All Help Topics

Home Knowledge Base Aptora 360 Marketing List Generator 360

Aptora 360

Marketing List Generator 360

Marketing & CRM
20 min read

How to use the Marketing List Generator in Aptora 360

Use the Marketing List Generator to find exactly the customers you want to reach – by where they live, what they have bought, the equipment they own and the service agreements they hold – and turn them into a mailing list, a call list or a Mailchimp audience.

Find it in Sales Opportunity Manager at Tools > Marketing List Generator.

At a Glance

Your customer records already hold your best marketing list: who has a fifteen-year-old furnace, whose warranty runs out next month, whose maintenance agreement lapsed last spring. The Marketing List Generator searches those records and hands you the list in seconds, instead of someone paging through customers by hand. You describe who you want with filters, generate the list, and then export it for letters and labels, send it to Mailchimp for email, or tag the customers for later. A saved search runs against today’s records every time, so a list you build once — such as “warranties ending in the next 60 days” — keeps finding new customers month after month. Generating a list never changes a customer; only the tags and contact log entries you choose to add are saved to customer records.

The Marketing List Generator page: step 1, Find Customers, with four filter grids above step 2, the Marketing List of customers found — Step 1 describes who you want. Step 2 shows who was found and what you can do with them.

Before You Begin

Permission: the Marketing List Generator right on the User Security screen (Tools section). View opens the page and runs searches. Add adds tags and contact log entries. Edit saves searches, clears customers from the list and sends lists to Mailchimp. Delete removes tags.
Contact log entries also need Contact Log (Customer) — Add, and Contact Log (Company) — Add to copy the entry to the company log.
Mailchimp: your Mailchimp API key must be entered in Total Office Manager under Preferences > Integrations, and your company’s name, city, state and zip must be filled in.
Customer marketing choices: each Customer:Job’s Additional Info tab has a No Marketing By section (Any & All, Text, Direct Mail, Email, Fax, Telephone). Keep it up to date; the generator relies on it (see Who Is Left Out Automatically).

How It Works

The Marketing List Generator has two steps. In 1 Find Customers you describe who belongs on the list. In 2 Marketing List you see who was found, and tag, export or log them.

The Four Filters

Each filter searches a different part of the customer’s history. Use as many or as few as you need; an empty filter is ignored.

Filter	What It Searches	Example
Contact Filter	The Customer:Job record itself: name, address, zip, county, customer type, marketing type, sales totals, dates, the No Marketing By choices and your user-defined fields.	Zip Starts With 372
Sales Activity Filter	What the customer bought on invoices: one item or a whole item category, in a date range, how much and how often.	Item Category “Maintenance” Not Purchased In Last N Months, 18
Service Agreement Filter	The customer’s service agreements: status, type, start and end dates, visits and price.	End Date Expires in the next N months, 2
Equipment Filter	Equipment on the customer or on any of the customer’s jobs: type, manufacturer, model, install date and warranties.	Warranty Expiration Expires within N days, 60

How Rows Combine

Different filters always combine with And. A customer must match every filter you filled in.
Inside one filter, each row after the first has And or Or. And means “and also”. Or means “or else”. The first row’s And/Or is not used.
When one filter mixes And and Or, rows joined by And are grouped first. Three rows A And B Or C find customers who match A and B, plus every customer who matches C.

Diagram: Nashville And Residential Or Franklin finds residential customers in Nashville plus every customer in Franklin. To get residential customers in both cities, repeat Residential after each city. — Rows joined by And stay together. To apply one condition to every group, repeat it in each group.

Tip: Keep each filter to all-And rows or all-Or rows. When you need two different kinds of customer on one list, build them as two searches and use Append Query instead of mixing And and Or.

What One Row Is

Each row on the list is one customer or one job. If you tick Include Contacts From the Contacts Tab, each person on a customer’s Contacts tab gets their own row, so one customer can show several rows. The count and the pages still count customers, not rows.

Who Is Left Out Automatically

Customers marked No Marketing By Any & All are left out unless you tick Include No Marketing in Results.
Inactive customers are left out unless you tick Include Inactive in Results.
The other No Marketing By choices are not applied automatically. A customer marked No Marketing By Direct Mail is still found. Add a Contact Filter row for the channel you are using, as described in Build Your First List.

Common Tasks

Build Your First List

In Sales Opportunity Manager, select Tools > Marketing List Generator.
In the filter you need (for example Equipment Filter), select the plus (+) button to add a row.
Click each cell of the row and choose a Field, a Condition and a Value 1. Fill in Value 2 only for the Between condition.
Click outside the row to finish it.
Optional: to respect your customers’ choices, add a Contact Filter row for the channel you will use: Field No Mail for a letter, No Email for email, No Phone for calls, Condition Equal, Value 1 left unticked.
Select Generate Marketing List.

The customers found appear under 2 Marketing List, with the count in the pager below the list.

Tip: Add one row at a time and generate after each. If the list suddenly empties, you know which row did it.

Ready-Made Lists

The lists contractors ask for most, and the rows that build them. Row 1 and Row 2 of a recipe go in the same filter, one under the other.

You Want	Filter	Field	Condition	Value 1
Warranties ending soon	Equipment	Warranty Expiration	Expires within N days	60
Replacement prospects	Equipment	Install Date	Before	A date 12 years ago
Install anniversary this month	Equipment	Install Date	Anniversary this month (any year)	— (none needed)
Agreements up for renewal	Service Agreement	End Date	Expires in the next N months	2
Win back lapsed agreements	Service Agreement	Row 1: End Date Row 2: And, Not ticked, Status	Row 1: Expired within the last N months Row 2: Equal	Row 1: 6 Row 2: Active
Bought equipment, no agreement	Sales Activity, then Service Agreement	Sales Activity: your equipment Item Category Service Agreement: Not ticked, Status	Purchased Equal	— Active
Stopped buying maintenance	Sales Activity	Your maintenance Item Category	Not Purchased In Last N Months	Months: 18
Best customers	Contact	Total Sales	Greater Than Equal To	5,000
One neighborhood	Contact	Zip	Starts With	372

Service Agreement Filter with two rows: End Date Expired within the last N months 6, then And, Not ticked, Status Equal Active — The win-back list: agreements that ended in the last six months, from customers who have no active agreement today.

Note: Each Equipment or Service Agreement row is checked on its own. Rows “Equipment Type Equal Furnace” And “Install Date Before 2014” find customers who have a furnace and who have something installed before 2014 — not necessarily the same unit.

Combine Two Searches Into One List

Use this when the list needs two different kinds of customer, such as agreements up for renewal and warranties ending soon.

Set up the first search and select Generate Marketing List.
Change the filters to describe the second group.
Select Menu > Append Query.

The list now holds both groups, and a customer found by both appears once. Above the list, List: 2 criteria sets appears with a Search 1 button; select it to take the first search’s customers back off.

Diagram: Search 1 and Search 2 each find customers; Append Query puts both on one list, each customer once, minus any customers cleared from the list — Append Query keeps the last search and adds the next one. Customers you cleared stay off.

Take Customers Off the List

Tick the customers to remove.
Select Menu > Clear List Selected, then Yes.

They stay off this list, even when you generate again. Nothing is deleted from Aptora 360.

Save a Search to Run Again

Build the search and generate it.
Select Save Grid Filter, name the search, and save it.

Next time, choose it in the Grid Filters box at the top of 1 Find Customers. It runs straight away against today’s records, so the list is always current.

Important: The three tick boxes (Include Contacts, Include No Marketing, Include Inactive) are not saved with the search. Check them after you load it.

Export the List for Letters and Labels

Generate the list.
Select Excel or CSV above the list.
Choose Entire List to export every customer, or Current Records for the page on screen.

The file includes every column, including ones hidden on screen, so Salutation, First Name and Last Name are there for a mail merge. If you typed in the search box above the list, only the matching customers are exported.

Tag Customers

A tag is a label such as “Spring Tune-Up 2027” that stays on the customer. Mailchimp needs at least one tag on every customer you send.

Tick the customers to tag. To tag everyone, first set the page size below the list large enough to show the whole list, then tick the box in the header.
Select Tag Selected Contacts.
Type a tag name. Tick an existing tag, or select Create a tag named to make a new one.
Choose Add Tags or Remove Tags, then select Apply.

The tags show in the Tags column. Select Manage Tags to rename or delete tags and see who carries each one.

Note: The header tick box selects only the pages you have displayed, which is why the page size matters in step 1.

Send the List to Mailchimp

Generate the list and make sure every customer you want to send has a tag.
Select Export (Mailchimp).
In Audience List Name, choose an existing audience or type a new name (at least three characters).
Select Upload to Mailchimp. If the audience already exists, select Yes to update it.
Watch Upload Progress, then open the Summary tab to see who was skipped and why.

Each customer with an email address and a tag is added to the audience as a subscriber, or updated if already there.

Important: The whole list is sent — not just the ticked customers, and not filtered by the search box. Mailchimp also does not check No Marketing By Email, so add a No Email Contact Filter row first (see Build Your First List, step 5).

Record the Mailing in Each Contact Log

Once the letters are out, record it once and every customer’s contact log shows it.

Select Menu > Add Log Entry.
Choose the User and Topic, and check Date and time.
Type a Subject (for example “Mailed spring tune-up letter, first class”) and Notes.
Choose All customers on the list or Selected customers only.
Optional: tick Copy entry to the company contact log to record the mailing once for the company too.
Select Add Log Entries.

One entry is written to each customer’s contact log. To see one, right-click the customer and select Contact Log.

Important: Log entries go to the customers from the last time you selected Generate Marketing List, and the search box is ignored. If you changed a filter since, generate again first.

Buttons, Fields and Commands

1 Find Customers

Field, Button or Command	What It Does
Grid Filters	Loads a saved search and runs it at once. Clearing the box clears every filter and the list.
Save Grid Filter	Saves the four filters, any appended searches and any customers cleared from the list. Needs the Edit right.
Include Contacts From the Contacts Tab	Adds a row for each person on each customer’s Contacts tab.
Include No Marketing in Results	Includes customers marked No Marketing By Any & All. Asks you to confirm, because contacting them may break state and federal law. Intended for testing.
Include Inactive in Results	Includes inactive customers.
+ (in each filter)	Adds a row to that filter.
X (at the end of a row)	Removes the row.
Generate Marketing List	Runs the search and shows the customers found. Same as Menu > Run/Replace Query.

Columns in Every Filter

Column	What It Does
And/Or	How this row joins the rows above it (see How Rows Combine). Not used on the first row.
Not	Equipment and Service Agreement filters only. Finds customers who do not have equipment or an agreement matching the row.
Field	What to check.
Condition	How to compare it.
Value 1	The value to compare with. For “N days”, “N months” and “N years” conditions, the number goes here.
Value 2	The end of the range. Used only with Between, which includes both ends.

Contact Filter Conditions

Kind of Field	Conditions That Work
Text (name, address, zip, type…)	Equal, Not Equal, Like (contains), Starts With, Ends With
Numbers and amounts	Equal, Not Equal, Greater Than Equal To, Less Than Equal To, Between
Dates	Equal, Not Equal, Greater Than Equal To, Less Than Equal To, Between
Yes/No (No Mail, Active SA…)	Equal or Not Equal; tick Value 1 for Yes
User-defined fields	Equal, Not Equal, Like, Starts With, Ends With

Important: A row whose condition does not suit its field — for example Like on a date — is skipped without a message. If a row seems to do nothing, check its condition against this table.

Contact Filter Fields That Need Explaining

Field	What It Checks
Active SA	Yes when the customer has an agreement that is not inactive and has not ended.
Financial History	Yes when the customer has at least one transaction, such as an invoice or payment.
Other History	Yes when the customer has any other record: a work order, equipment, an agreement, a log entry, an appointment and so on.
Sales Opportunity	Yes when the customer has an opportunity In Progress.
Marketing Campaign	Yes when a marketing campaign is recorded on the customer.
Type / Marketing Type	The customer type and the marketing source on the Customer:Job record.
Primary IC / Secondary IC	The industry codes on the record.
Total Sales	Lifetime sales, less credits. Voided invoices and estimates do not count.
YTD Sales	The same, from the first month of your business year to today.
No Mail, No Email, No Phone, No Text, No Fax	The matching No Marketing By choices on the Additional Info tab. Ticked means the customer said no.
Your user-defined fields	Appear at the end of the list under their own names.

Sales Activity Filter

Column	What It Does
Item / Item Category	One item, or every item in a category. Choose one, not both.
Purchased	Bought it at least once (within the dates, if given).
Not Purchased	Has not bought it (within the dates, if given). A purchase that was fully credited back does not count.
Not Purchased In Last N Months	Bought it before, but not in the last N months. Enter N in Months.
From Date / To Date	Limit the invoices checked. Both dates are included. Leave blank for all time.
Minimum Amount / Maximum Amount / Minimum Count	Purchased rows only: spent at least, at most, or bought at least this many times.

Invoices count; credits subtract; voided invoices and estimates are ignored. Only purchases on that exact customer or job count — a job’s purchases do not count for its parent customer.

Equipment Filter

Fields: Equipment Type, Manufacturer, Model, Installed By Us, On Watch List, Install Date, Warranty Expiration, Manufacturer Warranty Expiration, and our and the manufacturer’s labor and parts warranties. Equipment on any of a customer’s jobs counts for the customer.

Date conditions: On, Before, After, Between, Expired (before today), Expires within N days, Expires in the next N months, Installed N years ago this month, Anniversary this month (any year). Before and After do not include the date itself. Conditions with N are counted from today each time the search runs.

Tip: To find customers without something, tick Not. Condition Not Equal finds customers who have some equipment that is not that type, which is rarely what you want.

Service Agreement Filter

Field	What It Checks
Status	Active: started and not ended. Pending: starts after today. Expired: ended before today. Inactive: marked inactive.
Agreement Type, Sold By, Department	As recorded on the agreement.
Start Date, End Date, Date Created	The same date conditions as equipment, plus Expired within the last N days or N months, for win-back lists.
Term (Months)	Length of the agreement in months.
Planned Visits, Price	Taken from the agreement type.
Completed Visits, Remaining Visits	Completed maintenance work orders on the agreement during its term, and what is left of the planned visits.
Inactive, Renewal, Auto-Renew Reminder	Yes/No flags on the agreement.

Without a Status row, every agreement counts, including expired and inactive ones. Agreements on any of a customer’s jobs count for the customer.

2 Marketing List

Field, Button or Command	What It Does
List: N criteria sets	Shows when searches are appended or customers cleared. Each Search button takes that search’s customers off the list.
Manage Tags	Create, rename and delete tags, see who carries each tag, and send one tag’s customers to Mailchimp with Export.
Tag Selected Contacts	Adds or removes tags on the ticked customers.
Export (Mailchimp)	Sends the whole list to a Mailchimp audience.
Columns	Chooses the columns you see. Exports include every column regardless.
Excel / CSV	Exports the list to a file.
Search box	Narrows the list on screen by name, company, contact, phone, email, city, state or zip.

Menu Commands

Select Menu above the list, or right-click a customer.

Command	What It Does
Run/Replace Query	Runs the current filters again, replacing their earlier results. Appended searches and cleared customers are kept.
Append Query	Keeps the last search’s customers and adds the customers found by the current filters.
Clear List Selected	Takes the ticked customers off this list. Up to 1,000 in all.
Clear List All	Starts over: removes every filter row, appended search and cleared customer, and empties the list.
Contact Log	Opens the right-clicked customer’s contact log.
Add Log Entry	Writes the same entry to each customer’s contact log.
Help	Opens Aptora help in a new tab.
Reset List	Puts the list’s columns back to their original layout.

Important Rules and What Happens Next

Generating, exporting and loading searches change nothing in your records. Only tags and contact log entries are saved to customers.
A saved search finds whoever matches today. Run the same search next month and the list changes with your records.
Run/Replace Query keeps appended searches. To start a fresh list, remove the Search buttons or use Clear List All.
Clear List All also removes every filter row you built. Save the search first if you want it again.
Excel and CSV exports follow the search box. Mailchimp uploads and contact log entries ignore it and use the whole list.
Mailchimp: customers without an email address on the Customer:Job record, or without a tag, are skipped. Contacts-tab email addresses are not used. Nobody is ever removed or unsubscribed from Mailchimp by Aptora 360.
Deleting a tag in Manage Tags removes it from every customer who carries it.
Everything you do here is recorded in the Audit Trail under Marketing List Generator: searches, exports, uploads, tags, log entries and saved searches.
Leaving the page with unsaved filter changes asks you to confirm first.

Troubleshooting and Questions

Why is my list empty?

Every filter must match, so one strict row can empty the list. Remove rows one at a time and generate after each. Also check that no row uses a condition that does not suit its field (see Contact Filter Conditions).

A customer I expected is missing. Why?

The customer may be inactive or marked No Marketing By Any & All; tick the matching Include box to check. For Sales Activity, the purchase may be on one of the customer’s jobs, which counts only for the job. The customer may also have been cleared from the list earlier: look for “customers cleared” above the list.

Why does my list have more rows than customers?

Include Contacts From the Contacts Tab is ticked, so each contact has a row.

Why did Or bring in customers I did not want?

Rows joined by And are grouped before Or. See How Rows Combine, and repeat the shared condition after each Or, or use Append Query.

“There is no Mailchimp API key. Enter it in Total Office Manager under Preferences > Integrations.”

Enter your Mailchimp API key there, then try the upload again.

“Missing required email field” or “Customer tag is required” in the upload log

The customer has no email address on the Customer:Job record, or no tag. Fix the record or tag the customer, then upload again; customers already in the audience are updated, not duplicated.

“Audience name must have more than 3 characters.”

Use a longer audience name.

“Run the query first. There are no customers on the list to log.”

Select Generate Marketing List before Add Log Entry.

“No more than 1000 customers can be cleared from the list…”

Narrow the filters instead of clearing customers one by one.

Why can’t I see Save Grid Filter, Export (Mailchimp) or Tag Selected Contacts?

Your user does not have that Marketing List Generator right. See Before You Begin.

If You Used Total Office Manager

Two new filters: Service Agreement and Equipment, each with a Not box.
Sales Activity adds item categories, Not Purchased In Last N Months, and minimum and maximum amounts and counts.
In the desktop program, Replace Query emptied the whole list. Here, Run/Replace Query keeps appended searches.
In the desktop program, Clear Query cleared the filters and Clear List <All> emptied the list. Here, Clear List All does both.
Remove Duplicates is gone: Append Query never adds a customer twice.
Export List to a text file is now Excel or CSV, and Form Preferences is now Columns. Exports include every column, whatever is shown.
There is no Edit Contact command. Right-click a customer and select Contact Log to see their history.
New: saved searches, tags and Mailchimp upload.