Marketing Events target specific groups of Contacts or have an undefined audience.  Collections of Contacts are comprised of static or dynamic segments of the Contact database that meet specified criteria. For example, mass Emails Event could be targeted at Contacts with a specific product interest, whereas a Tradeshow might apply to a subset based on geographical or industrial criteria.

In ASPEC, groups of Contact can be saved and re-used by multiple Events. These groups of Contacts, called Collections, are listed in the Collection listview.

Fig 1: Collection listview

Collections uses a powerful search function that allows the use of virtually every field in ASPEC as a criteria for inclusion in a Collection. This includes any of the unlimited custom fields available in ASPEC, allowing targeted Collections down to a single descriptor or any mix of criteria possible. For example, a Collection could be used for geographic segmentation or as specific as customer credit rating.

Collections can be based on search criteria and a manual selection of Contacts.  The form contains fields for mining the list from Contacts stored in ASPEC. At the bottom of the form you can preview the resultant list.

Mining the Contact list

Fig 2: Fields for mining the Contact List

This section includes the following fields:

1. Collection Name: Mandatory field
2. Description: Optional field
3. Include Contacts Without Emails: If this option is checked then the Collection includes Contacts with empty Emails.  This option is useful if you are sending Direct Mail or creating a Phone Call Event.
4. Include Unsubscribed Contacts: Some Contacts do not with to receive Emails from your organization.   Leave this option blank if such Contacts are not a target for this Event.
5. Conditions: This section is similar to the Filter used for searching.  Please read more on using Filter here.
6. Include Contacts: Adding Contact(s) to this list ensures that the Contact(s) is in the Collection, regardless of the Conditions.
7. Exclude Contacts: Adding Contact(s) to this list ensures that the Contact(s) are not in the Collection, regardless of the Conditions.

Collections may be locked to fix the members at a specific point in time, or left dynamic to automatically add new members as they are recorded in the database and meet the Collection criteria. As with all ASPEC CRM lists, Collections are access-controlled to authorized users and may be easily exported as CSV, HTML, or XLS files.

To view the Contacts list generated by Conditions, Include Contacts and Exclude Contacts, click Generate Collection button.

Clicking Locked freezes the Collection results.  After the Collection is saved, any new Contacts that meet the Conditions does not be included in the Collection.

Fig 3: Viewing Collection