Missing data fields can be a real drag on the effectiveness of your marketing. They make it difficult to reach your audience with the message you want them to hear, and can also result in missed opportunities to create meaningful connections. That’s why it’s important to regularly append your data — to fill in the gaps in your file or database. Whether it’s adding phone numbers or firmographic data, catching up on outdated addresses or updating email addresses, regular data append allows you to build deeper understanding of your customers and more effective campaigns.

The Append missing data fields command is not a replacement for the JOIN or DEFINE RELATION commands because it does not allow you to include or exclude records based on matched or unmatched values in a common key field. However, there may be cases where appending dissimilar tables serves an analytical purpose.

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When you append two or more tables, all fields from each table are included in the output table unless you specify COMMONFIELDS or use ASCHAR or ALLCHAR to harmonize data categories. If a field in the source tables has a different data category than the corresponding field in the target tables, an error message appears and the command is not executed.

You can search a subset of your field list (columns) for specific information by using the Search box at the top of the configuration window. This limits the actions you can perform to those specified by your search, but can be helpful if your list of fields is large or contains many keywords.