RezNEWS HOT TIP
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GUEST HISTORY MARKETING
RezStream Professional allows you to create and utilize unlimited customer marketing lists for email marketing or traditional mail marketing campaigns.
To create marketing lists, begin by clicking the Select Names Ctrl+F button on the main left-hand toolbar of RezStream Professional. This will be your starting point for generating custom marketing lists. After clicking the Select Names button, a list of all guests on a guest history list is displayed.
The Begin New Selection button can be used to create new marketing lists. Lists may be created based upon previous stay history, guest interests, number of stays, amount spent, and many other criteria. You may also combine criteria to modify lists as desired. For example, a property in the Colorado mountains is sending a letter to its previous guests in the following cities to let them know about the completion of a recent remodel.
- Colorado Springs
- Denver
- Ft. Collins
Use the following steps to select guests from these three cities.
- From the Select Names screen, click the Begin New Selection button. The Make Selection window is displayed.
- “City” happens to be the first field listed in the Type drop-down list. In this example, City is the field being used to create the targeted list from guest history. You may also begin your list by selecting any other criteria that is an option.
- Be sure the “= Criteria” radio button is selected (A) and enter the text “Colorado Springs” in the Criteria field (B). Click the Add to Selection button (C). The other criteria allow you to select “less than” (<),” greater than” (>), and “opposite of” (<>). These additional choices are helpful when selecting zip code ranges, etc. You may also remove people from a list once it is created. (Example: remove anyone that does not have an email address as your last step.)
- The number of guests found from the city of Colorado Springs (3) is displayed at the top of the Make Selection window.
- Enter the name of the second city, Denver, in the Criteria field and click the Add to Selection button.
- The number of selected records is updated. The number of guests found from Denver (7) is included in the new total at the top of the Make Selection window.
- Enter the name of the third city, Ft. Collins, in the Criteria field. Click the Add to Selection button to update the number of records selected and click the Finish button.
- Only those guests from the three specified cities are now displayed in the Select Names window.
- Once a targeted list is created, you may use the icons at the top of the Select Names screen to print the list, export the list to a file, print labels, perform a mail merge, and send an email to the selected guests.
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Print list from selection |
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Export selection to file |
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Print labels for selection |
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Mail merge selection to printer. |
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Blind carbon copy merge to single email |
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Mail merge message per recipient to email |
If you choose to export the list to a file (CSV/Excel file), a third party email marketing program can be used to read the export file and send a mass email. The information and example below shows how marketing lists may be utilized with third party marketing programs.
Note: RezStream Professional has the ability to send email marketing lists via Outlook and Outlook Express email programs. However, this is not recommended since these programs have limited bulk email capabilities.
Third Party Email Program Integration
A list of contacts can be exported to a file and then uploaded into a third party email program for distribution. These programs are typically inexpensive, easy to use, and fully support HTML formatting. This method also allows you to use a robust email marketing tool to track emails that “bounce” (returned due to bad addresses) and allows you to generate emails with full formatting and graphics capabilities. Examples of direct marketing email programs include:
- Constant Contact - http://search.constantcontact.com
- Campaign Enterprise - http://www.arialsoftware.com/enterprise.htm
- Intellicontact - http://www.intellicontact.com
Click the Export selection to File button to export a guest list to a third party software application.
After clicking the Export selection to File button, the following prompt is displayed.
If guests have requested to be taken off of mailing lists, click the No button.
A Contacts.csv file is created in the RezStream folder. Click OK to continue.
Steps for importing the Contacts.csv file will vary based on the third party email program you have installed. Please consult that program’s User’s Manual or Help File for information on importing a list of contacts.
See pages 337-345 of the newly updated RezStream Professional User’s Manual for more information on how to create and manage marketing lists.
