Learn how to navigate Letter Merge in this step-by-step guide. This help guide will cover how to merge data into a letter.
Recommended Reading Before You Start
Content
Instructions
Neon CRM has many options for creating printed mail. Merging in Neon CRM means that you can automatically place constituent data, such as names and addresses, into a letter. You can also generate mailing labels. You can export your list for an external merge or use an internal Neon CRM merge. Here is a full guide on external merges. The rest of this guide will focus on Neon CRM merges.
Many of the lists for print merges can be created automatically by the system, but you can also create your own custom recipient lists. The combined list of items to be merged is available by navigating to Letters and selecting Letter Merge.
The Merge Queue
1. The Merge Queue is found by navigating to Letters and selecting Letter Merge.
2. The Mail Merges in Progress section displays any letters that are currently being merged by a staff user of your system. If a staff user begins to merge some letters, but fails to complete the process, the letters end up here. A staff user can resume the mail merge by clicking Continue.
3. The Pending Merges section shows you all of the constituents that need to be mailed, sorted by type of mailing. To merge letters of a particular type, click Merge Letters for that type of letter.
4. The Completed Merges section stores records of letters that have been successfully merged within the last 90 days. You can click View Merged Letters to see these letters.
Merging Letters
1. Once you have clicked Merge Letters under Pending Merges, you will be taken to a page where you can select the recipients of your mailing. At the top of the page, you can filter your results by mailing type and by date range.
2. Your recipient list gives you several options for working with letters. Select the letters you wish to send by clicking the checkboxes on the left column.
3. If you choose NEON Letter Merge, your selected letters will be merged using your letter templates. You then print out the letters from your web browser.
Selecting External Merge will export your recipient data to Excel, where you can merge the letters using an external application.
Choosing Mark Complete will not actually merge the letter. It will simply mark the letter as "sent" on the constituent's record, and remove it from the list of letters to merge. The letter will also be added to the list of completed merges.
Clicking Remove from List will remove the letter from the list of letters to merge, but will not add it to the list of completed merges. If you do this by mistake, you can always re-merge the letter manually by going to the constituent's account record and clicking the letter icon.
You’ll notice that some of these merges have an Email icon. This means that this particular type of mail can also be completed with an email. Clicking the icon brings up a page where you can send this constituent the message via email. Fill out the message as you find it necessary, and send it.
When you send the message, it will be moved to the Completed Merges list. If you decide that you need to re-send a mailing from this list, select the letter and click Mark Pending. This will send the letter back to the Pending Merges queue.
Completed Merges
1. You can view all merged letters completed in the last 90 days by selecting either View Completed Merges or View Merged Letters in the Completed Merges section.
2. This takes you to a list of all completed merges. You can filter this list using the criteria at the top of the page and clicking Search.
3. You can view merged letters of more than one type by using the multi-select box for Mail Type.
4. If you would like to re-merge any of the letters in the Completed Merges list, select the letter and click Return Letter to Pending Merges List. This will allow you to merge this letter again.
Populating the Queue
Items enter the Letter Merge Queue from automatically generated System Letters and Campaign Letters created directly or through a report.
These are appropriate for transaction acknowledgements, for example. The settings that control which actions add constituents to the mail merge queue are found under Settings cog Global Settings Communications Transaction Acknowledgements System Email & Letter Defaults
You can also generate new mass mailings - Campaign Letters. This can be done in two ways.
- Navigate to Letters Campaign Letters & Tracking New Campaign Letter.
- Open the reporting module, create a New Report, and select Mailing Report or Household Report. You’ll specify some sort of criteria to set up your mailing list to include the people you’re targeting. Select Export Results Create Mailing, which allows you to choose the type of merge to perform and add the letters to Material Tracking.
If you are running a different type of report, you can Export Results Excel to perform an external mail merge.