Introduction
When planning a mailing and gathering together all the likely contacts to receive that mailing, it sometimes happens that you need to exclude a group of contacts who would otherwise be on the list.
One example of this was raised recently by a Vuture client: “In InterAction, we have created a list of media members that we might want to exclude from select email campaigns from time-to-time…. What is our best option to handle this?”
We have come up with a number of options to solve this and we thought it might be helpful to write them up so you can consider the differences and choose whichever way best suits your own firm’s circumstances. We have used “Media” as the example group of contacts but these solutions will apply equally to any group you may need to exclude on an occasional basis, such as VIPs, suppliers or students for example.
In no particular order, here they are:
Solution 1 – Separate Mailing Lists
Put all your Media people into a separate list called Media and remove them from every other list.
When planning your mailing, pull together everybody else who will get the mail and add them into the main marketing list.
At the point of Send Email, use the Vuture functionality to send to multiple lists, so, the mail marketing list plus the Media list.
Prerequisites
Get “Send to multiple lists” switched on, if it is not already.
You should classify your Media people, using an additional field on the Media list with values such as Financial journalist, Environmental journalist, Educational journalist and so on. You will then be able to filter the list so that only the correct section of these people get added to your mailing.
Solution 2 – Additional Field on Person Information Folder
(This solution requires you to open up access to an Information Folder* – not normally visible to Vuture. Depending on the information you hold in that folder (HR information for example) it may not be suitable to allow access from Vuture.)
Create a new Additional Field on the Person Information Folder called Media Y/N. Mark your Media contacts with Y for Yes.
Open up Vuture’s access to see Information Folders*.
When sending an email where you want to exclude Media contacts, filter the mailing list on the additional field so that “Media is not Yes”.
Prerequisites
*You will have to contact your Account Manager and ask them to add the Person Information Folder to the xpath in the System area. This process is written up on the Help Desk here.
Solution 3 – Additional Field on the Marketing List
Create a new Additional Field on your Marketing List called Media Y/N.
As you add the contacts to your list to receive the mailing, mark the Media people as Y as you go.
At the point of Send Email, filter the list where “Media is not Yes” and they will not receive the mailing.
Prerequisites
Put this new Additional Field onto your list template so that all new Marketing Lists are created with the Field already in place. This will save you time in the future.
This solution also requires that you identify the Media people in some way (perhaps by holding them in a list) so that, as you move them into the mailing list, you can mark them using the Mark menu and update the Additional Field with Y.
Solution 4 – Use Content Types
It is possible to
unsubscribe or suppress using email Content Types. Often, Vuture clients have already set up
email Content Types such as Invitations, Newsletters and Alerts. Some have more than this.
In this solution
you need to:
1. Work
with your Account Manager to set up a new Content Type called, for example, “Invite
Not Including Media”.
2. You
then need to create a new suppression list and add all your Media contacts to it.
3. Provide
the folder ID of the new suppression list to your Account Manager. When the new content type is selected, the
system will check against the new folder.
Any mailing that is labelled as the new
Content Type at the point of Send will automatically suppress any contact who
is on the “Invitations Not Including Media” suppression list.
At the point of
Send Email, you will decide whether the invitation you are sending is a normal
Invitation (in which case your Media contacts will be included in the mail) or
whether it is an Invite Not Including Media (in which case your Media contacts
will be excluded from the mail).
That’s it! If you have a better, quicker or easier solution then please do share it with your Account Manager. We would love to update and improve this guide for all.
