Emails

Why am I receiving an email about preventing duplicates from going out?

September 20, 2022 By Hezel Dalimoos

You may have received from us an email about preventing duplicates from going out, just like above.

Why did I receive this?

An email about preventing duplicates from going out automatically gets triggered when the system prevents an email from going to the same person multiple times.

How do I resolve this?

Check your query. Is it pulling data on or after yesterday, or is it set to pull data from a specific date in the past?

Reasons why this happen:

Altru was down and not sending information
An error occurred while retrieving the email

To resolve this issue:

We will need to locate emails that have not automatically gone out.
Check which email template is triggering this notification. You can do it by clicking on the Email Template link directly in the email. It will redirect you to the correct template.
You need to check your preview tab. If you see any emails with a yellow icon, click on that email.
Check Altru if there is a note type attached to the constituent record the email address is attached.
If not – you can manually resent the email in SGS by clicking the email and then clicking the Send Test Email button.

A dialog will appear with the recipient’s email address and a checkbox to attach the note type in Altru.

In most cases, manually sending these emails will remove the issue.

I have tried that and am still receiving an alert. What should I do?

Please email us at support@socialgoodsoftware.com so we can further look into this.

Email Settings Explained: Grouping Key, Grouping Fields & Grid

July 11, 2022 By Hezel Dalimoos

Give your emails a professional look using these email settings. You can customize your marketing and transactional emails so they will be easy to read and relevant to your customers while you make your brand known.

Grouping Key in Social Good Software

The Grouping Key is not optional. It is a function that is needed when removing duplicates from your data. It uses the first item in your duplicate data to send the email and ignore the duplicate rows if you did not configure the grouping key.

The grouping key is used to group items together and be able to use the specific columns from your duplicate rows. By grouping the emails by the System record ID, we prevent the Email Designer from sending more than one email for the same sales order. Typically, we group the emails by the System record ID or the email address.

If we did not group the emails by the System record ID, multiple of them would go out to the same constituent outlined by the red box below:

Grouped fields in Social Good Software

Grouped fields are data points that you want to display in your email. For example, your query may include the Transaction dates, Lookup ID, Constituent/First Name, Email Address, Sales Order Item/Quantity, etc.

You may not want to display all those fields in your email. With the Grouping fields, you can select what your constituent will see in the email related to their purchase.

Refer below to see the grouped fields in an email where a program name, start date, start time, net amount, and quantity are selected and added to a grid:

Email Settings with the use of Grid

The Grid allows you to add a table to the email. In the above example, the email is for a program event. The organization wanted to display the program description, quantity, cost, and the total amount of the sales order. It is possible by selecting the fields in Grouped fields setting (refer below):

If there are no grouped fields, you cannot create a Grid. There is an alert when you are inside the Grid settings “No grouped fields found”.

Do I have to use grouped fields and grids?

The short answer is no. Grouped fields are an optional feature.

When might I want to use these features?

The best time to use the Grouped fields and Grid is when there is a possibility that the email will pull in multiple purchases such as tickets and memberships. It will be easier for your constituents to see the breakdown of what they purchased with the most relevant information.

How to add digital membership cards to your email

June 29, 2022 By Hezel Dalimoos

Requirements:

You have an email created in Social Good Software.
You have written a query for your email that include these two (2) required fields:
- Members\Constituents\First name
- Members\Constituents\Constituents Record.

Note: There are two first names in the output fields because the first one is for the body of the email and the other one is for the linked digital membership card.

You already assigned a membership level to a membership card.

Adding digital membership cards to your email

1: Go to the Email Designer. Click on the email template you prepared and proceed to Settings.

2: In Settings, you need to set up the Required and Customizations sections properly. Make sure each item has a green check next to them cause it indicates that you have already configured it correctly.

Adding digital membership cards to email

3: To create the digital membership card link, first, click on the little gear in the Grouped Fields section and enable the following:

Members\Constituent\First name
Members\Constituent\System record ID

4: Proceed to the Grid section for the merge field of the first name and the link to the digital membership card. Select the Grid and click on the Load default for the merge field and the link to show up. Save once done.

5: Save the changes you made in the Settings and proceed to the Designer tab.

6: On the lower left side of the window, click on the Grouped field dropdown. Drag the %grid% into the body of the email and Save.

7: Go to the Preview tab to check the changes made to the email. You can also try the membership card link if it works.

Summary

Grid allows us to create a link to digital membership cards for each member on membership and add it to the email. The email is going to the primary member, so we want to display all the members who are part of that membership. In that way, all members can download their digital membership card.

How the relative to date email setting works

May 26, 2022 By Hezel Dalimoos

Do you have members who auto-renew more than once? Or a monthly membership program that requires an email to go out to members monthly? Keep on reading to learn how to use the relative to date frequency option in your email settings to send the same email on a specific date you want it to be.

If you want to use the relative to date option for an email, you will need a specific date like the date of the membership renewal, the date of purchase, or anything with a date. We recommend that you use the auto-renew query prepared by Social Good Software.

Note that there are many kinds of emails with different purposes based on the needs of an organization, so Social Good Software supports three types of emails.

Email Frequency settings

You can find the Email Frequency settings on the email settings page under the option Frequency. The frequency automatically defaults to sent out immediately.

1. Frequency – Immediately

This option will send the email immediately after you create it.
The immediate option requires a note type in the query to know that you sent out an email.

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 that you sent an email at a specified time.

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

3. Frequency – Relative to date

You need to add to the query specifically on the 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 send out an email relative to the date.
A note type is still required in the email settings to create a note in Altru that the email already went out.

Do you need to email the same person multiple times?

Read How to bypass a single email limit per email type.

Summary

Sending emails can be at the very moment, 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 us through support@socialgoodsoftware.com. We are always happy to help!

How to enable email automation

April 16, 2022 By Rick Hernandez

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 the automation function for it to send 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.

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

3: Find the email template where you want to enable the email automation function. In this example, we will be using Tickets Sold Today.

4: Click on the “Settings” option on the upper right side of the window.

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

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.

Summary

Before you turn on the email automation function, make sure that you troubleshoot it first. Double check your email and edit it if necessary. Once the automation function is enabled, the Social Good Software will monitor the query you built and send out emails every 5 minutes on your behalf.

Please reach us through our support channel if you have concerns or questions. We are always happy to help!

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

February 2, 2022 By Rick Hernandez

Manual Tagging comes in handy when guests who already received an email request to receive the same email again. Losing access to email because of accidentally deleting it or losing access to the email address is possible, so knowing how to do manual tagging is a must to help your customers with this request.

Keep on reading to learn more about manual tagging. Social Good Software gives you an illustration of how to resend an email to the same member below.

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

2: Scroll down to Documentation and delete if there is a welcome email attached before you click the Add button and select Note.

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

Once you manually tag a guest, Altru will pick it up on the query. It will look at sales orders that do not have a Note Type and automatically sends the email to the guest.

You don’t need to switch from Altru to Social Good Software to resend the email. Simply tag the guest in Altru, and delete the attached previous welcome email. If you add the Note Type, Altru will resend the email to the guest automatically.

Types of emails for eTickets

January 27, 2022 By Rick Hernandez

eTicket-email-options Download

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.

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.

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.

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

January 27, 2022 By Rick Hernandez

Introduction

Having reservation note types inside the Altru is very helpful when you create your reservation emails with Email Designer. Reservation Email is handy in group sales like field trips, weddings, venue rentals, or any activity that involves sales in groups. When you have Note Types, it will be easier to create a query that helps to exclude or include individuals.

Create your Reservation Note Types Inside of Altru:

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

2: Proceed to Code Tables.

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

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

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

December 29, 2021 By Rick Hernandez

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.

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.

eTicket sending and cache process

November 18, 2021 By Rick Hernandez

Before an eTicket email sends out to members/customers, it will first undergo an eTicket sending process in which meeting the requirement/s of every step is necessary. It is a repeating process but failing to satisfy each condition will disregard the eTicket email.

eTicket Sending Process

Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ)

1. If I manually resend an email, will it updates the ticket?

Yes, because if you click resend on the Email Designer app, it will automatically generate the ticket. The email will go through the same process whether you send it automatically or manually.

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

Deleting the Note Type will trigger another email that will go out to the same recipient. The email will go through the four (4) step process, and as a result, the email that will go out will contain the latest information from Altru.

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

Yes, though it makes the process slower when you click on preview eTicket, it is the actual and latest from Altru.

Summary

This illustration will give you an overview of what your eTickets emails undergo before the recipient receive them. It ensures that the recipient has the right e-ticket number and correct details before it goes out, or there is be no emails. Reach us out if you have concerns or questions through our support channel. We are always happy to help!