This module allows you to send personalized email solicitations to your donors and periodic eNewsletters to donors and anyone else who subscribes on-line.
We've designed eSolictations to minimize the need to add a web server to your on-site equipment. The email broadcasting software can be installed on any web enabled file server running Windows Server, Linux or Unix. We don't recommend installing the email broadcaster on the same file server where your MemSys data tables are located, for security reasons.
Getting Started
After installation of the eSolicitations email broadcaster, we can help you import a newsletter subscriber list from a file downloaded from your current email broadcast service (such as Convio, NPR Digital Services, Kimbia, etc.). The eSolicitations module supports the creation of unlimited mailing lists. We start by importing your newsletter list, to get things going. Next, use the eSolicitations Studio to create a web site links to online forms Subscribe Now, Unsubscribe and Update Profile. All of the online forms the newsletter list.
Overlay donor status
Next, when we activate the module in MemSys, you have access to a powerful utility that can data sync your donor table with the newsletter list. As that happens, the Account number and Renew YrMo of any matched donor is saved in their newsletter subscriber record. The process matches on email address, same as all of the other mainstream email services clients are using. Anytime after the data sync, it would be possible to not only send a newsletter email broadcast, you could also send out an acquisition appeal to any non-donors.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
After finding a donor in MemSys, you can easily pull up a list of their subscriber records in the eSolicitations studio. The lists appears directly in MemSys – you do not have to open a separate browser screen to access the information. Simply check or uncheck each record to subscribe or unsubscribe the email address; doing so color codes and dates the changes for easy review anytime later. Should a person unsubscribe themselves via an email link or on a web page provided for that task, and later in MemSys you open their subscriber list from the donor screen, it will be accurate and up to date. The integration of subscribes/unsubscribes is dynamic – it operates in real time.
Using Mailing Programs
Several MemSys mailing programs offer a new Output Format: “eSolicitations”. We recommend that the donor solicitation list be separate from the initial newsletter subscriber list. As you launch a mailing to that format, it displays an entry panel allowing you to specify the email template to be used (text or HTML), and the email Subject, From, Reply-To and Bounce-To addresses. Note that the standard email service addresses can be set up one time as default values.
The mailing selects records as per the normal criteria, one of which would be the email opt-in code(s) to be included. But there's a second level of privacy protection – if a donor has unsubscribed from the list (information stored in the email broadcaster) it will suppress the message even if their donor record meets the nominal selection criteria.
Online eSolicitations Studio
You can access the eSolicitations email broadcaster anytime to add/remove subscribers to create or remove lists, or to create, change or delete email templates. The on-line studio include a fully featured HTML editor for the creation and editing of templates. Templates can be of a standard design or also include any “custom” fields. These are a short list of “mail-merge” fields uploaded by MemSys during a mailing. Your email solicitations can be fully personalized, including links to web based entry forms located where you normally host the entry of on-line donations. We can assist you with the creation of templates that pass one or more of the custom fields to the form, to expedite its completion and to assure that fields such as Account and Source make the round trip into the donor's web pledge.
The on-line Studio tracks email success and bounce counts, and click-throughs, and it can generate its own performance reports. But remember that since the donor email appeals originate as mailing run inside MemSys, all of its mail performance reporting is also available to analyze results.
Integration with Web Pledge Import
Note: The MemSys “Web Pledge Import” module (license separately) knows how to look up donors by an exact match on their account number, if it is returned in the downloaded pledge file; and to credit the pledge to the file's source code if one is returned. We'll work with you to assure that all of the useful fields passed through the email, to the pledge form, are returned to MemSys during web pledge import.
eSolicitations Licensing
The eSolicitations module has a minimum license count of five users, which is based on users accessing the email broadcaster. This would be the same for a five or ten-user MemSys site, or even a single-user MemSys site. The next level up would be a ten-user license. The concurrent user count is based on people accessing the on-line studio at the same time, e.g. if you have several people who create email templates. The fact that the MemSys eSolicitations studio is web based, means that any consultant who works off-site (someone who may never use MemSys) could create email templates. Access needed to handle content creation is separable from having access to MemSys and actually running the mailings.
For a demonstration or further information, please contact us!