Marketing Templates

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Revision as of 12:02, 14 February 2011

FTD has provided you with dozens of templates to choose from for direct mail marketing. These templates can be found in the C:\Wings\Office Marketing Templates directory.

Modifying an Existing Template

Modifying an existing template allows you to take advantage of the professional look of the predefined template, yet customize it to meet your needs.

This procedure teaches you how to change the merge fields in the template. If you want to only change the text in the template, you can do this by clicking the Edit button in the Save Campaign panel at the end of the Marketing Wizard.

To change merge fields in a template:

1. Create a marketing campaign using the Marketing Wizard in the Mercury Marketing application. However, choose not to open the campaign in Microsoft Word (make sure Open in Word is not checked), or if the program asks you if you want to open a new Microsoft Word document to begin the merge, click No (you will open the existing template instead).
2. Open the template you want to change. To do this:
   1. Open Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Windows Start button and clicking Explore.
   2. Navigate to the C:\Wings\Office Marketing Templates folder and locate your template:
   3. Double-click on the template to open it.
3. Continue with step 2 in Creating a New Template (below), changing the text or merge fields in the file as necessary. Make sure that before you merge the customer information into the document, save the template using the Save As command from the File menu (make sure that you are saving the document as a Document Template). It is suggested to save it with the other templates, in the C:\Wings\Office Marketing Templates directory.

If you want to change a predefined template permanently, save it using the same file name.

To reuse the template in the future, follow the procedure in this section again; however you will not change or rename the file as instructed in step 3 above.

Creating a New Template

Creating a new template from scratch gives you the freedom to create any type of template that you want. You can select your own merge fields, type a letter from scratch, then merge the customer information extracted from your FTD Mercury database.

Before creating the template, you must extract a customer list (.csv file) so you can merge the customer list into the custom template. See Creating Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns Using Custom Templates to create your marketing campaign.

Your customer list was saved as a .csv file in the C:\Wings\Customer Lists directory on the server. This is the file that you need to import into Microsoft Word after you design your new template.

To create a new template:

1. To begin, open Microsoft Word by clicking the Windows Start menu, pointing to All Programs, then clicking Microsoft Word. (Microsoft Word may be located in the Microsoft Office folder.)
2. In Microsoft Word, on the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and click Mail Merge Wizard.
3. At the bottom of the right pane, click Next: Starting document.
4. At the bottom of the right pane, click Next: Select recipients.
5. In the right pane, under Use an existing list, click Browse.
6. Navigate to the C:\Wings\Customer Lists folder on the server, highlight the .csv file (the customer list that was generated by the campaign in the Mercury Marketing Wizard), then click Open.
7. The list of mail merge recipients opens up. These are the customers that met the criteria that you specified for the campaign in the Mercury Marketing Wizard. Review the list of customers.
   If you want to remove a customer from the list, click on the check box next to the customer to remove the check mark. To help you review the list, you can click on the column headings to sort the information. Click OK when you are finished.
8. At the bottom of the right pane, click Next: Write Your Letter.
9. On the blank Microsoft Word document, type your template letter. To insert a merge field, first put your cursor in the letter where you want to insert the merge field, then click More items in the right pane. A window opens with the available merge fields.
10. To insert a merge field, first make sure that Database Fields is selected at the top of the window, then select the merge field and then click Insert. The merge fields display in your letter with brackets (<<>>).
11. If you want to insert graphics, do so now. If you have a graphic on file that you want to use (like your company logo or letterhead), import that graphic. (On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and click From File. Navigate to and select the graphic to import it in your document.)
    TIP: Microsoft Word comes with clip art that is already installed on your computer. If you want to browse through available clip art, on the Insert menu, point to Picture, and click Clip Art. The Insert Clip Art pane displays on the right side of the screen. Here you can browse through and select clip art to include in your template.
12. Spell check your template. To begin the spell check, on the Tools menu, click Spelling and Grammar.
13. When you are finished designing your template, at the bottom of the right pane, click Next: Preview your letters.
14. Page through your letters to make sure that the merge appears the way you want. To page through the letters, in the right pane, under Preview your letter, click the left and right arrows (<< and >>). If you want to make any changes to the template, at the bottom of the right pane, click the Previous: Write your letter.
15. When you are ready to merge the customer information, at the bottom of the right pane, click Next: Complete.
16. You have two options: Print and Edit Individual Letters. If you want to print the document now, click Print. If you want to edit individual letters before you print them, click Edit Individual Letters.
17. When the Merge to New Document window opens, select All then click OK to print all of the letters. Alternatively, you can just print the current document, or indicate a range of records to print. The letters display in Microsoft Word, where you can page through them and make any necessary changes. When you are ready to print them, click File, then click Print.
18. Save the template. If you want to use the template again to reuse later, save the template as a Microsoft Word template. To do this:
    1. On the File menu, click Save.
    2. In the Files of Type field, make sure it reads Document Template.
    3. Give the template a name in the File name field, select a location to save the file (it is suggested to save it with the other templates, in the C:\Wings\Office Marketing Templates directory), then click Save.

Creating a Single Postcard Template

The Mercury Marketing predefined postcard templates are formatted to print four postcards per sheet of paper. If you have postcard stock that is formatted for one postcard per sheet of paper, you will have to create a new template that is specially formatted to print on your postcard stock paper.

To do this, first extract a customer list (.csv file) so that you can merge the customer list into the custom postcard template. See Creating Other (Third-Party) Marketing Campaigns to create your .csv file.

Next, follow the steps in Creating a New Template on page 16–11 to create your new template and insert your merge fields. However while you are writing your letter in Microsoft Word, format the margins of the document so that the template fits on your paper. This involves some trial and error. After creating your template, try printing it on your postcard stock paper to see if is aligned correctly. You may have to make adjustments so that it prints correctly.

For help on formatting in Microsoft Word, consult your Microsoft Word documentation.