Sending an Email to People in One Area

This guide shows how to send an email only to customers who live in one area, for example “everyone within 50 miles of Lincoln” or “everyone within 75 miles of our Grand Island store”.

You choose a place and a distance. The system finds the customers who live that close to the place.

Step 0. Pick the right company

Look at the company name at the top right of the screen. Make sure it is the company you are sending for (for example Prairie Ridge Equipment). If it is wrong, click it and choose the right one.

Your email will only go to the customers of this company.

Step 1. Create the mailing

1. Open Email Marketing from the main menu and click New.
2. Type the Subject, for example Winter service specials near Lincoln.
3. Click Recipients (it shows Mailing List) and choose Contact.

Step 2. Choose the place

Click Near and choose one of these:

ZIP Code — any place you like. Type its 5-digit ZIP code in the box next to it, for example 68508 for Lincoln.

Our Location — one of your own addresses. Your main address is filled in for you. If your company has more stores, click the address and pick another one from the list. The ZIP code of the address is shown in brackets.

If your company runs tours, you also see Tour Date in this list. See the guide Sending an Email to People Near a Tour Stop.

Step 3. Choose the distance and send

1. Next to within, 100 miles is filled in for you. Change the number if you want a smaller or bigger area.
2. The blue badge shows how many people will get the email, for example 3 recipients.
3. Open the Mail Body tab, choose a design and write your email.
4. Click Send (or Schedule to send it later).

Tip: always look at the blue badge before you click Send. That number is how many people will get the email.

Tip: you can also narrow the list, for example only customers with a certain tag. Add the rule in the recipients filter as usual: the email goes to people who match the rule and live in the area.

Tip: to send to everyone again (not only in the area), clear the Near field.

Choosing the distance

Area you want	Miles to type
Same town and close neighbours	25
Short drive (about one hour)	50
Normal for an event or a store	100
Big rural area, people drive far	150–200

The distance is measured in a straight line on the map, not by road. A farm 90 miles away by road may be 70 miles in a straight line.

Common problems

“There is a red bar at the top of the mailing.” “ZIP 99999 is not in the US ZIP dataset.” The system does not know this ZIP code, so nobody will get the email. Check the number. If it is a PO box ZIP, use the ZIP of a street address instead.

“I don’t see Near at all.” Recipients is not set to Contact. A new mailing starts with Mailing List; switch it to Contact.

“Our store is not in the Our Location list.” The store address has no ZIP code, or it was added to another company. Ask your administrator to fix the address.

“The badge says 0 recipients.” The place is empty, nobody with a ZIP code lives in that area, or your extra filter (tag, country) excluded everyone. Fill in the place, try a bigger distance, for example 150, or remove the extra filter.

“The badge says 60 recipients, but the filter above says 1,322 records.” That is normal. The filter number counts everyone who matches your rules anywhere in the country. The blue badge counts only the people in the area. The blue badge is what will be sent.

“I know a customer lives in the area, but they are not counted.” Open that customer and check the ZIP field. Customers without a ZIP code are never included. Add the ZIP and the customer will be counted next time.

“Fewer emails were sent than the badge showed.” Some customers have a ZIP code but no email address, or they unsubscribed. They are counted but cannot receive the email. Add missing email addresses on the customer card.

“I clicked Send, but the email is still In Queue.” Sending runs in the background every few minutes. Wait a bit and refresh the page. If it stays in the queue for more than an hour, ask your administrator.

“I typed 0 or a negative number for the distance and got an error.” The distance must be at least 1 mile.

Before you click Send: checklist

• The company at the top right is correct.
• Near shows the right place, with no red bar at the top.
• The distance makes sense for this area.
• The blue badge shows a reasonable number of people (not 0, not thousands).
• The subject and the email text mention the right place.
• You sent a test to yourself first (Test button at the top).