Streamline Constant Contact lists by automatically syncing Novi groups!
Find in-depth steps & information on this sync below, and answers to our most frequently asked questions including how to create campaigns, how to locate lists in Constant Contact, and more!
Quick Links:
Setting Up the Constant Contact Connection
If you are new to Novi, have recently switched to Constant Contact, or simply need to connect to your current Constant Contact account, follow these steps to get started:
1. On the backend, navigate to Association Settings by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select the Integrations tab.
3. In the Email Marketing section, click the "Connect to Constant Contact" button.
A pop-up modal will appear (be sure to turn off pop-up blockers!) asking to log in to Constant Contact.
Follow the prompts in the modal and exit out of Association Settings when complete. No need to save!
To double-check the connection, navigate back to the Association Settings > Integrations section.
A message shows if the website is connected to Constant Contact and a link to test the connection.
Click Test connection and look for the Validated message:
Syncing Member and Custom Fields
Member system fields and custom fields can be synced from Novi to Constant Contact to use as merge tags in Constant Contact. Four fields will always be included in the sync:
Professional Contact-Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Associations can select up to 17 additional member system or custom fields to sync. Available fields include:
Member system fields
Member custom fields
Parent member system fields (Note: parent custom fields are not available to sync)
To add a field to the Constant Contact sync:
Select a field from the list dropdown
Click the +Add button
Click Save & Close
To remove a field from the sync, click the Remove button next to the field.
When a field is added to or removed from the list, Novi will initiate a full sync of all records with that field, currently syncing to Constant Contact. (See Initiating the Group Sync below.) Any time a synced field is updated on a member record, the field will be updated in Constant Contact.
Note: This is a one-way sync from Novi to Constant Contact. Changes made to fields in Constant Contact will not sync to Novi and will be overwritten the next time a sync is initiated.
Initiating the Group Sync
Groups won't automatically sync to Constant Contact until admins turn on the sync!
To sync groups from Novi to Constant Contact, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Members > Groups in Novi.
2. Find or create a group that needs synced to Constant Contact.
If the group already exists, click on the group.
If you need to create a new group, click the Add Group button (top right).
3. Click the Integrations tab and toggle the Sync to Constant Contact setting to ON.
The name of the Constant Contact list will default to match the name of the Novi Group.
If an existing list in Constant Contact has the same name as the new Novi Group, the system won't override the existing list. It will create a new list with the name of the Novi Group and add a number at the end to make the list name unique.
Edit the name of the email list in Constant Contact (if needed). It will still sync to the same group in Novi, and the list name under the sync toggle will also be updated in Novi to reflect the change.
4. Click the Save button. The contacts in the Novi group will then sync to Constant Contact. This will initiate the sync between this group in Novi & Constant Contact.
Give the sync some time to complete after toggling it on. Larger groups will take more time to complete.
Adding & Removing Members
Once a Novi group is created and synced with Constant Contact, new members added to the system who meet the group's conditions will automatically be synced.
If a member no longer meets the criteria in the group's conditions, they will be removed from the Novi group and the corresponding Constant Contact list.
If a group is deleted in Novi or the sync is toggled from ON to OFF, the system will automatically delete the corresponding list in Constant Contact. This action will be logged in the audit log.
If a group is deleted in Constant Contact while it is still set to sync to a group in Novi, an error icon will display in the main group list. Hover over the icon to see more information.
Duplicate Email Addresses
When there are multiple customer records with the same email address, Novi will choose one of those records to associate with the email over in MailChimp and Constant Contact. Learn more about how Novi chooses which record "wins" in this article.
How to Send Emails Through Constant Contact
Once a Novi group has synced with Constant Contact, it's ready to use for marketing emails. To do this, head over to Constant Contact.
In Constant Contact, create campaigns and send emails to lists by following these steps:
Click the Create button in the top right.
Choose type of campaign.
Choose the template.
Choose an email list.
Click the orange Send Now button in the top right when ready to send.
For further assistance with Constant Contact, please contact their support team.
ADDITIONAL TIP: How to add tags to your Constant Contact groups
Tags allow for filtering and targeting emails to different groups. Tags allow for creating new groups by adding contacts all at once, individually or by searching through contacts with a tag with these steps:
Go to "Contacts"
Click the plus button by "Tags"
Add tag(s)
You can find more about Tags in Constant Contact's Knowledge Base
FAQs:
What information syncs from the Novi AMS record to Constant Contact?
In addition to the professional contact email address, Novis syncs the First Name, Last Name, Job Title, and Company into Constant Contact.
Why does my Novi AMS group and Constant Contact list have a different number of contacts?
The most common reason is duplicate email addresses. Many times, staff members will share email addresses. The Novi groups pull emails from the "Professional Contact" record, so we recommend that you encourage members to always use their own email rather than sharing the main company email.
Constant Contact can also block an email address for a variety of other reasons: looking like spam, being put into too many lists too quickly, etc. Find more information about Constant Contact's reasons for blocking emails in their Knowledge Base.