Some questions we received recently about SOM, with answers in blue...
Can you save a segmentation or do you have to go through it from scratch every time?
If you mean the results of the segmentation, I guess the answer is "no". You can, as you know, export the results, but to get there again in SOM you'd need to run it again. I don't know that we'd want to add the ability to open an old one as they will probably get out of date pretty quick (as constits get merged, new gifts are added, etc). I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it though...
When you have selected a number of segments is there any way to total how many you have selected in all the segments?
Yes, it will appear in the package grid if you've filled in info for a package, like below. Also, you can right-click on the grid and select "Create query of selected constituents" to create a static query of all of them.
How do you export the grid to Excel I can see how it works to html and then I can copy it but it would be great in Excel?
Output the html file, then open Excel and select File --> Open and then select the html file. It will open in Excel!
How do we set up packages and costs for each so we can use them to calculate costs for different numbers??
Does the screenshot above answer that question?
We like it... It seems that you can only look at one sector at a time ie if we were going to segment for the Xmas appeal and wanted to segment recurring givers), then High Value Donors, then One-off givers with different criteria in each, how would we go about that?
You could segment them all simultaneously (if I understand you correctly), but if by different criteria you mean different RFM breakdowns (like changing "1-2 months" to "1-4 months", etc) then yes, you would need to do multiple runs. You would probably want to make sure your suppression query includes those other groups you don't want (or, if it's all in the same appeal, just make it part of the suppression criteria to include anyone that already has that appeal assigned to them).
Jeffrey Montgomery
Some questions we received recently about SOM, with answers in blue...