Online Express makes NXT almost worthless

Jenny Forbes

Rob Kudyba:

Our organization feels bamboozled. OLX (the email marketing part) is so rudimentary with zero to no flexibility. No way to control your brand. Not even a way to edit the footer. All of the templates are so basic and look like they're from the 90's. You can't edit any HTML. You can't insert images hosted else where, i.e., outside of OLX. We were using NetCommunity Spark which has its own challeges and weak metrics reporting but if you move to NXT you will be disappointed with OLX, guaranteed and will want to use something like MailChimp, so caveat emptor.

Unfortuntley I have to agree with you. It has been so frustrating that staff have given up on it and use mail chimp dispite being told that OLX is what they should be using for email shots. It might be fine for those organisations who don't have a brand to enforce...

Amy Wickstein

I agree as well!


Jenny Forbes:

Rob Kudyba:

Our organization feels bamboozled. OLX (the email marketing part) is so rudimentary with zero to no flexibility. No way to control your brand. Not even a way to edit the footer. All of the templates are so basic and look like they're from the 90's. You can't edit any HTML. You can't insert images hosted else where, i.e., outside of OLX. We were using NetCommunity Spark which has its own challeges and weak metrics reporting but if you move to NXT you will be disappointed with OLX, guaranteed and will want to use something like MailChimp, so caveat emptor.

Unfortuntley I have to agree with you. It has been so frustrating that staff have given up on it and use mail chimp dispite being told that OLX is what they should be using for email shots. It might be fine for those organisations who don't have a brand to enforce...

 

 

Kathryn Lineberger

Rob Kudyba:

Our organization feels bamboozled. OLX (the email marketing part) is so rudimentary with zero to no flexibility. No way to control your brand. Not even a way to edit the footer. All of the templates are so basic and look like they're from the 90's. You can't edit any HTML. You can't insert images hosted else where, i.e., outside of OLX. We were using NetCommunity Spark which has its own challeges and weak metrics reporting but if you move to NXT you will be disappointed with OLX, guaranteed and will want to use something like MailChimp, so caveat emptor.

As an also-MailChimp user, I totally feel these comments. The tool is cumbersome on the user end and also time consuming to create and manage multiple communications. 

1. I would like to be able to access the code to change spacing, link language, etc. Is there a code view?

2. Lato is my organization's font. Can that be added to the choices? Trebuchet is the closest but it is not our brand and looks old fashioned.

3. I would like to create templates, prepopulated with our logo and other formatting, that my team can use. Currently not an option. We have to copy previous emails to save the time of building from scratch but it poses risks of old content sneaking in. 

4. Emojis are part of the way people communicate in 2018; they should be an option in subject lines. 

Amanda Lietman

The original post is from February 2016, so what are the updates mentioned in BB's reply, "we are working on our next generation of email marketing and donation forms and we hope to have more updates later this year around that."


The inability to get into the HTML drives us crazy. It makes it very hard to customize our emails. I agree with everything the original poster said, and that was 2 1/2 years ago. I don't see that much has changed.

 

Chris Martin

Hi Amanda. We have rolled out this new email capability to nearly all RE NXT customers. I tried to look up your organization by just your name and if I've found the right one, your organization should have access to this new email capability. Feel free to message me directly if you don't see it in RE NXT under Marketing > Email.


That said, this new tool doesn't (yet) allow direct editing of the email HTML. We debated whether to delay shipping this first version of the new email capability but given the number of customers who prefer content authoring via drag and drop, we chose to ship it without HTML editing and will iterate to add that feature.


Would you be comfortable sharing any of the types of things you can't (or can't easily) do via drag and drop and that you prefer to do by editing the HTML directly? We would very much like to continue to expand the flexibility / usability of the drag and drop experience so that users never feel like they're required to be skilled with HTML to produce good-looking, mobile responsive emails across all modern devices and email clients, regardless of the desired visual email visual design.


Are the things you'd like to be able to do mostly limited to the things mentioned in this thread (line spacing, font selection, link metadata, and emojis)? Feel free to message me directly if you prefer.


Thanks!

Amanda Lietman

I am fairly new to Online Express since the person
who used to do our eblasts left. I'm still not the person who
normally does them, but as the web administrator, I troubleshoot.

We are using this interface:

How do we use RE NXT instead?

Amanda

Amanda Lietman

Web Administrator

Gilmour Academy

34001 Cedar Road

Gates Mills, Ohio  44040

(440)
473-8000 x1303


Gilmour Academy, a Catholic school in the Holy Cross tradition,
educates the hearts and minds of our students to have the
competence to see and the courage to act in creating a more humane
and just society.

   

Chris Martin

Hi Amanda. When you're in RE NXT, if you don't see the Marketing menu item with Email as a sub-menu choice, you may need to reach out to whoever administers user permissions in RE NXT at Gilmour and ask that you be granted access to this new email capability. Your organization should have access and by default all of your RE NXT administrators should see the Marketing drop-down. Let me know if your or your admins are seeing something different.


Thanks!

Amanda Lietman

Thank you. Can you tell me when you rolled this
product out? Or it's most recent major upgrade?

Thanks again,

Amanda

Amanda Lietman

Web Administrator

Gilmour Academy

34001 Cedar Road

Gates Mills, Ohio  44040

(440)
473-8000 x1303


Gilmour Academy, a Catholic school in the Holy Cross tradition,
educates the hearts and minds of our students to have the
competence to see and the courage to act in creating a more humane
and just society.

   

Chris Martin

We wrapped up early adopter testing in late spring and begin the rollout process to all customers around late summer / early fall.


On the RE NXT platform, we typically ship new features in much smaller and far more frequent iterations than you may have seen with other software applications...so you won't generally see "major upgrades" but instead you'll see a more continuous stream of iterative addition. The one exception that does feel more "major" is when we ship the first version of an all-new capability that hasn't existed before in RE NXT like email marketing. That's a pretty large feature set. But from this point forward, now that the first version of email is available to most RE NXT customers, email will be like the rest of RE NXT and will continue to see iterative value added, typically every few weeks.


By way of example, even though we've not quite completed rolling out email to the last few RE NXT customers, we have still been iterating. We recently shipped a few dozen all-new email templates that you can use as a starting point for new emails and we're working on the ability for you to save your own designs as templates in the template gallery as well.


There's much, much more to come.

Sarah Getgood

Hi Chris,


I seem to be one of the organisations without access to Marketing in NXT. Can you advise when this will be made available?


Thanks,

Sarah

Michele Stender

Hi Sarah! Thanks for reaching out on the community. It looks like you are in the UK which means we haven't rolled email out there yet. We are wrapping up the last bit of work to ensure that Next Gen Email makes it easy for a client in the UK to remain GDPR compliant. Sorry for the delay on this one! Thanks for the patience! 

More to come, 

Michele Stender

Next Gen Product Manager

Gloria Litwinowicz

I suggest you all start slow with the new NXT email, as it has its own set of quirks. One BIG one is that it only sends to emails marked primary. You can't override this by choosing a specific type of email. This is a big issue for us, as we haven't marked primary, but instead created queries for email type. My NXT test email didn't go to all those I wished it to go.


The platform has made strides, but has a long way to go. My marketing people still curse Blackbaud when they have to use it instead of platform like Constant Contact.


I also have a case out there about the stats not seeming accurate. They are looking into it, but be aware there may be an issue.

Michele Stender

Hi Gloria Litwinowicz‍, 

We are working on the ability to choose specific email types per job and should be shipping in early 2019! Thanks for the valuable feedback! 

Michele Stender

Next Gen Product Manager

Kathleen Eastman

I would love to hear from someone who has utilized the new Opt in Consent function that now exists in RE, and also if you have, have have you handled helping folks to Opt back in if they opted out of an email appeal, but would like to continue receiving the newsletter. I'm not sure what the best way to handle this is, without asking to many steps from our constituents. I know there is the e-marketing form that we can use for opting back in--and is the only way to cancel the global opt out for that email address, but we also need to then offer them the opportunity to opt into specific types of email communication. Any advice is welcome!

Travis Richardson

Kathleen,

While OLX doesn’t have plans to support category-based communication preferences, we’re hard at work on a solution in RENXT that will leverage the consent functionality that now exists in RE and will support category-based preferences. We're actually currently running discovery calls to vet our next generation of communication preference management functionality. If you'd be interested in participating in a discovery session, let me know what email address would be best, and I'll follow up with an invitation. Thanks, Kathleen!


Travis

Peta Thompson

It's really frustrating to hear the new limitations in the NXT Marketing email functionality and also in the existing Online Express email product.


As someone previously commented, not all constituents have an email marked as 'primary' - this dates back to when the phone/email tabs were split on RE, so in order to ensure we can reach constituents with an email address, I have to select Phone Type one of and Phone not 'Inactive'.


In addition, the consent management preferences are so limited.  I can't understand why the Business Rules configuration has a source of Online Express rather than Category as then you could add the relevant consent categories according to each email communication.


It seems looking at the Help for NXT Marketing email, that the configuration for consent is even more basic.


I do wish Blackbaud would stop giving us a half-finished product without considering all user requirements.

 

Lara Shannon

Chris Martin:

Hi Amanda. We have rolled out this new email capability to nearly all RE NXT customers. I tried to look up your organization by just your name and if I've found the right one, your organization should have access to this new email capability. Feel free to message me directly if you don't see it in RE NXT under Marketing > Email.


That said, this new tool doesn't (yet) allow direct editing of the email HTML. We debated whether to delay shipping this first version of the new email capability but given the number of customers who prefer content authoring via drag and drop, we chose to ship it without HTML editing and will iterate to add that feature.


Would you be comfortable sharing any of the types of things you can't (or can't easily) do via drag and drop and that you prefer to do by editing the HTML directly? We would very much like to continue to expand the flexibility / usability of the drag and drop experience so that users never feel like they're required to be skilled with HTML to produce good-looking, mobile responsive emails across all modern devices and email clients, regardless of the desired visual email visual design.


Are the things you'd like to be able to do mostly limited to the things mentioned in this thread (line spacing, font selection, link metadata, and emojis)? Feel free to message me directly if you prefer.


Thanks!

Hi there, I'm not seeing Marketing>Email in my NXT.  We are considering using OLX for our appeal and newsletter e-blasts instead of MailChimp.  I would very much like to have a look at the option in NXT.

 

Chris Martin

Hi Lara. I can see that your organization has both RE NXT and Luminate Online. Because of that, you will actually see this new email tool while you're in LO Beta instead of in RE NXT. If you log into LO Beta and don't see the Marketing > Email navigation item, please reach out to our Support team and they'll be able to help figure out why you're not seeing it.


Thanks!

Chris

Lara Shannon

Thanks Chris,

 

We actually cancelled Luminate Online some
time ago.  I’ll get in contact with the support team.

Lara Shannon Raiser’s Edge Application Specialist. | Wood’s Homes Direct:403-270-1722 | Mobile: Help us to Never Give Up      woodshomes.ca Working For Children's Mental Health Since 1914

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Chris Martin

Thanks for clarifying Lara. One of our products folks will reach out to you directly to get the new email tool enabled for you in RE NXT.


Sorry for the confusion.

Chris

Heather MacKenzie

My database has multiple locations in it, all with unique tax IDs, addresses, etc.  The new email feature in RE NXT does not yet have a way for us to have multiple setups.  If you are in the same position, FYI.....

Michael Ragsdale

Hi,


Just in regards to Email Marketing in NXT it should be noted that it currently does not allow you to transmit the data to the constituent record like OLX does when adding the email as an appeal.


So by switching from OLX to NXT you would be losing the ability to track what emails you sent to each constituent and what their response was (open, click, etc..)


This is a non starter for us as we need to track this kind of information and it's very surprising that Blackbaud shipped Email Marketing without this fundamental feature.

Chris Martin

Thanks for the feedback Michael and Heather.

Michael Ragsdale‍ we're hard at work on making sure email data is viewable on the constituent record and also available for use in building constituent lists. Stay tuned...this is planned to ship in the first half of this year.

Heather MacKenzie‍ would love to hear more about the things you'd need in the new email tool for it to fit with your configuration of using one RE instance for multiple operating entities/locations. Would it be sufficient to be able to save different "profiles" for each location...for things like the footer info, default send-from name/email address, etc., that you could apply to each email job? Would you expect opt-outs received from an email sent on behalf of one location to not impact another location's authorization to still email the person who opted out? Anything else you're able to share would be super helpful. 


Thanks!

Chris Martin

Product Management Team Lead - Next Gen Marketing

Heather MacKenzie

Chris Martin‍ I'd be happy to talk this through with you, but I think it might be better to do a phone call if you can.  My email is mackenhk@ah.org.  Could we continue this conversation that way?


To answer your questions you asked here, though too, maybe on your profile idea and definitely yes - the opt outs would have to be site specific. 

Chris Martin

Thanks Heather MacKenzie‍ we'll reach out next week and set up a time to chat.


- Chris

JR Barden 2

I am extremely disappointed in having NXT email rolled out before it was 100%.  Not being to add email info to the constituent record is a huge fail.


I was under the impression that the new way of rolling out product by Blackbaud was to put them into early adopter programs in order to get this type of input.  


I so regret having transitioned over from OLX to NXT email because I'm loosing so much valuable data!!!!

Lynnette Fisher

Couldn't agree more.  While NXT email is a fantastic product, it is definitely missing some important features that are available on Online  Express.  We are in the same boat and transitioned over to Email as soon as it was available and then discovered the shortfalls.  Hoping they roll out fixes soon!

JR Barden 2

If they would at least include the constituent code in the receipent list, we could go back and use an import to add the respective mailing, but that's not possible either.  Just shows an email address and a name.   How useful is that??????????

Michael Ragsdale

I completely agree. It feels like they've had email marketing in their NXT roadmaps for so long that they felt like they had to release it half finished last year in order check it off their features list, and then update it later to have it at least equal to OLX, but hopefully superior.


Without the ability to track any information at all related to NXT emails on constituent records the feature is not able to be used by our organization. We instead continue to use OLX that while simple and easy to use, lacks many features we would like to have (html editing, etc..)


Not having NXT email marketing at least be on par with OLX will require us to train staff twice, once for OLX when they first start using it, and once for NXT when it becomes operational.

Amanda Lietman

The inability to get into the HTML drives us nuts.
Not that we had it with OLX, but we have it with Pushpages, and it
seems like we should have that same functionality with NXT.

Amanda

Amanda Lietman

Web Administrator

Gilmour Academy

34001 Cedar Road

Gates Mills, Ohio  44040

(440)
473-8000 x1303


Gilmour Academy, a Catholic school in the Holy Cross tradition,
educates the hearts and minds of our students to have the
competence to see and the courage to act in creating a more humane
and just society.