This article will detail the filters related to upcoming events and how these filters can be used in communications. These filters allow partners to create marketing for upcoming events based on location or school attended. In this example, we will focus on the use case of promoting upcoming high school visits to prospective students.
Tips
For undergraduate institutions, Slate.org may be used to view invitations and register for high school visits directly with secondary schools.
In order to utilize these filters, they need to be added from the Slate Template Library:
- Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Slate Template Library.
- In the search bar, type the word 'upcoming' and add the desired filter(s) from under the header Query Standard Filters by clicking Add.
The filters available to add from the STL are:
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Upcoming Event Geographic Proximity | Returns all students who are within the specified radius of the selected event that falls within the time frame indicated |
| Upcoming Event Geographic Proximity by Template | Returns all students who are within the specified radius of events from the selected event template that fall within the time frame indicated |
| Upcoming Interview Geographic Proximity | Returns all students who are within the specified radius of the selected interview (or other event built in Scheduler) that falls within the time frame indicated |
| Upcoming Nearby Event Proximity | Returns all students who are within the specified radius of the selected upcoming event by folder |
| Upcoming Nearby School Visit | Returns students within the specified radius of a school visit but without the school as their rank 1 school |
| Upcoming Related Event (School as Related Record) | Returns person records attending a school that is a related record for an event occurring between the selected dates |
| Upcoming School Visit | Returns person records attending a school that is the location for an upcoming visit in the specified date range |
| Upcoming School Visit By Trip | Returns person records attending a school that is the location for an upcoming visit in the specified date range within the selected trip |
Important!
Corresponding exports are available for the filters that reference a specific event, but not for the filters that could reference multiple events such as 'Upcoming Interview Geographic Proximity' or 'Upcoming Nearby Event Proximity.' Note that by adding the filter(s) from the STL, any corresponding exports will automatically be added. They do not need to be added separately.
The filters that reference multiple events are intended to be used to direct people to an event landing page instead of a specific event. For example, if 10 events were offered within a specified geographic region, the filter 'Upcoming Nearby Event Proximity' could be used to ensure that a recipient only received one message regarding all of the events.
If the desired behavior is for each person to receive a message for each event, the filter 'Upcoming Event Geographic Proximity' could be used if the Dedupe settings are configured to allow for the recipient to receive multiple messages.
The most commonly-used of the filters above is 'Upcoming School Visit.'
What if a record has more than one school or address?
All of the upcoming events filters will use either the rank 1 address or the rank 1 school on the person record, depending on which filter is selected. For example, the 'Upcoming School Visit' filter will only return records in which the upcoming visit is the location of the rank 1 school on the person record.
Please refer to the article on Deliver for full details on how to create a new mailing.
- Click Deliver in the top navigation bar.
- Click New Mailing with a 'Method' of Email.
- Since this mailing will be a marketing mailing, the Opt Out setting should be left as 'Allow Unsubscribe (default)', or set to a specific message group.
- Click Edit Recipient Lists and add a New Query to select the desired query base. In most cases, the base used will be 'Prospects'.
On the recipient list, add the filter that was added from the Slate Template Library. For users that have access to all Slate Template Library filters, it is important to use only the local version of these filters under the header 'Local Filters.'
When configuring the filter, the word 'today' can be used in the date settings which will allow the mailing to be used in an ongoing way.
For example, if the mailing should be sent two weeks prior to a high school visit, add 'today + 14' for Start Date, and 'today + 15' for End Date. This sets the mailing to look for records attending schools where confirmed events in the selected event folder will be taking place 14 days from now (hence the 'today + 14'). The 'today + 15' for the end date creates a 24-hour window for events to meet this filter criteria, accounting for event times throughout the day.
Additional filters can be added such as 'Student Type' or 'Entry Term' to only advertise the events to certain populations. When combined with 'Ongoing' send settings, this one mailing can be used to advertise all high school visits over an entire travel season.
An export for CEEB is not necessary unless further filtering is desired. The 'Upcoming School Visit' filter already does the job of finding the specific schools that are the location of events that fall within the range specified, and then finding the students who currently attend those schools.
Not seeing a record in your query that you are expecting?
For filters based on proximity, a radius is entered to pull records that attend the school or are near the event. Note that Slate rounds the distance from the event for each address, so this may produce results that slightly vary from what is expected. Consider expanding the radius slightly to troubleshoot these cases.
As with filters, for users that have access to all Slate Template Library filters, it is important to use only the local version of these exports under the header Local Exports.
If using the exports for 'User,' remember that the user of the event may not be the same person who is conducting the high school visits. If the event user is a different person than the person conducting the visit, the exports for Staff Assigned may be more appropriate.
The export for 'HSV Registration Link' provides the URL for the individual visit registration at a specific school.
In addition to being used in the message content, merge fields can be used in the sender and in the subject of the mailing, e.g. 'Slate University is coming to {{HSV-Location}}!' An example of a School Visit email may look like the following:
In the Send Settings for the mailing, check 'Ongoing,' select a delivery window, and ensure that the Deduping setting is set to 'Send only one message/recipient' unless the desired behavior is for one record or email address to receive multiple messages. 'Do not dedupe messages' may be selected to account for multiple records with the same email address.
Click 'Save Settings' in order to test the mailing before sending.
Can I use 'Recurring Delivery' to keep emailing the same students periodically about the upcoming event?
The Recurring Delivery setting will NOT work with this particular email setup. Recurring Delivery allows the mailing to be sent multiple times to the same recipients if they continue to meet the query criteria. Since we’ve set up the query to look for events a specific number of days in advance, the records will no longer meet the query criteria once the specified window in the 'Upcoming School Visit' filter has passed.
To test the mailing, the following steps are recommended:
- Add a filter to the recipient list for 'Tag = Test Record.'
- Select a high school visit event to use for testing. Note that the status of the event needs to be set to Confirmed/Active.
- On the Schools section of the Profile tab of a test record, add the school where the event will take place.
- Return to the Send Settings of the mailing. The recipient count should now include the test record.
- Click 'Display Sample Message' and select a record that should meet the selected criteria, then click Display.
The test email should look something like this:
Once testing is complete, remember to return to the mailing’s recipients list query, remove the 'Tag' filter, and set the mailing to send.