Enable greater segmentation of automatic Announcement mailings.
Enable segmentation of automatic email sends. We would like to send a different message to Members vs. Non-members, but do not want to "waste" one of the three automatic Announcement emails to do so. I tried clicking "send now" to one list, then revising the message, but there's a flaw in that approach: The first batch had not been completed, and after I revised the email in preparation for sending to the second batch, the first batch got the REVISED version -- presumably because I had not waited for the first batch to get through the queue. (And there's also the weird issue that the scheduling process asks me to select a list, but when I click "Send now" it asks be to select a list from scratch.)
Randall (Randy) Rensch
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Randall (Randy) Rensch
commented
Support has suggested I add these thoughts to the wish list. As it's related to segmentation and should be part of a general mailing-process overhaul (sorry, I don't really see any significant improvement in the recent update, but will look into it further when I can), here goes:
I would still welcome a major overhaul of mailing capabilities (to include segmentation, consolidated click reporting, etc. better Advanced Search list organization), but meanwhile a couple of suggestions regarding “Send Now” (and possibly other modes).
* Twice now, after doing a Send Now with a previously schedule mailing, I’ve forgotten to cancel the scheduled mailing, which means that the mailing went out again. (And I AM the guy who wrote the memo reminding others to do this! :-( ) Usually this might not be so bad, except my reason for having sent manually was that each time I revised the message for segments of our list (Members, Non-Members, and Former Members). As a result, the unwanted scheduled send said “Dear Former Member” to everyone on our Contacts list.
SOLUTION: After a manual send of an Event Announcement (or on clicking Send Now), pop up a reminder: “Do you first want to cancel the Scheduled mailing? Otherwise it will go out as scheduled, even if you also send it now.” (That could probably be shortened.)* When Sending Now to a Saved Search, don’t send immediately after the search is selected. First, report the selection and the number of targeted addresses and ask for confirmation. This will help assure that the correct Search was chosen, or at least make me feel less nervous as the emails go out. You might also include a reminder that the actual number of recipients will be reduced by any already registered or who have opted out or been found undeliverable. (Because our Saved Searches are also used for the “Templates” mailing mode, the searches do not have these filters built in.)
* And finally, as almost every one of our mailings results in someone opting out, I wish the opt-out process were more configurable. I’m certain some people think they’re opting out of all our emails when they are only opting out of one type of mailing. We should be explaining the options to them, should be giving them a chance to change their mind (that is, to confirm), and should have better reporting. (However, a thank you to Support for showing me today how to find out who opted out of a specific email.)
