Table of Contents General emerge... 3 What is emerge?... 3 Why do I need emerge? I already have a ticketing system... 3 User Needs... 3 How do I change my email address login?... 3 How do I add or remove users?... 3 What is the emerge Usage Report?... 3 Who do I call if I have a technical question?... 3 What browsers does emerge run on?... 3 Updating My emerge Warehouse... 4 How can I update my emerge data warehouse with my latest ticket buyers, donors and other patrons?... 4 Why is the record count in emerge lower than the number of records I sent to TRG with my update?... 4 Tangibles... 4 In what format will my emerge order be downloaded?... 4 How do I add phone numbers or email addresses onto my mailing list?... 4 Where can I find hygiened phone numbers in my emerge lists?... 4 How do I get a response report from my data in emerge?... 5 Where can I get my hygiene deliverables (Good Moves, Bad Moves) in emerge?... 5 Order Creation... 5 Why is it taking so long to process my orders?... 5 How do I suppress a previous order?... 5 How can I duplicate a previous emerge order?... 6 What fields does emerge use to de-duplicate my orders?... 6 Will emerge completely de-duplicate my list every time?... 6 What is the difference between gross, net, and multi?... 6 When would I use multi buyers?... 6 How do I change the quantity of a list in the Shopping Cart?... 7 Why is ranking important?... 7 Email List Creation... 8 What is included in the emerge email functionality?... 8 How do I create an email list in emerge?... 8 Updated January 2010. Page 1
How do I export my emerge email list to my Patron Mail account?... 8 How do I find my emerge list in my Patron Mail account?... 8 Shopping Cart Reports... 9 I m not getting an email with my report. What s going on?... 9 Is there maximum size for a Segment Penetration Report?... 9 Why are my counts different between my Shopping Cart and my Segment Penetration Report?... 9 Do my geography and demographic filters carry over to the Segment Penetration and Demographic Match Reports?...10 Are suppressions included as a part of the file in the Zip Penetration Report?...10 Are suppressions included as a part of the file in the Demographic Match Report?...10 Does the data used for the Demographic Match Report correspond to the data in the Demographics tab in emerge?...10 Fees and Additional Services... 10 Are there fees associated with pulling a standard mailing list?...10 Are there minimum fees for my emerge order using demographics?...10 Will I receive a confirmation after using my credit card?...10 Tips & Tricks... 10 What s the best way to make my processing time faster?...10 How do I identify new-to-file buyers?...11 In Manage Lists, why when I hit Update Counts after dragging and dropping my lists does it not stay the way I wanted it to?...11 How do I make a list an automatic suppression?...11 Community Trading Networks... 11 Will others be able to see all my data when I put it in the community co-op?...11 Is it possible to trade email addresses within emerge?...12 How many times can I use a list trade I acquired through emerge?...12 How can I ensure my traded list is used for what the trade agreement specified?...12 Data Security... 12 How does TRG ensure my data is secure in emerge?...12 Is TRG PCI Compliant?...13 Updated January 2010. Page 2
General emerge What is emerge? emerge is a list management system. It is a web-based application designed for marketers to maximize efficiency and usability of patron data. emerge allows users to build lists for mail or research purposes using a variety of attributes to create custom, unique, and de-duplicated lists. Why do I need emerge? I already have a ticketing system emerge should be viewed as a marketing enhancement to your resident ticketing system; emerge allows you to build a data warehouse of patron attributes beyond what your system is designed to maintain. This tool can unify multiple internal data sets that may not currently reside together: Ticketing, Donations, Education, Demographics, Audience Survey results, etc. emerge allows you to create lists using segmentation that is robust and meaningful while allowing for analysis of your data using a variety of demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic filters as well as at-yourfingertips merge/purge processes. User Needs How do I change my email address login? If your email address has changed, please contact your TRG representative with the new address. You will be notified when we have updated your login with that email address. How do I add or remove users? If you would like to add more emerge users to your organization or remove those that are current users, send an email to UserUpdates@trgarts.com. We will make the change and notify you when it is completed. What is the emerge Usage Report? The emerge Usage Report outlines those members of your organization with emerge accounts and their activity over the past 30 days. This report is emailed to those designated as User Administrators. If you have not designated a User Administrator from your organization, this report is emailed to any user with List Approver status. Who do I call if I have a technical question? Know that many of your questions can be answered by referencing the documents on the Support page within emerge (upper right corner of every page). For any additional emerge questions, we are here to help: Please contact your TRG representative. What browsers does emerge run on? emerge is exclusively supported by Internet Explorer and Firefox and cannot run on any other browser. Updated January 2010. Page 3
Updating My emerge Warehouse How can I update my emerge data warehouse with my latest ticket buyers, donors and other patrons? TRG individual clients will be provided with a schedule of updates based on their contract following their initial load into emerge. Please contact your TRG representative if you have questions on this process. Community list co-op clients can update their warehouse between community updates by following the interim submission guide. Please contact your TRG representative for pricing and data requirements. Why is the record count in emerge lower than the number of records I sent to TRG with my update? There are two reasons why records don t make it in to emerge. First, duplicates within a list are removed. If one household is listed more than once in your submission, the counts will be lower in emerge after de-duplication. Secondly, emerge does not accept bad addresses. If a record has an incomplete or faulty address, it will not make it into the system. Tangibles In what format will my emerge order be downloaded? emerge produces CSV files (comma separated values). This most commonly opens in Excel, but differs by computer. If your order is over 63,000 records, do not open it in Excel, as your order will be truncated; instead, open the order in Access or simply send to your mailhouse as a CSV. How do I add phone numbers or email addresses onto my mailing list? When clicking the download icon from My Orders, a pop up box will appear. There you will find an option to download your mail list with emails and/or phone numbers. Keep in mind that this is a mailing list with these fields added, not a phone or email list. This means that records without this information will still be included in the download file; emails and/or phones are populated where available. Where can I find hygiened phone numbers in my emerge lists? When you download a list in emerge that includes phone numbers, you ll get four fields with phone information: Phone 1, Phone 2, New Phone, and New Phone Status. The numbers found in Phone 1 and Phone 2 are the numbers you supplied to TRG from your ticketing system. The numbers found in the New Phone Status field are any new or verified phone numbers we located for you during the phone hygiene process. The words found in New Phone Status note what type of phone number is identified in the New Phone field. If no values exist in the New Phone or New Phone Status fields, then we have not performed phone hygiene on your emerge data, and these lists should not Updated January 2010. Page 4
be used for telemarketing or telefunding campaigns. Should you wish to order phone hygiene (or to inquire about the date your phone hygiene was performed), please contact your TRG representative. How do I get a response report from my data in emerge? Your TRG representative will assist you as you plan a response report or conversion report. If you are running the report on a mail list you pulled from emerge, this is a very easy process. Simply email your representative with the emerge order number that is the mail file and send your responder file (if not already in emerge). Your TRG representative will email you the response report when it is finished and reviewed by your consulting team. Please allow 3-5 business days for this process. Where can I get my hygiene deliverables (Good Moves, Bad Moves) in emerge? To access your Good Moves, Bad Moves, and Hygiene Certificates, simply click on the Reports button from the top emerge ribbon. Once in the Reports area, click on the Hygiene Reports tab. There you will be able to download your hygiene reports as they become available. Order Creation Why is it taking so long to process my orders? Keep in mind that emerge is a web-based system and so the type of Internet connection you are using affects processing speed. Wireless connections often slow down processing time. With a hard-wire (Ethernet) connection, you should see your processing time improve. Also, the system has peak periods of intense usage seasonally and sometimes during certain midday hours of the work week. At these times, it may take longer than normal to process your lists. When this occurs, consider one of two options: Run your order and let it process while you do something else or put aside your emerge order until later in the day, when heavy usage has subsided. How do I suppress a previous order? emerge does allow for a suppression of previous orders. If you have created an order and would like everyone from that order not to be included in the order you are currently working on, choose Previous Orders on the lower right-hand corner of the list select tab. This will bring up all of your previously created and closed orders from which you may select. Choose the previous order you want suppressed and add it to your shopping cart. Those records will be suppressed from your current mailing. Note: Previous orders can only be used as suppressions. They can never be active segments in a list. Updated January 2010. Page 5
When would I use the Suppress Previous Order function? Suppressing previous orders can be helpful in many scenarios. If you have two versions of the same brochure (ie: one red, one blue), you could ensure that no one who received the red brochure receives the blue brochure. This is also great for ensuring that one round of mailing (Priority) does not receive the next round of mailing (Tier 1), saving you the added step of selecting each individual priority segment as a suppression. How can I duplicate a previous emerge order? emerge orders cannot be duplicated (cloned). If you would like to build an order using the same lists as a previous order after submitting new data, you will need to rebuild the list. To make this order consistent with the previous order, you may wish to review the excel report accompanying each order s record (found under My Orders). What fields does emerge use to de-duplicate my orders? emerge uses last name (or company, if no last name), primary address line, and zip code to merge/purge lists. This means that if you have a patron in your system under two different segments (lists) with one as a work address and one as a home address, that patron will not be de-duplicated from your order. This also means that if you have two patrons with the same last name, we will not remove one of them just because both are in the order. This is the same de-duplication criteria TRG uses for offline database management services. Will emerge completely de-duplicate my list every time? TRG has set a standard acceptable duplication rate of 2% due to the metrics we use in our merge/purge process. While many times this rate is much lower, an emerge order will not have over 2% duplication when pulling net counts. What is the difference between gross, net, and multi? Gross counts are total records (pre merge/purge) in a list less any identified suppressions; note that this is not a unique listing and will produce duplication within an order. Net counts provide you with a de-duplicated listing of your shopping cart. If you want a unique listing for a mailing list, chose net counts. A patron will always appear in their highest ranked segment within the shopping cart. Multi counts tell us who appears in the order more than once. This patron will appear in their highest ranked segment, but we know that their record also exists in a lower ranked segment. When would I use multi buyers? Updated January 2010. Page 6
Multi buyers help qualify buyers in an otherwise less productive segment. What we know is the more active the arts buyer, the more likely they are to buy a ticket/donate to your organization. This can be especially helpful in using trades or paring down a list. How do I change the quantity of a list in the Shopping Cart? Within your emerge order Shopping Cart, you can select Gross, Net, or Multi counts for each list. You can also select a random sampling from any of those categories. To do this, type a number smaller than the total count for that category in the Quantity column. Why is ranking important? Ranking your database ensures that patrons are labeled and identified in your mailing list by their most important or recent behavior. Best practice direct marketers have improved the success of their efforts by acknowledging the behaviors of their patrons and targeting them effectively. For example, if a patron is an important donor to your institution, the communications you send to that patron should be conscious of that important behavior. Sending that same patron a Trial Offer because they may exist on an outside, traded list as well mis-targets the patron. Ranking a database can ensure that you accurately filter through the multiple behaviors a patron may exhibit and send experientially appropriate messaging to them. emerge offers the ability to pre-rank your database in the My Accounts section (in the Manage Lists tab) so that your time sorting and ranking your lists in the Shopping Cart section can be faster. You can always re-rank within the Shopping Cart, but this saves time in the future and provides consistency. You can only have one default ranking in your manage lists tab. What order does TRG recommend I rank in? The more recent and frequently a patron attends/donates to your organization, the higher they should be ranked. For performing arts organizations building a list for a marketing mailing, we recommend the following ranking hierarchy: Current Subscribers 1 Year Lapsed Subscribers Current Single Ticket Buyers 2 Year Lapsed Subscribers 1 Year Lapsed Single Ticket Buyers, etc. Keep in mind, this general outline can vary from organization to organization and department to department, based on your circumstances. Your TRG representative will provide you specific recommendations for your mailing needs. Updated January 2010. Page 7
Email List Creation What is included in the emerge email functionality? emerge has the ability to create and export email only lists. Through a unique collaboration, emerge users that utilize Patron Mail can export email lists directly to their Patron Mail account. How do I create an email list in emerge? Creating an email list in emerge is just like creating a mail list. Start by clicking on New Order in the Main Menu or My Orders screen. Once the Information screen pops up, fill in the information as you would for any other order. You will now notice a drop-down option, however, that allows the selection of an email list under List Use. Select Email and continue to create the order as you normally would. You can still filter using geography, demographics, or any list selection criteria. After selecting lists and adding them to the Shopping Cart, you will notice that your Do Not Email segment is automatically added to the cart (in the same way a mailing list has the Do Not Mail segment automatically added). If you choose to change your list type once you are the Shopping Cart, you can do so by changing the drop-down selection under List Use in the bottom portion of the Shopping Cart. After changing the dropdown selection, you must select Update Counts. If you change to Mail, the Do Not Mail segment will be added to the Shopping Cart and Do Not Email will be taken out, and vice-versa. How do I export my emerge email list to my Patron Mail account? First, you must set up the export link between emerge and Patron Mail. To do this, simply contact your TRG representative and inform them you are a Patron Mail client. TRG will contact Patron Mail and set up the link for you. Your TRG representative will contact you when the link is ready. Once your link is set up, simply create an email list. Once it is completed, click the download icon under My Orders. A pop-up will appear allowing you to export to Patron Mail. Select whether you would like only one email per record (household) or all emails available. Once you select this button, the list is sent to your Patron Mail account. You will receive an email informing you that the list is now available in Patron Mail. How do I find my emerge list in my Patron Mail account? After logging into Patron Mail, select the Patrons tab. From the drop down choose Search/Edit Patron List. Then, click the drop-down by Filter by Attribute and select Attributes: emerge. Updated January 2010. Page 8
Shopping Cart Reports I m not getting an email with my report. What s going on? If you have not received an email with your Segmentation Penetration or Demographic Match report and it has been over an hour, go through the following checklist of troubleshooting tips: First, ensure that you ran the report. Did you click okay on the pop-up in emerge and get a message saying it will be delivered to your email? If not, try re-running the report as it was never executed. If running a Segment Penetration Report, ensure that you do not have more than 130 lists (segments) in your Shopping Cart. If you do, the report will not run. Next, check all junk or spam filters; because the reports are automatically generated, email accounts will often reject the emails as junk mail. If they are not in your junk mail folder, be sure to check with your IT staff or provider; often there are filters that stop the message before it enters your organization s email system. If you are still experiencing difficulties, contact your TRG representative for assistance. Is there maximum size for a Segment Penetration Report? Yes. Segment Penetration Reports can only be run when there are less than 130 lists (segments) in the Shopping Cart. If you have more segments than this in your Shopping Cart, you will not receive the report. Why are my counts different between my Shopping Cart and my Segment Penetration Report? There are three types of lists that could have varying counts between the Shopping Cart and Segment Penetration Report: Suppressions Filters applied to an order do not affect the counts for suppressions within the Shopping Cart. However, when running the Segment Penetration Report, those filters do affect the counts. If you have a geographic or demographic filter on your shopping cart, your suppression counts will be much higher in the shopping cart than in your report. House Lists The counts seen in the Gross column within your Shopping Cart are input counts less suppressions. Because the report is designed to see crossover, we do not want any patron record removed from a segment. So, counts in your Segment Penetration Report will appear higher than in your Shopping Cart if records have been removed due to suppression lists. Trades For community clients, lists traded within emerge may appear slightly higher in the Segment Penetration Report. Prior to appearing in your Shopping Cart, the trading organization s Do Not Trade patrons are removed from the list. However, the Segment Penetration Report is run on the entire list, not simply those in the shopping cart. Updated January 2010. Page 9
Do my geography and demographic filters carry over to the Segment Penetration and Demographic Match Reports? Yes. You will see that every filter you have used to pare down your order will be reflected in the Segment Penetration and Demographic Match Reports. Are suppressions included as a part of the file in the Zip Penetration Report? Yes. When the report is run, you will see that your suppressions are accounted for in the report. If you do not want these included, you will want to remove them from your Shopping Cart prior to running the report. Are suppressions included as a part of the file in the Demographic Match Report? With the exception of any previous orders used as suppressions, all lists within the Shopping Cart are included. If you do not want these included, you will want to remove them from your Shopping Cart prior to running the report. Does the data used for the Demographic Match Report correspond to the data in the Demographics tab in emerge? Yes. You may notice a difference in counts, however, if the report is run quite awhile before pulling the list using demographics. As our demographics are updated every eight weeks in emerge, a different number of records may correspond to a particular variable at the time of your list pull. Fees and Additional Services Are there fees associated with pulling a standard mailing list? No standard emerge list pulls by users are complimentary as part of your emerge contract. If you are creating a list using the demographics feature as a filter, you will be charged; the cost per thousand is always listed at the upper right corner of the demographics tab. Are there minimum fees for my emerge order using demographics? Yes. If you pay by credit card in emerge, there is a $25 minimum associated with your order. If you choose to be invoiced, there is a $40 minimum per order. Will I receive a confirmation after using my credit card? Yes. Soon after using your credit card to complete your order, you will receive a confirmation email detailing the order number and the amount charged. Tips & Tricks What s the best way to make my processing time faster? The less complex your order, the faster it will be to process it. Every filter and segment added to your shopping cart creates another process for our servers to perform. One Updated January 2010. Page 10
way to simplify an order is to use a single SCF rather than choosing 10 different zip codes. Utilizing a previous order as a suppression rather than 15 separate lists can also speed up the process. emerge also processes faster if there is no gap in priority numbers. If your ranking skips numbers within the sequence, it will slow emerge s processing time. Order your lists consecutively for faster speed. To be a more efficient user of emerge, make sure that you are only choosing to update counts in the Shopping Cart after your lists are prioritized within your order. Every time you choose to update counts, emerge will re-process your order; to ensure you are not unnecessarily waiting, rank your lists first. Your Internet connection can also impact processing speeds. Be sure you re on a fast Internet connection and are hard wired (not wireless). How do I identify new-to-file buyers? After a performance or event, you may want to find patrons who have never been to your organization before. To uncover this, put your entire database (or the last few years of it) into the shopping cart. Rank your recent event last and suppress all other lists. Those patrons that do not merge up into higher ranked segments are your new-tofile buyers. In Manage Lists, why when I hit Update Counts after dragging and dropping my lists does it not stay the way I wanted it to? In order for priority ranking to stick in the Manage Lists tab of My Account, each segment must have a number in the priority column. You can drag and drop the lists if they are numbered and it will update those priority ranking numbers for you. However, if you do not have a default ranking set up and you have not numbered your lists, dragging and dropping will not change the actual priority of your lists. To preempt this, you may want to turn all your rankings to 1 prior to moving your lists around. How do I make a list an automatic suppression? Under the Manage Lists tab of My Account, you can set the priority to suppress. By doing this, you ensure that list is put into the Shopping Cart automatically as a suppression for every order. emerge sets the priority to suppress for lists with a buyer type of Do Not Mail (DNM) or Suppress (SUP), but any buyer type can be prioritized as a suppression. Community Trading Networks Will others be able to see all my data when I put it in the community co-op? No. Your data is safe and 100% in your control in the List Co-Op. Updated January 2010. Page 11
Your data is housed in a separate secure server; there are no unauthorized users. You decide which segments of your data are hidden, so only you know they exist, and which are available for trade. However, remember, you must have at least one segment available for trade in order to participate in the program. Your permission is always required for any trade yours is the last word on who uses your lists, what portions of data they may use, and when. Is it possible to trade email addresses within emerge? No. TRG feels strongly that it is a bad business practice to trade email addresses of patrons. It is against industry standards and best practice. Because of this, if you have a traded list in your order, that list cannot be downloaded with email addresses. You will, however, be able to download your patrons email addresses through emerge. How many times can I use a list trade I acquired through emerge? emerge facilitates trades for one time use. Unless there is an outside agreement from all parties involved, those are the parameters. How can I ensure my traded list is used for what the trade agreement specified? emerge offers the ability to Seed your list with addresses of your staff members. When seeded lists are delivered through emerge, any mailings sent to the list will arrive in the homes of your staff members, thus providing visibility on how the shared list is being used. In TRG s 10-year history providing shared list services, instances of list misuse are quite rare. How do I set up my Seed Names? Under My Account in emerge, select the Manage Seeds tab. You can put in up to five seed names by default, or add more. We recommend using a funny spelling of your name so you will know what solicitations came from a traded list. You can set up a default to always add seed names to your trades by clicking the button on the top of the page. You can also select this each time you agree to a trade within the approval screen. Data Security How does TRG ensure my data is secure in emerge? emerge processes browser requests using SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Our emerge Pro client interface transmits data from the client site to TRG via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) requiring port 22 to be open for outbound traffic only a destination static IP address is provided for security. This transmission uses SSH (Secure Shell). Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. We also employ a robust firewall hardware appliance to protect data and software assets. Updated January 2010. Page 12
Is TRG PCI Compliant? Since TRG does not accept, transmit or store any cardholder data, or financial information, we are not obliged to operate under PCI Compliance guidelines but we do take data security seriously. Access to our platforms is limited to a "need to know basis". Updated January 2010. Page 13