the second action scheduled, then the third action scheduled, etc.).