Groups
What are groups?
EMP groups are the primary method used to select any subset of student records in the system. A group contains criteria that students have to match to be considered part of that particular group. Once a set of criteria is chosen and saved as a group, it can then be viewed or attached to another function of the EMP like an email. All saved groups can be found under the Group link on the Students tab on the top navigation bar of EMP.
An important concept to note about groups is how they are loaded. Since a group is just a set of criteria to select students, groups use the most recent data when loading. They are not static lists. This means that at any given time the number of students selected can change even from one second to another. An example of how this would work in a live enviroment: Group A’s filters included only students who submited an application. When first loaded for viewing, it reports 100 students. When loaded just seconds after, it now reports 101 students. This is because in between the two viewings, a student completed an application.
Group List
The list of all saved groups can be found under the Group link underneath the Students tab. You will see a list of all saved groups for your account. In addition to the name of the group, each line contains a portrait of the user that created the group. If any labels are attached to that group, they will appear to the right of the portrait. Further to the right is the date the group was created and if anything is currently using the group. Please note that as of version 7.29 not all items that have groups attached to them are reported on the group listing page. The items that are reported as using a group are Emails, Print, Events, Exports and Triggered To-dos.
Group List Filtering and Labels
You can filter groups by two criteria: creator and label. To filter by user, select the desired user. The list will then only show groups created by the selected user. To further filter by label, select the desired label. This will further shrink the list to show only the selected created by user and groups with the selected label. The two filtering options can be used by themselves or in conjuction with each other.
To apply and remove labels, first select the groups you wish to modify the labels of. This is done by either individually checking off the far left hand checkboxes next to a group name or by clicking the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column name. This checkbox will mark all groups currently being viewed. Once the groups that you want to modify are selected, simply choose a label from the ‘Apply Label’ dropdown or a label to remove from the ‘Remove Label’ dropdown. This will perform the action selected to all of the currently selected groups.
Building a Group
The first step in building a group is navigating to the group builder page. This can be done by clicking the ‘New Group’ button on the Group list page. This button is located in the upper right hand corner of the Group List page. At the group builder page, there are many different critera that can be set. This manual will break down each option available and explain how each filter works.
Please note that a student record must match ALL of the sections of the group builder to be selected in the group.
Name
This is the name of the new group. A good rule of thumb is to always be overly descriptive of who this group is selecting. This can allow you to quickly find your group again on the Group List page. This field does not affect the selection of student records.
Rep
This dropdown lets you select only student records who have a certain Representative assigned to them.
Rating
These boxes allow you to select a minimum and maximum rating value that the student must fall between to be selected in the group.
Sources
The sources section allows the selecting of students who are assigned to a particular source. To choose a source simply click into the box. This will bring up a dropdown of all available sources. Multiple sources can be selected. Additionally SEM sources can be found in this dropdown as well.
Stage Changes
The stage change section allows the selection of student records based on if they are or were ever a certain stage within a certain timeframe. The top dropdown allows for two options: ‘Currently’ and ‘Were or Currently’. Currently only selects student records who are the selected stage at the time this group was run. Were or Currently will select student records who are presently in the selected stage or who were at that stage within the timeframe selected. This section requires the use of a Timeframe parameter. If no Timeframe parameter is selected, this section is ignored.
The following sections of the Group Builder (Fields, Interactions and Events) all rely heavily on logic. It is highly recomended to have an understanding of how and/or logic works before making groups. For a quick tutorial of and/or logic in regards to group building please see Appendix B.
Fields
The fields section of the group builder allows you to select student records based on the data contained within their student record fields. By default there is one field filter available with the ability to add more by clicking on the plus icon to the right of any filter. To remove a filter, press the minus button to remove the corresponding row. The far right button with three dots adds a nested condition below the selected row. The result of nested conditions must evaluate to true for the condition it is nested under to be considered true.There is a limit of 8 unique fields and 25 total field filters that can be used.
There are four steps to setup the field criteria:
Step 1 - is selecting the field that you want to filter off of. This is the 'What' of filtering. In the example above these are the Major, Email, Address 1, Zip, Inquiry Date, Date of Birth and SAT score. All data fields related to a student record can be used in this section.
Step 2 - is to assign operations called 'measures' to all of the fields. Measures are the ‘How’ of the filtering. Note that some measures are specific for certain field types. For example using a ‘Days Ago’ Measure on SAT scores will not yield any results. Instead, ‘Days Ago’ should be used for fields that have date types like Date of Birth or Inquiry Date.
Step 3 - is to determine the ‘Who’ of the filtering by filling in values for each condition. For the majority of fields, since they are text fields, the value will be text. Examples include the Address Line 1 or Email fields. However, if a field has built in options, those will appear as a dropdown menu. An example of this is the Major field used in the example above. Date fields will show a calendar.
Step 4 - is to determine and/or conditional logic. Both the top level fields and nested fields have the option to match either ALL or ANY of the crtieria set. If ALL is selected, every single field criteria row set must match. If ANY is selected, at least 1 criteria row must match.
Interactions
The interactions section of the group builder allows you to select student records based on the interactions a student has had with the EMP. By default there is one interaction filter available with the ability to add more by clicking on the plus icon to the right of any filter. To remove a filter simply press the minus button to remove the corresponding row. The far right button with three dots adds a nested condition below the selected row. The result of nested conditions must evaluate to true for the condition it is nested under to be considered true. There is a limit of 5 total filters that can be used.
Available interaction types to filter on:
- Touch-points
- Page hits
- Link clicks
- Event registrations
- Event attends
- Email sent
- Email opens
- Email link clicks
- Record email sent
- Record email opens
- Record email link clicks
- Print pieces sent
- Logins
There are six steps to setup the interaction criteria:
Step 1 - choose if this criteria has or has not been done. “Did” means the student did or has the interaction. “Didn’t” means they do not have the interaction.
Step 2 - choose what type of interaction. The available types are in the table above.
Step 3 - determine what the actual interaction is. When a interaction type is chosen, the third dropdown field will automatically populate all available interactions of that type to choose from.
Step 4 - select the timeframe when this interaction was performed/gained. This step is optional. If the timeframe is left blank, the group builder will include records who at any time did or did not have this interaction. If timeframe is selected, step 5 is required
Step 5 - select the date for the timeframe in which the interaction was performed/gained. This is only required and used if a timeframe is selected in step 4.
Step 6 - determine the and/or conditional logic. Both the top level interactions and nested interactions have the option to match either ALL or ANY of the criteria set. If ALL is selected, every single interaction criteria row set must match. If ANY is selected, at least 1 criteria row must match.
Events
The events section of the group builder allows you to select student records based on their event registration and attendance history. By default, there is one event filter available, with the ability to add more by clicking on the plus icon to the right of any filter. To remove a filter simply press the minus button to remove the corresponding row. The far right button with three dots adds a nested condition below the selected row. The result of nested conditions must evaluate to true for the condition it is nested under to be considered true. There is a limit of 10 total filters that can be used.
There are six steps to setup the interaction criteria:
Step 1 - choose if this criteria has or has not been done. “Did” means the student did register or attend the selected event. “Didn’t” means the student did not register or attend the selected event.
Step 2 - choose the student record event action of either Register or Attend.
Step 3 - determine which event the action criteria is related to. This is automatically populated with all of the current events in the EMP system.
Step 4 - select a particular day in an event series. This step is optional.
Step 5 - select a particular timeslot for the day selected in step 4. This step is optional, but requires step 4 to be done first. Selecting a timeslot for an event without a day will not work.
Step 6 - determine the and/or conditional logic. Both the top level event interactions and nested event interactions have the option to match either ALL or ANY of the crtieria set. If ALL is selected, every single event interaction criteria row set must match. If ANY is selected, at least 1 criteria must match.
You can also create groups that can filter to prospect records, based on the number of emails that they have received.
Saving
When all of the group criteria have been set, the last step is to save. Once saved the group will be accessible at any time from the Group List.
Viewing and Using Groups
Groups can be easily loaded with the results shown by either clicking on the blue colored group name from the Group List page, clicking on ‘View Group’ after saving a new group or by clicking on a blue group name in any of the places groups are used in the EMP system. When first navigating to a group view, please allow some time for the group to load. Since a group is dynamically calculated and loaded every time, it may take several minutes for a group to completely load. The time required to load is also dependent on the amount of selection criteria used in the group, with more criteria resulting in generally longer load times.
The group viewing screen will show the count of the students matching the selection criteria along with the name of the group being viewed. This particular group ‘Football Sport Interest’ has 57 student records matching the criteria. The list is sorted by rating value of the student records. If a group returns more than can be displayed, a pagination tool to show more results will appear on the top and bottom of the listing.
To show what criteria are being used to build the group being viewed, click the ‘Edit Group’ button on the top right hand corner of the page. This will bring you back to the group building page where you can view and modify the criteria if desired.
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