If you intend to send a mailing using a mailing house or a printing company outside of your organization, you can create a report in Bloomerang CRM that includes all of the information the mailing house needs. You can also create interactions to keep track of the mailing in Bloomerang CRM.
Create a Report
Your specific needs will vary depending on the information you want to include in your mailing.
Tip: These instructions help you manually create a report. You can also use natural language to describe your report and watch it come to life. For more information, read About Conversational Reporting.
To manually create a constituent report as a starting point:
Click Reports.
Click New Report.
Click Constituent - Profile Starter (Start from Scratch).
Click Start Report.
To name your report, click Edit next to "New Report."
Select Filters
At this point, you have created a constituent-based report that includes all of your constituents. Regardless of your intended audience, you can begin by filtering for only those constituents that have a mailing address, those that have opted in to receive mail, and those that are not marked inactive or deceased in Bloomerang CRM.
In the report you created, click Add Filter.
Search for a select the Has Addresses filter.
Click Apply.
In the Exclude section, click Add Filter.
Search for a select the Communications Restrictions filter.
From the Values list, select Do Not Mail.
Click Apply.
In the Exclude section, click Or.
Search for a select the Status filter.
From the Values list, select Inactive and Deceased.
Click Apply.
Click Save.
Now your report contains constituents that have addresses, are willing to receive mail, and are currently active with your organization. You can now apply any other desired filters to the recipients list. For more information about using filters, read Report Basics: Add Filters.
Note: You can change a constituent-based report to a household-based report by clicking Constituent and changing it to Household. This groups constituents into households, if they are in households, and reduces the number of letters that you need to create. For more information, read Run a Report by Household.
Add Columns
By default, a constituent-based report contains columns for Primary Street, Primary City, Primary State, and Primary ZIP Code. You may want to include the Envelope Name column as well.
To add a column for Envelope Name:
Click Columns.
Search for and select Envelope Name.
Click Add.
Repeat these steps for any other columns that you want to include.
Click Apply.
When you are finished adding columns, to download the report:
Click More.
Click Export.
Select a file format: CSV, PDF, or Excel.
Click Export.
If you have additional information outside of Bloomerang CRM that you’d like to include, you can add it to the Excel file, but note that you might not be able to import all of this information later in an interaction.
For more information about adding columns to a report, read Report Basics: Add and Edit Columns.
Tip: The Account Number is automatically added for each constituent when you export to Excel. Account numbers will help if you create an interaction import later, since they are the best way to match constituents during an import.
Create Interactions to Track Mailings
Creating a report does not create an interaction on a constituent's timeline. However, it is a good idea to keep track of your mailing activity in Bloomerang CRM using interactions. You can create interactions to track your mailings in several ways:
Add Interactions
Import Interactions
Create a “Proxy” Letter
Add Interactions
If your list of recipients is short enough, you can manually add interactions to each recipient's timeline. For more information about creating interactions, read Interactions.
Import Interactions
If you are mailing the letter to many recipients, it may not be feasible to add an interaction to every recipient's timeline one by one. In this case, consider importing interactions. Use the report that you exported earlier as a starting point for your import file, and make sure that the Account Number is included in the report. If you made any changes to the file outside of Bloomerang CRM, remember that you may or may not be able to import those changes. For more information about importing files, read Set Up Import Files.
Warning: Imports are irreversible. Before you import interactions, consider consulting Bloomerang Support to make sure your import file is set up correctly.
Create a “Proxy” Letter
Even though you are sending a mailing through a mailing house, you can still create a “proxy” letter in Bloomerang CRM to account for the interaction.
For more information about creating a letter, read Create a Letter Template.
To start a new letter:
Click Communications.
Click Letters.
Click New.
On the Constituents tile, click Select.
Enter a Name for your letter.
Select a Purpose for your letter.
Click Next.
The content of the proxy letter is not important. However, you need to reference the report that you created for the mailing house to pull the constituents into the letter.Click Filter.
In the Include section, click Add Filter.
Search for and select the Is in a Constituent Report filter.
Click Select a Report.
Select the name of your report.
Click OK.
Your letter now references the constituents in the report that you created for the mailing house. For more help, read Use Filters from Another Report.Click Save and
Select Preview.
Click Run.
Click Run again. You will not use the letter that you created in Bloomerang CRM, but an interaction will be created for each constituent that receives your mailing.
Note: If you added any additional constituents or columns to the report outside of Bloomerang CRM, those will not be represented in your “proxy” letter.