Dotdigital

Sync contacts to Dotdigital for omnichannel marketing automation across email, SMS, push notifications, and social channels. Zeotap keeps your Dotdigital address books in sync with your warehouse data, enabling targeted campaigns with up-to-date customer attributes.

Prerequisites

• A Dotdigital account (any plan with API access)
• A Dotdigital API user with appropriate permissions

Authentication

Dotdigital uses API User Credentials (HTTP Basic Auth).

1. In Dotdigital, go to Settings > Access > API Users
2. Click New User
3. Enter an email and password for the API user
4. Assign the required permissions (at minimum: Contacts — Read/Write)
5. In Zeotap, enter the API user email in API User Email and the password in API User Password

Configuration

To determine your region, look at the URL when logged into Dotdigital. For example, if you see r1-app.dotdigital.com, your region is r1.

Target Settings

To find your Address Book ID, navigate to Contacts > Address Books in Dotdigital. Click on the address book name and the ID is visible in the URL or on the address book details page.

Supported Operations

Sync Modes

Audience Sync Modes

Features

• Field Mapping: Yes
• Schema Introspection: No

Required Mapping Fields

Default Destination Fields

email, FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, FULLNAME, GENDER, POSTCODE

Dotdigital data fields are case-insensitive but conventionally uppercase. Zeotap automatically uppercases data field names when syncing to Dotdigital.

How It Works

Contact Sync (Upsert Mode)

1. Zeotap batches contacts in groups of up to 1,000
2. Each batch is sent to the Dotdigital Bulk Import endpoint (POST /v2/contacts/import)
3. Contacts are matched by email address — existing contacts are updated and new contacts are created
4. If an Address Book ID is configured, contacts are also added to the specified address book

Audience Sync (Add/Remove/Mirror)

• Add: Contacts are imported and added to the address book via POST /v2/address-books/{id}/contacts/import (up to 1,000 per request)
• Remove: Contacts are removed from the address book via POST /v2/address-books/{id}/contacts/unsubscribe (one at a time)
• Mirror: Added/changed contacts are imported and added to the address book; removed contacts are unsubscribed from the address book

Update Mode

Contacts are bulk-imported using the same import endpoint. Dotdigital treats the import as an upsert, so existing contacts are updated with the new data field values.

Rate Limits

Zeotap automatically retries on 429 Too Many Requests responses with exponential backoff and respects Dotdigital’s Retry-After headers.

Best Practices

• Use upsert mode for most contact syncs to handle both new and existing contacts
• Configure an Address Book ID for audience syncs to manage address book membership automatically
• Map data fields using uppercase names to match Dotdigital’s convention (e.g., FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME)
• Create a dedicated API user for Zeotap with only the permissions needed (Contacts Read/Write)
• Use the correct region to avoid authentication failures — your region is visible in the Dotdigital login URL

Troubleshooting

Authentication failed: invalid API user credentials

Ensure you are using the API user email and password (not your regular Dotdigital login). API users are managed in Settings > Access > API Users. Verify the API user is enabled and has the required permissions.

Wrong API region

If you receive connectivity errors, verify your API region matches your Dotdigital account. Check the URL when logged into Dotdigital (e.g., r1-app.dotdigital.com means region r1).

Address Book ID not found

Verify the address book exists by navigating to Contacts > Address Books in Dotdigital. The ID is a numeric value visible in the address book URL or details page.

Data field not recognized

Dotdigital ignores unknown data fields during import. Ensure the data field names you are mapping exist in your Dotdigital account under Settings > Contacts > Contact Data Fields. Create any missing fields before syncing.

Rate limit exceeded (429 errors)

Zeotap retries automatically with exponential backoff. If errors persist, consider spacing out your sync schedule or contacting Dotdigital support to increase your API rate limits.