Other members' questions - FAQ

In this article, we will look at various common questions regarding members.

We will go through the following: 

  1. What is a custom field and how do I use it?
  2. What is a group and how do I create one?
  3. Filter on values ex multiple interests or multiple choice imports
  4. Why do members need to confirm themselves?
  5. The number of unique subscribers per month is almost always more than what the mailing is. Why is this so?
  6. Why do I receive exported files in CVS format?
  7. Use of languages as member data

1. What is a custom field and how do I use it?

A "custom field" can be directly compared to the content of a column in Excel. Take, for example, the City column, which you can then use to create filters and filter out all those with City = Gothenburg. You can see it as custom field is a field in Rule that symbolizes the customer data that you upload in Rule.

A custom field is created when you import members in Rule, see the article. importera medlemmar to learn how to import members. When you then import your members, the Excel columns in your file will automatically be linked to the created custom field in Rule.

How to create extra custom field for your members: 

1. Click on the "Members" icon
2. Select "custom field"
3. Click on "New group" 

This is what a member group looks like and how to add fields: 


1. Here you name the group. In this case we have chosen to call this group "Personal data". 
2. In the field list, you must name the field
3. Here you have to choose the format of the list. Since "Region" is written in text, we choose text. If the list is based on a specific date, select the date and time. For example, Date and time "2023-02-28:13:00" or just date "2023-02-28". Choosing "multiple selections" means that you can have multiple values in the same field that will be separated by a comma "," inside Rule. When you then create a filter you can search for members who have or do not have the value in the multiple choice field.   
4. This will be the name of the field that developers can then use in the API integration. It is named after the group name.field name.
5. If you want to add more fields, click on "New field".

If you have any questions regarding custom field , you are always welcome to contact our support! 

2. What is a group and how do I create one?

A group in Rule can be likened to a collective name to structure/categorize your custom field. Här you can read about what a custom field how you use it.

Before you import your members, create a group or groups, with the associated custom field . 

To create a group, follow these steps:

1. From the main menu (drop-down menu to the left) select members.

2. then click on Groups and custom field followed by the ''Create new group'' button.

3. It will then up a group called ' New ' where you can click on the pencil icon on the left to start editing. After clicking on the pencil icon, you are taken to this view:

Here you can name the group, create fields by clicking on 'Add new field', which will present a result like the example above. the custom fields that you create should match the columns in your XSL file, i.e. the categories of data that you will import in Rule. 

Historical groups

In many situations, it can be useful to save member data historically, for example, if you want to create filters for customers who place multiple orders or log in multiple times. To save each import of member data separately, you need to make the group Historical.

In the image above, the group Order is a historical group, i.e. you click on the "history" icon in the center. Then Rule will save each deposit of data as its own custom field.

When more orders come in on the same customer, under Members, you can > custom field , see that there are several orders on the customer. 

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

3. filter on values ex multiple interests with multiple choice import

We have made the custom fieldsmore flexible. Especially for cases where the custom fieldsmay consist of more parameters, there is now the possibility to import multiple choice options. This will be very helpful for filtering on interests for example. Your customers don't necessarily have just one area of interest. If you offer travel, the customer may like both sun holidays and winter adventures and may also be interested in golfing. To maintain your relevance in communicating with customers, it is therefore important to capture this.

In the file you are importing, create a separate column with a name that matches the member field that has multiple choice. For each member, you can then add multiple choice by separating them with the "|" character. See example "trousers | sweater | shorts |" below: 

Follow Jotun's example: 

One of many successful multi-option examples is Norwegian Jotun. In addition to providing the Eiffel Tower with color, they also choose to ask their customers for their uses. This allows customers to enter directly into a form on the website and it then facilitates the entire chain of communication and offers to the end customer.

In the example, the customer's uses are cabin, boat and exterior and all the customer's interests will be collected under the member field Interests during the import.

Benefits: 

  • Customer club work becomes smarter with simpler member administration.
  • You can more easily control content by recipients, such as B2B or B2C content.

4. Why do members need to confirm themselves?

When a customer signs up for a newsletter, for example, a mailing will automatically arrive in the customer's inbox containing a link so that the customer can confirm that the address is correct. This is to avoid automated spam mailings and that no third party can register an email address for mailings without the customer/member's confirmation. 

The most common reason why customers/members are marked as "Unconfirmed" is that the recipient has not clicked on this link to confirm their address. I.e. the link that you create in Step 2 of the process when you create your own website. formulär

Figure 1: Example of the appearance of the menu under members when a customer/member has been named "unconfirmed".

Figure 2: Example of a customer card marked "Unconfirmed" pending confirmation.  

If the customer does not click on the confirmation button, they do not become an active member. If the customer wants a new confirmation email sent to them, they can sign up again after 24 hours have passed. 

5. The number of unique subscribers per month is almost always more than the number of mailings. Why is this the case?

The reason for this is that in the upper right corner you will see the total number of members in the account. The tags you send to don't include all members, but only those that are active in those specific tags. 

The options we offer today are either the number of emails per month or the number of members on your account. See below how it is announced in Rule: 

6. Why do I receive exported files in CVS format?

When exporting a tag from Rule to a file, it helps to know which file format is used. 

In Rule , the export is automatically controlled depending on the size of your file. Excel files have a maximum of 65,000 rows (members) or 500,000 cells and for larger file exports the file comes in CSV format. 

You will find the overall explanation of the CSV här.

7. Use of languages as member data

In Rule you can use language data to segment your communication and build filters according to the language of your members. 

There are two ways to handle language data in a flexible way in Rule. If you have a list where all addresses in that list should have the same language, e.g. Swedish or English, you simply add a "language value" when importing the tag. 

When your XSL file contains a column called language/language, i.e. when the members of the file to be imported have different languages, you need to create a custom field with the same name as the language column in the XSL file. For example, language or language. Read more about how to create custom field här.

In order to build filters correctly, it is necessary that the correct language codes have been used in the file to be imported. We follow the ISO standard for language codes that you can read more about här.

Here are some examples of commonly used language codes to use for language names in the import file:

Code Language

an English

Ar Arabic

da Danish

those German

es Spanish

Fi Finnish

Fr French

It Italian

NL Dutch

no Norwegian

PL Polish

RU Russian

SV English

UK Ukrainian

ZH Chinese

NB Norwegian Bokmål

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