New to BBNC and unable to create newsletter lists. Any workarounds?

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Karl Schutte 2
Karl Schutte 2 ✭
Ninth Anniversary Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
How has everyone started a new newsletter/subscription list?



We just moved to BBNC and have several existing newsletter lists in Excel that we would like to create in BBNC. The problem is you cannot import or manually add users to the list, they must subscribe to them.



My worry is we will lose half of our lists if we ask them to create a login and signup for the subscriptions they would like.



Has anyone come up with a workaround to manually create these lists? I like the idea of using newsletters because they have the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe on their own.
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  • Nicole S
    Nicole S ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    I've not used BBNC as much for newsletter sign ups, but I would imagine that you could make a workaround by turning the newsletter into a typical email and using an imported list.
  • Jennifer Lucarelli 2
    Jennifer Lucarelli 2 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    we ran into this same dilemma. we chose to create our "newsletters" through the emails/messages tool instead of the newsletter tool because we too were concerned with losing our subscriber base. using the messages tool still allows recipients to unsubscribe from receiving email messages, so it's a win-win.



    note: our newsletters are brief. if using a more complex newsletter, you may not be able to use this option. we redesigned our "newsletters" to be recipient friendly within the limitations of the messages tool.
  • Amanda Johnson
    Amanda Johnson ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    We had to do the same thing - use email "messages" instead of "newsletters" for our monthly e-news. We also have a group of folks whose emails are in an Excel spreadsheet and not in RE. We imported the list and send to it every month, and we manually remove the people who unsubscribe and then re-upload it every month (if applicable).
  • Eli Irvin
    Eli Irvin ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    Hi Karl!



    I hope this message finds you well.



    As you've already noticed, newsletters are subscription based and don't allow for the manual creation of lists for them. There is, however, a way that you can manage this when using a regular email message.



    In the Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.55 New Features Guide, on page 9, you'll see an item for the "User Email Preferences Form". If you manage different types of emails that you wish to present subscribe options for, this would allow you to set initial attributes in such a way that they can be assumed for in a query, then allow recipients to opt-out as necessary.



    There is also a video on our YouTube channel, "Blackbaud Support", that goes into detail about this feature.



    Hope this helps!

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