Eploy can be used to quickly and efficiently contact large numbers of records at once, using the Mail Merge function. This tool will allow you to send out correspondence to up to 2000 records, all at the click of a few buttons. If you needed to contact more than 2000 records, for mass newsletters or greeting cards for example, then you can batch your records together. Batches can be used to group your recipients as 1-2000, 2001-4000 etc. but this practise alone is not recommended – You would not be able track which records have been sent the correspondence if your task was interrupted by a power cut for example, unless you used Correspondence Titles.

Best practise would be to use Correspondence Titles with your mail merge batches and this guide covers the most efficient way to do this.

Obtaining Your List of Records

If you are sending the mail merge to specific candidates you may want to filter for those candidates using the Query Builder, prior to sending the mail merge and add those candidates into a group. Once you have applied your filter, you can then follow these steps.

In this example we are sending the mail merge to all candidates;

• Click View on the Eploymenu
• Select Candidates (to view the global candidate list)
• Click on Mail Merge and select the first batch of candidate that you wish to send the correspondence to

• From the batches dropdown select the first group; this will highlight each of those candidates
• Click on Merge to Email once you have selected your batch

Creating and Sending your Mail Merge

• At the top of the Email Details screen, the number of records included in the mail merge will be confirmed

• Create your mail merge by inserting details into the body of the email or selecting a template from the list
• Once all details have been added, click Next

• Choose if you wish to store an action and add any required detail
• Select Next

• It is important on this screen that you add a Correspondence Title to your mail merge. By adding a Correspondence Title, you will be able to use it to filter for candidates who have not yet received this mail merge.

Note: If you are using a template, the template Title will be set as Correspondence Title. If you are creating your mail merge manually you will need to add the title at this point. It is important, when adding the correspondence title, that it is unique to this specific email that is being sent out – It also needs to be kept exactly the same when sending each batch for this email.

• Click Send
• The mail merge will then be sent to those candidates in that batch

Note: If any of your candidates do not have a valid email address, you will receive the following warning Once you have clicked send. If so, you can add an email address by clicking on the word Candidate next to the name of the record. This will trigger a pop up window, containing the Candidate record (if this window does not appear please check for a pop up blocker). Update the Candidate email address and click Refresh; this will then include those candidates in your mail out.

• If you want to send the mail merge without updating those candidates details click Send
• Your mail merge may take a few moments to send depending on the size of the email and any attachments that may be included
• Once you have sent this mail merge, this batch of candidates will have a correspondence log against their record with the Correspondence Title displayed.

Filtering for Candidates that have not received the Correspondence

To search for candidates that have not received a mail out with that correspondence title, we can use the Candidate Query Builder;

• Click View from the Eploymenu
• Select Candidates - Query Builder from the sub-menu
• The Query Builder will open in a new window (please check your pop up blocker if this does not open)
• Un-tick the Availability tab and switch to the All Fields tab
• Within here select the Text sub tab
• From the dropdown list select Correspondence – Title

• In the free text box below the dropdown, type the Correspondence Title that used in the first Mail Merge (this must be exact)
• Tick the NOT box next to this free text box to look for records that have NOT received that correspondence title.
• Click And to add the query to the search string.

• Under Your Query the details will show: Correspondence – Title does not equal ‘Eploy Newsletter Feb 2015’. This means the search will look for all candidates that do not have a correspondence log with that phrase as the Title.
• If you are merging to all candidates, ensure Replace List is selected. This will search the entire database.

• If you are sending this to a pre-filtered group of candidates ensure that Narrow List is selected

• Click on View Count - this will show you the remaining number of candidates who are yet to receive this mail out.
• Click on Apply to then view those records.

Continuing with your Mail Merge

Once you have filtered for the remaining candidates, you can send the same mail merge to those candidates by following the same process - By ensuring that you use exactly the same Correspondence Title, you can continue to repeat the process. As you send the mail out to the remaining candidates, they will be removed from the filtered list, depleting the list of candidates after each batch.

Note: If the Filter is removed, the query builder can be reapplied to view the remaining candidates.