One of your goals this year may be to clean up the contacts in your Voodoo account.  In our 3-part series on Deliverability we wrote about how you can use non-delivery email messages to clean your contact lists. There are many ways to clean up your databases and this QuickTip focuses on the best way to remove a contact.  You may wish to remove contacts because: 

• You've received a non-delivery (bounceback) message
• You no longer wish to send email to this contact (not a lead)
• The contact has informed you that you have the incorrect person at a company

Before you delete a Contact Record or remove a Contact from a Contact List, please learn about this important tip:

Voodoo QuickTip #488 - How to Delete a Contact Record without affecting Stats

Voodoo Reports and Statistics are compiled based on the Contact List a Campaign was sent to, compiling data for each individual Contact Record in that list.  If you remove a Contact Record from a Contact List, the statistics associated with that contact will be removed, permanently altering campaign stats.  In other words, the Reports and Statistics for the Campaign will not include that record in its counts anymore (sent, open, etc).  



For some users, having individual Contact Records drop out of Reports and Statistics for certain Email Campaigns doesn't much matter.  In those cases, they can delete the Contact if they wish to. But for other users, it may be important to maintain accurate statistics by keeping all Contacts in the Campaign Statistic counts.

One best practice that we recommend to Voodoo users is to create a separate Contact List for each and every Campaign and Funnel. For example, if you set up a campaign for January 2015 Promotions, it is best to create a Contact List specifically for that Campaign (and name it January 2015 Promotions Contacts). This will help keep your contacts and campaigns organized and allow for permanent and accurate stats.

Opt-out instead of Delete

Voodoo recommends that users opt-out individual Contact Records that they no longer wish to send email to. By opting-out instead of deleting, all Reports and Statistics will stay unaffected and the Contact will no longer receive email from you.

To opt-out a single Contact from your Voodoo system, follow these steps:

1.  Voodoo Business Builder users access My Contacts from the nav bar, eVideo Launcher users access Contact Lists from the Manage Contacts button.

2.  Search for the Contact's email address using the Search for A Contact button



3.  Click the Pencil icon to edit the Contact Record 

4.  On the Contact Info Tab select the box for Optout  

5.  Click Update to save your changes to the Contact.

Your Contact is now opted-out of receiving any further email from your Voodoo system.  

When a Contact is opted-out they will also appear in the automatically generated Opt-Out Contact List maintained by the Voodoo system.  You can view this list by accessing your Contact Lists.



To opt a Contact back into receiving email, simply access this Opt Out Contacts List, edit the Contact and uncheck the Optout box. 

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To leverage the power of Voodoo, you need high-quality Contacts in your system.  Where can you get names and email addresses of Known Contacts to "seed" your Voodoo account without purchasing non-permission-based lists that make you a spammer?  This Voodoo QuickTip will help you with some creative thinking to discover sources of contacts available to almost anyone.
 
Voodoo QuickTip - Sources for Contacts to Import into Voodoo

1)  Start by importing your Address Book from your Current Email System. Voodoo has a great time-saving feature that allows you to import directly from the most popular email systems including:  Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Outlook and Apple Mail. Check out our blog post on how to use this feature: Import Contacts Directly from Your Address Book.  

2)  Next, consider exporting contacts from your Contact Management Application. You might need to explore your app’s help menus to learn how to export your selected data in CSV format. Most apps do this in their sleep! Just Export or Save As a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file.  If you are a Salesforce user check out our post on Importing Contacts & Leads from Salesforce. 

 3)  Another excellent source of known contacts is your LinkedIn account. Here are step-by-step instructions on Exporting Your LinkedIn Connections and Importing into Voodoo.

4)  Check with your Sales Staff for contacts in their Personal  and LinkedIn Lists. 

5)  If you run Events or Tradeshows check for any Manual Lists, Scanned Leads or Exhibitor Attendee Lists. In some cases, exhibitors are entitled to a permission-based list of attendees as part of their booth fee.

6)  Brainstorm with your team about any other Freestanding Lists that may be stored in Excel somewhere. You would be surprised at how many of these lists actually exist. 

7) Don't forget your most fertile list of all: Current Customers.  It's easy to get so caught up in prospecting and finding new leads that we forget about our current customers.  They are already sold on you and your services, and many of them probably don't know about some of the new products and services you can educate them about using the email and video content in your Voodoo system.

The most important thing to remember is always review your list to comply with anti-spam law and to be sure you are emailing people who have expressly given permission, have an established business or personal relationship with you, and a legitimate interest in your content, company, or what you offer.

eVideo Launcher and Business Builder users: brainstorm today about where you can find high-quality Contacts and add them to your lists by logging into your Voodoo account.  

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Note:  this post was updated on 7/15/14 to reflect changes to the LinkedIn export connections process.  

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network. According to CMO.com, LinkedIn's user base now stands at more than 259 million people and counting, up 38 percent year-over-year. It's a great tool for professional networking and I hope you are taking advantage of it.

But did you know you can use LinkedIn and Voodoo together to enhance your success? It's easy to export your LinkedIn connections as a CSV file, then import them into your Voodoo system.

Here's how:

Quick-Tip:  Export Your LinkedIn Connections and Import into Voodoo

From LinkedIn, you can export connections from the Contact Settings page. Only the full name, email address, current employer, and position are exported. To export your connections list:

1) Login to your LinkedIn account and move your cursor over and select Connections.

2) Click the Settings icon near the top right that looks like a gear. 

3) Under Advanced Settings on the right, click Export LinkedIn Connections

4) Enter the security text if prompted.

5) Click Export.

6) Save the file somewhere you can easily find it, like your computer's desktop. 

Note: If you're using Internet Explorer and you see a yellow pop-up blocker across the top of the page, click the yellow bar and then select Download File.

Now you have a CSV file that you can import into your Voodoo account.  Always review your list to comply with anti-spam law and to be sure you are emailing people who have a legitimate interest in your content, company, or what you offer.

Need some help importing the CSV file into your Voodoo account? Click to watch this video Quick Tip.     

Business Builder, Contact / Database Lists, eVideo Launcher, Quick Tip LinkedIn, Contacts, Import

This Voodoo feature is a jump-starter and a time-saver — the easiest way to upload your email contacts into Voodoo. 

If you store email address books in more than one place, you're not alone.  Most people have separate personal and professional address books, both locally on their PC and in the Cloud. 

Now you can access common email address books from within your Voodoo account and import contacts directly.  No export-to-import, no field mapping, no pesky csv files — just a few simple steps and you're done.

Voodoo Feature - Import Contacts Directly from Your Address Book

Here's what you do:

eVideo Launcher Users:

1) Step 1: Choose your campaign

2) Step 2:  Choose Recipients, select I want to import contacts from address book and name your contact list

3) Click the Import Contacts from my Address Book button

4) Select your email provider from the list.  If asked, Allow Access. 

5) Your contacts will appear in a checklist.  You can select All or None with the checkbox at the upper left, or select individual contacts.

6) Click Next to import your selected contacts.  It only takes a few seconds!

Campaign Manager Users:

1) Click into the Contact Lists feature.

2) Click Add a New Contact List or Manage Contacts to add contacts to a list that already exists. (Bonus: contacts added to a pre-existing list are automatically de-duplicated.)

3) Select Import Contacts from my Address Book.

4) Select your email provider from the list. If asked, Allow Access.

5) Your contacts will appear in a checklist.  You can select All or None with the checkbox at the upper left, or select individual contacts. 

6) Click Next to import your selected contacts.  It only takes a few seconds!
 

Campaign Manager and eVideo Launcher users can access this feature right now by logging into your Voodoo account. (It works equally well on a Mac or PC.)

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