Best way to use Campaigns feature?

Options
Suzanne Murray 2
Suzanne Murray 2 ✭
Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi,

I am wondering who is making good use of the Campaigns feature in BBNC. I like the option of testing subject line performance, but without any option to schedule a time, l'm finding that Campaigns is not worth the time. This is also because you cannot send at sample/test message to yourself from Campaigns. You have to send that test from Messages. I've ended up skipping Campaigns most of the time, because I have to use Messages for all edits anyway so it does not seem worth the time (even with copy-pasting the HTML, the set up is time-consuming). 


I mostly like the reporting where it breaks the clicks, $ etc out by each list for you, but it seems silly only to use it for that screen since I still can't export results data (I enter it by hand into an Excel sheet I've created to track my email series all in one place).


Does anyone find Campaigns helpful on a regular basis? Have you made strategy decisions based on results from it? 


Opinions welcome - perhaps I'm missing something and there are better ways to use the tool. 

Thank you!

Suzanne
Tagged:

Comments

  • Lance Olenik 2
    Lance Olenik 2 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    I've tried it and experienced the same frustration. It's not worth it. Doing any A/B testing in BBNC is painful, in my opinion.
  • Suzanne Murray 2
    Suzanne Murray 2 ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Lance Olenik:

    I've tried it and experienced the same frustration. It's not worth it. Doing any A/B testing in BBNC is painful, in my opinion.

    Thanks, Lance.

  • Kerry Shippam
    Kerry Shippam ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Lance Olenik:

    I've tried it and experienced the same frustration. It's not worth it. Doing any A/B testing in BBNC is painful, in my opinion.

     

    Good to know as I've been wanting to trial this functionality and will take that into account.


    FYI, A/B testing improvments were in the BBNC roadmap for this year so hopefully functionality will improve.
  • Suzanne Murray 2
    Suzanne Murray 2 ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Kerry Shippam:

     

    Good to know as I've been wanting to trial this functionality and will take that into account.


    FYI, A/B testing improvments were in the BBNC roadmap for this year so hopefully functionality will improve.

     

    If you mail similar, but not identical, messages to several lists at the same time, such as a holiday note to LYBUNTs, current donors, and monthly givers (who would presumably need different copy), it may be useful for you. Plus, if you are sending the message during a time of day when you will be able to monitor results and choose the best option based on the them, so that you can hit send on the top performing version -- not automated as far as I can tell -- that helps too.


    The inability to proof your email except via copy-pasting into the Messages function is the biggest issue with it in my opinion - so close to being helpful, but not quite there.

Categories