Open Forum

 View Only
  • 1.  Contact Groups v Invitation Lists

    Posted 11-02-2020 08:06
    I am confused. I understand the importance of grouping contacts, but not sure when I want to bulk import to an invitation list and assign to a contact group is there an easy way to do this .... or am I just making work for myself ? Should I import to the contact group first and then assign to an invitation list or when I am adding to the invitation list is there a way to add these to a specific group in my contacts ?
    #Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents

    ------------------------------
    Michael Travers
    Shelton Fleming Associates
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Contact Groups v Invitation Lists

    Community MVP
    Posted 11-09-2020 09:59
    i'm not sure what other best practice cases are, but we rarely use the contact groups. we mostly just use invitation lists. The times i've used contact groups are for example if i want to send out a reminder to book travel, i'll pull a report and filter by people who don't have flights showing up yet, then i'll import them to a contact group so I can send a reminder out to just that group.

    ------------------------------
    Kelly Ohlert
    Manager of Operations Groups
    Stryker
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Contact Groups v Invitation Lists

    Cvent Staff
    Posted 11-09-2020 16:58
    Hi Michael,

    When importing your contacts onto an Invitation List within your event in Promotion & Communication > Invitation Lists > List Members > Import Contacts, when you get to step 4 of the import process, you have the option to select to add these contacts to a contact group and can choose to add them to a new group, add to an existing group, or replace members of an existing group. This is what I would recommend in order to import contacts onto an Invitation List in your event and add them to a contact group in one fell swoop without additional effort. 

    If you already have your contacts added to a contact group prior to importing them onto an Invitation List in your event, you can choose the "Add Contacts from Address Book" option within Promotion & Communication > Invitation Lists > List Members and select the contact group from the "Contact Group" dropdown > Check off name to check off everyone in the group > Add. 

    Importing Event Contacts - This article will walk through the process step-by-step (reference step #4 specifically for information about adding contacts to a contact group when importing contacts onto your Invitation list.

    ------------------------------
    Julia Plymack
    Lead Client Success Advisor
    Cvent
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Contact Groups v Invitation Lists

    Posted 11-11-2020 14:51
    Hi Michael,

    We've been using Cvent for almost 10 years and one thing we have found to be the most helpful is the grouping of invitation lists. It creates not only a streamlined way to segment audiences for details in certain email communications, future registration processes, and customized registration paths for certain lists, but it can also be as simple as using the settings to automatically group attendees based on advanced logic in your registration settings. If a registrant meets a certain amount of criteria, no matter how in depth that criteria may be, you have the ability to assign them to contact types, registration types, registration paths, and invitation lists.

    ------------------------------
    Chelsea Benge
    Events Software Specialist
    Leading Real Estate Companies Of The World
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Contact Groups v Invitation Lists

    Community MVP
    Posted 11-13-2020 16:17
    Hi Michael, 

    Fundamentally, the Contact Groups and Invitation Lists serve a different purpose: 
    - Contact Groups are at the admin level. You could for example use them to distinguish Members from Non-Members, or have groups with all past speakers and exhibitors. 
    - Invitation Lists are at the event level. If you do not distinguish communication to Members and Non-Members for one event, you could add both of those contact groups to the same invitation list. If you have specific VIPs for this event, they can get a separate invitation list, but you wouldn't need a account-level contact group for them since it's only for the one event. 

    I hope that helps clarifying it for you!

    ------------------------------
    Béline FALZON
    Conference Program Specialist II
    California Teachers Association
    ------------------------------