Unique identifier Other than Email Address

[CharlieZ1701]

Hello @CharlieZ1701 ,

This wouldn't be possible, as the change to make email addresses the unique identifier was done years ago to address multiple issues, including significant confusion regarding billing, scheduling emails, and compliance.

When it comes to your situation, this can be easily resolved by simply having the first name and last name field of the contact always be the same type of person (ideally the parent), and then including the other names (ideally the children) as custom fields that you can insert into your emails. Otherwise, just as my school and extracurricular organizations did while I was growing up, and many other schools continue to do, you can just word your email notifying the parents of something pertaining to their children's schedule or activities. 

If you need guidance on how to manage custom fields, please see this article. If you need guidance on inserting contact details into an email, see this article. 

[CharlieZ1701]

I'm in an organization where multiple people may share the same email address (parents, children, siblings) but we need to be able to send each of them personalized emails - sometimes in the same campaign. Unfortunately, Constant Contact does not allow for more than one contact to use the same email address.

I would propose that this be changed so that a different unique identifier be used to keep track of distinct individuals. This may require - if a new contact with a pre-existing email address is added - that the administrator is asked whether it represents a new or simply updated contact.

[William_A]

Hello @CharlieZ1701 ,

This wouldn't be possible, as the change to make email addresses the unique identifier was done years ago to address multiple issues, including significant confusion regarding billing, scheduling emails, and compliance.

When it comes to your situation, this can be easily resolved by simply having the first name and last name field of the contact always be the same type of person (ideally the parent), and then including the other names (ideally the children) as custom fields that you can insert into your emails. Otherwise, just as my school and extracurricular organizations did while I was growing up, and many other schools continue to do, you can just word your email notifying the parents of something pertaining to their children's schedule or activities. 

If you need guidance on how to manage custom fields, please see this article. If you need guidance on inserting contact details into an email, see this article.