Filters

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.

Exports

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:

Send Settings

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.