Bill Good Marketing How to Downline/Delete Contact Groups Questions that apply to this topic Answer How do I delete a Contact Group? Multiple Contact Groups? How do I remove a Contact Group or multiple Contact Groups from a campaign? How do I change the Communication Status or List of multiple Contact Groups? The Downline/Delete Wizard allows you to delete single or multiple Contact Groups, remove them from campaigns, change their Communication Status, or change their List. Additionally, you can also delete selected History items without deleting the Contact Group. Before you begin, make a backup of your database. You can do this by following the instructions on our website for How to Create a Backup in Gorilla or How to Make a Manual Backup of Your Gorilla Data. Starting the Downline/Delete Wizard There are a couple of ways to start the Downline/Delete Wizard. The first option is to start Gorilla, then choose, Tools from the main menu, then the option Contact Group Downline/Delete. The second option is to start Gorilla, open the Finder then choose Contact Group from the main menu, then the option Contact Group Downline/Delete. Once started, the Contact Group Downline/Delete Wizard Contact Group Selection window will appear: 1
In this window, you can choose what will be downlined/deleted. You can choose either an existing Selection Rule (to delete multiple Contact Groups), a single Contact Group, or a Campaign Track. Click on the criteria you wish, then click on the button labeled with the three dots. This will bring up a small window that will allow you to choose the exact criteria you wish. For example, if you chose the Selection Rule criteria, then clicked on the button, you d see a window containing all the defined Selection Rules: Scroll through the appropriate list and locate the exact criteria you wish to downline/delete then click on the appropriate button. ( Select if you are choosing a selection rule, OK if you are choosing a specific Contact Group or Campaign Track.) Once you ve selected your criteria, click Next. On the following screen, you will be able to choose from the options shown below: 2
Downline/Delete. This option is the choice between downlining (that is, demoting ) a Contact Group or deleting (removing from the database) a Contact Group. When Downline is chosen, several options are available to you: Change List. This allows you to move the Contact Group from one List to the other. Check the box next to this option then choose the List you wish the Contact Group moved to in the drop-down box next to the option. Change Comm. Status. This allows you to change the Communication Status for the Contact Group. Check the box next to this option then choose the Communication Status you wish the Contact Group to have in the drop-down box next to the option. Note: Changing the Communication Status will NOT automatically prevent them from receiving letters. You must edit your Selection Rules to exclude the Communication Status that you are setting the Contact Groups to if you no longer want them included in any mailings. Remove from All Campaigns. This allows you to remove a Contact Group from any running campaigns. Checking this option will remove them from all campaigns of which they might be in. History Deletion. The options here are all various History items which may be removed from a Contact Group: Actions and Recurring Actions, Objectives and Office Procedures, Notes, and Messages. Checking the box next to any of these options will remove it from the database but leave the Contact Group in the database. Date Range. The options here all pertain to a given Date Range for another option in the wizard to take place. For example, if you wanted to remove History items for a Contact Group that are older than a year, clicking on the Date Range option Older than 1 Year would ensure that only those History items meeting that Date Range would be deleted. 3
Please note that one of the things that makes the Downline/Delete Wizard a powerful tool is because you can mix and match the various options. Example: You wish to downline a single Contact Group so they don t get any more mailings and you want to get rid of any Actions or Office Procedures they might have. To do this, simply set the option as follows: Example: You ve decided to clean up your database a bit and want to get rid of all the History items older than a year for all the Contact Groups in your database. First, choose the correct Selection Rule in the Contact Group Selection window: 4
Then set the Downline/Delete Wizard options: Please note that, unless the boxes next to Change List, Change Comm. Status, and Remove from All Campaigns are checked, Contact Groups will not be downlined, therefore you can delete History items safely without affecting the Contact Groups. 5
To delete a Contact Group, choose the Delete option while in the Contact Group Downline/Delete Wizard window. When you do this, you ll be presented with the only available setting for that option: Selecting Delete Orphaned Individuals by checking the box next to this option will not only delete the Contact Groups you chose, but also individuals within those Contact Groups (only if they are not also associated with other Contact Groups that are not being deleted). If you do not check this option, then the Contact Groups will be deleted but any individuals associated with those Contact Groups will not be removed. Once you ve decided on the action you wish (downlining or deleting) and chosen the options you wish, click on the button labeled Next. You ll be taken to the Contact Group Downline/Delete Wizard Finish window: Clicking the button labeled Finish here will perform the action you selected and complete the downline/delete process. 6