Personalize Docs in batches (CSV)

Step 2: Build your contact list (CSV upload)

Once you've inserted personalization properties into your Foleon Doc and made sure it's published, you can start building your contact list — using a CSV file.

📹 In the video below, we show you how to personalize content in batches using a CSV file. As an example, we’re sending out a personalized event Doc to a hundred contacts. Prefer a written guide? Read on below the video.

In this example, we’re sending out a personalized event Doc to a hundred contacts.

First, we’ve created three text properties and inserted them into our published Foleon Doc: first name, company, and industry. If you’re unsure how to do this, read our other article: Personalize Docs using text properties.

Open the menu of your content editor and click personalization. Keep in mind you’ll only be able to click here once your Foleon Doc is published.

To create personalized versions of your Foleon Doc to send out, click generate and select batch (CSV).

First, we’re downloading our CSV template, which automatically includes the three properties of our Foleon Doc: first name, company, and industry. 

Click download template and open the CSV file in your spreadsheet software (e.g. Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel).

The spreadsheet will look something like this. As you can see, the sheet includes the three properties of our Foleon Doc: first name, company, and industry. 

Where you can see your data, fill in the spreadsheet with your contact information, and save it as a CSV file. 

If you're exporting a contact list from your CRM, we recommend copying and pasting the information into the template we've created for you. This ensures the property names match exactly. 

When you're making an export, we also recommend including the email addresses of your contacts. You'll need these later, as they will function as unique identifiers for your CRM. 

If you've successfully uploaded the CSV file, you'll see a success message. Click continue. 

We currently have a maximum file size of 1 MB. The number of rows that are possible depends on the number of properties in your Foleon Doc. To give you an example, a CSV we uploaded with 5000 rows and 2 properties was 57 KB. 

We’ve automatically mapped the Doc’s properties with the fields from the CSV. Double-check that these are correct and click continue.

A new CSV file is now being generated. This one includes the personalized Doc URLs that we’re sending out to our event attendees. Open your email inbox that is linked to your Foleon account.

Open the email that includes the CSV file and click download. 

Open the CSV file in your spreadsheet software (e.g. Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel). As you can see in the screenshot below, the spreadsheet now includes the personalized Doc URLs. They're ready to be sent out to your audience.

You’re probably working with a CRM that enables you to send bulk emails. In step 3, we show you how we use HubSpot to send out our personalized content. If you’re working with a different CRM, the process will look different, but the logic stays the same.

Step 3: Distribution (HubSpot example)

In the video (from 1:47), you can follow the steps for distributing your personalized Doc URLs using HubSpot. If you’re working with a different CRM, the process will look different, but the logic will stay the same.

These are the steps you need to take in HubSpot:

(1) First, we’re creating a contact property for the personalized Foleon Doc URL. Go to the settings and select properties in the data management section.

(2) Click create property. Select a group and name your property in the label field. We suggest “Foleon URL”. Next, select single-line text and click create.

(3) Import the CSV file that has been generated by Foleon — including the personalized Doc URLs.

Navigate to CRM and select lists. Click on import and start an import. Select import file from computer and continue. Select one file and one object. We’re importing contacts. Now, upload the CSV export that has been generated by Foleon. Select create and update contacts. If the contacts of your list are not known yet, they will be created. If they are known, they will be updated.

(4) HubSpot has now automatically mapped the column headers to the HubSpot properties. They should match the Foleon Doc URLs from the CSV to the HubSpot property we’ve just created. Continue, check the create a list from this import box, and finish the import.

(5) We’ll now use HubSpot to send out our personalized event Doc to the contact list. Navigate to marketing and select email. Click on create email. You might have some email templates that you can use.

(6) However you want to link to the Foleon Doc in your email, insert the property into the URL field. If you’ve followed our example that will be "contact.foleon_url" with two braces on each side:
{{ contact.foleon_url }}. Once you’re finished with the rest of your email, select the list you’ve imported as the recipients. Now, the button in our email will automatically match the “Foleon URL” property, meaning every recipient will have a personalized URL in their email. Send it out now, or schedule the email for later.

(7) Want to personalize multiple Foleon Docs for the same contact? You'll need to create a separate HubSpot property for each Doc, as the field of the "Foleon URL" property will be overwritten every time you import a CSV that includes a personalized Foleon Doc URL.