HELP! Marketing Campaign Snags (you have this problem too)

[joesmith]

I've got my contacts imported into BCM and am ready to really start using it.
I hit a few big snags and need suggestions/solutions/work arounds.

1) I need to send the direct mail letter from a marketing campaign to my
business contacts mailing address. Sounds easy, right? It's not. I'll see
if I can make this clear enough to follow.
A) If you choose Tools, Mail Merge directly from Outlook, you can see ALL
the database fields, including Mailing Address, and print your letters that
way. It works. BUT, it doesn't record the mailing in a marketing campaign.
B) If you make a marketing campaign and then try to merge (or launch) it,
you don't have access to that mailing address. WHY? HOW DO YOU FIX THIS?

2) Marketing campaigns record what letter you sent to people, but don't put
a history record in the business contact stating that they got the letter.
WHY? HOW DO YOU FIX THIS? This was such a no brainer, that when testing
BCM, I assumed it had it. Bad move on my part.

I'm willing to write code, buy add-ins, or whatever it takes to solve these
two snags. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Welcome to BCM, Joe!

Check out our pinpoint Marketing tool to solve some your campaign problems
writing to History and to accomplish drip marketing.

Thanks,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[joesmith]

I FIGURED IT OUT! YAHOO!

Here's my solution for using the Mailing Address and recording in each
business contact’s history the print letters sent as part of a marketing
campaign.
1) Select the business contacts or accounts you want to send a direct mail
print letter to. You can use categories, views and sort to make this easy.

2) From the OUTLOOK toolbar, click Tools, Mail Merge.

3) Select the radio button for "only selected contacts" and "all contact
fields." Pick a document if you have one, or create a new one. Go ahead
and save the contact data file. Click Okay.

4) Insert your merge fields. You will see that you have many more merge
fields that the usual business contact manager fields. I believe this is
because you initiated the mail merge from Outlook. You can select the
'mailing address.' This is the address with the "This is the mailing address"
box checked in the contact. (That solves problem #1)

5) Finish and Merge to Printer. Print the merged documents so you can mail
them.

6) Finish and Merge again but to email this time. Here's the fancy part.
If you put a dummy email address in all the contacts, you can send them an
email. Why would you want to send them an email? Because BCM records all
emails in the business contact's history if you click the Email Auto-Link
button in their record. Now you have a copy of the letter you sent to each
contact in their History. (That solves problem #2)

7) Still on the mail merge screen, click Create Campaign. It's right next
to Finish and Merge. A Marketing Campaign screen will open with your
information. You don't want to launch the campaign. You already sent it.
But you do want to Save and Close it so you will have a record.

I hope this helps others as much as me.

 

[joesmith]

Addendum: In #6 below, you can use the Email_3 field for the email dummy
account name so as to not interfere with the real email address.