Constant Contact Integration

Sandy Sloan

Anyone using the Constant Contact Integration with eTapestry? I am trying to decide if it is worth it for us to switch from Mail Chimp. Do the email lists automatically speak to each other? Or will we continually be importing and comparing the emails? Advice??

Valerie Jensen

Hi Sandy,

We use CC with our eTap. I do run the integration database comparison every few months. The comparison then creates a series of queries:

• Accounts that match in both databases
• Accounts in eTapestry without a match in Constant Contact
• Accounts in Constant Contact with out a match in eTapestry
• eTapestry accounts without an email

From there, I took the "Accounts in eTapestry without a match in Constant Contact" query along with our clean mailing list to create a compound query to send over the Constant Contact. It integrates nicely and I've had no issues. Also, it adds a Constant Contact custom field to eTapestry in each persons persona as to whether they opted out of CC mailings. All CC mailings are logged in each person's account under Mass Interactions.


Once you create the original integration query to send over to CC, it's pretty easy. I run the integration at night. Next day, I update my compound query, run it, download to Excel, and import in CC. Let me know if you have questions or would like to talk. Hope this helps!

Sandy Sloan

Thank you Valerie!

I am not quite at compound queries yet but will keep this for future reference. Sounds like many steps, but if the end result is a clean mailing list than it seems worth the effort!!

Valerie Jensen

Sandy,

If you do decide to switch to CC and need any help with the integration or creating a querie(s), please let me know. I'm happy to walk you through the process, and once set up, it's easy to do the updates. Good luck with your decisions on the right email service for your needs!

Sandy Sloan

Thank you! I appreciate your offer and will reach out if I need assistance!!


Have a great weekend!

Aryeh Borsuk

Do you segment your list in any way? If so, how do you track the segments in etap and do those segments get exported to cc?

Valerie Jensen

We do have segments in eTapestry. We use User Defined Fields to track these segments. We have Major Donors, Volunteers, different personas, etc. When you do an integration with Constant Contact, your entire eTapestry database is compared to all your lists in Constant Contact. As far as I know, you can't pick and choose what segments get compared. Once you run a database comparison, you can choose what you want to do, nothing gets transferred either way automatically. Queries are created for you to use however you want. Here's what it does:

Accounts that match in both databases

Accounts in eTapestry without a match in Constant Contact

Accounts in Constant Contact without a match in eTapestry

eTapestry Accounts without an email address


Here's a screenshot in our eTapestry from our last comparison:



We use Constant Contact for our general email list. When I want to email a certain segment, like just our volunteers, I will create and send out through eTapestry. I could download an Excel spreadsheet of our volunteers in eTapestry and import into Constant Contact, but I haven't done that. We are a relatively small organization so this hasn't been an issue.


The advantages of Constant Contact, for us, is A/B testing of subject lines, automated/automatic emails, triggers to send out further emails, etc. It does so much more than eTapestry, so it really depends on what you want to do with your emails.


Hope this helps! Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

Sandy Sloan

We segment a little, but the goal is to better segment lists for better constituent communcation.


thanks!