Data

Fill the gap

Illustration of person interacting with a web browser

Through our extensive travels around multiple email platforms we have noticed that whilst they all do the basics really well, sometimes there is just that missing bit of key functionality that you long for, or it just doesn’t quite work how you want. So, you find yourself doing things the hard way and dreaming of a day where all you need to do is push a button and it all magically happens. But how can you fill the gap?

Well, we thought “why not do something about it?” and came up with our own solutions that anybody can take advantage of. Fortunately, most email platforms provide their own API integrations so these solutions, where required, should be adjustable to suit each platform.

Fill the gap scenario 1: list splitting

You may have a list held in your platform and for whatever reason you need to split it into 2 or more chunks. In theory this is possible with A/B testing but not if you need it for some other purpose.

The hard way: download the data, stick it into a database, run some SQL on it to output however many chunks you want, reimport.

The easy way: use a tool which lets you enter a list identifier, what you want to call the new lists and how many splits you want and it will run the downloading, SQL and reimporting for you whilst you eat that biscuit.

List Splitting

Demo

Here’s a demo of how a tool to split files could work (since it’s a demo we’re restricting to a 1 column file, txt or csv only, and we’ll only split out 100 records):

File to Upload:

No Splits:
Random:

Fill the gap scenario 2: list limiting

It could be possible that you have a list held in your platform, but for now you only need to send a small amount from it.

The hard way: you download your list, recreate it to the size you want and reimport.

The easy way: use a tool which lets you enter a list identifier, what you want to call it and how many rows and it will run the downloading, limiting and reimporting whilst you sit back with that cup of tea.

List Limiting

Fill the gap scenario 3: campaign send going slow?

It could be that something seems to be going slightly awry with a campaign send and it’s being very slow or stopped delivering entirely.

The hard way: you download all that should be sent and check the send status, then run some group counts on the domains of the unsent emails using Excel or SQL.

The easy way: use a tool that lets you identify a campaign send by its ID that will download all the unsent emails and run the count for you before displaying the results to you so you can see where the roadblock is whilst you get some darts practice in.

Queued Domains

Fill the gap scenario 4: campaign send delivered poorly?

If your campaign didn’t perform as well as you hoped and you suffered a lot of soft bounces, and you want to try a resend down different IPs for example then you will want to pull them into a new list.

The hard way: you may have to go into the campaign send, download all the soft bounces and reimport into a new list. Not so bad…assuming it’s just the one campaign…

The easy way: use a tool that can let you input one or more, campaign ID that will identify just the soft bounced records and reimport that into a new list for you whilst you put your feet up and think about your next holiday.

SB Resends

I’m sure there are countless other niggling little things that a simple solution using API can be found for that will save you time and frustration – we’re always looking to innovate where we can, so why not ask us if you have a problem, and let’s see if we can come up with a solution. You can always check out some more information on ways we’ve tried to solve other development problems here.