Building Your Business

Relevant Tools web forms continuously fill your database with new contacts and you can import contact lists from Excel or other databases. Relevant Tools can also process data notifications from other sources. There can be a lot of data arriving from multiple sources.

Using the 'other operations' function available in Relevant Tools you can examine the field usage in your database and spot any potential issues. First display your database. Then click on the 'other operations' link.



The other operations page gives you three choices. You can display the contents of all records in one report, look at the values of a particular field, or look at field usage in your entire database. Click on 'show field usage' to see how fields are being used in your database.



The report shows the number of records that have a value for each of the user defined fields in your database. But sometimes there may be fields in use in your database that you haven't defined. There is an option to see field usage for all fields existing in your database, even if you haven't defined the field.



This report is particularly useful for finding problems where you may have changed a field name or made a typo and the data is being saved with a field name that you didn't expect. One of the features of Relevant Tools is that all data is saved, even if you haven't defined the field name. So when you see a field that isn't defined and should be, you can simply define it and all the data will automatically be displayed in your regular searches.



There are some fields that are system fields that are used internally, such as Record ID. Some of these system fields may be of interest, such as Created On. You can include system fields in custom views of your database if you want to view or export the system data with your user data.

Labels: databases, fields

You can easily create custom views for your online database. With a custom view you can control which columns are data are displayed and the order of display. This is particularly useful if you have a database with a lot of fields that are used for different functions. For example you can define a contact view, a status view, a performance view, and so on.

To get started click on databases. Make sure your database that you want to define the view for is selected as the current database. Click on 'create/edit/delete' a view to start the process of defining or customizing a view.



To create a new view give it a name or you can select an existing view to edit.



Select the field that you want to use for each column. You can also specify the maximum column width if you want to have some columns be wider or narrower.



In addition to using any of the fields that you have defined for your database you can also include system fields in your view. System fields are fields such as "created on" or "IP address" that are automatically added to each record.



When you display your database you can toggle the view from 'all user defined fields' to the views that you have defined. The fields will be displayed in the order you have specified.



In addition to controlling the view that you see on the screen, views are also used to control what data is exported. When you export your database only the fields that are used in the current view are exported. If you want all fields exported make sure you are using the view 'all user fields'. If you want to export system fields such as the date created and IP address you will need to define a view that includes those fields.



Have fun creating views for your data. You can change your views at any time.

Labels: databases, views

With the flexibility of Relevant Tools it is easy to setup an online registration system for programs, conferences or events. Ross Recreation is using Relevant Tools to handle all program registrations for their enrichment and sports programs for children and adults.



The first step is to set up an account so that you can login using User Login, a custom option available from Relevant Tools.



The account registration uses standard Relevant Tools web forms to collect the information needed. For Ross Recreation there are two registration forms depending on if you are interested in programs for the entire family or if you only want to register for adult programs. The account setup form can be easily customized to collect the information needed for your particular organization.



Browse through the list of program offerings to determine what you want to register for. All of the programs are in a Relevant Tools program database that you can easily edit at any time, adding new programs or changing existing offerings. Relevant Tools Custom Reports is used to display the program options. You can specify what information that you want displayed for each program and how you would like it to be presented.



When you find a program that you would like to register for you start the registration process by clicking on the registration link. All the information from your account is automatically entered into the registration form. You review the registration form and enter any additional information that may be needed for this particular program. The registrations are all stored in a Relevant Tools Registration database. In addition to managing the registration process it is easy to email everyone in your Registration databases with reminders about the program.



You can continue to register for other programs. In the case of a family with multiple children you can change the child that you are registering and register your other children for their programs. When you are finished registering for programs you can easily check out and pay for all the programs at once.



Once the payment process has been completed the class inventory is updated. Relevant Tools will automatically close off registrations when the maximum number has been received for a particular program. When a program is full an option to join a wait list is presented instead of the registration link.

Online payments can be handled through an online gateway such as Authorize.net. Relevant Tools will set up the shopping cart and interface to your online credit card processing. No credit card information will be stored in your Relevant Tools database. Relevant Tools does not charge a per transaction fee and does not collect or retain the payments for your programs. The revenue collected is yours and Relevant Tools only charges for the one time setup and monthly flat service fee that is bundled into your Relevant Tools VIP account.

Please contact us if you would like to learn more about how to get started using Relevant Tools Online Registration. We can take care of everything for you so you can focus on running your programs, conferences or events.

Labels: databases, registration, web forms

You can display information from your Relevant Tools database on your web site. This can be information that you enter and update yourself or it can be information that is entered by anyone on your website using a standard Relevant Tools web form.

In the interests of local organic food I started a garden this spring. It has been very successful and satisfying. It is so relaxing to water the garden at the end of the day and pick green beans, peas, tomatoes and zucchini for dinner. Since I can't ship everyone a tomato I am happy to share the results of my garden through a web page that I set up:

Jean's Garden

I hope you enjoy the pictures. You can use Relevant Tools databases to update your own web site using Relevant Tools Custom Reports feature. There is a one time setup charge starting at $150 but once set up you can use it on as many databases and websites as you would like (some restrictions apply - don't try launching a new social networking site just yet).

Standard Relevant Tools web forms are used to update your information:



You can edit the information in your database. You can customize the database to use the fields that you need.



Enjoy the tomatoes!

Labels: custom report, databases, dynamic content, web forms

You don't have to be a technical wizard to display information from your Relevant Tools database on your website. There are many different display options depending on your website and what you need to do. This tutorial shows how to easily update a page on your website from your Relevant Tools database.

After dynamic powered webpages has been set up in your Relevant Tools account you will be able to preview your webpages. We will work with you to configure the look of the page to match your website and meet your requirements. The elements used on the page are customized for you.



You use the edit item link to edit the information displayed on the webpage. You don't have to know html but if you do you can use all the html you want.



To add a new item to the webpage you click on the add item link:



Here is the item displayed with the template used for the sample page:



How does it all work? It is all driven from an ordinary Relevant Tools database. You can have the specific fields that you need for your web site.



Let us know if you would like to learn more about Database Powered Webpages. There is a one time setup fee for installing and customizing this feature but once setup you can use it for multiple webpages.

Labels: databases, dynamic content, webpages

Databases need regular maintenance to maximize effectiveness and to reduce your costs. Each time you do a mailing detailed statistics are available in real time showing you how many records were selected for a mailing, the number of missing and bad email addresses, the number of prior unsubscribes and the number of duplicates. The total number of records to be mailed to is displayed along with bounces. A bounced email is an email that could not be delivered. This could be because the email address is no longer valid, the mailbox is full, or the message was rejected.



Each email address that can't be delivered to is added to the bounce list for the mailing. You can click on bounces to see the bounce list for a specific mailing. This is useful when resolving a delivery issue for specific email addresses.



You should periodically clean your database of bounces to reduce your monthly charges. Once an email has bounced, depending on the particular email address and the bounce reason, that email address might not be sent to again. A special bounce report is available to enable you to clean up your database and remove records that have bounced multiple times. The bounce report is located on the main database page in the special searches section on the right side of the screen.



Make sure you have the correct database selected as the current database. You can then select how many times you want the same record to have bounced and how many mailings to include in the search.



The search will display the list of records that have bounced that match your requirements. You can then delete these records using the 'delete this list' link.



You will have to confirm that you really do want to delete the selected list. We backup all data on a nightly basis so if you make a mistake you can contact us and ask for a restore.



Running the bounce report periodically and deleting bounced records will keep your bounce statistics low and improve your deliverability. You also will only be charged for good emails that are helping you to grow your business.

Labels: bounces, databases, email campaign, tutorial

You may be getting information from multiple sources and it is possible that you may have more than one record in your database for the same contact. Relevant automatically takes care of dedupping when doing a mailing so you don't have to worry about sending the same email address more than one message in a mailing. But you should periodically dedup you database to reduce your record storage costs and keep your database lean and fit.

Click on Databases and make sure the correct database is selected. The duplicates report is located on the right side of the main database screen in the special searches section.



Often the simple dedup report will work for you. Select the field that you want to dedup on, usually email address. Select display first only.



There are some cases where you need to dedup on more than one field. If that is the case try the advanced duplicates search. Click on the option 'show all but one' to delete all but one record.



Next you will see a display of all the duplicate records. Click on 'delete this list'. You can safely do this as assuming you clicked on display first only or display all but one you know that you are only deleting the duplicate record. And just to make you feel more comfortable about deleting data be reassured that we back up all data every night so we can always restore for you just in case. You also must always confirm before any deletions:



After you have deleted your duplicates the clean database will be displayed.



Let us know if you have any questions or need help.

Labels: databases, duplicates, tutorial

You can easily import your lists into your Relevant Tools Database. Collect your data in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet should be setup with columns such as first name, last name, company, email, and so on. Each row should contain information for one of your contacts.



The next step is to save your spread sheet as either a tab-delimited text file or a comma separated values (CSV) text file.



In Relevant Tools, click on Database and then click on 'import'. On the import screen give this group of imported records a name such as 'March 2009 list'. Giving your records a name will help you find this group of imported records in case you want to delete them before uploading them again or if you want to take other actions.

Then select the file that you prepared - either the text tab delimited file or the CSV file.

For each column in your spreadsheet match it to the field name for the information in that column.



After you click the import button at the bottom of the import screen you will see the confirmation page telling you how many records you imported.



Display your database to see your imported list.



When you display your database you may see a record that contained the header information from your spreadsheet. That is often a useful way to check to make sure that you selected the right fields for each column but you can delete the header record now.



Now your database is ready for action. Click on the column headers to sort the data by that column.

Labels: databases, import, tutorial

Your Relevant Tools account comes with a contact database that you can customize or you can define your own databases. There are many different choices for the field types - text, text area, pulldown menu, checkboxes, radio buttons, integer, floating point, email, url, image url, and date.

Text is the most common field type. On a web form the user can enter a line of text. So for example if you have text fields first name and last name you can sort your database by last name by clicking on the last name column heading. Text area allows multiple lines of text to be entered. When a text area field is displayed as a result of a database search you will only see the first part of the text and you can click on the little 'v' to the left of the record to view the entire record.



Email, URL and image URL enables those fields to be displayed as proper links in the database display. If you have a field called website that is type URL you can click on the field and be taken to the website. Image URL generates the code for an image source so you can include images from other websites in your database. The email field will generate the html code to bring up a window so you can type in an email message. Fields that are type email also get some extra checking when the user enters them into a web form to make sure that the email address entered is a properly formated address.



Pull down menus allow you to enter a choice of items. In a web form the user will be able to select one. One of that standard fields Relevant Tools includes in the contact database is state. But perhaps you or many of your customers are in Canada and you want to include Canadian provinces. Click on Database and then click on 'create/edit/delete' fields in the database functions selection. Click on the state field. You can change the field name to call it State or Province.



Then click on Edit Field. Next you will see the list of states and you can select to replace them with a list of states and provinces or you can enter your own list of choices for your pull down menu.



Check boxes and radio buttons are defined in the same way where you enter the list of choices. The html code that is generated for your Relevant Tools form will display the check boxes and radio buttons with the options that you have specified.



Integer fields are for whole numbers and can be totaled when you display your database. Floating point fields are for decimal numbers, such as currency, and can also be totaled. When you specify a field as a date and then sort your database by the date field it will be sorted in chronological order instead of alphabetic or numeric order.



In addition to the common field types Relevant Tools databases can contain complex fields. Complex fields can be used to link to other databases or dynamically generate links using data from the current record. If you have special requirements ask us for more information as complex fields may be able to implement your solution.

Labels: databases, fields, tutorial, web forms

It is easy to setup and define your own database. Before you get started think about how you are going to use the database. If you are going to email to one set of contacts on a monthly basis and another set of customers on a weekly basis you should set up two different databases. To define a new database in Relevant Tools click on the 'Database' icon. Then click on 'create,edit, delete a database' in the "Database Functions' section. Then enter a name for your new database and press the create button.



Now that you have your new database define you need to define the fields that go into the database. To get started quickly you can copy the field definitions from an existing database and then make changes as needed for the new database. This is a very important step if you ever might want to move or copy records from one database to another. If they have the same field names for common fields such as first name and last name you will be able to move records back and forth easily.




To define your fields enter a short descriptive field name. This is the name that will be used internally in the xml database. You will not be able to change this field name later. Then you can enter a longer field label. You will be able to change the label at any time, even after your database has records in it.



You have many choices for field types - text, text area, pulldown menu, check boxes and radio buttons. We will leave the discussion of the field types to another tutorial. Let us know if you have any questions about how to set up your database.

Labels: databases, fields, tutorial

Regular maintenance is required to get the most out of your email database. Databases need nutrients, grooming and a little loving attention.

For example, say you run a weight loss website and send out regular email newsletters to people who are interested in losing weight. New people can join through a signup web form on your site. When they signup you have an opportunity to collect information from them that can help you to serve them better. Ask what their weight loss goal is and how many pounds a week they are trying to lose.

You can use an auto responder that is setup to send out a sequence of emails at a specified period after they signup. The email after they receive immediately after they fill out the signup form is usually a thank you for joining type of email with information about your service. Then the next day you have the scheduled auto responder send them an inspirational email that will help remind them to come back to your website and take advantage of the services that you offer. And then every week after the signup date a personalized message can automatically be sent to them to see how they are doing achieving their goals and entice them to visit your website.

Your weekly email newsletter will typically go out to your entire database. This is where you need to groom your database. When you send email and the message can not be delivered it is considered a bounce. To maintain a good relationship with the different ISPs and keep the quality of your list high the bounces need to be removed. It doesn't do any good to try over and over to send to an invalid or suspended email address. Of course anyone receiving your email that does not want to receive it any longer must have a method of unsubscribing but that should be handled automatically by the service sending the email.

You need to also look at the behavior of the people receiving the email. Say one of your subscribers told you when they signed up that their goal was to lose 10 pounds at a half a pound a week. So if they have been successful they will have lost the 10 pounds in 20 weeks. So do you keep sending them weekly emails for a year or two until they get annoyed and forget that they signed up on your site in the first place and report the email as spam?

It would be better to find out how they are doing with their goals. You can have web form on your site where people enter how much they have lost each week and then you can display a graph of their weight loss to inspire them. Then you will know if you should send them a congratulatory email for achieving their weight loss goal and switch them over to the weight maintenance newsletter. If they have completely failed with the weight loss program and are not returning to your website after a lengthy period you should consider purging them or moving them to an less active mailing list as they are letting you know by their inaction that they are not interested any longer and it is a waste of your resources to continue to email to them.

Labels: auto responder, databases, web forms

For the non-technical person creating a database can be intimidating. Depending on the type of database your are trying to create, the setup process may ask you all sorts of questions that you aren't sure what the question is, let alone the answer. But there are many alternatives to full blown relational databases such as Oracle or Sybase that are used to keep financial transactions safe. For many purposes an XML database can simplify the setup process and give you the flexibility that you need. By using a standard such as XML you know your data can be easily exported to a spreadsheet or other formats so if your business takes off and needs more muscle you can apply it.

So how do you get started? First think about how you need to use the information. If you want to send email to all people in your database who live in Ohio or people who buy organic milk you will need to collect that information and have separate fields to contain it. If it was a spreadsheet you would have a column for each of those items. In fact you can easily upload your spreadsheet into an online database and then be able to search and sort in addition to sending email.

There are a few tips to think about when you are creating fields. Keep the field names short but descriptive. We aren't back in the early days of computers where every byte was expensive so you can use field names such as first_name, last_name, state, and milk_type. The field label is an external name for the field and that can be even longer. So for the milk_type field that might be "Type of Milk Purchased".

The types of fields that you can define for an online database correspond to the field types used in web forms that can be used to automatically store data into your online database. Field types include text for short bits of text, text area for longer blocks of text in addition to menus, radio buttons and checkboxes. Menus are pull down menus where you can select one or more items. Radio buttons only allow you to select one value from the set of options so for the type of milk example your choices might be organic nonfat, organic 1%, organic 2%, organic whole, nonfat, 1%, 2% and whole.

But what if you have a family and you have to buy different types of milk for different family members? Then a checkbox is the way to go where you can select as many of the options as you want. But now this is starting to sound more technical. Don't worry - with an online database you can just focus on the values that you want people to pick from and let the system underneath take care of the details.

Another big advantage of an XML database is flexibility. You can try out the one field type and if that doesn't work, change it to another. You can also add new fields in later as you discover that you really need to know what kind of cookies they like with their milk.

Labels: databases