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Reasons why we haven't migrated to NXT Email yet

Kevin Hardy

One of the major reasons why we haven't updated to NXT Email (other than the lack of Membership merge fields) is the inability to send to multiple constituent e-mail types in one e-mail send.

We've got up to 4 e-mail types per constituent (let's just say Email1, Email2, Email3, Email4) . When finalizing an email send there's an “Email address type” dropdown where we can only choose one of those e-mail types. This really creates a problem when we've got a constituent who wants to receive e-mails but also wants their, say, secretary (Email2) to receive them too.

The only workaround I've seen so far is to do separate sends of that email to Email2, Email3, Email4, etc. which isn't ideal at all.

Is something like this being worked on so we can send to ALL (or even just select multiple) email types in the Finalize Your Email setup?

This is one of those “hanging on to OLX for dear life” issues. ?

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Comments

Austen Brown

@Kevin Hardy - The best way to communicate this to BB Developers is through the RE NXT Idea Bank. Here are a few ideas you can vote for:

Marketing Email - Send to Multiple Email Types: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-2214
Reach multiple emails on a constituent record using RE NXT Marketing: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-1735
Multiple Email Selection for NXT Email Marketing: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3145
Enable a set of multiple Email Types to be chosen when sending a Marketing Email: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3728

Christine Robertson

@Kevin Hardy I totally understand how frustrating it is that RE NXT only sends to one email address at a time, but that is in line with the best practices for other email tools (such as MailChimp - where you can only link one email address to each contact). I say that not as an excuse, but more to say that you may need to revisit your practices to identify ways to best meet your needs.

Christopher Horn

@Christine Robertson which is fair, I can see why it's not best practice to send to 5 emails for the same person in the context of email marketing. But, (and you know this I'm sure, I'm mostly saying this so someone brings it up) in the context of a CRM database, organizational contacts create an additional level of complexity. Often there's multiple contacts at an organization who should be included in appeals to that organization, but not treated as individual prospective donors.

For example, we have 20+ contacts linked to the record for a seminary in our synod, and hundreds of church records in our database have 2-3 emails for different contacts. Most of these contacts would add no additional value to our database as full records, since we only have their work contact info.

The biggest problem with the NXT email system for my org is that it offers no real solution for spouse emails or organizational contacts besides creating an individual record for every single spouse and organizational contact. Back of napkin estimate, that would be over 40k new records. OLX has major restrictions on email design, but switching to NXT would limit our reach in organizational fundraising with churches and schools, which is important to us as a religious publishing org. If NXT could pull primary emails on relationship records, then that would largely solve the problem while also maintaining best practices.

(I already upvote relevant ideas in the idea bank, but seconding that it's a good idea!)

Christine Robertson

@Christopher Horn I think so much of the need would be met if emails could go to individual relationships as well as constituents. Then the best practice of one email per record could still be upheld AND we could work with multiple individual contacts for a record as well as both spouses. etc.

Rachel Bailey

@Christine Robertson, ditto. This has been a limitation of both OLX and NXT Email that I would love to see addressed on the product roadmap! We have lots of organizational Contacts who also come out to volunteer with our organization. The ability to send the same email campaign to two lists/queries (individuals and org contacts, each with their own criteria) while only sending to each unique email address once would be amazing. But even the ability to choose between sending to Constituent records or Relationship records for emails would be amazing. @Austen Brown, have you seen an idea bank posting for something like this?

Austen Brown

@Rachel Bailey - Here are a few ideas related to sending emails to non-constituents/relationship records:

Expand RENXT EMail Marketing to Include Primary Contacts for Organizations: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-2333
Marketing/Email needs to have the capability to add emails from individual relationship records, especially (at least) the spouse: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-2094
Expand NXT marketing email recipient capability: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-6640
Allow the sending of Marketing Emails to multiple contacts at a business/organization: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3709
allow individual relationships to get emails when sending in NXT: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3040

Here are a few for sending to all emails on a record:

Add the option of choosing more than one email address type when using RE NXT Marketing, Email. This would save the time of sending the email a second time and choosing another email address type. https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3804
Multiple Email Selection for NXT Email Marketing: https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3145
Ability to send to multiple e-mail address types INCLUDING spouses in RE NXT. https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-3340

While these should probably be merged, I'd go ahead and vote for all in the meantime.

Elizabeth Johnson

@Kevin Hardy, I wanted to share how we handle sending emails to spouses where applicable using the web view email tool that I have implemented in my organization. Our current system requires two email sends, but it effectively addresses the challenges associated with communicating with spouses.

For any record where a spouse’s email is available, we categorize it as a spouse email type. Initially, we send the main email type “Email”, followed by a second send to the “Spouse's Primary Email.” To help us track which email address was used to open the message, we modify the internal name of the email message by appending "spouse" at the end.

We have successfully been utilizing this system for over four years, and it has proven to be quite efficient. However, we do encounter some challenges with the addressee and salutation usage, which is why we still rely on OLX for personalization when required.

I know this doesn't solve your problem entirely but it is really easy and others in our office that aren't tech-savvy are able to send with ease.

Keith Wilson

@Elizabeth Johnson
For clarification, do you record the “Spouse Email” type on the main constituent's contact information or do you add it to the Spouse Relationship record's contact information? Or both? I'm unclear if NXT even looks at contact data stored on non-constituent relationship records.

Elizabeth Johnson

Hey @Keith Wilson,

On the spouse record, it is listed as “Email” and as I love the comments area - I do still do most of my phone edits in the database view - so I list the source etc.

On the record holder's contact info, I generally* have “Email” (marked as preferred) for the main constituent and “Spouse's Primary Email” if we have a spouse, and email address for that spouse, and they have their own relationship to our school. So if the main record holder is an alumni and the spouse isn't making a gift or hasn't come to events then we don't make a habit of reaching out to them. But parents, current or past, for example, we would do that.

If they opt-out, I delete the Spouse's Primary Email" from the record holder's record and update the spouse's record with the opt-out information.

*If the record holder's email stops working (Bounce or opt out) I promote the spouse's email the the “Email” on the record and add a note that the email belongs to the spouse. Again only if the spouse has a relationship to the school.

It was easy to set up with a simple export and import, and has been easy to train data entry folks to maintain.

An Excel formula on the initial set up alerted me if the couple shares an email and I mark the spouse's email as no bulk and put in the comment the reason is that they share an email address and that they haven't opted out.

Have a great day!