HOW TO: Filter Subscriber
Data in Email Marketing Director
Making an email message as personal to subscribers
as possible in a mass email marketing campaign
involves a strong database and the ability to
compose and deliver the right message to the right
people. An important part of this involves effective
segmentation or filtering of your email subscriber
list. And there's no easier database to do this
than the one built right into Email Marketing
Director.
The type of subscriber data you import into
Email Marketing Director's database table is a
powerful part of your email message personalization
capability. The most important database fields
to consider are the email address, first name,
last name, geographic location and a listing of
any products or services the customer has purchased.
The more data you collect from signup or immediately
after, the more personalized your email message
campaigns can be.
To use the list filter
to segment this data in Email Marketing Director,
there must first be a list available. You can
import your list using the Import Records button
from the main menu to create a new list. To create
a new campaign, simply hit the New button from
the main menu and name your campaign. Step #1
lets you select an email list to send to, and
once you select a list, you can then apply filters
as the second step, under "Lists and Filters."
New filter and logic
To create a filter, click New Filter to open
the List Filter box. You are now ready to select
your criteria.
The filter logic is fairly straightforward.
Each filter begins with "Send only to people"
and then applies the filter logic as specified
in each filter. The filters are applied to the
list in descending order, with the top filter
applied first, and subsequent filters after.
Filter options are different depending on the
type of field being filtered, whether text or
numeric. When text fields are filtered, such as
the email address field, filtering options include
"Starts with," "Ends with," "Contains," "Is an
exact match with," and "is NULL." You can then
enter a value to match, with up to three fields
or parameters to enter.
Examples of typical filter parameters include:
"hotmail," "AOL.com," "Gmail," "specificname@domain.com"
with up to three parameters. All records that
meet one of these criteria are displayed in the
list preview that appears at the bottom of this
page. The preview is in real time and as filter
logic is applied, the preview list is automatically
adjusted. One note on this preview: email addresses
which have previously bounced or have received
unsubscribe requests are automatically filtered
out of this preview. Only eligible active addresses
are displayed for easy instant totaling.
If a numeric field is selected for filtering,
such as "when the date last emailed," the options
change to "before," "on or before," "after," "on
or after" and "specific date." Using on or before
in the logic would preclude searching for additional
values across the filter, so only the first field
parameter should be used when filtering this field.
It should also be noted that when a filter can
accept multiple values against one field in the
email list, then the three boxes act as OR parameters
in a select statement. The records that match
all three parameters are displayed at the bottom
of the page.
If more than one filter is applied, the collected
group of filters must make logical sense. Multiple
filters act as AND parameters in a select statement.
The records that are displayed have met the first
filter's criteria, AND the second, AND the third,
in that order. If the first filter excludes something,
it cannot be specifically called up in a subsequent
filter. Make sure to use the preview table at
the bottom of the page to ensure that the filters
make logical sense and that all expected criteria
are met prior to sending the email message.
With more data, your email lists become more
versatile and powerful. You can use these filters
to create and deliver highly targeted and personalized
email messages at the right time to the right
customers. -- Arial Software
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