How to Create an Automated Email Campaign

Go to Email > Email Automation and click the 'Create New' tab. You will not see the 'Create New' tab until you have created at least one email list in your Address Book and one email template.

1. Name the campaign, choose the type and select recipients

Based on what automated campaign type you select, as you go through the setup process you will be presented with different options. (The full description of campaign types and how each works is detailed in the next section, Automation Campaign Types & Rules.)

• Description: Name your email campaign so that you will easily remember what you are using it for. Only you will see this information.
• Type: Choose from birthday, anniversary, holiday or interval:

Birthday - Sends annually on each contact's birth date. Birthday campaigns automatically repeat each year.

Anniversary - Select whether to use your contact's anniversary date or their start date. Anniversary campaigns automatically repeat each year.

Holiday - Select a holiday from the drop-down list. Then choose whether to send ON the holiday, or up to 7 days prior. Holiday campaigns repeat each year and adjust to annual holiday date changes.

Interval - Select an interval frequency – how many times a year you want the campaign to send. If you select "custom frequency then you can enter any number of days (7 - 999) to wait in between sends.

Select a date for the campaign to start sending by clicking either 'Set Start Date' and choosing any date in the future, or by selecting the option to Use Contact's Start Date".

Interval campaigns 'end' – i.e. stop sending – when each recipient in the campaign has received every design template assigned to the campaign. You have the option to override this and "Repeat when done". (This option is on the last page of the campaign setup process.)

• Email List: Choose the 'email list' of the address book recipients that will receive emails from this campaign.

• Comments: You can enter optional comments to help you search for this campaign in the future. Only you will see this information.

Click "Save / Next" when done.

2. Choose the email templates that will be sent by the campaign

• Select the email template(s) you want to use for this campaign by checking the box for each template. If you select multiple templates you will be given the choice to send them in a specific order in the next step.
• To more easily view your templates, you can select a "category" from the drop down menu. These are the categories you created when you set up your email templates.
• Multi User Plan members can select from their Administrator's email templates that have been shared with them.

When you are finished selecting all of your email templates, click "Save / Next". (If you have only one template in your campaign, then your campaign will be saved and started when you click the button.)

3. Send templates in this order

• By default, if a campaign has two or more template designs, then templates will be selected randomly for each email recipients. The system also records which templates each contact has previously been sent, and randomly selects new ones from the campaign templates, so they won't receive the same email design twice.
• Click "Ordered" if you would like to manually arrange the order that the templates are sent.
• If your campaign is an 'Interval' type, then you'll see the option to "Repeat when done", which will re-start sending this campaign's email templates again, from the beginning, when all templates in the campaign have been sent.

Click "Save" to save your automated email campaign, and to schedule the first emails for sending.

thumb_up Important Notes

• If your campaign uses a contact's birth date, anniversary date or start date, and a contact in your email list does not have those dates assigned, you will see a warning that those people will not receive the campaign email. If you update their contact in your address book with the necessary dates at a later time, then they will be included in the next scheduled email send for the campaign.
• For all campaign types*, once a contact has received all of the email templates in a campaign, the template selection will start again. Ordered campaigns will start over with the template in the #1 position; random campaigns will randomly select from all template designs.
  
  *The exception is Interval campaigns that have NOT been set to "Repeat when done" - Interval campaigns, by default, stop sending to an individual once they have received all the campaign templates.
• You can add or remove template designs to an active campaign at any time.

How to Track Automated Emails

Automated emails will display intermixed with your other sent emails. They are identified by this icon

To view aggregate statistics for a specific email campaign

• Go to Email > Automated Email Campaigns
• Campaigns that started will have:
• Total emails sent in the email campaign
• Total number of views
• Open rate percentage

To view statistics for specific emails within an automated campaign

While on the screen described above:

• Click the envelope icons or
• Click the 'View Related Email' button

To download aggregate statistics for a specific automated email campaign:

While on the View Related Email search results screen described above:

• Click the 'Download Report' button to download a .csv comma delimited file which can be opened in other software programs for further analysis (i.e. MS Excel)
• The .csv file contains the details of each email sent as part of the automated email campaign including the send date, subject line, total number of views, unsubscribes and open rate.

To view all emails sent by all automated email campaigns

• Go to Email > Sent Emails
• Click the "Search and Reports" tab
• Select "Automated Emails" in the Show drop-down menu

How to View/Manage Automated Email Campaigns

Automated email campaigns can be edited or viewed at any time, whether or not they have started sending. There are limits to what you can edit, as follows.

To view or edit a campaign, Go to Email > Email Automation and search or sort to find the active email campaign you are looking for. Campaigns that were marked 'Inactive' are archived, and can be viewed but not edited. When you have found the campaign you want, click the Edit or View icon.

How to Edit an Active Automated Email Campaign

You can change the following information while a campaign is active:

• Description/Campaign Name - Make sure all your campaigns are well described and have different names, to avoid confusion. Only you can see this data.
• Email List - If you change the email list on an active campaign, everyone on the new list will receive templates as if they are 'new' to the campaign, even if they were on the old list and received some or all of the email templates.
• Status - Active or Inactive: If you want to switch off a campaign that has already started sending email, change the Status to "Inactive". This will stop all future emails immediately, and will move the campaign to an archive where it can be viewed but not edited.
• Comments - Enter or edit text that will help you manage the campaign. Only you can see this data.
• Delete a campaign - If your campaign is 'Active' but has not started sending emails then you will see a button to "Permanently Delete" the campaign. Deleted campaigns cannot be restored.

Click "Save / Next" to continue

Note: If your campaign uses a contact's birthday, anniversary or start date, and you have selected an email list with people that are missing the required date information, you'll see a warning message. The campaign can remain active, but individuals without the necessary dates will not receive your campaign email until you update their address book record with the missing dates.

Click Save / Next to continue

• Template Selection – Select / Edit which templates you would like to use in this email campaign. You can filter what templates are displayed by selecting a category, if you set one up when you created your templates.

Click Save / Next to continue

• Send Order – You can change a campaign from random to ordered, and vice versa. Ordered campaigns can be edited at any time to change the order in which they are sent.
  
  Note: Changing the order may cause people to receive the same email design twice. For example, if you move the #1 template to position #2, people who have received template #1 but not #2 will receive the same design (formerly #1) when the system sends out the second email.

Click Save to complete your edit and activate the campaign with the new changes.

How to View Automated Email Campaign Details

Click the view icon next to an automated email campaign to see a summary of your campaign settings. You can also view future scheduled activity. Different data is displayed depending on the type of campaign:

• Created Date – When the campaign was created.
• Status – Active or Inactive (archived)
• Type – Birthday, Anniversary, Holiday or Interval, plus any relevant details
• 'Send On' – displays the conditions/rules you have set for when the campaign should send
• For campaigns that use a birthday, anniversary or start date, you will see a preview link to "View scheduled - next 30 days".
• 1st Send Date – the first time an email was sent in the campaign
• Last Send – the date this campaign last sent an email
• Next Send – Calculates the next date this campaign will send:
• Birthday and Anniversary campaigns – Looks at the relevant dates for contacts in your address book to calculate the next send date.
• Holiday campaigns – lists the holiday date and adjusts for how many days you may have selected to send before the holiday.
• Interval campaigns – 'Start date' triggered campaigns check the relevant dates for contacts in your address book to calculate the next send date; 'Times-per-year' or 'every x number of days' interval campaigns will calculate the next send date by adding your chosen interval to the last send date.
• Send Order – Random or Ordered. Note: The 'Templates Selected' preview images that display on this page appear in the order you have selected for 'Ordered' campaigns.
• Repeat – For Interval campaigns – says 'Yes' or 'No' whether to repeat sending after recipients have received all the email templates in the campaign
• Email List – the selected list of contacts that this campaign sends to
• If the campaign requires contacts' birthday, anniversary or start dates, and if contacts in your email list are missing this information, then you will see a warning.
• Comments – The notes you have entered about the campaign
• History – A list of important dates and events about this campaign, like when the campaign started or when it was edited

thumb_up Important Notes

• You can add and remove recipients from an automated email campaign by editing the 'Email List' assigned to the campaign
• If you delete a contact, they will be removed from all email lists and therefor will not receive your automated emails
• If you add a contact to your Address Book and want them to be included in an automated email campaign, then you must add them to the appropriate Email List(s)

You can view the full technical details about how the different automated email campaign types work, and what happens when you make changes to active campaigns, in the next tutorial sections.