Create and send email blasts

From NewHaven Software Wiki

Contents 1 Overview 2 Creating your email blast 2.1 Select or create the email campaign for this blast 2.1.1 Create a new campaign for this email blast 2.1.2 Select an existing campaign 2.2 Create the new email blast 2.2.1 Enter the initial setup information 2.2.2 Enter the text and HTML for the email itself 2.2.3 Previewing and testing the email 3 Sending the email blast 3.1 Selecting recipients 3.2 Scheduling the email blast 4 Scheduling an email blast

Overview

This article outlines the process to create, send, and schedule email blasts through your CV3-hosted website.

Creating your email blast

Select or create the email campaign for this blast

Email blasts are organized under campaigns. These can be seasonal (Spring 2013), calendar-based (March, April), or themed (Easter deals).

1. In your admin, click Marketing->Email Campaigns in the left nav.
   • NOTE: If under Marketing you see "Email List Management" instead, click it and then look back at the left nav (it should now read Email Campaigns). If it still shows Email List Management, please contact technical support.

Create a new campaign for this email blast

1. Click New Campaign in the top nav.
2. Enter a campaign name and click Submit.
3. Proceed with the steps below.

Select an existing campaign

1. Click on the campaign name.

Create the new email blast

In the To: or Subject: fields, you can use special merge fields to personalize the emails sent via this blast. Use any of the following in either field (note that first, last, and full names may be empty if you have imported an email list without them):

• {{first_name]] - the person's first name as recorded in your admin.
• {{last_name]] - the person's last name as recorded in your admin.
• {{name]] - the person's full name (first and last, separated by a single space) as recorded in your admin.
• {{email}} - the person's email address.

Enter the initial setup information

1. Click New Email Blast.
2. Enter a blast name (this is for your information only and will not be seen by the recipients).
3. Enter an email subject.
4. Enter the From name (this is a human-friendly name associated with the sending email address, such as "MyCompany Special Offers".
5. Enter the From email address (this is the email address the blast appears to be sent from, so any replies will go here - it should be a real mailbox even if it's not regularly monitored).
6. Enter the To: name (this is a human-friendly name associated with the recipient's email address; you can use the person's name if you have it by entering the merge field shown above).
7. Enter your company's mailing address information (this is used in the opt-out message embedded in the email footer).
8. Click Save and Continue.

Enter the text and HTML for the email itself

1. In the large box on the next page, you will fill in the actual email going out to your customers. This can either be plain text, or a full HTML page (an email blast should really be HTML).
   • You can use the same merge fields from the previous page in here as well, for instance to begin your email with a personalized greeting ("Happy Spring, {{first_name}}!").
2. When finished, click Save and Continue.

Previewing and testing the email

The next page shows the basic layout of the email as it will be sent to customers. If any section doesn't look right to you, click the Edit <section> button on the right-hand side of the page. If everything checks out, you're ready to send a test.

1. Click the Send Test button at the bottom of the preview page.
2. On the next page, enter first/last names and email addresses for anyone you want to send a test email to (either in or out of your organization).
   • If this is your first email blast and you will be using the same test accounts over and over, you can check the Make these addresses my default tests checkbox before continuing.
3. Click Send Test.
4. Look over the test email you receive. If you want to make any changes, click the Edit Again link. Otherwise, click the Send Blast link to select the recipient list and schedule the email blast.
   • If you click Return to List instead, you will be returned to the main Email Campaigns page. From there you will need to click into the campaign, then the new blast, and re-send the test before proceeding.

Sending the email blast

To send the email blast, you will need to choose a list of customers to send to, and then select when the email will be sent.

Selecting recipients

This page should come up immediately after clicking Send Blast.

1. Customer Type is a list of your customer groups. Select one or more of those as your recipient list.
2. If you wish to exclude people in another group (for instance, send to All Customers but exclude Partners), select the group(s) to exclude from the Exclude Customer Type
3. The next two exclusion boxes will be empty if this is your first email blast.
4. When complete, click Next.

Scheduling the email blast

1. Select the send date, and the send time (times are in the Eastern U.S. time zone).
2. Click Send Blast (or, if you see something about the recipient list that looks incorrect, click on Recreate List instead and repeat the recipient selection process on the previous page).

1. On the next screen, enter the email body (note that you can use the same substitution values as in the header). This can be either plain text or a full HTML page.
2. Click Save and Continue.
3. Verify that all information in the header, body, and footer is correct before saving the blast.

Once the blast is set up, you can schedule it.

Scheduling an email blast

1. If you want to send the blast only to email addresses added to eCMS during a specific date range, enter this rante into the From and To boxes.
2. Select at least one customer type to send the blast to - these correspond to your store's customer groups.
   • You may also exclude the members of one or more customer groups in the next box if you wish.
   • The sum total of all customer groups included (minus exclusions) is then deduped; if a customer is a member of more than one selected group, they will only be sent one email.
3. You may exclude email addresses who have responded (see definition below) to one or more of the selected email blasts, or email addresses who have never responded to any email.
4. Click Next.
5. Select the date and time you want the blast sent, and click Send Blast.