Exports for mailings vs. email lists

Gina Gerhard

Looking for suggestions/best practice for exporting data out for a mailing vs. an email. Wondering how others are handling this.

I'll use a recent example:

• 
  
  I just used a query and produced a mailing list for around 8,000 records for our annual event invitation.
  
  
• • 
    
    Since it was a mailing, I used head of household processing.
    
    
  • 
    
    For organizations, I could produce a mailing for each Primary contact type.
    
    
    
• 
  
  We then want to send an email to the same group of people (which we will send out of BBNC).
  
  
• • 
    
    I want to include spouses because they may have their own email address.
    
    
  • • 
      
      If a spouse has their own email, we automatically create a record for them.
      
      
  • 
    
    We want to email each primary contact for the organization
    
    
  • • 
      
      If primary contact has their own email, we automatically create a record for them also.
      
      

• 
  
  Differences:
  
  
• • 
    
    For the mailing, I am dropping out spouses via HOH processing but in the email I need them.
    
    
  • 
    
    For organizations, I can include them in the mailing with the contacts but BBNC does not support emailing to organization records. So how do I include the primary contacts at the organizations in the email?
    
    
    
• 
  
  What I'm doing now (I can think of two ways to do this):
  
  
• • 
    
    I can adjust my mailing export to include the email for the main constituent, the spouse, and all the possible primary contacts (we can have up to 10 primary contacts for law firms).  I also export out last name/first name for each "grouping"- and then copy the email and last name/first name and assemble into a single spreadsheet.  Can then use this spreadsheet to create an imported list into BBNC.
    
    
  • 
    
    I can do similar to above, but export out and assemble the constituent IDs into a spreadsheet, and then create a query from these IDs. Can then use this query to create a BBNC email list (query-based not an imported list).
    
    

I've been trying to explain that producing an "email version" of a mailing list is not so easy and is fairly labor-intensive but no one is really understanding this. They think it's just a click of the button.

Does anyone have a more elegant approach? 

 

Nicole S

Gina Gerhard:

Looking for suggestions/best practice for exporting data out for a mailing vs. an email. Wondering how others are handling this.

I'll use a recent example:

• 
  
  I just used a query and produced a mailing list for around 8,000 records for our annual event invitation.
  
  
• • 
    
    Since it was a mailing, I used head of household processing.
    
    
  • 
    
    For organizations, I could produce a mailing for each Primary contact type.
    
    
    
• 
  
  We then want to send an email to the same group of people (which we will send out of BBNC).
  
  
• • 
    
    I want to include spouses because they may have their own email address.
    
    
  • • 
      
      If a spouse has their own email, we automatically create a record for them.
      
      
  • 
    
    We want to email each primary contact for the organization
    
    
  • • 
      
      If primary contact has their own email, we automatically create a record for them also.
      
      

• 
  
  Differences:
  
  
• • 
    
    For the mailing, I am dropping out spouses via HOH processing but in the email I need them.
    
    
  • 
    
    For organizations, I can include them in the mailing with the contacts but BBNC does not support emailing to organization records. So how do I include the primary contacts at the organizations in the email?
    
    
    
• 
  
  What I'm doing now (I can think of two ways to do this):
  
  
• • 
    
    I can adjust my mailing export to include the email for the main constituent, the spouse, and all the possible primary contacts (we can have up to 10 primary contacts for law firms).  I also export out last name/first name for each "grouping"- and then copy the email and last name/first name and assemble into a single spreadsheet.  Can then use this spreadsheet to create an imported list into BBNC.
    
    
  • 
    
    I can do similar to above, but export out and assemble the constituent IDs into a spreadsheet, and then create a query from these IDs. Can then use this query to create a BBNC email list (query-based not an imported list).
    
    

I've been trying to explain that producing an "email version" of a mailing list is not so easy and is fairly labor-intensive but no one is really understanding this. They think it's just a click of the button.

Does anyone have a more elegant approach? 

 

 Hi Gina,

Will you be using a constituent email list based on a query or an imported list?

I create my mailing lists through mail and then use that query in export.  In theory, you could ignore the HOH in mail and get a query with all spouses and contacts then use that query as your email list or use it to run through export for an imported list.  Maybe save some steps.

 I like the query-based lists.  You can include some kind of updating factor and then resend the email later but only to people who haven't responded yet without really having to tweak it too much.

I think what you are doing is along the lines of what I would do.  You're a little ahead of us because you have separate records for all your souses and contacts with emails.

 

Gina Gerhard

Nicole S.:

 Hi Gina,

Will you be using a constituent email list based on a query or an imported list?

I create my mailing lists through mail and then use that query in export.  In theory, you could ignore the HOH in mail and get a query with all spouses and contacts then use that query as your email list or use it to run through export for an imported list.  Maybe save some steps.

 I like the query-based lists.  You can include some kind of updating factor and then resend the email later but only to people who haven't responded yet without really having to tweak it too much.

I think what you are doing is along the lines of what I would do.  You're a little ahead of us because you have separate records for all your souses and contacts with emails.

 

Nicole -

We try to use query-based lists for BBNC email if we can. 

So like you suggest, you can choose to rerun the export and NOT use HOH processing to pull in spouse emails. Then create the query from the export to use for your mailing list. 

But I still don't see how you can get the contacts for the organization records into a query to be used for the mailing. Am I missing understanding something... ??

To me, this seems like a lot of back-and-forth additional work to produce an email list for the same group of people in your original query.

Gina

Nicole S

Gina Gerhard:

Nicole -

We try to use query-based lists for BBNC email if we can. 

So like you suggest, you can choose to rerun the export and NOT use HOH processing to pull in spouse emails. Then create the query from the export to use for your mailing list. 

But I still don't see how you can get the contacts for the organization records into a query to be used for the mailing. Am I missing understanding something... ??

To me, this seems like a lot of back-and-forth additional work to produce an email list for the same group of people in your original query.

Gina

 Sorry, I assumed your query was catching the contacts who had their own record.

I guess you could use an output query, but it would be static.  If you use mail to contacts as individuals in the address processing?  But then are you getting a home or business email address?  Most likely business, but I know for many of mine it is both - and BBNC doesn't exactly give you a lot of options about which email to use.

 

And it is a lot of back and forth.  I have been thinking about it myself recently.  It seems to me this is a big disconnect in RE/BBNC.  (And I don't even know if the discussion belongs here or on http://bbnccommunity.blackbaud.com/bbnc)