Social Good Software

Creating amazing guest experiences through innovative software solutions for the social good community

Emails

How the relative to date email setting works

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Do you have members who auto-renew more than once? Or do you have a monthly membership program where you would like an email to go out to members every month? Keep reading to learn how to use the relative to date frequency option in your email settings to send the same email relative to date. 

You may want to use the relative to date option for an email if you would like to send the same email to a recipient relative to dates such as a membership renewal or expiration.

View our recommended auto-renew query

There are many kinds of emails with different purposes based on the needs of an organization. Social Good Software supports three types of emails. 

What is the difference between the 3 email types?

Email Frequency settings 

You can find this setting on the email settings page under the option called “Frequency”. The frequency automatically defaults to be sent out immediately.

1. Frequency – Immediately 

  • This option will send the email immediately after you create it. 
  • It requires a note type in the query to determine if the email was sent out.

Learn about how to create a note type for a sales order query

2. Frequency – Specific time 

  • You can set the time when you want your emails to go out. 
  • Note type is also needed to know if the email was sent out at the specified time.

Learn about how to create a note type for a membership query

3. Frequency – Relative to date 

  • Needs to add to the query output fields the purchase date, transaction date, expiration date, or another relative field. 
  • This option does not require a note type in the query but needs a date like the renewal date, date of purchase, and so on to be able to send out an email relative to a datel
  • A note type is still required in the email settings in order to create a note in Altru that the email went out

Do you need to email the same person multiple times?

Read about how to bypass the email limit of one email in the following article.

How to bypass a single email limit per email type

Summary

Sending emails can be right away, at a specific time, or relative to date. Depending on which frequency option you select, you will either need a note type in the query or a date in the output field.

If you have additional questions, please reach out to us at support@socialgoodsoftware.com.

How to enable email automation

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If you are done with your emails and are now ready to send out all your outbound messages, the email automation of Email Designer is very helpful. All you have to do is to enable this function and it will do the work of sending messages on your behalf. Make sure you follow the steps below for the best result.

Email automation process:

1: Log in to your Social Good Software account.

Screenshot

2: Click on the Email Designer on the left side of the navigation.

3: Find the template which you would like to enable the outbound messages for. In this example, we will be using “Tickets Sold Today”.

4: Click on the “Settings” option at the top of the navigation.

email automation

5: In the settings section, you will see the option “Start sending emails?”. Enable this function and click on the “Save Settings” button.

email automation

6: You can go to Preview to see all the emails you are currently sending and the Activity tab for the emails already sent out.

email automation

Summary

Make sure that you troubleshoot and that you are satisfied with your emails before you turn the option on. Once you enable the email automation, the Social Good Software application will monitor the query you built and send out emails every 5 minutes on your behalf. You don’t have to do anything.

If you don’t understand something or you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to do manual tagging of emails for resends in Altru for digital membership cards

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Manual Tagging comes in handy when guests who already received an email but lost access to it due to various reasons like they accidentally deleted the email or lost access to their email address and requested to receive the same email again.

Keep on reading to learn more about manual tagging. To illustrate, we will be resending a Digital Membership card to a member. To do that, just follow the step below:

1: Open your Altru account and find the membership record of the guest who requested to resend an email.

2: Proceed to Documentation at the bottom part and delete the welcome email attached before you click on Add then select Note.

manual tagging

3:  A dialog box will pop out. Click on the drop-down menu for Type and select Resend Welcome Email. Click on Save.

manual tagging

Once you manually tagged a guest, Altru will pick it up on the query which is looking at sales orders that do not have a note type and automatically send the email.

No need to switch from Altru to Social Good Software to resend the email. Just simply tag the guest in Altru, and delete the previous welcome email attached. The moment that note type is added, Altru will resend the email to the guest.

Types of emails for eTickets

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eTicket-email-optionsDownload

Introduction

Email designer is an app that allows you to customize and send automated emails for your Altru transactions. This tool is useful for different types of emails for eTickets because through it you can send messages with tickets in PDF form. Guests are no longer need to click on the link to download the ticket since it was already replaced by a ticket in PDF form.

In this guide, you will learn what are the types of emails for eTickets, the components of each email, and some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that we received regarding this topic. 

How to set-up your emails in three (3) steps:

1. Write your email in Google Docs or Microsoft word

  • We recommend that you first draft your email to Google docs or Microsoft word and check that you include all the merge fields that you need.

2. Create your query and note type with Altru for your email

  • Make sure that your query identifies who the receivers of the email are. Create a Note type in Altru to be able to monitor if the emails were sent.

3. Setup the Email Designer with your content and query.

  • To be able to send out this email, put together the content and the query to the Email Designer. 

The process of setting up your emails starts from running the query and feeding it to the Email Designer. If there are individuals who match the query, an email for that particular person will be sent out. Once the email was sent out, the app will grab a copy of it and attach it to Altru as Note Type so there will be an email attached inside the particular sales order.

Three (3) Types of Emails for eTickets

1. eTicket Email is great for sending out a PDF that auto generated an eTicket number and a PDF with their tickets.

types of emails for eTickets

There are two emails that Altru sends out. The first email is about what the guests’ purchased and the second is the link to their eTicket. 

With the use of the Email Designer, we will replace the second email that Altru sends which is the link to their ticket with our eTicket email where we will instead attach a PDF to the tickets.

2. Reminder Email is great for sending out a reminder of their upcoming visit with tickets attached as a PDF. This email can go out the day of or one day before.

types of emails for eTickets

3. Post Visit Email is great for following up with guests who have visited. You can send a membership offer or just collect feedback on their experience. 

types of emails for eTickets

It is an email to thank  the guests for visiting. Typically sent out the day or the following day after the visit.You can send this email without PDF or tickets.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Do these emails account for sales orders over the phone, online and in person?

  • The discussed type of emails above will account for all three types of sales methods. You can also exclude a specific sales method at the query level.

2. If I manually resend an email, will my tickets be updated?

  • Yes, If you resend an email the tickets will be generated at the time the email is being sent.

3. If I delete the note type from the sales order, will the email go out with the right tickets?

  • Yes, the query is looking at sales orders that do not have a note type and sends an email. If you remove the note type from the sales order, another version of an email will get off with another PDF. Typically, you won’t be doing this unless you need to resend it.

4. If I open the eTicket preview on the Email Designer, will I see the latest ticket available?

  • Yes, you will see the latest ticket  available whenever you click on the link

The purpose of this documentation is to help you understand the three (3) types of eTicket emails, and how these emails work so that it will be easier for you to create and set up eTicket emails based on their type for your organization.

How to create reservation note types in Altru

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Introduction

Having reservation note types inside of Altru is very helpful when you create your reservation emails with Email Designer. Reservation Email is useful when you are doing any group sales like field trips, weddings, venue rentals, and things alike. When you have Note Types, it will be easier to create a query that helps to exclude or include certain individuals.

Process of creating a Reservation Note Types Inside of Altru:

1: Go to your Altru account and head over to Administration.

2: Proceed to Code Tables.

reservation note types

3: Select Ticketing on the drop-down menu then Apply.

reservation note types

4: Proceed to Reservation Note Type then click on Add.

reservation note types
reservation note types

5: A dialog box will pop out wherein you can type in the name. In this case, we can call it a Confirmation Email. Once done, Click OK. 

You now have your Reservation Note Type called Confirmation Email. You can also set up another Note Type for your Reminder Email and Post Visit Email by clicking on Add if you are already in the Reservation Note Type table entries or follow the same step above. 

Emails you need to set up for Digital Membership cards

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Introduction

There are many transactional emails for Digital Membership Cards that we can configure with Email Designer. Because of that, we create this documentation for you to fully understand the functions and importance of these emails.

Knowing how these emails work and when to use it will help you better understand what emails you need to set up with your Digital Membership Cards and which one applies for your Membership Portal.

Different emails for Digital Membership Cards :

Launch Email

Useful in announcing your new Digital Membership Cards to the entire membership base of all active members of your organization. 

  • It is an automated email that you send out to the entire membership base of active members. You can use this launch email to inform members about the new Digital Membership Cards that the organization is officially launching or about the Membership Portal.
  • It is a one-time email announcement that you can send out to your active members. Receivers of this email are between 2,000 to 50,000 constituents depending on how many members your organization has.
  • Launch email will not be of use anymore after sending it to all active members. But there is an exemption which is when the organization resends it to their Board Members in the following year. You can turn on this email for that particular one-time communication.

Automated Welcome Email

Use to welcome all your new members who purchase online, advance, and daily sales. You need to have a sales order to be able to send this email.

  • An email that runs continuously in which once triggered will automatically send out to welcome those individuals who signed up and become new members as well as those who renewed their membership.
  • It is an automated welcome email that requires a sales order. If someone purchases through online, advance and daily sales, he/she will get a welcome email informing that he/she  purchased this particular membership.

Back Office Gift Email

Welcome email for the recipients or givers of the members who purchase through the back office. Useful for automatically sending out gift emails with gift messages.

  • It is an automated welcome email that you can send to the recipient and gift-givers of the members. Members who purchase through the back office that contain gift messages that can customize are the receiver of this email.

Automated Gift Email

Welcome email for recipients or givers of the members who purchase online, advance, and daily sales. Useful for automatically sending out gift emails and gift messages.

  • An automated welcome email sent to recipients and gift-givers for purchasing online, daily, or in advanced sales. It contains a gift message that can customize depending on how the organization wants to set it.

Back Office Email

An email that welcomes all your new members who purchase via mail-in or you enter manually. A sales order is not necessary to send this email.

  • A welcome email that automatically triggers to welcome new members who purchase through mail-in, entered manually, or through the batch. Sales order is not necessary for this kind of email to receive.

Reminder Email

Send out reminders for your members 120, 60, 30, 15, 7 days before the membership’s expiration date.

  • An automated email that you can send out to remind members to renew their membership. You can set it up once to send out on certain days before the expiration date.
  • You can also customize the specific day you want to send the reminder email.

Lapsed Membership Email

Send out follow-up for your members 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 days after their expiration date.

  • A follow-up email that you can set up once and send out at a specific time after the expiration date of membership to those members who haven’t renewed.

Manual Tagging Email

Useful for those that want to receive the email again regardless of the method of how they purchased their membership. To be able to trigger the email, you have to do manual tagging with note type.

  • A welcome email that you can trigger by tagging a membership. Use this email when a member requests to resend the welcome email due to some reasons like they lost the original message, lost access to their email or just wants to email them again the welcome email.
  • Manual Tagging is useful whenever there are requests to receive their welcome email again regardless of the method they use to purchase their membership. It also required notes for this email to be triggered. 

Auto Renew Email

Send auto-reminders for payments on credit cards being used for auto-renewing memberships. This can go out relative to the expiration date.

  • This email is for everybody who is auto-renewing their membership.
  • Auto-renew email is sent out informing members who use credit cards for payment about their membership renewal which will automatically charge to their cards. 
  • This email can go out before or after the credit card gets charged. It is up to you when you want to send the auto-renewal email but we recommend sending this email out 2 weeks before the credit card gets charged to catch any changes on the card.

Below is a matrix that you can use as a guide. It will let you know what activities each of these emails covered.

Emails for Digital Membership Card

Summary

You now have an idea what are the different emails for Digital Membership Card that you can configure with Email Designer. This will make it easier for you to identify which email is applicable for a certain activity and which one is sent out for a specific transaction.

If you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to bypass single email limit per email type

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Email Designer of Social Good Software has the ability to bypass a single email limit per email type. You can enable this option if there is a need for you to email the same recipient multiple times. In this documentation, we will show you how and when to use this option for your organization.

Step 1: Log in to your Social Good Software account.

Step 2: Go to email Designer and click an email. In this illustration, we will click on the email for Ticket Sold Today.

Step 3: Proceed to Settings then you will see the option called Email the same recipient more than once. You can enable this option if you have the need to send the same email more than once to the same receiver for various reasons.

Warning: If you turn on the option to bypass a single email limit per email type but your note type is not configured correctly with your query then this email will end up going to the same recipient multiple times per second.

Step 4: When you enable this option, a warning will pop out with a video on how to set up your query and note type inside of Email Designer which you must strictly follow to avoid issues in the future.

We strongly emphasize that before you enable this option you must be certain of what you are doing. Make  sure that you configured your Note Type correctly and set up your queries with Altru properly. Be very careful in using this option.

What is the difference between the three email types?

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Introduction

You’ve entered the phase of setting up emails using the Email Designer, copying and pasting some ODATA links, and setting up the UI Design to make the emails look pretty. After punching in some steps, you’ve come to a crossroads: Email Type. Three buttons appear on this screen, saying “Transactional Email,” “Membership Email,” and “Reservation Email.” Thinking about what you are making emails for, you find that your email may fit nicely into two or all categories, or perhaps you may not understand what you would use “Reservation Email” for… The three email types: what is the difference?

Three Email Types

#1: Transactional Email

Congratulations! Someone buy a ticket for the event next week! Now you need to create the purchased ticket, make it a PDF, attach it to an email, and send it to the constituent… It sounds like a lot of work to put in for every transaction that happens each day. But Socia Good Software made it easier by sending automated transactional emails once your customer made a purchase. Some pointers to remember: First, see to it that you include the constituent record ID, email, and the event date so your guests can remember. Also, SGS made it possible to attach tickets in PDF form, and customers can add them to their Apple Wallet and Google Pay apps.

#2: Membership Email

Do you wish that notifying your members to renew their membership becomes easier? Sends an attractive membership card to your new members? SGS can make it simple for you to send out membership cards automatically, along with any reminders and updates to membership perks, renewals, etc. Make sure to tag your email as a membership email, and you can add your membership card details and other perks to keep your VIP guests informed and excited.

#3: Reservation Email

One handy tool Altru utilizes is the ability to create group sales and facility rentals for your organization. Email use for these utilizes more information than the usual Transactional Email: they have multiple price types, itineraries, group types, and more. So what kind of email can you send for Joey’s 8th birthday party at your organization? Are there different price types for Joey and his friends versus his mother and her friends? The reservation email is the best option!

*If you haven’t set up group sales defaults yet, Altru provides a group sales checklist that you can access by going into “Tickets” and selecting “Group sales setup.” You can also set up a reservation calendar to add constituents, set up group types, etc. 

After making a query to search for groups that show up in x amount of time–48 hours, one week, whichever you choose–the setup for this email is similar to other transactional emails. Remember, you may ask a group to check in to an event space rather than giving them eTickets, and you may need to group grid items differently. On the other hand, instead of sending all the group itineraries and whatnot, this email is great to use as a reminder email letting others know that they have a group reservation or they will go to your organization two (2) days from now. 

Summary

Now that you understand what each email entails, you can make a more informed decision on what to use when designing your emails. If you have any further questions, please let us know, and we will do our best to keep you moving forward!

You can also check the Post-visit email template, eTicket email template, and Reminder email template, which serve as your guide.