This article describes the steps one Vuture client took to deal with a set of VIP clients and contacts on InterAction. The VIPs should only be mailed in very restricted circumstances.
The Situation
The firm had an InterAction database which was typical of most other law firm databases, with a variety of clients and contacts in different Contact Types and Marketing Lists. The one exception to the norm was a very special collection of contacts, some of whom were also clients but some who were not, who were VIPs. The VIPs were all invited to a series of very exclusive VIP events every year. These VIP contacts needed to be held on the database in order to be mailed, and to make the events easy to manage, but it was imperative that they did not get picked up by database searches and added to other, regular, mailing lists by mistake, since many of them were not clients.
The Problem
The problem for the firm’s marketing team came from the fact that the VIP collection of contacts was a mixed bag of clients and non-clients. If they were all clients it would not have been a problem to add them to mailing lists (with an option to unsubscribe). If they were all VIP non-clients it would not have been a problem to mark them all as Do Not Mail, with an option to unmark before sending a VIP invite and then marking them again afterwards. However, the mixed collection of contacts needed a new solution.
The Firm’s Actions
Created a new Vuture Email content type
Working with their Account Manager, the firm created a new Vuture content type called VIP – Do Not Mail (to go along with their existing content types of Invite and Newsletter).
Created a list on InterAction called VIPs – Do Not Mail
Created a new list on InterAction called VIPs – Do Not Mail and moved all the VIPs who were non-clients onto this list. They ensured that the non-client VIPs were all in the existing suppression lists for Send No Invites and Send No Newsletters. This meant that while they could possibly get picked up by database searches and added to other lists by mistake, they would be suppressed by Vuture at the point of mailing and not mailed.
They then added the client VIPs to this new list on InterAction as well.
Result
They now had a combined list on InterAction which they could use for managing their VIP events, without risking any annoyance to their non-client VIPs by accidentally mailing them, and without compromising the normal mailings to their current clients.
Additional Security
To prevent any accidental send of an email to the VIP non-client contacts, after the VIP event the new content type was removed from Vuture. It will be added again on request, before the next event.
Do you have a special requirement or a very specific set of circumstances which are causing a problem with email marketing or event management? If so, contact your Vuture Account Manager and see if they can help you to devise a solution.
