What should I do when linking with External ID?

You will see the following screen:

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You will see this screen because you have a link between Spotler and another system. When you use an external system, e-mail address does not have to be the unique data on which you deduplicate contacts during an import. Perhaps you use a customer number in your system and on that basis you want deduplication to take place during the import.


The Step 4 - External ID is necessary to indicate on which data you want to deduplicate outside of an e-mail address. There are two options in this screen depending on your deduplication rules.

What action should I take?

That depends on the file you are going to import and how you want Spotler to deduplicate this file. Are you going to deduplicate by e-mail address or by a unique ID from an external system?

Skip step when deduplicating by email address
Skip step 4 when deduplicating by email address. So you leave the drop-down options on Not linked and click on the blue button Next. In the next step, where you link the other database fields, you also link the given email address.

Enter the unique id attribute when deduplicating on a unique id from an external system
If you do not deduplicate by e-mail address, but, for example, by customer number, enter this unique identifier at the step. In Spotler this is called linking with an external ID because this is often chosen when Spotler is linked to an external CRM, ESP or webshop system.

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Points of attention

  • Use exactly the same External ID as the system that is linked to Spotler.
    If you do not do this, double contacts may arise.
  • Please note when you have a link with multiple systems.
    It is almost always necessary to have different external IDs per link. So pay close attention to which unique id you link to when you do a manual import.Veelgestelde vragen
When do you deduplicate by email address?

With this option, e-mail address is the unique data of a contact. An e-mail address cannot appear more than once in your Spotler database. This prevents multiple emails from being sent to the same email address.

Advantage
Less prone to error, because it is not possible for one e-mail address to receive the same e-mail several times

Disadvantage
If multiple people use the same email address, Spotler sees them as one contact.

When do you deduplicate on a unique ID from an external system?
In some cases it is not desirable to use e-mail address as deduplication. But you prefer to deduplicate on a unique ID from an external system such as customer number or member number.

This may be desirable, for example, if several family members are registered at the same e-mail address, but you do want to be able to e-mail each family member separately at the same address.

Advantage
If you deduplicate on a customer number in your source system, you can also process this in Spotler. Handy if several people use the same e-mail address.

Disadvantage
You cannot just send a mailing to everyone in your database, because then there is a good chance that the same e-mail address will receive the same mail several times. In some cases this is desirable, but we recommend working with segments.
Is it possible to temporarily adjust my deduplication?
This is possible. Please contact our Support department. They can indicate what impact this has on your Spotler account and adjust the deduplication rules for you.