OutreachSystems

From within WebCATS, you can click on any e-mail address hyperlink to automatically generate an e-mail message. But beyond sending one-to-one e-mail messages, WebCATS also features the ability to send the same e-mail message to large numbers of recipients at once.

Specifically, you can send mass e-mails to:

• The clients or contacts associated with groupings of records (discussed next)
• The members of conference attendee lists
• The members of survey request lists

Sending a Mass E-mail to the Clients or Contacts Associated with a Grouping of Records

You can send mass e-mails to all the e-mail addresses found in a grouping of client records; all the contact e-mail addresses found in a grouping of client or contact records; or even to all the client e-mail addresses associated with a grouping of client activity records.

The following set of steps outlines how to send an e-mail to all or some of your clients or contacts:

1. Use WebCATS' various filter tools (e.g. subsets, filter boxes, or *last client views) to display a grouping of client, contact, or client activity records that is relevant to the topic of your e-mail.
2. Once the appropriate grouping of records is displayed, click the E-mail button.
3. If you're e-mailing from:
   • A grouping of client records, proceed to the next step
   • A grouping of contact records, skip to step 6
   • A grouping of client activity records (e.g. counseling sessions, milestones, etc.), skip to step 8
4. Choose which e-mail addresses to use:
• Use E-mail Addresses of Companies (as found in the top area of the client record)
• Use Bid Match E-mail Addresses of Companies (as found in the "Bid Match Options" area of the client record)
• Use E-mail Addresses of Primary Contacts of Companies (as found in the contact record for the primary contact that is associated with the client record)
• Use E-mail Addresses of All Contacts of Companies (as found in the contact records for all contacts associated with the client record)
5. Decide whether or not to exclude e-mail addresses that belong to records with the Include on mass e-mailings? option deselected, then click Next, and skip to step 9.
6. You can further narrow down your e-mail recipient list by choosing to e-mail only those contacts that are designated as primary contacts on their associated client records. Note: This will also eliminate those contacts that aren't associated with client records.
7. Decide whether or not to exclude e-mail addresses that belong to contact records with the Contact interested in receiving mass e-mailings? option deselected, then click Next, and skip to step 9.
8. WebCATS prompts you to decide whether or not to exclude clients that are not interested in receiving mass e-mailings (as designated in the client record).
9. In the WebCATS e-mail screen, compose your e-mail message.

You cannot apply any special formatting or include attachments from WebCATS' e-mail screen. If you require that your e-mail message contains special formatting or imported objects, consider copying the e-mail addresses from the Bcc field and pasting them into another e-mail application.

10. Modify addressing information as needed.



11. When you are finished composing and addressing your e-mail, click the Send button.

Note: Even though WebCATS places all recipient e-mail addresses into the Bcc field, it's reassuring to know that, under the hood, the e-mail is being delivered individually—one per e-mail address. Upon receipt, your clients will only see their e-mail address in the To field.

Sending a Mass E-mail to the Members of a Conference Attendee List

Once you've created a conference attendee list and populated it with contact records, you can easily e-mail all members of the attendee list. The following set of steps outlines how to send an e-mail to the members of an attendee list.

1. From the Attendee List tab area of a conference record, click the E-mail button, as shown in the next graphic.



2. Select the type of message you would like to send:
• Blank. A message you'll type from scratch.
• Conference Announcement. A templated announcement that advertises the conference to prospective attendees.
• Conference Registration. A templated e-mail that confirms registration for the event. As with the conference announcement, this e-mail template can be customized on a per-center basis.
• Pre-conference Survey Request. If a pre-conference survey is attached to the conference record, you can send a templated e-mail requesting list members to complete the survey.
• Post-conference Survey Request. If a post-conference survey is attached to the conference record, you can send a templated e-mail requesting list members to complete the survey.

Note: As discussed in the FAQ titled How do I customize the e-mail messages automatically generated by WebCATS and eCenter?, all the templated e-mail options above can be customized on a global or per-center basis.

3. If you selected a pre- or post-conference survey request message in the previous step, determine whether you would like to exclude list members that have already responded to the request (likely) and those that are not marked in the attendee list as being eligible for the survey (again, you will likely want to exclude these because only attendee members that are marked as being eligible for the survey will be able to take the survey on eCenter Direct). For more information on pre- and post-conference surveys, see the FAQ titled How do I create, post, and advertise surveys?
4. To only e-mail attendee list members that were added to the attendee list with a specific date/time range, enter the date/time range in the List member entry date/time from fields.
5. To only e-mail attendee list members of a certain status, select the status or statuses from the list of available check boxes. These check boxes are not available when e-mailing survey requests.

Note: Leave all check boxes deselected if you'd like to include all members of the attendee list.

6. Click Next.
7. WebCATS produces the templated e-mail that you chose in step 2. As shown in the following graphic and listed next, there are many caveats to note about e-mails generated from attendee lists.



• You are not able to edit the address placed into the "To:" field due to the likely inclusion of individualized eCenter auto-login URLs.
• The attendee list e-mail templates allow you to establish addresses that are always placed in the "To:", "Cc:", and "Bcc:" fields; however, upon generation, these addresses are all folded into the "Cc:" field, freeing up the "To:" field to only contain members of the attendee list.
• If you'd like to view all intended recipients in the "To:" field, click the "(<#> total recipients)" hyperlink found at the end of the "To:" field listing.
8. Make any changes necessary to the template and click Send to deliver the e-mail.

Note: Remember, under the hood, this e-mail is parsed so that each recipient only sees their e-mail address in the "To:" field.

For more information on all the features of attendee lists, see the FAQ titled How do I create and manage conference attendee lists?

Sending a Mass E-mail to the Members of a Survey Request List

Once you've created a survey request list and populated it with client or contact records, you can easily e-mail all members of the list. For detailed step-by-step instructions on e-mailing members of a survey request list, see the FAQ titled How do I create, post, and advertise surveys?

Want more? Browse our extensive list of WebCATS FAQs.