Creating Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns

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Direct mail marketing campaigns are campaigns that you intend to mail to your customers in a letter or postcard format. Before you begin, decide your target audience, occasion/purpose, and template. Templates are located on your hard drive in the C:\Wings\Office Marketing Templates folder. You may want to browse this directory and open some of the templates to see which ones you might want to use.

Creating Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns Using Predefined Templates

Predefined campaigns are the quickest and easiest campaigns to generate. Most of the information is completed for you automatically. Predefined campaigns use existing templates that are already created for you with predefined merge fields. Therefore you cannot change the text of the template, unless you modify it (see Creating a Single Postcard Template) or create a new template (see Creating a New Template).

To create a direct mail marketing campaign using a predefined template:

1. On the FTD Mercury Main Menu, click Marketing. The Marketing Wizard opens.
2. Click Create a New Campaign. The Create Campaign panel appears.
3. In the Campaign Name field, enter a name for your marketing campaign. Remember, this campaign can be used later, so make the name as specific as possible. For example, you might want to indicate if it is a postcard or letter, and whether the promotion is a reminder campaign or a generic one.
4. From the Referral Code list, select the referral code that you want to use for this campaign (or add a new one if you do not see one that you want to use). A referral code must be assigned to the campaign so that when the customer refers to the campaign, you can select the referral code in Order Entry or Point of Sale and later track how effective the campaign was.
5. Select Direct Mail as the Distribution Type.
6. From the Campaign Type list, select the type of campaign. Generally, you will use the Holiday or Reminder campaigns. Click Next.
7. The Select Target List panel opens. This panel allows you to select the target list of customers that you want to include in this mailing. Click Select a predefined list. This option allows you to select predefined customer lists, such as All Customers, New Customers, or Top Customers, or if this is a Reminder campaign, you are prompted for the occasion type (Reminder or Reminder - Holiday). Selecting a predefined list selects your output fields automatically. You will be prompted later in the wizard for some specific criteria, depending on the predefined list that you choose (for example, if you select Top Customers, you will later be prompted for the number of top customers). Click Next.
8. The Key Criteria panel opens. This panel allows you to select which criteria you want to use when selecting the customers to include in your marketing campaign. The options that display on this panel depend on which type of customer target list you selected. Provide the information that the program is prompting for, depending on the option that you chose in the Select Target List window.
   Clicking More Criteria allows you to select more criteria for the customer merge.

   Keep these in mind: If you are creating a reminder campaign, you most likely want to select dates for orders that were placed last year. If you have multiple stores, remember to choose the store that contains the customer records that you want to extract. If you select the main store, the program does not extract duplicate customers if you have customers saved at multiple stores. If you extract by Top Customers, the system extracts the top number of customers at the selected stores. However because the system is designed to eliminate duplicate records, the system eliminates duplicate top customers if the extracted customers are top customers at more than one store (therefore you may select to extract 100 top customers, but because duplicates are eliminated, only 50 are actually extracted).

9. Click Next.
10. The Output Fields panel opens. Output fields are the merge fields that are inserted into your document. Since you are using a predefined list (All Customers, New Customers, etc.), the output fields are selected for you. If you want to include more output fields than what are displayed in this window, you can click More Fields and select additional fields. Click Next.
11. The Preview and Edit List panel opens. This panel allows you to preview the list of customers before you save and execute your campaign. Before reaching the final panel in the wizard, review the list and see if you want to remove any customers from the campaign. Any records that are highlighted are missing information.

    If you type information in the grid, only the information for this specific customer list is saved (the information only is saved in this particular .csv file and is not saved in your customer database). To view the criteria that you selected throughout the wizard, click View Criteria. To exclude a customer from the list, right-click on the customer record and then click Delete Row. If you want to change the criteria, click the Back button to go back to previous panel and change your selections.

12. Click Next.
13. On the Save Campaign panel, from the Template list, select the template you want to use. This should correspond to the holiday or reminder for which you are creating the campaign. If you want to see the template before merging, click Preview. You can change the text of the template by clicking the Edit button. Use this option only to change the text of the template.
14. If you want to print post cards, select this option. Postcards are printed four to an 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of paper. You also will need to fill in the Return Address area if you create post cards.
15. Select Text Only if you want to use a template that does not have any graphics. The letter is printed as formatted text only. This is useful if the paper you are printing on already has graphics.
16. In the Sender field, type the name of the person signing the letter or postcard, for example the manager or owner of the store.
17. Click Generate Mailing Labels if you want Microsoft Word to generate mailing labels. If you select this option, select Three Across.
18. Depending on whether you plan on sending your mailing list to an external printing service or whether you are printing the letters or postcards yourself, you can select to open the output in Microsoft Word. FTD recommends that if you are using a printing service, you do not select this option, and just send the customer file (located in C:\Wings\Customer Lists) and the template (located in C:\Wings\Office Templates\Mercury Forms) to the printing service. Otherwise, select Open in Word.
19. Select Execute Campaign Now.
20. Click Finish. If you did not select Open in Word, your customer list saves as a .csv file in the C:\Wings\Customer Lists directory. The file name is the campaign name followed by the date and time that you saved the campaign.
    If you selected Open in Word, you receive a message stating that the merge will take a few minutes. Click OK. If you are merging a large number of customers, this process takes a few minutes. You will not see a progress bar or any indication that the program is working. Please be patient until you receive a response from the program letting you know that the merge is complete. When the program is finished with the merge you will receive the message Mail Merge Operation completed successfully. The application will now be closed. Click OK to complete the process and close Mercury Marketing. Your letters/postcards will display in Microsoft Word.
21. To save the letters/postcards, click the File menu, then click Save. FTD recommends saving the file in the C:\Wings\Marketing Lists directory, so that you can access the letters by clicking the Find my Merged Documents and Mailing Labels on the first panel of the Marketing Wizard. Type a name and select a location to save the file, then click Save.
22. To print the letters/postcards, in Microsoft Word, on the File menu, click Print.

Creating Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns Using Custom Templates

If you want to create a custom campaign (i.e., you are not using a predefined list of customers or a provided template), you must merge your customer information into Microsoft Word manually.

• To learn how to create a new template (create a template from scratch, including letter text and merge fields), see Creating a New Template.
• To learn how to change an existing template (start with an FTD-provided template, then change the text and/or merge fields), see Creating a Single Postcard Template.

Creating a Birthday Reminder Direct Mail Campaign

To create a birthday reminder direct mail campaign:

1. On the FTD Mercury Main Menu, click Marketing. The Mercury Marketing Wizard opens.
2. On the Welcome panel, click Create a New Campaign.
3. In the Campaign Name field, type a name for the campaign (such as Birthday Reminder).
4. Select a referral code for the campaign. If you do not see the referral code you want to use, click Add New Referral Code and add it.
5. Select Direct Mail as the Distribution Type.
6. From the Campaign Type list, select Reminder.
7. Click Next.
8. On the Select Target List panel, click Select a predefined list. Select Reminder from the predefined list options at the bottom of the panel.
9. Click Next.
10. On the Key Criteria panel, if you have multiple stores, select a store from the Store list.
11. From the Occasion list, select an occasion. In this case, select Birthday.
12. In the Delivery Date field, select a beginning and ending delivery date.
13. Click Next.
14. On the Output Fields panel, review the fields that will be included. Click Next.
15. On the Preview and Edit Lists panel, review the list contents. Click Next.
16. On the Save Campaign panel, in the Template field, select Birthday. If you want to send a postcard instead of a letter, click Post Card.
17. In the Sender field, type the name of your shop or the owner name.
18. Select Generate Mailing Labels if you want to generate labels.
19. Select Open in Word.
20. Select Execute Campaign Now.
21. Click Finish.

The Mercury Marketing Wizard will process your selections. In a few minutes, Microsoft Word will open and merge all the customer information into the template. When the merge has finished, you can print the letters (or postcards, if you selected Post Card), or save the file to provide to a printing service.

Creating a New Holiday Reminder Direct Mail Campaign

Mercury Marketing includes several predefined holiday reminder campaigns, including templates for letters and postcards. Available holidays include: Boss’s Day, Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Rosh Hashanah, Secretary’s Day, Sweetest Day, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day.

To create a new reminder campaign for any of these holidays using the included templates:

1. On the FTD Mercury Main Menu, click Marketing. The Mercury Marketing Wizard opens.
2. On the Welcome panel, click Create a New Campaign.
3. On the Create Campaign panel, in the Campaign Name field, enter your campaign name.
4. Select a referral code for the campaign (or add a new one if necessary).
5. Select Direct Mail as the Distribution Type.
6. From the Campaign Type list, select Holiday.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Select Target List panel, click Select a predefined list, and choose the list you want to use from the list at the bottom of the panel.
9. Click Next.
10. The options that display on the Key Criteria panel depend on the list you selected in the Select Target List panel. Provide the information requested and click Next.
    

    If you have multiple stores, remember to choose the store that contains the customer records that you want to extract. If you select the main store, the program does not extract duplicate customers if you have customers saved at multiple stores. If you extract by Top Customers, the system extracts the top number of customers at the selected stores. However because the system is designed to eliminate duplicate records, the system eliminates duplicate top customers if the extracted customers are top customers at more than one store (therefore you may select to extract 100 top customers, but because duplicates are eliminated, only 50 are actually extracted).

11. The Output Fields panel displays all of the output fields that are available for extraction. Output fields are the merge fields that will be inserted into your document. Click Next.
12. The Preview and Edit List panel allows you to preview the list of customers before you save your campaign. Before reaching the final panel in the wizard, review the list and see if you want to remove any customers from the campaign. To do this, right-click on the customer record and then click Delete Row. Any records that are highlighted are missing information.
    

    If you type information in the grid, the information is saved only in this specific customer list (the information is saved only in this particular .csv file and is not saved in your customer database).

13. Click Next.
14. On the Save Campaign panel, from the Template list, select the template you want to use. This should correspond to the holiday for which you are creating the campaign. If you want to see the template before merging, click Preview. You can change the text of the template by clicking the Edit button. Use this option only to change the text of the template.
15. If you want to print post cards, select this option. Postcards are printed four to an 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of paper. You also will need to fill in the Return Address area if you create post cards.
16. Select Text Only if you want to use a template that does not have any graphics. The letter is printed as formatted text only. This is useful if the paper you are printing on already has graphics.
17. In the Sender field, type the name of the person signing the letter or postcard, for example the manager or owner of the store.
18. Click Generate Mailing Labels if you want Microsoft Word to generate mailing labels. If you select this option, select Three Across.
19. Depending on whether you plan on sending your mailing list to an external printing service on whether you are printing the letters or postcards yourself, you can select to open the output in Microsoft Word. FTD recommends that if you are using a printing service, you do not select this option, and just send the customer file (located in C:\Wings\Customer Lists) and the template (located in C:\Wings\Office Templates\Mercury Forms) to the printing service. Otherwise, select Open in Word.
20. Select Execute Campaign Now.
21. Click Finish. If you did not select Open in Word, your customer list saves as a .csv file in the C:\Wings\Customer Lists directory. The file name is the campaign name followed by the date and time that you saved the campaign.
    If you selected Open in Word, you receive a message stating that the merge will take a few minutes. Click OK. If you are merging a large number of customers, this process takes a few minutes. You will not see a progress bar or any indication that the program is working. Please be patient until you receive a response from the program letting you know that the merge is complete. When the program is finished with the merge you will receive the message Mail Merge Operation completed successfully. The application will now be closed. Click OK to complete the process and close Mercury Marketing. Your letters/postcards will display in Microsoft Word.
22. To save the letters/postcards, click the File menu, then click Save. FTD recommends saving the file in the C:\Wings\Marketing Lists directory, so that you can access the letters by clicking the Find my Merged Documents and Mailing Labels on the first panel of the Marketing Wizard. Type a name and select a location to save the file, then click Save.
23. To print the letters/postcards, in Microsoft Word, on the File menu, click Print.