Custom Merge in Email Templates

[smeranda]

Is it possible to do custom merges in campaign emails. Similar to if...then statements. For instance: If State = CA, insert this paragraph of text, otherwise, if State == IA insert the Iowa paragraph. I'm on Sugar 5.0.

Thanks!

Seth Meranda
smeranda2@unl.edu

[sugarcane]

Hi Seth,

are you using CE or PRO/ENT? If you are using Pro or Ent, then you can simply create a report which filters the different groups of people by State and then set up 2 different Target Lists which use 2 different email marketing items with the different email templates for each group within the same campaign. No code customization would be required in this scenario

If you are using CE, then you can customize the search panels that appear in the Target list subpanels to include the State field and then search and select from the pop-up search panel. Create 2 separate Target Lists for the 2 groups and then 2 separate email marketing sections with the 2 different email templates.

We have previously done a customization for some of our CE clients to be able to save searches from the Contacts or Leads Modules which can then be used to pull those filtered contacts into the Campaign module for selection in Target Lists. If this is something you might be interested in, please feel free to contact us.

[smeranda]

Thanks for the reply. I am currently using SugarCRM CE.

What I am looking for is something a bit more robust. My idea is to completely customize a newsletter (or any email) based on fields in the contact. The idea would be to have one email template, one target list and one campaign. When sending the email, the system would automatically merge content based on the contact's stored data. This could simply be one piece of content, or it could be 100 pieces of content.

From my previous example, I would merge in text for a state. Based on you possible example, I would need 50 email templates and 50 target lists. Though doable, you can already begin to see development/maintenance headache. To top things off, if the same email needed another merge, but this time for lead source, I would easily have over 500 email templates and target lists.

My goal is for the email to do the "heavy lifting." In other words, I would push one target list, build one mailer (with custom merges/if...then statements) and then let the system automatically merge the correct text for the correct contact based on stored properties.

It sounds like this isn't something currently available in any level of SugarCRM. I'd love to add it a feature list, and would be willing to help flush out more. Is there a process for this?

Thanks!

Seth Meranda

[sugarcane]

Hi Seth,

You are correct, what you are talking about is not available with Sugar out of the box. This type of customization is possible, but would require custom coding to make it work. If this is something you are interested in, please feel free to contact us.