e-Appeals: Create New e-Appeal Part II - Add Segments (Recipients)
- When creating a new e-Appeal, on Tab #2: Segments you will select the recipients of your appeal.
- You can segment your recipients into different groups to make it easier to tailor your appeal to your donors and to test how different groups respond to your message. For example, perhaps you wish to see how well your donation appeal message works with those who have never donated before versus those who are previous/returning donors (long-time supporters generally just need a "it's time to donate" reminder, while prospective donors may need a more involved message that makes the case for why they should support your organization). Or perhaps you want to know how well your appeal message works on people in various age brackets. Rather than having to make a separate e-Appeal for each group and manually segment your donors into these various lists, you can segment the donors into various lists/categories from within the e-Appeals module. Or, perhaps you know that your older donors will need additional instructions on how to make a donation online versus your younger donors who are more mobile and online savvy. Or, perhaps you want to add some extra content/messaging to donors who live locally, inviting them to an event, and omit this extra invitational text from your appeal that goes to donors who live outside your local area. These are all examples of why segmenting your donors can be helpful.
- You do not have to segment your donors; all of your recipients can go into one list (for example, if your recipients are fairly homogeneous, there may not be any need to segment your donors). However, you must have at least one segment (one recipient list) to send an e-Appeal. That is, you must complete Tab #2, but Tab #2 can have only one segment if that's all you want.
- To get started, be sure to have completely filled out Tab #1: Setup prior to moving to Tab #2 (see this tutorial).
- By default, all potentially eligible recipients are pulled into your e-Appeal. Eligible recipients are those who:
- have a valid email address that is marked as the primary email,
- are not deceased, and
- whose communication preference for email is set to yes.
- In the upper right hand corner of Tab #2, you will see an orange box with the # of recipients who meet this criteria. You will also see a Tool Tip (the question mark) that explains the default population if you hover over it.
- If you click on the number of recipients, you will see the list of currently selected recipients. This is a view only list/you cannot interact with this list.
- To narrow this list down, create one or more segments.
- By default, your e-Appeal will create a default segment (that has everyone in it). If you want all of your recipients to be in this one list, don't create any additional segments. If you want to segment your recipients into different groups, then you will create additional segments after you configure this segment (Segment 1).
- Start by giving the segment a descriptive name that indicates the characteristics of the recipients in this segment/list. For instance, if we are going to segment our recipient list into previous donors and non-donors, we would create two segments. In the first segment, we might put in criteria to pull in previous donors ("contact type equals donor" perhaps) and we might name this segment "Previous Donors." We would create a second segment with criteria for non-donors ("contact type does not equal donor" perhaps) and we would name this segment "Non Donors" or "Donor Prospects." It's import to give the segment a descriptive name so that when you are looking at the e-Appeal metrics afterwards, you can easily identify the type of recipient in each segment (if you just call them Segment 1, Segment 2, etc. you'll have to remember which criteria went into which segment).
- Select the Segment Type. A suppression segment EXCLUDES those who meet the criteria. A Normal segment INCLUDES those who meet the criteria. For example, let's say we want to create two segments--one for recent donors and one for lapsed donors--and in all of our segments we don't want anyone who lives in California. We *could* add a criteria/rule to each of our segments for "State not equal to CA" in addition to our other criteria, but that is more work/we have to enter the exclusionary criteria multiple times. Instead, we could just create a suppression segment with the criteria "State not equal to CA". That way anyone who lives in CA is excluded regardless of whether they meet any of the criteria in the other segments.
- Select the segment Priority. If a contact falls into two different segments, the priority determines which one they should go into. For example, let's say we have one Segment for women who live in Boston and one segment for donors who have given more than $500 in the past. If Sally Smith falls into both categories/segments (because she both lives in Boston and has given more than $500), she'll be assigned to the segment/list with the higher priority. One (1) is the highest priority; the higher the number, the lower the priority. Each number can only be used once/there can't be any segments with the same priority as another segment (how can the system decide with segment to put someone into if two segments have the same priority?). Suppression segments should have higher priority than normal segments/should have the highest priorities so that donors who meet the suppression segment's criteria fall into that segment first and are therefore excluded.
- Select the Fund that all donations that come in via this appeal should be tied to. By default, this will auto-populate with the Fund selected on Tab #1, but you can change it here. Any changes made here apply to THIS SEGMENT only. Different segments can be linked to different funds (for example, during this one appeal, you might want your regular donors' donations to go to your General Fund, but donations from corporate donors to go to your Event Sponsorship Fund). It is rare that you will want to have different segments' donations going to different funds within the same e-Appeal and you will generally use the default fund selected on Tab #1, but we have provided the functionality in case it is needed. Remember that the ask amounts your donors will be presented with will be pulled from the Ask Array associated to the Fund selected here. If you have a created a dynamic ask array or an Advanced ask array with donor segmentation, there most likely will not be any need to use more than one fund within your e-Appeal.
- Next, filter down the default list of recipients for this segment/list (if so desired; you can simply use the default list if you want everyone in your database with a valid primary email and communication preference for email set to yes and who is not deceased to receive your e-Appeal; to do so, just don't select any criteria/filters). There are three sections that you can use for narrowing down your list of recipients: a) filter recipients from a saved search, b) filter recipients using your pre-configured Recency, Frequency, and Amount groups, or c) filter recipients using other criteria.
- Using a Saved Search to filter recipients:
- Select the name of your previously created saved search (see our tutorial on creating saved searches) from the list (start typing the name of the search in the box to find it in the list).
- Then click the Go button to the right.
- The search criteria in the saved search will populate the Other Search Criteria section of the screen. If you want to use this criteria (from the saved search) as is/with no modification, you do not need to do anything further. Proceed to Step #15. Conversely, you can select criteria in the other two sections to add additional filters to this recipient list.
- If you wish to add additional criteria to further filter down the recipient list, you may add additional filters/criteria in the Other Search Criteria section.
- Clicking the Reset button will remove the selection from the saved search box AND the related criteria from the Other Search Criteria section of the screen.
- Using Recency, Frequency, and Amount Criteria to filter recipients:
- Click the white check box to the left of each Donor Category, Recency Group, Frequence Group, Amount Group, and/or CRFA Source field that you wish to use to filter your recipients. You do not have to select items in every section - you can select one or more fields in just one section (or no sections at all if you don't want to filter your recipient list based on these categories; this section is optional and not required).
- See this tutorial (Steps 11 & 12) for information on Donor Categories
- See the tutorials in the Fundraising section of the support library for how to configure Recency, Frequency, and Amount Groups
- The CRFA Source field limits the donations in the Recency, Frequency, and/or Amount Group columns selected to donations that came in via that source. For example, if you create an Amount Group for donors who donated over $500 total (lifetime) and select that Amount Group here along with the "online" option in the CRFA Source field, your recipient list will only include those who donated $500 total lifetime ONLINE (donations by mail, in-person, etc. will be excluded in calculating the life amount total).
- The CRFA Source field ONLY applies to the Recency, Frequency, and Amount Groups. You can only select an option in the CRFA Source field if you pick an item in at least one of those columns.
- You CANNOT use CRFA Source by itself or in conjunction with the Donor Category section.
- If you want to filter your recipients just on one or more categories in this section, you do not need to do anything after checking the white box(es). Proceed to Step 16. Or you can add additional filters in the Other Criteria section.
- Using Other Search Criteria to filter recipients:
- If you want to filter your recipient list based on a criteria not in a saved search or in the Donor, Recency, Frequency, Amount section, or if you want to add ADDITIONAL filters/criteria in addition to the criteria in the previous two sections, then add the criteria here.
- See our tutorial on using the advanced search interface if you are unfamiliar with how to use the Other Criteria user interface.
- It is not necessary to add any Other Criteria (this sectional is optional).
- If you do want to add additional criteria, fill in whatever criteria you want to filter down your list of recipients (you can enter as many criteria as you want/make the filter as complicated as necessary)
- After filling in the criteria, there is no button to click (there is no search or go button. Simply fill in the criteria and then proceed to the next step).
- Using a Saved Search to filter recipients:
- If you wish to save the criteria you have entered/create a saved search from the criteria entered, click the Create Saved Search check box.
- If you wish to add another segment/recipient list to this e-Appeal, click the Save and Add New Segment button at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, click the Save button to save the segment. You cannot proceed without first saving any unsaved segments.
- After saving a segment, you will have the option to copy/duplicate the segment (create a new segment based on the criteria in the copied segment) or to delete the segment.
- If adding additional segments, after clicking Save and Add New, repeat steps 10 through 17 to configure the segment
- Pictured below, in this example, we have created two segments. One for women who live in Boston and have never donated previously and one for lapsed donors.
- You may add as many segments as you want. Remember, however, the only reason to add segments is to divide your recipient list into groups to review how those groups responded to your e-Appeal or to assign different content (letters) to different groups of recipients. It's not necessary to have multiple segments nor to be overly complicated in your divisions. It's also not necessary to segment your recipients in order to do A/B testing. You will have the option to randomly assign recipients from each segment to various A/B testing groups in the next tab.
- If you want to edit a previously configured segment, simply click on the segment in the left hand panel, and then change the criteria in the right hand panel.
- After configuring ALL of your segments, click the red Populate button in the lower right. This will apply your filters to the recipient list(s). Refreshing the recipient list based on your filters is an offline process/not immediate. While the list is refreshing, you cannot proceed any further or make any changes to your e-Appeal. This is why we do recommend creating your e-Appeal filters/criteria as a Saved Search as the process of "trial and error" for ensuring the correct criteria is faster/easier in creating a saved search than trying to do it inside the e-Appeals module.
- You will be asked who on staff should be notified when the recipient list refresh has been completed.
- YOU MUST THEN WAIT FOR THE SYSTEM TO APPLY THE FILTERS AND REPOPULATE THE LIST. This procedure generally takes less than five minutes, but for large lists or complicated criteria, this may take longer. You cannot proceed to the next tab nor do anything else to your e-Appeal under the process of updating the recipient list (the "populate process") is completed.
- The pop window will close and you will be taken out of the draft e-Appeal and to the Pending Communications screen. You will not be able to return to or edit the e-Appeal until it finishes refreshing/populating recipients. On the Main Menu: Communications: Pending page, the status will be Scheduled for Generating.
- Once the populate recipients procedure finishes running, the status will show as Generated on the Pending Communications list and inside of the e-Appeal. You can then proceed to the next step of creating the e-Appeal by clicking the drop down next to the e-Appeal on the Pending Communications tab and selecting Edit. Please Note: the pending communications page won't refresh while you're on it. You will need to manually refresh the page to see if the status has changed from processing to generated.
- After the populate process finishes updating, you can return to Tab #2 and review the recipient list by clicking the number in the upper right hand corner.
- You will be able to see which segment each recipient has been assigned to based on your criteria and each segment's priority.
- In this example, it turns out we have no women non-donors who live in Boston, so all of our recipients are in the same segment.
- If, after reviewing the refreshed recipient list, you want to make any changes to the criteria of any of your segments, click on the segment name in the left hand panel and make your edits in the right hand panel.
- If, after reviewing the refreshed recipient list, you want to add additional segments you may do so by clicking the Save and Add New Segment button in the lower right or clicking the copy/duplicate button to the right of any segment name in the left hand panel.
- If, after reviewing the refreshed recipient list, you want to delete any segments, you may do so by clicking the trashcan icon to the right of the segment name in the left hand panel.
- If you make ANY changes to Tab #2 after populating the recipient list, you will need to click the Re-Populate Recipients button in the lower right to refresh the list (e.g. you will need to repeat steps 22-27).
- Once you finish configuring all of your segments and populating the recipient list, click the Next button to move to Tab #3.
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