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Interfacing with Constant Contact

Overview

CC-Assist interfaces directly with Constant Contact by updating your Contacts to match your Rep information. CC-Assist offers two ways to run the Constant Contact interface. You can run it manually as often as desired from the Output/Automation menu available in the Reps module, or you can schedule it to run automatically each day.

The Constant Contact interface will create a List for you in Constant Contact called “Active Members.” It maintains this list, such that it only contains Contacts whose email matches a Rep in CC-Assist who belongs to an active member. Additionally, the interface will also create and maintain a Rep Attribute named “Unsubscribed from CC.” Any Reps who have unsubscribed their email address from your Constant Contact mailings will be assigned this Attribute.

When you run the Constant Contact interface, you will be asked to select which Reps you wish to update in Constant Contact using standard Member and Rep Filters. You will also have the opportunity to select from a list of Custom Fields you can include in each Contact’s information, such as the Rep’s username and password, and you will be able to add Reps who are in specific Rep Groups to a List in Constant Contact of the same name. If such a list does not exist in Constant Contact, the interface will create it for you.

You can run the Constant Contact interface manually any time from the Reps module even if you also have an automatic daily update scheduled. The selections you make when running the Constant Contact Interface manually from the Reps module do not interfere with the selections you have previously saved for your automatic update. This means if you have recently added a few Reps into CC-Assist and need to add them to Constant Contact immediately, you can run the interface manually and use your filters to select only the new Reps without interfering with your regularly scheduled update.

NOTE: CC-Assist does not remove Contacts from any List in Contact Contacts except the Active Members List. If you wish to remove Contacts from a list, you must either remove them individually, or delete the List and allow CC-Assist to recreate it adding only the Contacts for Reps who are in the corresponding Rep Group.

NOTE: Constant Contact does not allow multiple Contacts with the same email address. Therefore, if you attempt to add multiple Reps from CC-Assist with the same email address, the Constant Contact Interface will update the corresponding Contact to match only the first Rep specified with the duplicate email address. Subsequent Reps having this email address will be ignored by the interface.

CAUTION: If you have more than one CC-Assist database, each database must be configured to interface with a unique Constant Contact account. Updating the same Constant Contact account from multiple databases may create unexpected results.

Running the Constant Contact Interface manually

To run the Constant Contact Interface manually, go to the Reps module and perform the following steps:

  • Display the Output menu and select “Automation”/”Constant Contact: Update Contacts”
  • On the page titled, “Include in Lists,” use the Mover control to select any Rep Groups you wish to include as Lists in Constant Contact.
  • On the page titled, “Custom Fields,” use the Mover control to select any Rep information you wish to include as Custom Fields in Constant Contact.
  • Use the Member Filters and Rep Filters to specify which Reps you would like to update/add to Constant Contact.
  • Select “OK” to begin updating the Contacts in Constant Contact. If this is your first time running the Constant Contact interface for your database, you will be asked to enter your login credentials for Constant Contact to give CC-Assist permission to make updates to your account.

Scheduling the Constant Contact Interface to run automatically

NOTE: We recommend you run the interface manually at least once before scheduling it to run automatically to allow you to make any needed adjustments to your selections.

To run the Constant Contact Interface automatically, you must first enable the automatic updates and specify when you wish them to run as follows:

  • Close all open modules to where you can view the Dashboard.
  • Display the System menu and select “Constant Contact Auto Update Schedule…”
  • In the displayed dialog, check the box labeled “Enable scheduled contact updates.”
  • Enter the time of day you wish the auto update to run, and select “OK.”

After you have scheduled the automatic updates, you must set up the selections you wish the auto update to use for each desired database as follows:

  • Display the Database menu and select “Setup Constant Contact Auto Update…”
  • On the page titled, “Include in Lists,” use the Mover control to select any Rep Groups you wish to include as Lists in Constant Contact.
  • On the page titled, “Custom Fields,” use the Mover control to select any Rep information you wish to include as Custom Fields in Constant Contact.
  • Use the Member Filters and Rep Filters to specify which Reps you would like to update/add to Constant Contact.
  • Select “OK” to begin updating the Contacts in Constant Contact. If this is your first time running the Constant Contact interface for your database, you will be asked to enter your login credentials for Constant Contact to give CC-Assist permission to make updates to your account.