The DaySmart Appointments-iContact strategic relationship offers a dynamic new way of creating, distributing and managing your customer e-marketing campaigns and messages. Subscribers have full access to all of iContact’s newsletter templates, e-mail messaging tools, surveys, analytics and other features necessary for successful and accurate customer marketing and outreach efforts.
The integration between the two services can help businesses keep their appointment and reservation calendars full with the following benefits:
Effortlessly pass your DaySmart Appointments customer lists to iContact and accurately manage your customer lists using iContact's tools. Once uploaded, iContact will automatically manage any "unsubscribed" or "opt-out" e-mail addresses. It also eliminates the need to manage two separate e-mail databases for e-marketing campaigns.
Quickly add the DaySmart Appointments "Book Now" or "Schedule Now" button to your newsletters, e-mail messages and other e-marketing materials. Make it easier for customers, clients, patients and students to schedule their appointments or book their reservations by allowing them to access your DaySmart Appointments scheduler right from the iContact e-marketing piece. They will not need to manually open a new browser window or type in a URL. They simply click on the "Book Now" or "Schedule Now" button to instantly access your business’s DaySmart Appointments scheduler.
Easily track customer activity and success with iContact’s analytics tools. You can quickly access such important statistics as number of opens, number of click- throughs, bounce rates and number of unsubscribes. These figures would be difficult—if not almost impossible—to decipher, sort and analyze if done manually.
Low Cost. iContact offers you tremendous flexibility, functionality and legal compliance for your email marketing and newsletter campaigns, and iContact does all of this at a very low cost. Prices start at less than $10/month.
How To Access iContact From Your DaySmart Appointments Account
iContact is now available right from your DaySmart Appointments account. To access it, log into your account and click on the Reports Tab, then the Customer Reports link on left. This will take you to your Customer Reports template. The iContact logo will appear on the bottom right of the page. This will run your Customer report and upload your e-mail mailing list into your iContact account. To run the report, select the iContact radio button and click "Run Report" (see Figure 1).
Setting Up a iContact Account
The system will prompt you for your iContact account information the first time you run the report and select the iContact format option. If you don’t have an existing iContact account, you will have the option to learn more or sign up for a trial account (see Figure 2).
Once you have your iContact account set up, you can enter your login credentials from the Export Customer Data to iContact List page shown in Figure 3.
After entering your iContact username and password, you can now begin exporting your customer data (name, email address and phone number) to your iContact account.
Uploading Customer List
Once the customer report is run, a predefined report of the following information will be exported:
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These are the only fields you can export to your iContact account. Once you run the report, you will be able to review the customer list and then decide if you would like to export it to your account. This can be seen in Figure 4.
From the export page, you will be able to review the details of the export and setup your iContact list. Here's a list of the options available to you:
Customers with an e-mail address
Click on the "# customers" link to display the list of customers with an e-mail address to be exported. In Figure 4 it is represented by the "24 customers" link.Customers without an e-mail address
Click on the "# customers link to display a list of customers without an e-mail address that will not be exported. In Figure 4 it is represtented by the "1 customers" link.Create a new Constant Contact list
When selecting the "Create a new iContact list using X customers" radio button, the form will show a text box where you can enter the name of your customer list. Enter your list name and then select the "Create New iContact List" button.Merge with a current list
When selecting "Merge these x customers into an existing iContact list" radio button, a drop down list will appear with your current contact lists. Select the list you would like to merge the current customer export with and then select the "Merge Into iContact List" button.
NOTE
When adding a new contact list or merging into an existing contact list, only unique contacts (based on e-mail address) will be added.
After initiating a new contact list or merging into an existing list, you will be prompted with a successful message. The number of unique contacts will be listed along with the contact mailing list they were entered in and the next steps you can take. You will be able to go to your iContact account, create a "Book Now" button, or close the window.
Adding a "Book Now" or "Schedule Now" Button (Or Link) To E-Marketing Materials
Adding a "Book Now" or "Schedule Now" button to your e-mails is easy. After you have created a new e-mail list or merged your customer data into an existing list, you have the option of adding a button or link to your iContact newsletter. By selecting the "Use my customer view link with a iContact newsletter" option shown in Figure 5 above, you will be shown your customer view link. Copy and paste the link anywhere on your iContact newsletter as a link or associated with a "Book Now" button.
Disabling the Plugin
If you decide that you no longer want to use this feature, you can return to the Marketplace and remove the plugin from any or all Locations.
Click Marketplace.
In the left-hand column, find the plugin.
On the plugin’s first tab, click the Locations drop-down field.
Uncheck individual Locations or click None.
Click Update.