The Prospect List is a list of prospective customers. The list may be donated or purchased from an outside organization. The success of the list (as measured by the number of people who actually purchase the merchandise, attend the event, become a new member as a result of the mailing) can be tracked by the source code assigned.
The five standard Group Item Links (Add, Find, List, Run Query, Query Central), are available in the Prospect List group item. In addition to the standard links, the Import Wizard can be also accessed and is discussed below in the Importing a Prospect List section.
The easiest way to create a prospect list in netFORUM is to use the Import Wizard to import your Excel list of contacts into the application. However, the may be times when you want to add a prospect list from scratch and set-up Individuals manually. You may also create prospect lists in this manner, if desired.
To add a prospect list:
Once you have created your prospect list, you may add your Individual contacts to it on the prospect list profile through the prospect list detail child form.
It is often easier to import a list of contacts that are stored in an Excel spreadsheet since they can be mass imported and you do not have to enter them one at a time if you add the prospect list manually.
Note: Note that while the steps below describe importing a prospect list, a mailing list can also be imported as well by following the same steps.
To Import a List of Prospects:
1. Go to the Marketing module.
2. On the Marketing Overview page, click the Import Lists link below the Manage Mailing Lists icon. Or click the Import Wizard link under the Prospect Lists Group Item.
The Import Wizard | Setup wizard will display which is described below.
The first step in the Import Wizard is to set-up your new prospect list by specifying the name and the source for it. Both are required fields. All other fields are optional.
The second step in the import process is uploading your Excel file with your list of contacts. Please note that there is a recommended format. See Prospect List File for information about the necessary file format, including a sample file.
Once you have your file ready and modeled the sample file, perform the following steps:
Note: Be sure to close the Excel file you're trying to import. If you have the file open, netFORUM may have difficulty uploading the file.
Notice that the fields in the Excel spreadsheet you imported are aligned on the right side of the Match Column screen. Match the columns from your spreadsheet to the netFORUM fields on the left in the drop-down menus to complete the import. If there is not an exact match, pick the best fit (i.e., First for First name, Address 1 for Mailing Address, and so forth). If you cannot find the match you are looking for, you must modify your Excel spreadsheet to match the netFORUM fields.
Please note that while it is possible to complete an import of email addresses only, Abila advises against this as it will result in records with missing information, which poses data integrity issues.
Three fields in the Template column of the Import Wizard can be matched with your excel spreadsheet fields. As displayed in the image below, the three additional fields are individual type, phone country, and fax country. If these types of fields are fields that your organization is concerned with, include them on your spreadsheet for matching.
A few other items to note:
To create a template for the imported list:
Troubleshooting:
See Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 Error if you get an error message with these words.
Once you have imported your prospect list (or manually added your Individual records to a list), you are able to e-mail that list however, note that the records are not part of your netFORUM database until you actually transfer them. This means that there is no record or individual profile for each prospect in CRM, for example. Transferring records is a simple matter, however, and can be completed either through bulk by transferring all the records on your prospect list at once or by one Individual record at a time.
Transferring records takes place on the prospect list detail child form or through the Actions Bar. Both methods are explained below.
To add a select number of Individual names to the database list:
You can also make an Individual record active and ready for transfer through the prospect list detail child form by selecting the transfer this record to the permanent database check box.
To transfer all the records on the prospect list, follow the same steps you use to transfer an Individual record, detailed in the preceding section.
Follow the preceding section on transferring Individuals to complete the transfer process.
Finding a prospect list that has been created is easily accomplished. The Find function is universal throughout netFORUM and detailed on the Find topic.
Finding a prospect list within the Marketing module follows the same format and function.
You may search by the following:
The Advanced View checkbox allows you to conduct Boolean searches to broaden and narrow your search as needed. If you are uncertain with what you are looking for, use the netFORUM wildcard character, the percent sign (%) to help you with your search.
The Prospect List Profile is displayed once you have created a new prospect list in the netFORUM application.
To navigate to and view a specific profile page:
The Prospect List Profile for the selected prospect list opens.
The Prospect List Profile shows the list name and description, the source code, the import date, the expected record count, and the actual record count in the prospect list.
The prospect list detail child forms allow you to view the records in the prospect list. The attempted transfers - records duplicated child form shows duplicate records that were not transferred to the prospect list. Both are discussed in more detail below.
The Prospect List Detail child form enables you to view all the records that are part of your prospect list.
Each records specifies what was imported or added such as:
You may use the Edit button to modify attributes of the Individual records however, note that these attributes are not then saved in the CRM Individual record if that record has already been transferred.
Further, you can click the transfer this record to permanent database check box on this child form (and within an Individual record) to specify that the current record should be transferred (or excluded if not checked) when the Transfer Active button is clicked on the Actions Bar.
If a non-hidden organization exists with the same organization name as entered in a Prospect List Detail record, when the individual is imported, it will be linked to that organization. If an organization cannot be found, then the process will add the organization and link the individual to the newly created organization.
To add more records to a Prospect List that has already been created (or imported), use the Edit button on the Actions bar of the Prospect List Profile.
To Add Additional Prospects to your List:
The attempted transfers - records duplicated child form details all records not transferred due to duplication.
Prospects are checked for duplicates with existing netFORUM individuals based on the following criteria.
All of the following bullet points must be met for a prospect to be considered a potential duplicate:
Currently it is not possible to change the duplicate checking criteria in baseline.
You can e-mail a Prospect List through a Call to Action. Add a Call to Action, choose the Prospect List Detail in the list type drop-down list and select or create a Query in the data source. (Note: you cannot have a query with ask-at-runtime parameters).
You will need to have a Correspondence Template created for the Prospect List Detail type to choose as the template to send.
If you get this error:
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
Then you need to install the Access Database engine on the web server. netFORUM solutions hosted by Abila will have this but if you're working on a new server that you are hosting yourself, then be sure to add that to the web server.