Knowledgebase: Marketing

What are the Newsletter SmartLists?

 

The Newsletter SmartLists dynamically group customers or mailing list subscribers based on their history, allowing you to easily send out newsletters to all customers who ordered a specific product, place an order within a specific date, have an unpaid order, place orders over a specific amount, etc. The groups would automatically include new customers that match the criteria since the information is collected in real-time when the newsletter is sent out.

Note:
The purpose of this article is to introduce and explain SmartLists which are then used as a target/recipient group to newsletters that you send out. After the SmartLists are created and configured, they will appear during step 1 of the newsletter sending process.

For full details on creating and sending newsletters, please review our full newsletter guide located here.

To view and configure your Newsletter SmartLists:

  1. Go to Marketing >Newsletters
  2. Look towards the top right of the page and click on the "Actions" button.
  3. Select "Smartlists"

Here you will see a collection of pre-configured SmartLists we've created for you. There are SmartLists created for customer actions as well as order statuses. These are:

  • Customer Actions:
    These SmartLists will create newsletter groups based on specific order criteria such as their order dates, order amounts, shipping locations, etc.
    • Customers who placed orders within specific dates
      This can be useful if you'd like to send newsletters to customers when they placed orders within a specific date range. For example, specific holidays or seasonal shoppers.
    • Customers who ordered a specific product
      Use this to send newsletters to customers who purchased a specific product and offer them incentives to purchase accessories or add-ons for the product.
    • Customers from a specific state
      This can be useful if you'd like to send newsletters to customers based on their State location. For example, customers who reside in your specific state.
    • Subscribers who signed up on a specific date
      This can be used to send newsletters to newsletter subscribers that have joined your mailing list within a specific time frame. Perhaps a specific newsletter welcoming them to your store.
    • Customers from a specific city
      Similar to the newsletter for specific States locations, however this allows you to localize customers by city. Perhaps instead of a newsletter for residents of your own State, you'd like to send it to residents of your own city as a local business owner reaching out to the community.
    • Customers from a specific country
      Create a newsletter and send it to a specific country. Can be useful if you recently opened up your store to a specific country like Canada, and you'd like to welcome your new customers from that area.
    • Customers with orders over specific amount
      Use this SmartList to send to customers who spent a specified amount within a given time range.
    • Reviews - Anyone that has written a product review
      Use this SmartList to send to any customers who have written a product review.
    • Reviews - People that wrote reviews for a product
      Use this smartlist to send to customers who have written a review for a specific product.
    • Rewards - All Customers with Active Reward Points
      This SmartList can be used to send to customers with unused Reward Points.
  • Order Status:
    These SmartLists will create newsletter groups based on specific order status criteria such as unpaid orders, canceled, shipped and new orders. For example, if you'd like to send a newsletter to customers with new orders within a given time frame to let them know of upcoming releases or other updates to your site. Alternately, you can create a newsletter for unpaid orders within a certain time frame notifying customers that their orders may expire soon. The Order Status SmartLists are:
    • Customers with NEW orders
    • Customers with IN PROCESS orders
    • Customers with CANCELED orders
    • Customers with SHIPPED orders
    • Customers with UNPAID orders

Editing SmartLists

SmartLists are run through specific SQL database statements that you can edit as needed. Editing SQL statements is a specialized function that is best used by advanced users. However, we have also made it possible to edit these statements with some ease for general users.

In this example, we will describe how to edit the parameters of the "Customers who ordered a specific product" SmartList. Later on, we'll describe how to make a copy of this SmartList since this script may also apply to other products on your store at different times.

  1. Go to Marketing >Newsletters
  2. Look towards the top right of the page and click on the "Actions" button.
  3. Select "Smartlists"
  4. Look to the far right of the SmartList you'd like to configure, and click on its action wheel to select "Edit".
    (In this case "Customers who ordered a specific product.")
  5. In the Product ID field, enter the ID/SKU for your specific product

Note:
Please be sure to specify the product's ID/SKU instead of the Catalog ID specified for the product.

  1. Enter the beginning date of your time frame in the "Date FROM" field. (format mm/dd/yy)
  2. Enter the ending date of your time frame in the "Date TO" field. (format mm/dd/yy)
  3. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes

Your SmartList group will now send your specified newsletter to customers that have ordered the specified product within the specified time frame.


Advanced - Creating/Copying SmartLists

In some cases you may need to create a new SmartList to have two versions of the same script - albeit for different parameters. The best way to do this would be to copy existing SQL statements from one of the existing SmartLists we've created for you and apply it to a new Smarter List.

The first step in this process is to copy the existing SQL statement.

  1. Go to Marketing >Newsletters
  2. Look towards the top right of the page and click on the "Actions" button.
  3. Select "Smartlists"
  4. Look to the far right of the SmartList you'd like to configure, and click on its action wheel to select "Edit".

You will be presented with the SmartList fields (similar to the ones described above)

  1. Look towards the top right of the page and click on the "Advanced" button to expand the view and show the script's SQL statement.
  2. Copy the SQL script by selecting the whole text, then right-click and "copy."
  3. Look towards the top right and click on the "Back" button to go back to your SmartList section

Now you will create a brand new SmartList

  1. Look to the top right and click on the "+Add SmartList" button
  2. Input the title of this new script and click Save
  3. Then click on the "Advanced" button to expand the SQL statement view.
  4. Paste your code into the SQL Statement window.
  5. In the Field 1 box, enter the catalog ID for your specific product
  6. Enter the beginning date of your time frame in the "Date FROM" field. (format mm/dd/yy)
  7. Enter the ending date of your time frame in the "Date TO" field. (format mm/dd/yy)
  8. Click Save to commit your changes
Special Note:
When viewing the SmartList scripts, your fields will be labeled with the parameters they control when viewing the pre-configured scripts. However, when creating new SmartLists, these fields will be labeled Field 1, Field 2, & Field 3 respectively.

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