To create a new mail list, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List - List window.

   

   For more information on accessing the Mail List window, click here.

2. Click the New button.

   The Mail List Criteria (inserting) window opens.

   

3. In the Name field, enter a short name for the Mail List.
4. Make a selection for the names to be included on the list.

   

5. In the Description tab, select the appropriate flags and in the description field, enter a detailed description for the Mail List.

   This is extremely important for other users who may use the mail list. If the description of the list is good it will not need to be deciphered to understand the reason for the list.



6. Click the Save button.
7. You can now add the criteria for your mail list.

   Click here to learn how to add your criteria.

   Patrons can now be added to the list. There are several techniques for adding patrons to the mail list. You can:

   • add patrons via a database query,
   • add patrons through a ticket purchase,
   • add patrons through the batch function,
   • add patrons via the patron window, or
   • you can allow patrons to subscribe or unsubscribe via the internet.

Deleting a mail list will remove the reference in the patrons file prior to deleting the mail list.

1. Open the Mail List - List window.

   

   For more information on accessing the Mail List window, click here.

2. Search for the mail list(s) you want to delete.

   The mail lists matching your criteria are displayed.

   

3. Highlight the Mail List(s) you want to delete.
4. Click the Delete button.

   A Delete Confirmation dialog opens.

   

5. Click the Delete button.

   A second warning message opens.

   

6. Click the Delete button.

   A message displays at the bottom of the Mail List window verifying the list(s) are deleted. All associations between the patrons and the mail list will be removed.

Merging mail lists allows you to merge the data of many mail lists into one large list. Merging mail lists will only copy the data of the patrons belonging to the list. The criteria for the merged list will be the same as that of the list you select in step # 4.

1. Open the Mail List - List window.

   

   For more information on accessing the Mail List window, click here.

2. Search for the mail list(s) you want to delete.

   The mail lists matching your criteria are displayed.

3. Select the lists you wish to merge by holding down the Ctrl (PC) or Command/Apple (Mac) key.

   

4. Click the Merge button.

   The Merge Mail Lists window opens.

   

5. Select the mail list you want to merge all the lists into.
6. Click the Merge button.

   The following warning dialog opens.

   

7. Click the Merge button.

   The Mail Lists are now merged together. All patrons belonging to the selected Mail Lists will be merged into the chosen list. Patrons will only appear on the combined list once.

The Mail List Lists window allows you to:

• Access the mail lists already on your system to edit, duplicate, delete, export, create labels and merge one or more lists.
• Add new mail lists
• and Execute a selected individual mail list.



Parts of the Mail Lists List Window

	Opens the Mail List Criteria window. Click here for more information on creating a Mail List Query.
	Opens the selected Mail List.
	Creates a copy of the selected Mail List(s).
	Deletes the selected Mail List(s).
	Generates a report to the screen or default print location displaying the details of the Mail List Listing. Choices are all lists or with the specific flags and search criteria selected.
	Exports the selected record(s).
	Opens the mailing label window to create mailing labels. Click here for more information on Address Labels.
	Opens the Merge Mail Lists window to merge two (or more) selected mail lists. Click here for more information on merging mail lists.
	Rebuilds and executes the criteria in the selected mail list(s).
Icon	Displays icons of the flags enabled in the mail list
List #	Computer generated number for the mail list.
Mail List Name	Brief name of the mail list
Count	Number of times the mail list has been executed
Web	If patrons can add or remove themselves from the mail list via the web site
Act	If the mail list is active or inactive
Mail List Description	Description of the mail list as entered on the description tab of the mail list window.

To create a Query, you would perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List - List window.

   

   For more information on accessing the Mail List window, click here.

2. Click the New button.

   The Mail List Criteria (inserting) window opens.

   

3. In the Name field, enter a short name for the Mail List.
4. Make a selection for the names to be included on the list.
5. In the Description tab, select the appropriate flags and in the description field, enter a detailed description for the Mail List.

   This is extremely important for other users who may use the mail list. If the description of the list is good it will not need to be deciphered to understand the reason for the list.

   

6. Click the Save button.

You can now enter the Criteria.

7. Click the Criteria Groups Tab.

   

8. Click the Create Group button.

   

9. Choose To Add Patrons To The Mail List.

   The Mail List Data Selection window opens. To search for data, you must select a file for the primary source of information for the mail list. Theatre Manager will include information in related parent files.

   Patron Data is the PARENT for most data stored in Theatre Manager. When defining criteria, if you select any file as the main file, you can also set criteria for the patron record. However, the converse is NOT true. Selecting the patron file as the Merge File, it does not include the child information - such as donor inormation.

   

   Select a file that contains the data you are searching for. As the example list is searching for patrons who have made donations; the file to use would be "Patron Address Link". Click here for more information on selecting the file.

10. Select the "Patron Address Link" file..
11. Click the Next button.

    The Parameter window opens.

    Click here for more information on this window. This tab displays the added criteria for the query on the database.

    

12. Click the New button.

    The Add/Edit Parameter window opens.

    

    The list contains all the possible searchable fields available in your selected file. The selections on the top left side of the window (and, or, not) are used for searching multiple fields when more then one line of criteria is added within the same file. Click Here for an overview of conditions and search criteria.

    

13. Select the field to search.

    In this example "Patron Addresses>>Address Line 1", will be the selected search field criteria.

14. Select a condition, in this example "is not empty".

    The condition displayed above will find any patron has aan entry in the street address section of the Patron Record.

15. Click either:
    1. Add / Continue if adding another search criteria to the file.

       The Criteria window remains open until save or cancel is clicked.

    2. Save if the search criteria for this file is complete.

       The Parameter window will return and the entered criteria will appear in the list.

    3. Under Exclude Records, enable the "Don't Mail-Theatre Requested" and the "Don't Mail-Patron Requested" flags, and click the Done button.

       

       Now the group and its criteria have been added to the main query. For this example, another group needs to be added to include the patrons who have email addresses.

       

    4. Click the Create Group button.
    5. Choose To Add Patrons To The Mail List.

       Choose a file containing the required data. This example requires the "Patron Contact Link" file.

    6. Click the Next button.
    7. Click the New button in the Parameters window.

       In the Edit/Add Parameters window, leave the And button selected. The field for this example would be "Patron Contact Data>>Contact Data (eg Phone/email/website)" while the condition would be "contains" and parameter would be "@" (to search for an email address).

       

    8. Click the Save button.

       

    You are returned to the Parameters window.

    9. Click the Done button.

       

       Both of the Search Criteria are added to the query. The group criteria says add any patron who has volunteered their time as well as any patron who has made a donation to the list.

       Now, all the criteria have been added to satisfy the description, the database can be searched.

    If you have criteria that you'd like to print and save, while on the tab, click the PRINT button at the top of the window. You will get a report that you can then print or save to PDF. This can be handy when you: Want to keep a printed format of your Mail List criteria Want to share your criteria with others in the office who may not use Theatre Manager Want to email the precise criteria you have been working on to support@artsman.com to ask for help. Emailing a PDF is preferred as it shows all of the criteria, the Description (so we know what you are trying to accomplish), the conjunctions (AND, OR, NOT) and operators (is between, is greater than, is equal to, etc.) used in the criteria. This is the preferred method for Support to receive your criteria help request.

    10. Click the Execute button to begin the Query.

        The patrons satisfying the first criteria will be found and added to the list. Once complete, the second criteria will be performed and any patrons matching the second criteria will be added. Any patron matching both criteria will only be displayed once. The Mail List will default to the Who's In tab displaying all patrons who match the criteria and are in the list.

        

If you are designing a very specific mail list you will need to use some complex criteria to ensure you receive the desired data. Complex criteria uses brackets combined with operators and conditions to find specific groups of data. Click Here to view the different types of operators and conditions along with a description of their function.

After creating mail list criteria and building the mail list, over time some of the patrons on the mail list may no longer meet the criteria to belong to the mail list. The most effective way to remove the patron that no longer meet the criteria is to rebuild the list.

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to access this window.

2. Find the mail list you would like to rebuild.
3. Click the Execute button.

   The following warning screen will open.

   

4. Click the Rebuild button.
5. Click the Yes button.

   This will remove the current patrons from the list and perform the query again on the new data. Clicking Proceed would have left all current patrons in the list, added patrons who fit the entered criteria and only remove patrons who fit within any "remove" criteria.

Parts of the Criteria for Group from Mailing List Window

	Default search or sort order for the selected Parameters.
	Inserts the last used criteria for the merge field selected.
	Displays saved criteria options within the selected merge field.
	Saves selected criteria.
	Saves the entered criteria to be used again.
	Opens the criteria window to insert new criteria.
	Opens the criteria window and allow for modifications.
	Removes the selected line of criteria.
	Removes all lines of criteria in the parameters window.
	Inserts brackets around lines of criteria.
	Removes brackets around lines of criteria.
	Searches the database for patrons who "have" a specified line of criteria. Having criteria is criteria that is based on aggrigate values within the search. Click here for more information on using Having.
	Cancels the entry of criteria.
	Completes the entry of criteria.

If you wish to remove a large number of patrons from a list and they all have a common feature, using a query is the best technique. It is the same procedure as adding a new group except for selecting the Remove function. To ensure that you are removing the correct patrons, place the remove criteria group as the last group to be performed. Click here to learn how to rearrange groups.

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to open the window.

2. Find the mail list you want to remove the patrons from.
3. Click the Criteria Groups tab.

   The Criteria Groups for the selected mail list are displayed.

   

4. Click the Create Group button.
5. Choose "To Remove Patrons From The Mail List".

   The group selection dialog opens.

   

   Select a file which contains data all patrons to be removed from the list have in common.

   Using the Example List created in Adding Patrons to a Mail List Through a Database Query patrons with last names starting with the letter A will be removed.

   The "Patron Data" file will be used for this example.

6. Select "Patron Data" from the drop-down list and click the Next button.

   The Parameters window opens.

   

   Click Here for a detailed description of the window.

7. Click the New button.

   The Add/Edit Parameters window opens.

   

8. Select the field to search by.

   For this example the "Patron Name-Last " field.

9. Fill the search parameters with the information to search by.

   For the example use "begins with A".

10. Click the Save button.

    The Parameters window returns and the selected criteria will appear in the window.

    
11. Click the Done button.

    The Mail List Criteria window returns.

    
12. Click the Execute button.

    An Options dialog opens.

    

13. Click the Rebuild button.

    A confirmation dialog is displayed.

    

14. Click the Yes button.

    Theatre Manager will highlight each group as it is executed.

    The Mail List Criteria window opens to the Who's In tab. Patrons with last names starting with the letter A will now be removed from the list.

If you wish to add a large number of patrons from a list and they all have a common feature, using a query is the best technique. It is the same procedure as adding a new group.

To add a patron to a mail list throgh a database query, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click here to learn how to open the window.

2. Click the New button in the Mail List Criteria window toolbar / ribbon bar.

   

3. Enter a Name for the new list.

   This should be a short, but descriptive name for quick reference.

4. Enter a detailed description of the mail list.

   This is extremely important for other users who may use your mail list. If you describe the criteria of the list well, they will not need to attempt to decipher the code.

   

5. Click the Save button.

   You can now begin to enter your groups of criteria.

6. Click the Criteria Groups Tab.

   

7. Click the Create Group button.
8. Choose "To Add Patrons To The Mail List".

   The data selection window opens.

   

   Select a file containing data all of the patrons required on the list will have in common. Using the Example List created in Creating a Database Query we want to add all of the patrons born in 1966 or greater.

   The "Patron Data" file will be used for this example.
9. Select a file which contains the required data and click the Next button.

   The Parameters window opens.

   

   Click Here for a detailed description of the window.

10. Click the New button.

    The Add/Edit Parameters window opens.

    

11. Select the field to search by.

    For the example you would use the "Patron Date of Birth" field.

12. Fill the search parameters with the information to search by.

    For the example, use "is greater than or equal to" and the date December 31 1965.

13. Click the Save button.

    The Parameters window returns and the selected criteria is displayed in the window.

    
14. Click the Done button.

    The Mail List Criteria window returns.

15. Click the Execute button.

    If this is the first time the list has been executed, Theatre Manager will highlight each group as it is executed, then the Mail List Criteria window will open to the Who's In tab. Only patrons whose birthdays fall after December 31st 1965 will be added to the list.

    If the mail list has been executed previously, the Previously Executed dialog opens.

    

16. Click the Proceed button.

    If the mail list has not been updated for some time, click the Rebuild button. This ensures all data is current.

This method of adding patrons to mail lists, can capture all of the patrons who purchased a ticket(s) for a play. When you set up a play in the Plays and Dates window, there is an option to apply a default mail list. For every ticket bought for that play, Theatre Manager will add the patron to the default mailing list, if the patron is not currently already associated with it.

For example, there may be a general mail list for musicals and many musical productions over the year. If a patron is attending their first musical they will be automatically added to the default mail list. This is an excellent tool to market for a specific genre of productions.

To add patrons to a mail list through a ticket purchase, you perform the following steps:

1. Click Setup from the menu and click Plays.

   

   The Play List window opens.

   

2. Enter the search criteria and click the Search button.
3. Select the Play and click the Open button.
4. Click the Marketing tab.

   

   Locate the Default Mailing List field.

5. Click the Search For A Value button.

   The Mail Lists window opens.

6. Enter the search criteria at the top of the Mail List Lookup window and click the Search button.

   

   Mail Lists marked with a have search criteria implemented for them. That is, patrons could be added to those lists by searching the database for the specified criteria.

7. Click a Mail list to highlight and click the Select button.

   

   Every patron who buys a ticket for the production will be added to the "Musicals" mail list.

   For more information on setting up Plays and Dates refer to the System Setup section and click on Events and Dates.

To add patrons to a mail list through the batch functions, you perform the following steps:

From the Mail List Window, you can quickly add patrons manually, if you have their patron number. Occasionally, the patrons you want to add to a mail list may belong to a report you have just printed, and you wish to add them to a list. Using the batch function you can quickly add the patrons manually by their patron number.

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to access the window.

2. Find the Mail List to add the patron to.

   

3. Click the Who's In tab.
4. Click the New Button.

   The Contact List opens.

5. Enter the search criteria for the patron and click the Search button.

   Highlight patrons in the contact list who belong in the Mail List by single clicking on them.

   

6. Click the Select button.

   The patron has now been added to the list. If the patron is already a member of the mail list you will hear a beep and receive the message that the patron is already on the list. Repeat this step until all the patrons have been entered.

Adding a single patron to a mail list is accomplished thought the Patron Window. To add more than one patron see Adding patrons through a ticket purchase or Adding patrons through a database query. Patrons may also choose to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to a list via the internet.

To add patrons to a mail list through the Patron window, you perform the following steps:

1. Click the Mail List Tab tab in the Patron window.

   To learn more about accessing the patron window click here. You can now view all mail lists the patron belongs to.

   

2. Click the Add button to add the patron to mail lists.

   The Mail Lists Lookup window will open.

   

3. Enter the search criteria and click the search button.

   Mail lists within the criteria will appear in the list. The mail lists which contain criteria are marked with a bullet.

   

4. Select the mail list(s) to which you would like to add the patron.
5. Click the Select Button.

   

In order to subscribe to a Mail List online, a patron must be logged in to their online account - OR - you must have enabled the limited profile patron feature for web sales and mail list addition.

1. Find the mail list you want to allow patrons to subscribe to or unsubscribe from.

   The example shows wording you might use for setting up ticket sales by lottery. This can be used for many purposes requiring patron consent like:

   • Tell me about audtions
   • Keep me informed about musicals
   • Special Events interest me
   • Tell me about last minute deals
   • etc.

   

2. Click the Allow patron to subscribe/unsubscribe via internet flag.

   A check mark will appear in the box. Patrons logged into the database through the web sales module can now subscribe/unsubscribe to this mail list.

3. Optionally, click on double opt in email

   If double opt in is set, the patron will get an email asking them to confirm they opted in. This feature tracks explicit consent per CASL anti spam laws -and/or- can be used to verify accuracy of email addresses submitted online since the patron must confirm them. It might be wise to do this for some mail lists to confirm that the patrons are real.

4. Repeat for each mail list needing access via the internet.

To access the Mail List window you perform the following steps:

1. Click Setup >> Mail Lists from the main Theatre Manager menu.

   

   Alternatively, you can select the Mail List button from the Main Theatre Manager toolbar / ribbon bar.

   
   

   The Mail List search window opens.

   
   

   

2. Select a Mail List search option.

   

3. Enter a search range.
4. Click the Search button.
   

   The list of Mail Lists fitting the search opens.

   

5. Select a Mail List and click the Open button.

   The Mail List Criteria window will open. Alternatively, you can simply double click on the Mail List name.

   

   For more information on the Mail List window click here.

• Remove people from a mail list based on patron number -and/or-
• Remove email addresses completely from the database

This process will remove people from mail lists and (optionally) email addresses from the database. Please ensure you have a recent backup in case you delete data you do not want to delete. The only remedy is to restore a backup database, export the data and then use the patron import processes to bring it back in.

Preparation of Data

Most email services external to Theatre Manager have a feature to export patrons who unsubscribed from the emailer, or whose emails bounced. You will need to create a file that:

• has (at minimum) a patron number, email address and status. All other fields are ignored. You do not need to get the field names correct as they are matched later.
• The status must either be:
  • unsub to indicate that the patron has unsubscribed from the mail list. Theatre Manager only looks at the first 5 characters, so you can use unsubscribe or any other variation.
  • bounce to indicate that the email was not deliverable. Theatre Manager only looks at the first 5 characters, so you can use bounc, bounce, bounced or any variation.
• It can be in excel format, tab delimited or comma delimited

Importing the file to remove patrons from a mail list

To begin the process, open up a mail list window to the Whos In Tab. You can either:

• Click the Unsub Email button which will ask you for the file you prepared above -or-
• Drag the file you prepared above on top of the list of patrons.

• Patron Number - note, any row with no patron number, or a patron number not found in the database will be ignored. This means:
  • if you merged people together and then they unsubscribed, TM cannot will not find them in the database and they cannot be unsubscribed from the mail list.
  • It will also not unsubscribe people who are only in the mail list program database and not in Theatre Manager since they don't have a Theatre Manager Patron Number
• Email Address - the email address from the mail list program
• Status - which contains the first 5 letters of either unsub or bounce. Any other status codes are ignored.

• Remove People from a mail list. The patron's email address is retained in Theatre Manager - they are simply deleted from the mail list based on patron number matching. Since there are two status codes in the import file, you can elect to remove based on:
  • unsub - the patron has indicated that they don't want emails from you by actively unsubscribing from an eblast you sent out. This option reflects the patron's intent
  • bounce - The external email package does not know if the patron got the email from you. A bounce could mean many things such as: an invalid email address, the patron's email sever is not currently working, or their email server is rejecting your email as spam. A bounce does not necessarily mean bad email. Multiple bounces from many emails increases the likely hood of the email address being bad, so you may need to track the bounces for a while before using this option.
• Completely delete the email address from the database - if you get a lot of bounces, you can elect to DELETE the email address from the database. This option should be used sparingly because it will DELETE the email address from the database and disassociate it from ALL PATRONS IN A HOUSEHOLD that are sharing the email address.

This method is useful for removing multiple patrons from a mail list when they do not have common information. If the patrons all have common information (e.g. they all are non-donors) use the Mail List Database Query method of removal.

To remove a patron through the mail list window, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to open the window.

2. Find the mail list to remove patrons from.
3. Click the Who's In tab.
4. Select the patrons you want to remove from the mail list.

   Single click on a patron to select them or use the Ctrl key (PC) or the Command/Apple key (Mac) to select multiple patrons.

5. Click the Remove Button.

The patron has been removed from the list.

You can add those passes to the patron record one at a time, or you can add them EN MASSE to selected people in a mail list.

This process can sell a lot of passes or gift certificates quickly. It does not provide a process to pay for any that generate a balance owing by the customer. If passes are sold that require payment, you may find it easier to pay for them on the Patron Tab in the pass setup window.

Process of selling a Pass/Gift Certificate to Multiple Patrons

Open up a mail list that contains the people that you want to sell the passes/gift certificates to and go to the Whos In tab on the mail list window. The start of the process is:

• Select the patrons who you want to give the pass to

• Click the Add Pass button (above window) and then pick a pass/gift certificate type from the pop up list -or-
• Open the pass type list and drag one of them onto the selected patrons

Once a mail list has been created or found you may wish to view the patrons belonging to the list. By viewing the Who's In tab of the Mail List,

• patrons can be viewed or removed from the list
• you can export the data
• you can print labels for the patrons in the list using the mail lable button
• do maps of where selected people live (context menu)
• and more

To view a patron on the mail list, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List widow.

   Click here for more information on opening the window.

2. Find the mail list required.

   

   Currently there are 30 patrons attached to this mail list as seen by the # in List to the right of the window.

3. Click the Who’s In tab.

   The Who's In information will be displayed.

   

   For more information on this window click here.

Lottery based ticket sales are a way to fairly and equitably sell tickets to a large number of people by spreading out ticket sales across a longer period of time - so that an instantaneous free-for-all on your web site will not overwhelm your hardware.

• many more people want tickets than are available
• you expect the tickets to go like hotcakes and, most likely, vastly overwhelm your hardware's capabilities
• you want the patrons to sign up in advance to say that they are interested in having a chance to buy the tickets
• and then you randomly decide:
  • which of those people will actually get a shot to buy the tickets -and-
  • the unlucky ones do not get a chance during the onsale because they lost the lottery - but might be able to buy later when the tickets are placed onsale, unannounced.

General Steps to do a lottery based Onsale

How, you ask? There are a few things that need to be set up as summaried below and explained in detail afterwards. You will need:

1. A self subscribing double opt-in mail list to track the above patrons who want to be in the lottery
2. These patrons will need to sign in and create a full account (if they don't have one already)
3. A merge process to look for duplicate patrons in the mail list - eg same person, multiple emails - so that they can't game the system.
4. Extract a random group of patrons from the mail list and organize into presales groups
5. One or more coupons that allow presales access to the event
6. Set up auto-release holds that release in waves
7. An eblast to winning patrons telling them when their access time to the tickets are
8. An eblast to losing patrons to tell them they are not in the lottery.

Note: this intentionally spreads out web sales across time so that your servers have less load at any given time. eg, if there are 10 lottery slots, hardware/servers required to handle a single onsale need only be 1/10th as powerful to handle a lottery spread out over time (which becomes 10 mini-onsales).

Step 1: Make a mail list that people can self subscribe to

You will need to make a mail list that lets patrons to add or remove themselves online.

• Give it an external name of Lottery Sales sign up for 'the event' or what ever seems obvious to the patrons.
• The description should describe the purpose of the list, when the date range of the actual onsales occur and a link to your marketing page that describes how the lottery system will work and that not everybody is guaranteed a spot, but that it is random
• Make sure the mail list is double opt-in which will ensure that the email addresses are real since the patron needs to confirm it (it prevents people creating dummy emails).
• Refer to the instructions to make a mail list patrons can self subscribe to
• If patrons call the box office to be part of the lottery, you can manually add them to this list, just make sure you:
  • Make sure that they have an email address on their account
  • If you have to add an email address for the patron, use the reset password feature to send them an email to indicate its better to make a password right away (i.e. well before before the onsale)
  • Merge any duplicate records together for the patron that may exist

Step 2: Send an email to patrons asking them to sign up

You can use the form letter feature to send an email to patrons asking that they sign up to the lottery mail list. You will need to:

• Make a mail list of patrons you want to send the form letter email to
• Create a form letter inviting them to join the lottery for the tickets:
  • Include in the content of the form letter, a link to quick add the patron to a mail list. It might look like one of the two options below:
  • https://tickets.yourvenue.com/TheatreManager /1/login?maillistquickadd=0 to take people to an email option to quickly sign up and which makes partial patrons for new email addresses -or-
  • https://tickets.yourvenue.com/TheatreManager /1/online?btnMailList which has people sign in and then they can manage all their mail lists

Step 3: De-duplicate and merge people

Now that you've collected a lot of people in to the 'Lottery' mail list, you may still need to de-duplicate entries before the actual onsale. Why is that? One of the tenets of mail lists is that patrons can only be in the list once. Very true, but if a patron signed up multiple times using different email addresses, you may want to do some merging by:

• Open the 'lottery' mail list
• Go to the Whos in tab
• Right click on the list to see the context menu and pick find duplicates
• This will limit the search for duplicates to people within the list. Try a few broad brush searches like:
  • Combined name
  • Last Name and First Name
  • Name and phone number
• You may also want to sort the list by various fields and see if you can identify and merge duplicates that way. eg:
  • Sort by phone and see what you can find
  • Or sort by email

Step 4: Randomize the mail list

As the date of the lottery nears, you need to look at:

• the total number of people in the list,
• the number of available tickets,
• and match to approximate load that your servers can manage

• The first randomization is used to extract approximately 10,000 out of 90,000, or 12% of the patrons into a new mail list to identify the people who you are eligible for ticket sales by lottery (option 2 in the randomization image to the right)
• The second randomization will take the new list and break it into 10 more or less equal groups of people in 10 new mail lists. It is these last 10 mail lists that we'll use for emailing and coupons in the next steps (option 1 in the randomization image to the right)

Step 5: Make Pre-access Coupons

Per the example above, if we have 10 lottery sales groups, then we will need to make 10 preaccess coupons with the following characteristics:

• Internal Descriptions might be 'Lottery Group 1' through 'Lottery Group 10'
• Internal Description is displayed to the patron on the shopping cart and should be simply something like 'Pre Sales access to the Greatest Event time xx:xx to yy:yy'
• Make each one restricted to ONE OF the final 10 random lists created in step 4
• Set the coupon to be Auto Add in Web and for Any household member
• Make the coupon usage type Presales access via internet
• For the Redeemable From and Redeemable to dates, set up distinct sales times on each coupon such as
  • Monday 10:00am to noon
  • Monday noon to 2:00pm
  • Monday 2:00pm to 4:00pm
  • Tuesday 10:00am to noon
  • etc.
    Make the time periods suitable to how your patrons buy online, although for an onsale like this, they will probably just come to your web site.
• In the Performance tab, select the performances that the lottery presales are for
• In the Notes tab, you can create html links that will show the event as a convenience for the patron. Contact ArtsMan support and we can help with the link and button names. These will appear on the cart window as an aid to the Patron

Step 6: Create auto release holds

This step can be done at any time but needs to be ready before the onsale. The idea is to select and hold an equal proportion of tickets for the performance and auto release them at the same time just prior to the onsales time slot - eg. a couple of minutes or so. To do this:

• Go to the Maps Tab for the event that you are going to sell
• If there are 10 onsales slots, you want to:
  • hold 10% of the tickets in each performance
  • for a specific patron - you may want to make a specific before-event-sales patron for this onsale that you can merge into the standard before-event-sales patron later
  • and coordinate the release time to match the coupon access time in step 5 above

At this point, the Lottery is set up. You have: 10% of the tickets ready to be released in each of 10 waves. 10% of the patrons who applied for the lottery enabled to purchase in each wave

Step 7: Inform each patron of their lottery time

This uses Theatre Manager's Eblast capability to merge and send a letter to each of the winning lottery participants informing them of their time slot.

• Create a different form letter for each of the winning lottery groups
• Put the access time range for that lottery group into the letter
• Into the letter, add a
  • direct link to the event if you are selling one event and to multiple performances
  • direct link to a performance if you are only selling to one performance for the onsale
  • direct link with seats selected where you might automatically pick the maximum number of seats allowed (not necessarily beside each other) and you are using pick your own. Then the patron need only remove some seats and pick their price.
• Eblast that letter to the patrons that won

Step 8: Inform those Patrons that did not win the lottery to buy tickets

You'll also need to create a mail list of those that did not win in the lottery to let them know that they mighrt get some singles after the onsale is over

• Create a letter to send to the patrons that did not win.
• Make another mail list of all people in that applied and remove those that won
• eblast those in this final mail list of people not selected

• find all patrons who donated money this year
• find all patrons who donated money last year
• find all patrons who donated money any year before this year
• find all Patrons who donated in a specific period to certain campaigns

The above concept also applies to any data in Theatre Manager such as ticket buyers last year, subscribers this year, gift certificate users in the past 3 years, volunteers since the beginning of time, etc.

There are 4 combinations that seem a little harder that might require either 'Add' and 'Remove' groups or more than one mail list as illustrated in the Venn Diagram above. These slightly more complex groups are:

1. Blue group but not in Pink - or in the example above Patrons who did something last year but not this year. This type of group describes two very common data base search needs:
   • per the example above LYBUNT - last year but not this
   • SYBUNT - some year but not this
2. Pink group but not in Blue - or using the example above Patrons who did something this year but not last year
3. in both Blue and Pink groups - or per the example above Patrons who did something in both years
4. in neither Blue and Pink groups - or Patrons who did not do anything in either year

	The key difference in the above searches is that multiple data records must be considered before the patron is selected. In the simple example of gave last year but not this, Theatre Manager needs to consider two DISPARATE SETS of data records to find the difference.
	Multiple criteria are represented by add/remove groups .. which you can think of as combining multiple Venn Diagrams together.
	Individual criteria groups can use the having clause to create very powerful queries that find very targeted groups of patrons. eg: you can find all donors that gave 3 or more times last year and didn't give 5 or more times the year before.

Last year but not this (Blue group but not in Pink) One way of thinking of this is people who are in one group, but not the other. There are two ways to accomplish this: You can build your entire query in one mail list using: an 'add group' with some inline criteria -and- a 'remove group' with some inline criteria -or- a mail list that refers to two other mail lists that have been previously built to identify patrons. -or- A combination of inline criteria and/or mail lists to identify the different SETS of data	The above example shows: An add group that finds tickets for patrons where the season is 2019 A remove group that then eliminates those patrons who have a ticket for the 2020 season The criteria in each group can be multiple lines to be as restrictive as you wish. The important thing is that each group represents a different SET of patrons that must be found first before they can be compared. This is similar to the above since it has both add and remove groups. The criteria within the group just happens to refer to previous mail lists that have been built to identify the SETS of patrons.
This year but not last (Pink group but not in Blue) This is similar to the case for 'last year but not this'. The criteria is simply reversed - since in both cases you are taking one SET (group) of patrons and removing the second SET (group) of patrons. Again, you can: build your entire query in one mail list using: an 'add group' with some inline criteria -and- a 'remove group' with some inline criteria -or- a mail list that refers to two other mail lists that have been previously built to identify patrons. -or- A combination of inline criteria and/or mail lists to identify the different SETS of data	This example shows the use of two mail lists to find the difference in the groups of people. You could use the add and remove group approach as per the previous example.
In both groups (in both Blue and Pink) Something that must be in two groups is called the intersection set. To find patrons like this in theatre manager, you need to do it be creating two temporary lists. eg: Build a mail list of people representing group A. In the example above, that would be the 'blue circle' or people who are in 'last year' mail list. Build a mail list of people representing group B. In the example above, that would be the 'pink circle' or people who are in 'this year' mail list. Build the the mail list that uses is all of to find people in all of last year and this year per the image to the right	Finding the intersection of two SETS (i.e. patrons in both groups) can only be done by pre-building two lists that represent each individual group and using a third list to find people in both lists.
In neither group NOT in Blue and NOT in Pink) Finding people in neither group is a little tricky. You need to find the group of everybody you are considering and then remove group 'A' and then remove group 'B'. You can do it in one of three ways: You can build your entire query in one mail list using: an 'add group' with some inline criteria -and- a 'remove group' with some inline criteria -and- a second 'remove group' with some different inline criteria -or- An 'add' group with inline criteria or one that refers to a prebuilt mail list of all people. A 'remove' group with a mail list that refers to two other mail lists that have been previously built to identify patrons. -or- The use of NOT in an 'add' group that finds people in both mail lists (see previous example) in order to NEGATE the search. This approach is useful if the set of everybody really means everybody in the database. -or- A combination of inline criteria and/or mail lists to identify the different SETS of data	Note: finding people not in a group starts with the premise that you need to define everybody and then remove patrons from that list. For example: Everybody could literally mean everybody in the database -or- all donors forever, -or- all ticket buyers who paid money for tickets in the past two years (ignoring comps) -or- all subscribers who bough their subscription using the promotion 'early bird renewal' If your meaning of everybody is a limited set of patrons, you will need an 'add' group at the beginning of the criteria to specify the meaning of 'everybody' In this example, everybody is explicitly defined as all patrons with a patron number greater than zero and the remove group says patrons belongs to mail lists 'is all of' last year or thins year. They means remove patrons who are on both prebuilt mail lists (or all people who are not in last year or this year) In this sample, everybody is patrons who are subscribers and part of the control house for dinner theatre. It then removes all donors and them removes all volunteers. This results in subscribers who have never donated or volunteered. In this example, we are looking for everybody who does not belong to any of the two prebuilt mail lists. Everybody is implied since Theatre Manager scans for all data, unless explicitly told not to. In this case, Theatre Manager was told to only include people 'in none of' the mail lists.

By combining mail lists you can gain access to the data of many lists and from that data form a new list. Unlike merging the mail lists, you are able to keep the original mail lists and their data intact and unchanged.

To combine mail lists, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to open the window.

2. Click the New button.

   The Mail List Inserting window opens.

   

3. Enter a Name and Description for the list.
4. Click the Save button.
5. Click the Criteria Groups tab.

   

6. Click the Create Group button and select To Add Patrons to a Mail List.
7. Select Mail Lists Associated with a Patron.

   

8. Click the Next button.

   The Parameter window opens.

   

9. Click the New button.

   The Add/Edit Parameter window opens.

   

10.  Select a field and condition.

    For this example the field will be "Mail List #" found under Mail List Setup and the condition will be "is one of"

11. Select the mailing lists to be combined.

    Hold the Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) key to select multiple lists at a time.

12. Click the Save button.

    You are returned to the Parameters window.

    

13. Click the Done button.

    You are returned to the Mail List Criteria window.

    

14. Click the Execute button.

    The data from the selected mail lists will be combined.

    If the criteria is changed in one of the combined mail lists the combined mail list must be executed again to update the information.

You can apply it in many ways to ANY DATA in the database. For example, Patrons who:

• volunteered the past 3 years, but not this year
• Donated every even year, but not this year
• Subscribed 4 years ago but not 3 years ago
• Lapsed donors who donated last year but did not buy a ticket this year
  • This example is interesting because it was applied to different types of data -- the data file for the second criteria (tickets) is not the same as the data for the first (donations)

In Theatre Manager, to identify WHO falls into this category, we use a mail list with two groups.

• The first group adds people to the mail list using criteria from the past
• The second group removes people from the mail list using criteria from the present

In the the example below, a very simple data range has been used for both criteria. You can make the criteria as complex as possible, by including items such as:

• date range
• Multiple Campaigns
• Certain Giving Levels
• Address where the patron lives
• and more

IN ALL CASES, THE CONCEPT IS THE SAME -- add people matching data, then remove people matching other data to find out who used to be part of the group and is now not part of the group. Refer to editing mail lists to create your query to find what you want.

Variation: Removing all household members

Variation: Sometimes you may want to remove people if anybody in the household gave the second year. This means you must remove primary and non-primary members of the household (in two steps)

This is possible, but involved a small nuance to the remove steps.:

• Create an add step to add patron who donated, volunteered, purchased tickets, or what have you.
• Create the first remove step and indicate to remove Primary patrons only.
• Create the second remove step with similar criteria, except this time, indicate to remove Non-Primary patrons only.

When removing Primary FOLLOWED BY removing Non-Primary patrons, you will end up removing all patrons in the household.

• donated multiple times
• volunteered multiple times
• received multiple mailings or eblasts
• bought multiple gift certificates

The general steps to find purchasers to multiple events are:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click here to learn how to open the window.

2. Click the New button.

   The Mail List Inserting window opens.

   

3. Enter a Name and Description for the list.
4. Click the Save button.
5. In the Criteria Groups tab, click the Create Group button.
6. Choose To Add Patrons to the Mail List.

The Mail List Data Selection dialog opens.



7. In the drop down list, choose ticket data per performance.
8. Click the Next button.

   The Edit Report Parameters window opens.

   

9. Select the criteria 'Play #' or 'Event #' (depending on what your venue calls it) and then select multiple events from the pick list
10. After you have completed making your selections, click Save.

    You are returned to the Parameters window.

    

11. Click the Having button on the Parameters window.

The having criteria should be the 'Event #'.

Pick Unique count on the left.

On the right, enter the range of unique events such as between 3 and 6.



12. Click Save.

When you execute the mail list, you will get people who have bought 'distinct' events out of the criteria you selected.

You can make the first part of the criteria as complicated as you wish, such as 'all regular tickets' that were 'sold by user xxx' and were 'sold on a thursday afternoon' just by adding more lines to the regular criteria as you've done before.

In this example, of creating a mail list of Patron Attending an Event, the event name will be "Rolling Lego Concert". This mail list will only function if the Confirm Attendance function is being used.

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click here to learn how to access this window.

2. Click the New button.
3. Enter a detailed name for the list.
4. Enter a detailed description of the mail list.

   This mail list is comprised of patrons who attended the recent Rolling Lego Concert.

   

5. Click the Save button.

   Once this information has been entered you can now begin to enter your criteria.

6. Click the Criteria Groups tab.



7. Click the Create Group button.
8. Choose To Add Patrons to the Mail List.

   The Mail List Data Selection dialog opens.

   

9. Choose "Ticket data per Performance" file.
10. Click the Next button.

    The Parameter window opens.

    

11. Click the New button.

    The Add/Edit Parameter window opens.

    

12. Choose "Play #", "is one of", select "Rolling Lego Concert".
13. Click the Save button.

    You are returned to the Parameter window.

    

14. Click the Done button.

    You are returned to the Mail List Criteria Groups tab.

    

15. Click the Execute button.

• Add Group: Choose Donation Receipts for a payment to a donation
• Criteria: Donation Date is between January 1, 2012 and Dec 31, 2012
• and Donation Receipt date is between January 1, 2012 and Dec 31, 2012
• Having The sum of Donation Receipt Amount is greater than or equal to $1200

This will give you a list of donors who have donated between the time frame where the sum of the receipts ( payments ) is $1,200 +

The steps to find Patrons Whose Combined Payments in a Fiscal Year total $####+ are:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click here to learn how to open the window.

2. Click the New button.

   The Mail List Inserting window opens.

   

3. Enter a Name and Description for the list.
4. Click the Save button.
5. In the Criteria Groups tab, click the Create Group button.
6. Choose To Add Patrons to the Mail List.

The Mail List Data Selection dialog opens.



7. In the drop down list, choose Donation Receipts for a Payment.
8. Click the Next button.

   The Edit Report Parameters window opens.

9. Click the New button to open the Edit Report Parameters window.
10. Select the criteria Donation Date is between (Date Start of desired span) and (Date End of desired span).

    

11. Click the Add/Continue button.
12. Select the criteria Donation Receipt Date is between (Date Start of desired span) and (Date End of desired span).

    

13. Click the Save button.

    You are returned to the parameters window.

    

14. Click the Having button.

    The Add Parameters window opens.

    

15. Select Level All, the Choose the Category Donation Receipts for a Payment >> Donation Receipt Amount. Then entyer the Condition is greater than and enter the amount.

    This will restrict the list to all donors whose combined PAYMENTS in the date range specified totals the amount you want plus.

    For example: A list of donors whose combined payments in the fiscal year totalled $1200+.

16. Click the Save button.

    You are returned to the parameters window.

    

17. Click the Done button.

    You are returned to the Criteria Groups tab.

    

18. You can now execute your querry.

To create a mail list of all of your current subscribers, you perform the following steps:

1. Open the Mail List Window.

   Click Here to learn how to access this window.

2. Click the New button.
3. Enter a detailed name for the list.

   2012 Subscribers.

4. Enter a detailed description of the mail list.

   This is a list of patrons who are season subscribers for the year.

   

5. Click the Save button.
6. Click the Criteria Groups tab.

   

7. Click the Create Group button.
8. Choose To Add Patrons to the Mail List.

   The Mail List Data Selection dialog opens.

   

9. Choose the "Ticket Data per Performance" file.
10. Click the Next button.

    The Parameter window opens.

    

11. Click the New button.

    The Add/Edit Parameter window opens.

    

12. Choose the Play Number, is one of, select the plays which are in the season subscription package.
13. Click the Add / Continue button.

    

14. Choose Promotion. is one of, select the promotion codes for all of the subscription types.
15. Click the Save button.

    You are returned to the Parameters window.

    

    Order of Criteria is very important. If we had selected the Promotion FIRST, The query would search for the Subscription promotions in ALL performances, then search for the matching performance codes. To optimize searching, you would search for the performances and then the matching promotions. Click here to learn how to re-arrange criteria.

16. Click the Done button.

    You are returned to the Mail List, Criteria Groups tab.

    

17. Click the Execute button.

In the sample picture below, the criteria shows 'Primary Email Address'. You can just as easily search for the other 'primary' fields when adding them to the criteria. So you can use primary email address, primary fax, etc in any query.

The trick is that if somebody:

• has an email address, then the primary email address unique # will be non-zero. If that is the case, use criteria like the picture below, but change it to

  Marketing Primary Email Unique # 0

• does NOT have any email address, then the primary email address unique # will be ZERO. The picture shows the criteria to find people without emails.

This criteria can be combined with just about any other criteria.