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Adding a Letter Document to a Post Distribution List

Attach personalised letters to your stakeholders' records using Mail Merge fields

When sending updates to your stakeholders by post, a Post Distribution List can be used to record which stakeholders you will be mailing. You can also use this list to keep a record of the letter itself. This article shows you how to upload a document, such as a letter or leaflet, to Tractivity as a Contact or Organisation Activity.

Uploading Your Document

Go to the Distribution List module from the top navigation bar. Open your Post Distribution List, then click Document Create / Upload from the left-hand menu.

On this page, you can upload your document. Either click the Browse button to find the document in your file browser, or drag and drop the document into the panel labelled "or drop files here." Once added, click Upload to begin uploading the document as an Activity Attachment for each valid recipient.

If the document has no Mail Merge fields, a new Activity will be created and the document will be added as an Activity Attachment against this Activity for all valid recipients in your Distribution List.

Mail Merge Fields

Mail Merge fields are used to customise a letter or email for each recipient. Typical merge fields include names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Many mail tools (including Tractivity's own Email Builder) use mail merge fields to personalise stakeholder outreach.

Mail Merge fields will often appear like this:

«First_Name»

If your document includes merge fields, the document upload tool will recognise these and use them to add the relevant details for your Contacts or Organisations to the Activity Attachment.

Example

You have two stakeholders:

    • Steve Smith, stevesmith@tractivity.co.uk
    • Anna Ainsley, annaainsley@tractivity.co.uk

Your letter includes merge fields for first name («First_Name») and email address («Email_Address»):

Dear «First_Name»,

We are writing to confirm that we have up-to-date contact information for you. Could you please confirm that the best email address to reach you at is «Email_Address». To let us know…

When you upload this letter, Tractivity will attach it to Steve's and Anna's records. It will recognise the merge fields and populate them with each person's first name and email address. For Anna, it would look like this:

Dear Anna,

We are writing to confirm that we have up-to-date contact information for you. Could you please confirm that the best email address to reach you at is annaainsley@tractivity.co.uk. To let us know…

This customised letter will then be added to Anna's Contact record as an Activity Attachment.

To add merge fields, you can use the built-in Mail Merge Wizard in Microsoft Word. It doesn't matter which fields you use, as long as each type of detail (name, phone number, etc.) has a different merge field.

Mapping Your Merge Fields

After uploading your document containing merge fields, you will need to map each merge field to a field in Tractivity.

In the example above, we used the merge fields «First_Name» and «Email_Address». Tractivity will ask which fields these merge fields relate to. Open the drop-down list next to the merge field and select the relevant Tractivity field.

Example

    • «First_Name» relates to Contact First Name.
    • «Email_Address» relates to Contact Email.

Generating and Recording Your Letter Document

After selecting your fields, you have two options: Generate Document and Record Activity.

Generate Document produces a Word document containing every variation of your letter, with the merge fields completed using each stakeholder's details from your Distribution List. For example, if you have 10 Contacts in your Distribution List, it will generate 10 variations of your letter, each with the respective recipient's details. This is useful if you want to check that the merge fields have worked correctly.

Record Activity creates a personalised version of your letter for each stakeholder in your Distribution List, using the merge fields, and attaches this to each stakeholder's Contact or Organisation record as an Activity and Activity Attachment.

If there are any additional mandatory fields for Activities in your system or Project, a prompt will appear asking you to fill in these details before the Activity is created.

You can find your newly created Activities against the Contact or Organisation record for each stakeholder.