Email Appeals Leveraging MyBernard Integration with MailChimp® · MailChimp® The MyBernard and Mailchimp integration combines the power of both systems to generate robust email

© 2016 Bernard Data Solutions

Email Appeals Leveraging MyBernard Integration with

MailChimp®

The MyBernard and Mailchimp integration combines the power of both systems to generate robust

email appeals.

Response data from MailChimp is automatically tracked in MyBernard updating donor and appeal

records so you can then use this information in queries, segments, and reports.

Designing Email Templates

Good email design makes a difference in how donors and supporters react to your communications.

Best Practices for Copy

How you write your copy is just as important as what you say. The table below identifies best practices

you can use and includes a description of each practice.

Best Practice Description

Scan Use bold, different colors, bullet lists to get phrases to jump

out to the readers’ eyes.

Personalization Use the supporter’s first name (email is one-to-one and personal) and look for other personalization opportunities such as state or city.

5th Grade Reading Level Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs. Big blocks of text are intimidating. Allow your reader to speed through your copy to get to the action you want them to take.

P a g e | 2 © 2016 Bernard Data Solutions

Email Appeals Leveraging MyBernard

Integration with MailChimp®


Single Call to Action

Get to the point of the ONE thing they can do today and repeat it many times in your email. Be sure to give them many opportunities to click through to the page where they can act.

P.S. This is one of the most read parts of the message so use it to your advantage.

Donor Centric Language

Make your donor the hero. You the donor fed hungry children. You the donor saved puppies from the kill shelter. You the donor gave veterans a hand up. Not “we” the organization. Avoid the trap of “you helped us” – that still gives the organization credit rather than the donor.

Best Practices for Design

Design is another important aspect to consider and establishes the format for your message. The table

below identifies the best practices for designing your emails and includes a description of each practice.


Branding Your emails should clearly be from you based on your

consistent use of a recognizable brand.

Images Use compelling images where eyes are focused to the camera.

Font Research is available to help you identify which easy to read fonts work best for emails.

White Space White space provides breaks up text and graphics to make the message less cramped, confusing, or overwhelming.





Mobile Responsiveness

Your emails should look good on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. Many designers think about the smallest screen first and then expand out. Use tricks like display: none; to hide elements that don’t need to be shown on mobile. Links and buttons should be a minimum of 44 x 44 pixels so they are easily tap-able.

Bullet Proof Buttons

Many people don’t turn images on in emails, so your colorful button that you want people to click on may not show up. You can use coding to build a “button” so everyone will see your call to action even if images are turned off.

Process for Creating Email Appeals in MyBernard

Recognizing the process for creating email appeals in MyBernard helps you manage and analyze the

success of your appeal.

Create an Email Appeal

When you create an email appeal in MyBernard you identify the attributes as well as the

acknowledgements, packages, segment groupings, pulls, inventory, and documents for the appeal.




The following table identifies the tabs on an Appeal record and includes a description of the information

on each tab.

Tab Description

General

Enter the attributes including appeal ID, name,

description, and projected income value. You

can select groupings, add costs, and view

performance data for the appeal.

Acknowledgments Add acknowledgements that will be sent when a

gift is received from a donor.

Packages Establish the default package for the appeal or

add additional packages.

Segment Groupings Add categories for organizing the appeal so you

can use them in queries and reports.

Pulls Create and finalize segment pulls to identify the

group of donors who will receive your appeal.

Inventory View the items available for donors to order

when they are included in your appeal package.

Documents

Upload any attachments related to the appeal.

Allowed formats include doc, .docx, .pdf, .gif, .jpg, .png, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .msg, .wav, .mp3, .wmav.

Attach an Email Template

You identify the email template to use for your appeal on the Packages tab. Please note: before you can

attach a template, you must create it in MyBernard or MailChimp.




To attach an email template to your appeal, follow these steps:

1. Select the Packages tab

2. Choose an available package.

a. You can also choose to add a new package.

3. Click Template List.

4. Right click the template to attach and then click Select.

a. You can make changes to the selected template or create a new template.

Deploy Your Email Appeal

Before you deploy your email appeal, you should test your email with a seed group to ensure it

accurately sends and you can track the response data.

Note: Create a new package to use with your seed group.

To deploy your email appeal select

the Pulls tab, click New Pull, and then

follow these steps:

1. Select Email as the channel.

2. Select the subscription list.

3. Select the seed list.

4. Choose a template to create

either a blank pull or use a

previous pull.

5. Select the previous pull to

use as the template.

6. Click Save.




Once you save the pull, click Schedule Pull on the Pulls tab and

then follow these steps:

7. Select the date to deploy the emails.

8. Select the users to receive an email notification from the

Available Users pane and click the right arrow to add

them to the Selected Users pane.

9. Click Schedule.

After the emails are sent, the response data is collected by

MailChimp and uploaded to MyBernard.

Track and Analyze Email Response Data

There are several ways to track and analyze the email response

data in MyBernard.

Email Engine

The Email Engine module in MyBernard provides you with a

quick glance at the data response statistics for your emails. On

the Completed Jobs tab, you can quickly view details about the jobs that have been completed.

Information includes total and unique clicks, hard and soft bounces, as wells as any unsubscribed

statistics.

Information on the URL Click Stats tab includes total and unique clicks as well as the time and date of

the first and last click on the URL used with your email.




Queries

MailChimp response data can be used in queries to identify records based on the criteria you select.

In the above example you create a contacts query, select the Link clicked from Appeal criteria, and then

enter the appeal ID as well as the link used in your appeal. You can also select a start and end date to

include records for a specific timeframe.

This contact query identifies the records using the With Email and Actions criteria. You enter the appeal

ID and then select the action, which in this example is donated, to identify the partners who donated

from the appeal.




Segments

MailChimp response data can be used in segments to further target your audience.

In the above example, the selected segment is based on criteria from MailChimp that identifies those

who clicked to open the email from a previous appeal.

Reports

To analyze the success of your email appeal, you can generate reports in MyBernard. The following table

identifies the reports available and includes a description of each report.

Report Description

Email Appeal Overview (E1001)

Displays relevant data responses for all appeals

based on a specific timeframe. The data in the

report includes appeal name, description, date

sent, and seeds sent as well as number of

emails opened, clicked, and forwarded.

Email Appeal Overview by Packages (E1002)

Displays relevant data responses for all appeals

grouped by packages. The data in the report

includes those in the E1001 report and the

package information for each appeal.




Frequently Asked Questions

The following table identifies the most frequently asked questions about the integration between

MyBernard and MailChimp.

Question Answer

How can you view # of opens, click

throughs, hard/soft bounce, rejects, spam and unsubscribes for an email appeal?

There are reports (E1001 and E1002) as well as

the Email Jobs option in the Email Engine module can give you this information.

What is the maximum number of emails that MailChimp can send out at once?

MailChimp has the capability to send up to

120,000 at once. You must sign-up with MailChimp and there is a free option that you can use. Once you are past the maximums you will need to upgrade to another level.

What is a "subscriber" within Mail Chimp and how is that different from Partners in Bernard?

Partners are added to MailChimp when they are

included in the appeal and they become a subscriber in MailChimp. One partner in MyBernard equals one subscriber in MailChimp.

Can you schedule more than 1 email?

Yes you can if you are using different appeals.

You can create a schedule and set up one to send every number of days to create a series of emails. This is all automated and works well for

as a Welcome Series for new donors.

How many emails can you send a day? This is specific to the plan maximums

established your subscription to MailChimp.

What happens on the partner record when someone's email address is a bounce or mark the email as spam?

Stats are collected daily and MyBernard marks partner records with the appropriate flags.

How about the soft/hard bounce scenarios? MailChimp handles how these work and an email can soft bounce 3 times and hard bounce 1 time before it is marked as undeliverable.

Are you able to re-send out emails to those who did not previously open it?

Yes...you can use the With Email and Actions criteria, change the EmailActions to Opened and ensure that you select "Not Contained In" to

identify those who did not open the email.




A list of the "EmailActions" or a drop-down menu here would be helpful.

Great suggestion and this functionality is under consideration for future enhancements.

Is there any update on when the opt out report will be fixed? It currently just

shows 0 even though there are opt outs.

We do know there are a few reports where this is an issue and we are working on resolving this.

Are you able to opt-out/in a partner from a

subscription list from the partner record?

You can delete the partner from the subscription

and add them from the partner record. This functionality is also available through the API.

Are we able to send email in languages other than English?

Yes…there are several different languages available. Here is a link to a list on MailChimp’s website.

I was just told with the recent updates to create new pulls do I have to do this all the

time or just once?

You can create a new pull once and copy it as many times as you need.

Are separate instances of MailChimp

required for different databases? Or could the same templates be used across different Bernard DBs (1 shared Mail Chimp

account)?

You can have one MailChimp account and multiple lists so you can share templates.

Is there a way in the Bernard system to add another “From” email return address?

Yes there is please send any requests to change the from address to the Bernard Support team.

Is there a way to have the communication

come from your organization directly instead of <cgurrerro=bernardsolutions.biz.etc......>?

We've seen these sorts of emails landing in junk mail since the email address changes each time a new email is sent.

These email addresses come from MailChimp and they do it this way to ensure that most

emails do not end up in a junk folder.

https://blog.mailchimp.com/does-mailchimp-support-my-language/