Use the Name of a "List" in an Email Subject/Body

[NathanS543]

Short Version:  Can the name of a "list" be used as a custom field or is there some similar way to use the name of a "list" an email? Especially if someone is on 10 lists, and we emailed 8 lists, I would want the name of each 8 lists that the email was sent to, somehow shown to the recipient on the email, so they could figure out which 8 properties the email applies to. 

Long Version:  We do snow plowing for apartments/HOA's. We have separate lists for every HOA. Some lists contain multiple people who have 2 homes or manage multiple properties. The lists are going to have maybe 25-50 contacts total on average. We are looking to send 1 very brief and quick email update email from an iPhone or laptop, to every apartment/HOA (list) we select on snow day, notifying contacts on these lists, whether we're serving or not servicing their property today. Keep in mind some days we will divide the lists in half, north properties need service, and southern properties don't. We are looking to send 1-2 pre-built emails to about 30+ different lists (1 list = 1 HOA). Ideally spending less than 5-10 minutes on the whole thing during a stressful snowstorm. We do not have time, nor want to send different emails to every property with the property name as a subject or in the email body. We have several HOA's/apartments that are different properties (different lists), but the SAME property manager/contact.  I've added this contact to every list that applies to them (added "contact" to "lists" for all properties they manage). I created a custom field  called "HOA NAME", and entered the property name/complex name, for every contact, under this custom field. This method works amazing as long as there is only 1 property the contact is involved with. However, we have property managers who have 10+ sites with us, some days only 3 properties of them will receive services, although the next day all 10 properties may receive services.  The custom field "HOA NAME" then doesn't work, because if we send an email that applies to JUST 1 property (1 list), but the custom field has every property they manage as the "HOA NAME", the property manager is confused or misinformed. This is also a major problem if we plan to service 9 properties but not all 10. The 1 outlier property would get a "no service" email, but the property manager wouldn't know who it was from. 

For most properties, this isn't a big problem for us, but there's a good 10-20 properties that have this going on. There's probably only 1 to 2 contacts per list they would have to be adjusted if there was a manual way to do this, out of the total 25-50 total contacts per list.  I would rather do the work now, as compared to at 2:00am in the plow truck and mess it up from being tired. 


Any ideas?  Thank you for your help. 

[Nick_S]

Hi @NathanS543,

Thank you for sharing this brain teaser of a question, as there are definitely a lot of variables to consider and still make sure you/we are creating a satisfying and professional experience for your contacts.

I'll start with subject lines: I don't think there is currently a way to achieve a satisfying result with this. You can only choose one custom field and as you said, if it doesn't apply to every property that is listed on a single custom field it would be confusing to recipients. The subject line or preheader could at least say something like, "If you're receiving this message one or more of your properties is being serviced."

I think we can achieve something desirable in the body of the email, but it would involve creating more custom fields.

The gist of it is you would create a custom field for each property (basically the name of the list they're on would also be reflected as a custom field). I know there are contacts that only manage one property, but they would still have to be updated with the custom field related to their property so that when they get targeted it would still populate. After creating the custom field (presumably naming it the title of the property) you would also fill in the field with the name of the property (however you would like it to display to the applicable contacts).

When you create these emails (or copy from old ones) you would just have to create a block where you would insert the applicable custom fields. When inserting the fields, you would leave the fallback option blank so that when someone receives the same email, but isn't managing one of the other properties, it wouldn't show (and wouldn't leave an excess space/line break).

Please let me know if that makes sense. We could certainly try to workshop it some more and it would require some upfront effort to get all the ducks in a row, but I think it would the best solution at this time.

[NathanS543]

Hi Nick,

Unfortunately since the email has to go to roughly 30-50 different lists at the same time, we wouldn't be able to manually redo the email every time. 

I did actually find a solution outside of constant contact although extremely complicated. Here's what we did. 

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1. Create email account for the property manger on a email platform like gsuite or microsoft office.  (example; forwardingtojohn@domain.com)

2. Create email alias for each separate property applicable to that property manager. (ie. forwardingpropertyAjohn@domain.com, forwardingpropertyBjohn@domain.com) 

3. Turn on email forwarding to the actual property managers email address. (through gsuite/microsoft office). Forward through the main/master email we created for them. 

4. Add each alias into constant contact, one alias for each separate property they manage. 

5. Add a custom field of "property name" for each different alias aka "contact". 

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So, we got it, but it's quite the project for each manager that has numerous properties with us. Plus, we have to pay for each gsuite/office user we add to be able to use this project. 

Is there any ability or way that I would be able to possibly get the ability to add multiple different contacts with the same email? It could be a quick button to consider adding to future upgrades, or even a paid upgrade. Quite honestly, I don't even care what it would cost. We are probably going to be paying another $100-150/month in gsuite/microsoft office fees just to make this work, so if you'd be willing to offer some type of paid upgrade or solution to allow me to do this easier, like the ability to remove the duplicate contacts filter from my account, please let me know and I'm more than happy to pay/upgrade. 

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thank you!

[William_A]

If you've found a potential workaround beyond what Nick's suggesting, then that would likely be your best path while still utilizing our services. Otherwise there's nothing in the system at this time, or currently in the pipeline for the exact kind of functionality you asked for in the original post. Even our contract services like Marketing Manager wouldn't really be able to assist in this, since your emailing tends to be more reactionary toward storms, and can occur at any time of day.

I'll get the details of what you're trying to accomplish submitted to our devs for future developments of the email system.