Marketing to Members Through

Transcription

1 Marketing to Members Through With CU*BASE Marketing Tools INTRODUCTION The biggest disappointment in marketing is when we do a great deal of work to get people s attention, and then are left wondering, was anybody listening? E-members listen, respond, and help marketers get on the right track. No demographic is more active or responsive than a set of Internet members. By developing an listing of your most active Internet members, your marketing efforts will be rewarded several times over a general member mailing list. Developing the list is easy: you can Query your membership for those members who use CU*@HOME products. That will be the base group to begin collecting addresses. This group is already interacting with the credit union in an electronic format and should be the easiest of all your membership to reach. Once you have conquered this group, you need to move on to members who do have Internet access but may not be currently active with CU*@HOME. Does your web site allow you to collect addresses for members who visit your web site? Do you currently have a lobby campaign to ask members for addresses? Do you include a request for an address on all of your mailings? Is it a standard question you ask when opening new memberships? Is it worth the effort? Consider this: when you send an marketing piece, you can add a click here to respond to this offer and the member can act as quickly as they can read. Try to do that with a statement stuffer. Next to a direct phone call, e-marketing is the most responsive and direct way to interact with members. But like all worthwhile things, it takes time to develop, it takes a plan to act, and it takes follow-through to get members to be consistent participants. E-marketing and e-statements are worth your time. Revision date: February 27, 2006 CU*BASE is a registered trademark of CU*Answers, Inc.

2 CONTENTS IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS 3 COSTS FOR SENDING MARKETING MESSAGES 3 ALLOWING MEMBERS TO OPT OUT 3 SPAM ALERT! 3 STEP 1: PREPARE THE DATABASE FILE 5 STEP 2: GENERATE THE MESSAGE 7 2 Marketing to Members Through

3 IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS COSTS FOR SENDING MARKETING MESSAGES Marketing messages... $0.01 per sent Subject to change; refer to the most recent CU*Answers Pricing Guide for current pricing. This charge will be included on your normal monthly invoice. ALLOWING MEMBERS TO OPT OUT In order to exclude those members who specifically request they not be contacted via or other means, CU*Answers standard recommendation has been to make use of our Mail Codes feature. There are two one-character fields on every master membership record: Mail Code 1 and Mail Code 2. Up to 9 different credit-union defined codes can be configured for each field, using the Mail Code Configuration feature on menu MNCNFC. The code designated as the opt out code is then entered into the appropriate field on the member s MASTER record using the Update Membership Information feature (MNUPDT). Then, when creating your database Query, simply add a selection statement to exclude any members with your designated code in the appropriate Mail Code field. SPAM ALERT! Handling Spam Alerts From Members Because of the way our system will send a batch of messages to a large group of members at the same time, there may be some Internet Service Providers that interpret these messages as spam (junk ) messages, especially if you have a large number of members who use the same ISP. If you hear from members that your s are being marked as spam, here s what you should do: 1. Make sure that your address is correct in the e-statement configuration. If the from address is invalid on a batch of messages, an ISP may interpret the message as spam. See Page 8 for details. If the same address appears multiple times in the database file, the system will automatically make sure only one message is sent to that address. 2. Ask the member for the name and a contact number for their ISP. Also request a copy of the message that the member received with spam notification on it. Explain to the member that the ISP probably has a standard scanning software that assumes the was Marketing to Members Through 3

4 spam because it was sent as part of a batch of messages from your credit union. In order to prevent members from seeing another member s address, all addresses on s send by CU*BASE will use the BCC (blind carbon copy) address field. This can sometimes be interpreted as spam by ISPs but is in fact the best way to protect member privacy and prevent viruses from being propagated between boxes. 3. Contact the ISP and request that these messages be excluded from spam detection software. If appropriate, the member can even contact the ISP directly. Otherwise, contact CU*Answers for assistance in working with the ISP and providing any information they need to exclude these messages. DO NOT have members contact CU*Answers under any circumstances. Spam Alerts from Your Own Provider When creating an message, you will be defining the from address. Any replies to the message, or any notifications of invalid address, will be sent to this box. This must be a valid address, and this account should have adequate capacity to handle the potential traffic generated by the message. (For example, if you plan to send an to 1,000 members, the box should be able to handle up to 1,000 replies!) IMPORTANT: Be sure your provider is aware of the volume of s you may receive, and does not misinterpret your traffic as spam. It is recommended that you establish a relationship with a provider who understands your credit union and its marketing needs. Some providers, such as AOL, have restrictions in place to prevent people from signing up for an box and then using it to send junk messages to a large number of addresses. Be sure your provider does not misunderstand your intentions. Remember that the cleaner and more up-to-date your address list is, the less likely you are to receive a large number of returned s. Remind your members to keep you in the loop when they change their address! Remember that with the Member Connect feature (available from the MNMRKT menu) you can use this same database file to reinforce your message through multiple channels in a comprehensive marketing campaign: Send messages Send messages via CU*@HOME Print member mailing labels Produce a mailing list for a third-party marketing resource Set up selective statement inserts Create telemarketing ticklers for follow-up 4 Marketing to Members Through

5 STEP 1: PREPARE THE DATABASE FILE These steps create the database file that shows all of the addresses to which the message will be delivered. IMPORTANT: These instructions assume that you are thoroughly comfortable with creating and modifying Queries. See CU*BASE GOLD On-Line Help (look for the ReportBuilder/MNQURY chapter) for complete information on using the ReportBuilder (Query) program. 1. Start by creating a Query which uses the MASTER file and any other CU*BASE files necessary for selecting the desired members. 2. Using the Select and sequence fields option, choose the ACCTBS (Account Base) field. Other fields can be included, but they must come after the account base field. Effective with the Fall 2005 CU*BASE Software Upgrade, member addresses are now located in the PCMBRCFG file, not MASTER. However, you can still create a database file that has only the ACCTBS in it and the system will locate the address in its new location when the messages are sent. 3. Use the Select records option to set up any needed selection criteria to choose the appropriate members. (For example, if you are using Mail Codes to exclude members who opt out of receiving marketing communications, include a selection statement to exclude members with your defined code.) 4. To determine the number of accounts selected, use F5=Report to view the Query results. In the Position to line field, type B and use Enter to see the last item. The line number indicates the total number of records selected. This count should be used as verification when generating the message. Marketing to Members Through 5

6 5. Use the Select output type and output form option to display the following screen: 6. In the Output type field, choose 3 = Database file. Use Enter to proceed to the next screen. 7. In the File field, enter the database file name. 8. In the Library field, enter the location for the database file: QUERYxx. (For xx substitute your credit union s 2-character ID.) 9. In the Data in file field, choose 2=Replace file (this will ensure that you can run this same Query again or another Query using this same file name in the future, without conflict). 10. Use Enter to record the changes. 11. Save and run the Query to generate the database file. 6 Marketing to Members Through

7 STEP 2: GENERATE THE MESSAGE These steps create the text of the message and deliver it to all members in the database file created in the previous step. MNPRTC # 26 Send Marketing Messages Screen 1 A message that shows a date of 0/00/00 is one that has been saved but not sent to members yet. This is the first of two screens used to generate a marketing message to a group of members. This screen shows all messages previously sent, and any that have been created but are still waiting to be sent. To create a new message, use F6-Create. To modify an existing message that has not been sent yet, or to send the same message again, select it in the list and use the Change/Resend (2) option. The screen on the following page will appear. When re-sending an existing , once it has been delivered with F5-Send (see the next page), the Date Sent shown on this screen will be updated to the current date. (You will not see multiple records of the same message.) Marketing to Members Through 7

8 Screen 2 Use this screen to create the text of the message, and send it to all of the members that were included in the database file. You may periodically use Enter to save the text you have entered so far. Including Links in s. You may wish to include a link in an , such as to your web site or to an address. Use the following format when entering the URL on this screen: For a website: or For an address: mailto:person@domain.com To send the message later, use Enter to save, then F3-Select Msgs to return to the previous screen. The Date Sent will read 0/00/00, and you may return to the message at any time to revise it further or send it. When the message is ready, return to this screen and use F5-Send to deliver the messages to all of the members in the database file. There will be one confirmation window. A message will appear when the s have been generated; use F3-Select Msgs or F7-Cancel to exit. Field Descriptions Field Name Name file in QUERYxx From Address Description Enter the name of the database file you created in the previous step (see Page 6). This file must be stored in your credit union s Query library (QUERYxx, where xx is your credit union s 2-character ID). Enter your credit union s address. Any replies to this message, or any notifications of invalid address, will be sent to this box. This must be a valid address, and this account should have adequate capacity to handle the potential traffic generated by this message. IMPORTANT: Be sure your ISP is aware of the 8 Marketing to Members Through

9 Field Name Subject Message Text Description volume of s you may receive, and does not misinterpret your traffic as spam (junk e- mail). Enter the text that should appear in the subject line of the message. Enter the body of the message. Up to 48 lines can be entered, and text will appear on the message exactly as it appears on this screen, including line spacing, punctuation and special characters. It is recommended that text be included at the end of the message to explain how a member can opt out of receiving future marketing messages. See Page 3 for more details. Marketing to Members Through 9