Mass Mail - SatuitCRM®

The Mass Mail feature provides an efficient method of organizing and tracking correspondence.

Mass mailings require you to define an audience to receive the mailing. This is accomplished by performing either a business or contact search. The Mailings list on the Contact Detail form allows specific types of mailings to be assigned to contacts, such as newsletters, conference invites, etc. Although searches can be based on a group of businesses or a group of individual contacts, the mass mailing is always sent to the individual contacts.

The results of a business or contact search can be printed to pre-formatted labels within SatuitCRM® or exported to MS Word or Excel for other label options. The results of a business or contact search can also be exported to MS Word to create form letters for mass mailings or mass emails. The steps involved with these types of mailings are covered in the next sections.

Tracking and reporting on mass mailings are convenient through SatuitCRM®. It provides the user with the ability to easily view the status of responses to mailings and a historical record of what mailings have been sent. Tracking and reporting on a mailing are optional and are explained in more detail in the section Mailing and Events Tracking.

Key Check Box on the Contact Detail Form

The Key check box on the Contact Detail form is used to identify a contact as a key decision-maker in the organization. By designating a contact as being ‘Key’, this gives you the flexibility to run reports and perform a Contact Search on Key contacts only. In addition, it enables SatuitCRM® users to include only key contacts in a mailing. Contacts that have been marked as ‘Key’ will be displayed in the blue text within a contacts browse list.

Do Not Mail Check Box on the Contact Detail Form

The ‘Do Not Mail’ check box on the Contact Detail form is used to identify contacts that have informed you not to send them mailings.

Warning

You will be able to override this if needed by clicking on the ‘Do Not Mail Check box’ in the Mail Merge dialog window.

Email Templates

Read our full article on Email Templates.

With Email Templates, you can quickly send out a follow-up note or any other template message without spending the time typing each one every single time. Email Templates will allow you to ensure that all email communications maintain:

• Professional and personalized messages
• A consistent look and feel
• Same message from all team members

Note

Satuit’s Email Templates are only compatible with Microsoft Outlook.

Create A Mass Mailing

There are three basic steps when creating a mass mail:

• Select an Audience - A mass mail requires a selection, a group that will receive the mass mail. Perform a Business, Contact, or Mailings and Events search to select your audience. The Mail Merge tool will include all contacts that match the search criteria, even if they (or the business they are associated with) have been marked for deletion. Therefore, before conducting a Mail Merge in SatuitCRM®, ask the System Administrator to run the Delete Records function under the System menu
• Begin the Mail Merge Process - Once an audience has been obtained, begin the mail merge process. The SatuitCRM® Mail Merge process enables users to save their contact list for their mailing. Select Mail Merge from the Tools menu to open the Mail Merge dialog box
  Mail Merge Options - The Items section of the Mail Merge dialog box contains the below options
• Key Only: If this check box is selected, only Key contacts within a business will be included in the Mailings and Events
• Do Not Mail: Any contact that has been marked Do Not Mail will not be included in the following output types - Excel, Word, Outlook BCC, eDistribution, and Labels
• Override: Override the Do Not Mail flag for a particular contact
• Output: Select the type of file to export to MS Word, MS Excel, Labels, ASCII, and Outlook BCC, Email Templates
• Name: This field will allow you to name your export file before exporting it to Word or Excel
• Mailing Address Only: This check box represents the mailing addresses for contacts, as opposed to working with all three possible contact addresses
• Export Standard Phones: This check box represents the standard phone types defined at the business level and the contact level. This check box should be selected if phone data (i.e. E-mail) needs to be used in the Mailings and Events
• Sort Order: Clicking on any column heading will organize the mass mail by that field
• Mail Tracking: If this check box is selected, the Type, Rep, Date Sent, and Topic fields become available, and a record of the mass mailing being sent will be stored at the business level, not the contact level, within the SatuitCRM® database. The date, a brief description, a ‘No reply’ reply type, and each of the business’ contacts the mass mailing was sent to will automatically be inserted into the Mailings and Events tab
• Mailing Type: Choose the type of mailing from the Mailing Type picklist
• Topic: Enter a description of the mailing. Make sure that it uniquely identifies the specific mailing (i.e. 2014 Client Conference). This will allow for easier reporting in the future
• Date Sent: Choose the date you sent or are planning to send this mailing out on
• Rep: Choose the SatuitCRM® REP that this mailing is sent from the REP picklist
• This entry will then appear under the business’ Mailings and Events tab. Once the Mail Merge is complete, a record for each contact included in the mailing will be generated. Each line in the browse list represents a distinct mass mailing to a particular contact associated with the active business
• Editing Selections (Who Receives Mailing)
  From the List of Contacts on the Mail Merge dialog box, a list of all contacts that are eligible to receive the mass mailing will be generated. To the left of each contact’s name is a check box. Clear this check box if the contact should not receive the mailing

3. Output the Contact Data

• The bottom of the Mass Mail dialog box is where the Output information will be defined
• MS Word – Outputs the mail merge file into Microsoft word to be able to use the file for a standard word mail merge
• MS Excel – Outputs the mail merge file into a Microsoft Excel file to be able to be used as your source file for a standard mail merge
• Labels – Output labels may be previewed on the screen, sent directly to the printer, or saved to a file for later use. The standard SatuitCRM® mail label size is compatible with Avery 5162. To use another label size, select Output to MS Excel or MS Word and use the label and envelope wizard in Word to create labels
• ASCII – Outputs your Mail merge file to a .txt file for your use in a mail merge
• Outlook BCC – When using this option, be sure that you have your Outlook open when you click on Create Output. Your email message should open up on your screen and fill in all of the names from your list in the BCC field. Complete and send your message in Outlook to complete
• NOTE: Satuit also provides integrations with ActOn/ConstantContact/DotMailer/MailChimp – This allows you to push your SatuitCRM® list over to your e-marketing account for the distribution of personalized and trackable emails through the e-marketing account

Important

If you have e-Distribution as an output type and you are not familiar with using this additional feature, contact your System Administrator.

Tracking Responses To A Mass Mailing

Tracking the responses to the mailing is another function of the Mailings and Events tab.

To track response from a specific contact:

• Perform a Mailings and Events search by selecting Search from the navigation panel. For the search criteria, enter the name of the contact that received the mailing or select the mailing name from the ‘Recent Mailings’ field within the Search screen. The recent mailings field will always display the last 25 mailings that have been tracked via the Mail Merge tool
• Examine the browse list and locate the correct mass mailing record. Double-click this record and the information will show on the Mailings and Events detail form
• The Mail Tracking feature automatically populated Type, Topic, Contact, Date Sent, and Reply Type. The following fields should be updated manually as responses are received
• Reply Date: The date the contact replied to the mailing
• Reply Type: This is a drop-down menu usually consisting of the following values: Yes, No, No Reply. For example, if the contact will be attending the event, then select Yes
• Reply check box: Select the check box to indicate that the recipient has replied to the mailing
• Number: Indicate the number of attendees, if applicable
• Comments: Use this area to track any comments, names of additional people attending, special meal or room requests, or any other notes

Reporting on Mass Mailings

Reports and graphs can be created to track replies to mass mailings. To view the report:

• Select Search from the navigation panel, select Mailings and Events Search, define the search criteria, and click Search
• Next, select Reports, then On-Demand Reports, select Mailings, and Events Report from the Reports folder
• Double-click or select the print icon to enter the description then Run Report. A message will appear informing you that the report has been added to the queue
• The report will run in the background, allowing you to continue working. When the report is ready, a notification will pop down from the top of the screen. To view the report, you can click the notification or click Report Outputs on the Reporting menu.