Action items

Description

Save

When you have completed the campaign details, select Save to save the entry before proceeding to the next steps. We recommend that you select Save each time you have completed one of the campaign menu items.

Deactivate

Click Deactivate, if you no longer want to see a campaign, all its associated queries and result lists. Deactivated campaigns are no longer displayed in the regular display lists. For details, see “Deactivating a Campaign” on page 35.

Activate

Click activate if you want to activate a deactivated campaign. For details, see “Reactivating a Deactivated Campaign” on page 56

Copy Campaign

You can copy an entire campaign from the Campaign Edit page with the Copy Campaign icon. This is useful if you want to

- reuse a carefully designed campaign including all queries and other details.

- modify a few details of a campaign only to reuse it for a new campaign.

For instance, if you carry out a monthly birthday campaign, you may consider setting the campaign up once for the selected time, then copy the campaign and simply adjust the query to the new month. For details, see “Copying an Entire Campaign” on page 34.

Switch to A/B Split

Using A/B Split, you can test the success of different campaign flavors by sending two different versions of a campaign to a small percentage of recipients.

The system chooses the representative sample recipients used for the A/B split at random.  For details, see see “A/B Split” on page 62.

Export

The Export icon is only available for campaigns with the Campaign Type Postal Mailing.

Select the Export icon to export the list of recipients to Excel or another export format and save the recipient file to the desired location on your disk.

You can use the exported result list with other mail merge tools. The list of recipients is the list resulting from the selected campaign query. Please note that using the Export option will only export recipients to whom the campaign has not been sent yet.

Before the Export icon becomes available, you need to set the campaign status to In Process and select Use Results in Campaign for at least one query (which produces the recipient list which you are about to export.)

Note: The columns included in the resulting Excel sheet depend on the Field List selection in the Campaign Edit page. For instance, if you selected the standard field list the export provides available guest details, i.e. guest first and last name, birthday, language, salutation code, email address, member number, and loyalty code.

Tip: If you are unsure about your export field list, select the Result Report icon from the Query Details page. This creates an XLS report detailing the recipients matching your query. Plus, it details all information columns as selected in the field list.

Close

Close the Campaign Details (hereby cancelling any unsaved changes) by selecting the Close icon. The system returns to the Campaign Overview and displays the list of campaigns again.

Field Name

Description

Campaign Details

Campaign Group
(Mandatory field)

Group or category for the campaign, such as Newsletter, Birthday Greetings, Loyalty Mailing, etc. Select the required campaign group from the drop-down list.
The campaign groups are user-defined and specific to each hotel group and defined in the Setup.

Note: The system offers several options for avoiding overmailing: The custom campaign groups can be set up so that guests will only receive ONE campaign per campaign group, even if they would be part of the recipient list more often.

Campaign Class

This is an additional and optional classification for campaigns and irrespective of the Campaign Groups used. As such it can be used as another means of avoiding overmailing, since you can include the assignment to a specific class into your campaign query.

If applicable, select the required Campaign Class from the drop-down. Campaign Classes are user-defined and specific to the hotel group; they might be Golf, Wellness, Food & Beverage, etc.

Campaign Type

This refers to the campaign channel, i.e., postal or email. Once you have created the campaign, this field is for your information only and cannot be changed.

Campaign Status

Select the required Campaign Status from the drop-down list. Status options are

- In preparation

- In process

- Completed

- Stopped

By default, the Campaign Overview shows all campaigns since all campaign status options are pre-selected.

Campaign Name

Name of the campaign

Start/End Date

Field List
(Mandatory field)

Select the required field list from the drop-down selection.

The Field List determines the kind of information you receive with the recipient list used for your campaigns.

Keep the preselected default field list (Standard Field List) or select another list from the drop-down. The standard field list includes available guest details, i.e. guest first and last name, birthday, language, salutation code, email address, member number, and loyalty code

Tip: If you are not sure what kind of information the available field lists hold, you might create a test campaign with just a few recipients and select the choose Result Report option from the Queries page. If will produce an Excel report with the recipients and the information columns available from the Field List.

Tags

Tags are an additional and custom-specific classification for campaigns. They can be used for link tracking and usually denote various groups of interests, for example, culture, sports, wellness, holiday, family, children, etc. The selection is user-defined, and you can pick one or multiple tags.
Tags are specific to each hotel group and defined in the pickgroup CMWG in Web Admin.

Checkbox Send Once per Profile

Select this checkbox, if a guest profile should only receive the campaign once, no matter how many queries match with the profile details.

Recommended setting: checked to avoid overmailing

Note: The check is carried out per profile and not per email address. This means that the holder of the email address might still receive the campaign more than once, if there are other guest profiles with the same email address matching the query options.

Checkbox Use Do Not Email (Opt-out) Flag

This checkbox is pre-selected and cannot be changed for countries where you must honor recipients opt-out choices by law.
This translates to: Do not send this mailing to guests who have expressly stated that they do not want to receive information from the hotel group.

Recommended setting: checked

Only Valid Email Addresses

Select this checkbox, if only profiles with proper valid email addresses should receive this campaign.
Recommended setting: checked (for emails).

Third-Party Link Tracking Identifier

Third-party link identifier

Remarks

Use this free-entry text field to sum up the reason and scope of your campaign.
You can use up to 500 characters.

Dedupe Policy

Defines how the same email addresses in results are treated

Keep Loyalty Profiles

if ticked all loyalty profiles are kept, even when the dedupe policy would remove the result from the campaign

EMAIL SETTINGS Tab

The EMAIL SETTINGS tab is only displayed if the Campaign Type Integrated Email has been selected. In this section, you determine the Subject used in the respective email, add an optional and alternative email FROM Address, and other settings pertaining to email campaigns.

Checkbox Use A/B Split

Using A/B Split, you can test the success of two different campaign flavors with a small percentage of all recipients before deciding which one to send.

First, you set up the campaign and one or more queries to produce the targeted recipients. Then, you use a small percentage of the recipients to check the success of the campaign based on various aspects, for instance:

·        Two different templates,

·        Two different send times,

·        Two different subject lines,

·        etc.

Once you have found out, which flavor of the campaign is more successful, you send this flavor to the remaining group of recipients (either manually or automatically).

If you want to use this functionality, the first step is to select the checkbox A/B Split, when creating the campaign and then select Save.

For a detailed description of all involved steps, please refer to “A/B Split” on page 72.

Default setting: cleared.

Checkbox Save Emails in Database 

Complete or partial archiving:

Checkbox cleared: the system saves a copy of the used template and another copy of the recipient list for the campaign archive. This means that the campaign that was sent CAN be recreated for a recipient but is no longer saved as was. (Recommended for newsletter and generic mailings.)

Checkbox selected: enhanced archiving is activated. In this case, the system archives every merged instance of a mailing in the Campaign Results folder. This can get quite space-consuming and unnecessary, when considering generic mailings, such as newsletter campaigns, where only the email address changes with each recipient. However, if you recreate account or loyalty statements at a later time, the system will retrieve the new current figures with this archiving method (Recommended for account statements and other date-dependent content.)

Default setting: cleared.

Template Fields

The Template fields including the Subject line are mandatory, if you select the Campaign Type Integrated Email.

Note: If you work with master templates, you have the option to link a Copy from Master Template to the campaign and later adjust this copy to your campaign requirements. In this case, select the Copy from Master Template icon, determine the required template folder and name and select Save. Then, select the respective Template Folder and Template name in the Email Settings.

Template Folder

Select the required Template Folder from the drop-down list. The Template Folder drop-down displays all folders that have physically been created as subfolders of the template folder as a further categorization of the templates. The templates are copied to the respective folders. Typical subfolders can be, for instance, newsletter, birthday, loyalty, account statement, etc. Select the required folder from the drop-down list.

Template

Select the required email Template from the drop-down list.

Templates form the text body of the outgoing campaign and are usually streamlined to correspond to the corporate identity of the hotel. Templates are like merge files. They contain text and placeholders that are filled with individual data from the Result list during the merge, i.e. when the recipients of the result list are merged with the template.

Subject

Enter the subject line you want to use for sending the email campaign. For instance, Happy Birthday!

FROM Address

There is a default FROM Address that is used for all campaigns. This optional field enables you to indicate another FROM address here if it differs from the default FROM Address.
Note: The Default From Address is determined during the setup of NetHotel Campaign. It is the standard sender address used for each campaign.

FROM Name

From Name used for the campaign, i.e. the sender name. The combination of FROM Address and FROM Name will be displayed to the recipient in the From line of the email, for instance.

Note concerning Subject and FROM Address:

If you define a FROM Address and Subject here, it will override any FROM Address you may have defined as your standard FROM Address (during the setup of Campaign Management). If, however, a specific FROM Address and Subject line has been defined in the TEMPLATE header of the selected campaign template, this address and subject will take precedence over the fields you have defined here in the Campaign Details.

Campaign Code

The Campaign Code is an internal optional free-entry field which you can assign to the campaign by defining it here. It serves as a campaign-specific variable that can be used for building templates. It serves as an Access Code for the text module.

For instance, you may have repeating newsletter campaigns that always consist of the same text modules, say, one editorial and four subsequent articles. The text modules are copied and edited in the Text Module option. By assigning, for instance, Campaign Code "Spring2010" and including this in the GETTEXT function required for importing the respective text modules into the campaign template, you could base your text module decision on the Campaign Code used.

Checkbox Track Opening Rates

Select the Track Opening Rates checkbox if you want the system to track the email campaign statistically and count how many emails were opened by recipients. If the checkbox is selected, you can use the Statistics option to track the result of the campaign. Here you can see, how many emails were opened, how many bounced, and (in combination with Web Items) which links in the email generated the most interest, i.e. open rate, etc. 

Default and recommended setting: checked.

Use ReturnPath List

(Only with ReturnPath integration activated): Select if you want to use the ReturnPath seed list for this campaign or not.

ACTIVITIES Tab             only available in Expert Mode

In the ACTIVITIES section, you determine whether to create an automatic activity for each profile that takes part in the campaign and the respective activity details.

Activities are stored with the profile details of the guest in NetHotel Central Profile and can be viewed from this application at anytime.

Checkbox Create Activity on Send

Select the Create Activity on Send checkbox if you want the system to create an internal activity for each profile to which the respective campaign was sent. In this way, NH Campaign can also be an activity creation engine. For instance, if you create a welcome mailing to all new guests joining the loyalty scheme, you might create an activity for the respective profile to archive the fact that you are sending a welcome kit out with the mailing.

Activity Type

Select the required Activity Type from the drop-down list. Typical activity types could be call, email, fax, letter, and others, the activity types are user-definable though and will be custom-specific to the hotel group.

Activity Subtype

Select the required Activity Subtype from the drop-down list. Typical subtypes could be Assist in Password Reset, Address Change, Verify Loyalty Point Status, etc. The activity subtypes are also user-definable and will be custom-specific to the hotel group.
Note: Whereas in the activity type, you often define the means of communication with the guest, i.e. via a phone call or a fax, with the subtype, you determine the reason for the activity.

Checkbox Create Activity on Confirm

Select the Create Activity on Confirm checkbox if you want the system to create an internal activity, when the guest confirms the participation in the campaign. For instance, you email the profile with a request to participate in a campaign for, say 500 extra loyalty points. In the email, you will provide a link the guest can click. Only after having clicked the link, the guest will receive the 500 points and the respective profile will be linked with the internal activity relating to the campaign.

Activity Type

Select the required Activity Type from the drop-down list. Typical activity types are call, email, fax, letter, campaign, welcome kit, etc.

Activity Subtype

Select the required Activity Subtype from the drop-down list. Typical subtypes could be Assist in Password Reset, Address Change, Verify Loyalty Point Status, etc.

SUCCESS PARAMETERS Tab                 only available in Expert Mode

Using the SUCCESS PARAMETERS tab, you determine target timeframes, rates and hotels as well as fix costs and costs per item later analyzing the cost of a campaign in comparison to the revenue achieved.

Booking Timeframe

Using the Booking Timeframe, Target Hotels and Target PMS Rates fields, you can later analyze your campaign results in detail, either by using the campaign cube available with Serenata Business Intelligence (and pulling in the On Target condition) or by running the campaign success report in Web Reporter.)

You can report on the resulting bookings and for example only tell the report to display those bookings that came in within the defined booking time. Or, if your campaign targets specific hotels, you can confine the tracking onto those hotels by selecting them in the Target Hotels pick.

The default time for the Booking Timeframe is 14 days. Bookings after this time range cannot necessarily be considered a result of the campaign. Change this timeframe as required..

On Target Filter

The following “Target” filters can be used to track the success of a campaign. If resulting bookings are “on target” in comparison to booked rate, target hotel, and achieved room revenue, total revenue, number of nights, etc., they can be based on the success of the campaign.

Target PMS Rates

Enter PMS rates which should be used for the campaign. Designated rates are important to distinguish between the revenue of regular guests and the revenue of guests responding to your campaign.

You can enter comma-separated values here, referring to PMS rate codes defined for the campaign. For instance, summer1, summer2, summer3, etc.

Target Hotels

Usually, the success of a campaign is measured by bookings from all hotels. You can narrow this down to one or more specific hotels by selecting them from the drop-down.

Target Room Rev

Enter the room revenue which you would like to achieve with bookings resulting from the campaign.

Target Total Rev

Enter the total revenue which you would like to achieve with each campaign booking.

Target Nights

Number of room nights which you would like to achieve with bookings resulting from the campaign.

Fix Costs

The Fix Costs and Cost per Item fields are used for tracking the costs of campaigns. This information in combination with the PMS Rates field can later be used for cost and revenue tracking of the campaign, in other words, how much did it cost to carry out the campaign and how much revenue did the campaign generate?

In the field Fix Costs, enter the fixed amount that the campaign will cost. This may sometimes be an estimate or approximation. Enter whole numbers or use decimals, as required.

Cost per Item

Here, you enter the amount per item that the campaign will cost. This is traditionally useful for mailings that are sent out by classical mail, where you have a price per envelope, stationary, shipping costs (stamps), etc. Enter whole numbers or use decimals, as required.

Field Name

Description

Email Settings

The Email Settings tab is displayed for email campaigns. Here, you determine the Subject line used in the campaign, add an optional and alternative email FROM Address, select the template Language, etc.

Checkbox Save Emails in Database 

Select complete or partial archiving:

Checkbox cleared: the system saves a copy of the used template and another copy of the recipient list for the campaign archive. This means that the campaign that was sent CAN be recreated for a recipient but is no longer saved as was. (Recommended for newsletter and generic mailings.)

Checkbox selected: enhanced archiving is activated. In this case, the system archives every merged instance of a mailing in the Campaign Results folder. This can get quite space-consuming and unnecessary, when considering generic mailings, such as newsletter campaigns, where only the email address changes with each recipient. However, if you recreate account or loyalty statements later, the system will retrieve the new current figures with this archiving method (Recommended for account statements and other date-dependent content.)

Default setting: cleared.

Subject

Enter the Subject line you want to use for sending the email campaign. For instance, Happy Birthday! Depending on the template you have selected, the email Subject lines are automatically filled with dynamic fields for the guest name, and other guest details, such as salutation, last stay, guest first and last name.

Take care not to overwrite any of the pre-filled fields, for instance: ##GetShortGreeting()## [guest_firstname] [guest_lastname]!

Email From Preview

Meaning? Read-only field ???

From Address

There is a default FROM Address that is used for all campaigns. It is defaulted into the FROM Address field. Enter another FROM address here if it differs from the default FROM Address.
Note: The Default FROM Address is determined during the setup of Marketing Campaign. It is the standard sender address used for each campaign.

From Name

From Name used for the campaign, i.e. the sender name. The combination of FROM Address and FROM Name is displayed to the recipient in the From line of the email.

Note concerning Subject and FROM Address:

If you define a FROM Address and Subject here, it will override any FROM Address you may have defined as your standard FROM Address (during the setup of Campaign Management). If, however, a specific FROM Address and Subject line has been defined in the TEMPLATE header of the selected campaign template, this address and subject will take precedence over the fields you have defined here.

Campaign Code

The Campaign Code is an internal optional free-entry field which you can assign to the campaign by defining it here. It serves as a campaign-specific variable that can be used for building templates. It serves as an Access Code for the text module.

For instance, you may have repeating newsletter campaigns that always consist of the same text modules, say, one editorial and four subsequent articles. The text modules are copied and edited in the Text Module option. By assigning, for instance, Campaign Code "Spring2021" and including this in the GETTEXT function required for importing the respective text modules into the campaign template, you could base your text module decision on the Campaign Code used.

Template Language

Other Languages

The Other Languages field shows additional languages you selected when creating the campaign.

You can change your selection by using these fields.

Only Valid Email Addresses

Select this checkbox, if only profiles with proper valid email addresses should receive this campaign.
Recommended setting: checked (for emails).

Third-Party Link Tracking Identifier

Remarks

Use this free-entry text field to sum up the reason and scope of your campaign.
You can use up to 500 characters.