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eComm Specialist Digest | April 11, 2023
April 12, 2023 by Melanie Jones
True or False
Increasing open rates has historically been a standard KPI in email marketing. However, with increases in user privacy, tracking open rates is even less reliable than it used to be. Scroll to the bottom for the answer.
General Updates
- CU Ascend Launching End of May: Prior to the launch, both Advance and Ascend will be read-only. The target dates for this freeze period are Friday, May 12 - Tuesday, May 30.
- Implication: Any changes to Advance/Ascend data will NOT update in eComm during the freeze period. This includes new deceased and do not contact values, as well as email opt out changes that are received outside of eComm.
- Additionally, any contact updates received via eComm during the freeze period will not be updated in the Advance / Ascend source system until the launch is complete.
- Implication: Any changes to Advance/Ascend data will NOT update in eComm during the freeze period. This includes new deceased and do not contact values, as well as email opt out changes that are received outside of eComm.
- Cvent Payment Processing Issues: All but 13 failed refunds have processed and these details have been communicated to event planners with impacted events. Event Planners for the 13 failed refunds have been provided next steps to issue refunds.
- For the last two weeks, we have had 0 paid/fundraising events launched with a title containing a special characters. Big thanks our Cvent users and eComm specialists for making this happen.
- Q2 Email Preference Updates | We will not be intaking preference changes for Q2 due to pending changes to streamline email preferences and business units.
- Melanie Jones is away through May 4
- Submit an eComm Help Ticket as needed
- Continued User Adoption, Manage Salesforce Campaigns | If a Report or Data Extension is based on a Salesforce Campaign, users can add/remove Campaign Members and create new Contacts to manage small changes (less than 20) without involving an eComm specialist.
- Numerous Contacts have been created incorrectly by users, resulting in them not being pulled into any Reports. Users must follow the instructions in the wiki and should never 'Create New Contact' directly in Salesforce. Please reach out to the following individuals ASAP to correct this ongoing behavior.
- ANSCHUTZ | Tessa Carlson, Zachary Noriega
- SYSTEM | Janine Romero
- Numerous Contacts have been created incorrectly by users, resulting in them not being pulled into any Reports. Users must follow the instructions in the wiki and should never 'Create New Contact' directly in Salesforce. Please reach out to the following individuals ASAP to correct this ongoing behavior.
Roadmap Updates
PROJECTS
- Business Unit & Email Preference Optimization: Thank you to all the eComm specialists for finalizing your Business Unit & Email Preference changes. Claire & Daniella have committed the majority of their time to completing these projects.
- Marketing Cloud Users and eComm specialists (except those at Boulder) received a message on 4/4 informing them of these changes they might see in preparation for this optimization project to take affect before June 1.
- Person of Interest (POI) Integration: POI data is available in Salesforce to Admins only. Prior to new data being available to all, we will provide clarity on the impacts to existing reports, how to modify them based on your needs, and more.
- Thanks to those who attended our optional March 29 session for an overview of what's to come and an Employment Reporting tip to lessen the burden, in preparation for this change (recording in wiki).
- On April 5, we identified that some Data Extensions based on Employment data and updated via Automation Studio could include POI data. This is because automations run under an 'Admin' user rather than the person who configured it.
- Existing Automations: We have identified 33 (of 151) Business Units with Automations configured, will audit which Automations are impacted, and update corresponding Reports to not include POI data.
- New Automations: If Using Employment Data, Add a Filter for: Employment: Record Type = Official CU Employment
MAINTENANCE
- Individual Email Results (IER) Management: Read the full document for understanding the implications and associated cost savings. This will be a topic at our next MEC meeting on April 27.
- Contacts without Email Addresses: Daniella has been working with the integrations team to address this topic, and they advised us to manually remove contacts without email addresses on a periodic basis as opposed to updating the integration (which would be significantly more complex). The team will be working on a timetable and process associated with this change and will provide more details at our April 27 meeting.
- Advance GeoCode Sunsetting: eComm is sunsetting the use of the Advance GeoCode by June 1 due to the field being removed from its source system, Advance/Ascend.
- All 280 Salesforce Reports that leverage the GeoCode field will need to be updated to ensure that when the field is deleted, an audience doesn't become broader, resulting in many receiving an irrelevant communication.
- ACTION ITEM DUE APRIL 25 | *Majority of eComm Specialists will migrate away from using GeoCode in any Reports by April 25.
- *Boulder Advancement will sunset GeoCode by May 25.
Ongoing Opportunities
- Request the following items by submitting a help ticket and selecting "Marketing Cloud >> select topic below >> follow instructions".
- Einstein
- Journey Builder
- With every commencement, CU Denver invites the graduating class to contribute to a fund of their choosing. A journey promoting this opportunity to Spring 2023 graduates launched 3/29.
- A Birthday Journey Email for CU Anschutz is underway, pending content (similar to the one launched by UCCS for alumni).
- Dynamic Content
New/Updated Resources
- Emails: Unable to Send, Failed Send. Data Extension: Error or Equal to 0 (updated)
- We reformatted our most used troubleshooting resource to highlight the fastest way to identify the most common issues.
- Cvent Approval Checklist (two additional paths for Express Events, paid or free)
- HTML Pasted Emails (new)
- We have found numerous cases of HTML being pasted incorrectly, resulting in eComm's Commercial Footer not being included in emails (violating CAN-SPAM).
- Geocode Sunsetting (2023)
- Free Map Tool (update)
- Two versions of the tool are available to find zip codes: one based on radius from a central point and the other with a shape drawn on the map.
- Timelines have been updated to be accurate.
- Free Map Tool (update)
Ongoing Data Monitoring
True or False
Answer: True
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) automatically opens messages in a proxy server for Apple Mail users who have the MPP feature turned on, resulting in inflated open rate metrics. Not to fear, there are more reliable KPIs that should be used to analyze your email marketing effectiveness, including click-through rate, clicks by link, and unsubscribe rate.