Email Updating

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Melissa Daley
Melissa Daley ✭
Ancient Membership First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Would really love some help with this one.  I am constantly updating/changing/adding emails.  I need to provide any email updates every quarter to our communications department so they can email our quartlery news letter.  Can anyone help me with the best way to do this?  Query or a report.  Having a hard time with this one.  Thanks.
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Don't know your exact operating procedures, but how we handle all the changes/updates/additions to addresses for our quarterly newsletter is that I just send communications department a complete, new list each quarter.  Don't know if that's an option for you but seems easier to me than having to have them filter/update/change emails based on IDs.
  • Angela Bertrand 2
    Angela Bertrand 2 ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    Like Joann said, it's difficult to make suggestions without knowing your operating procedures... However, I (possibly?) do a similar things between our organization wide mailchimp account and RE.


    I have a query set up that shows all emails with an updated date of greater than the last time I pulled the query. I set up the updated date field as an ask query, so i can put that updated date in each time without re-building the query. Then, I have a export template set up. So whenever I need to update MailChimp, I just run my export with the date updated query. 


    I've been trying to think through including constituent IDs in the query and how they would link with our mailchimp account... but we're not there yet. I'm pretty sure it's possible though.


    Hopefully some of that was helpful! Go ahead and PM me if you need any more details - I'm happy to try to help as much as possible!
  • Scott Polovitch-Davis
    Scott Polovitch-Davis ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    We use Query, then Export to get all of the valid email addressess, and the export includes Constituent ID. In MailChimp we have a field called RE ID. We export all emails in MailChimp to Excel, then use an Excel Add-On called AbleBits to compare the two files and identify new addresses, then import them into MailChimp. 

     
  • Gina Gerhard
    Gina Gerhard ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    Scott - Just wondering, if you pulled your entire file into Mailchimp doesn't it prevent duplicate list entries from being created if the email is already set up in MC? 
  • Scott Polovitch-Davis
    Scott Polovitch-Davis ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply

    Gina Gerhard:

    Scott - Just wondering, if you pulled your entire file into Mailchimp doesn't it prevent duplicate list entries from being created if the email is already set up in MC? 

    Hi Gina - Yes, that's correct. We use AbleBits to go the other direction too, to update RE with new addresses, suppressions, etc.
  • Christine Cooke 2
    Christine Cooke 2 ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Melissa Daley:

    Would really love some help with this one.  I am constantly updating/changing/adding emails.  I need to provide any email updates every quarter to our communications department so they can email our quartlery news letter.  Can anyone help me with the best way to do this?  Query or a report.  Having a hard time with this one.  Thanks.

    The way I have handled this, since I have been at a few places that do weekly and/or monthly newsletters, among other things by email is to Export a new email list.  I make a query for whatever population is supposed to receive the said newsletter/what have you -- say it's something that is just supposed to go to our current parents, or just alumni -- then I have a query for that group.  I export out the emails through Export, clean up the list (because I have pulled every possible email type a person can have to insure that one of them is used, preferably there is a primary but when you inherit other people's work it could be anywhere).


    I then give that new list(s) to communications to upload into whatever system/software they are using for email.  Any dupes are de-duped by the email software and the new ones are added.
  • Jill Freidmutter
    Jill Freidmutter ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Photogenic

    Scott Polovitch-Davis:

    Gina Gerhard:

    Scott - Just wondering, if you pulled your entire file into Mailchimp doesn't it prevent duplicate list entries from being created if the email is already set up in MC? 

    Hi Gina - Yes, that's correct. We use AbleBits to go the other direction too, to update RE with new addresses, suppressions, etc.

     

    Hi Scott, I would love to find a way to move email info from Constant Contact info RE. Would you kindly say a bit more about AbleBits and how you use it?

  • Scott Polovitch-Davis
    Scott Polovitch-Davis ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply

    Jill Freidmutter: 

    Hi Scott, I would love to find a way to move email info from Constant Contact info RE. Would you kindly say a bit more about AbleBits and how you use it?

     

    Hi Jill -

    Basically it's a utility where you can take 2 Excel databases that have at least one field in common and compare them. You can use it to add fields onto an existing database, for example, I've run and cleaned up a big mailing list but then someone wants gift info added. I can export the gift info, and if both databases have a common key, like Constituent ID, you can append the gift info fields onto the existing database. You can also find records that aren't in both lists and mark the differences or append new rows of data. It's very useful to dedupe or find additions, like in the email example. When I run a mailing list I bounce it against the hospital's deceased and opt-out lists. We have the Merge Tables Wizard ($50) and it's paid for itself in time savings many times over.

  • Jill Freidmutter
    Jill Freidmutter ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Photogenic

    Scott Polovitch-Davis:

    Jill Freidmutter: 

    Hi Scott, I would love to find a way to move email info from Constant Contact info RE. Would you kindly say a bit more about AbleBits and how you use it?

     

    Hi Jill -

    Basically it's a utility where you can take 2 Excel databases that have at least one field in common and compare them. You can use it to add fields onto an existing database, for example, I've run and cleaned up a big mailing list but then someone wants gift info added. I can export the gift info, and if both databases have a common key, like Constituent ID, you can append the gift info fields onto the existing database. You can also find records that aren't in both lists and mark the differences or append new rows of data. It's very useful to dedupe or find additions, like in the email example. When I run a mailing list I bounce it against the hospital's deceased and opt-out lists. We have the Merge Tables Wizard ($50) and it's paid for itself in time savings many times over.

     

    Thank you so much for the info. I use VLOOKUP for appending info to an existing table. The other functions (finding records not in both lists, appending new rows of data) sound kinda awesome. 

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