Windows Email Campaign Manual
Content
Email Campaign™ Walkthrough
This guide is distributed with software that includes an end-user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Summitsoft Corporation. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with the software that includes an end-user agreement. The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Summitsoft Corporation. Summitsoft Corporation assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.
Product Registration
Registering Email Campaign is important. Registration provides you with timely access to the latest product and database updates, technical support, valuable information about new product releases, and special offers on other Summitsoft products. You can register online at www.SummitsoftCorp.com/Register.asp To check to see if your version of the program is current, open the program and select Help on the main menubar. Choose Check for Product Updates. The program will connect to the Summitsoft website. If an update is available, follow the online instructions to update your copy of the program.
©2008 Summitsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Email Campaign, Summitsoft and the Summitsoft logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Summitsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Any reference to company names and/or people in sample templates and screenshots are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual organization or person.
Summitsoft Corporation Omaha, Nebraska USA www.SummitsoftCorp.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRODUCT REGISTRATION ....................................................... 1 THE WALKTHROUGH................................................................ 3 The Campaign Subject .......................................................... 8 MAIL LIST ................................................................................... 8 Pulling Together Your Mail List ............................................ 8 SETTINGS ................................................................................. 10 SENDING THE MESSAGE ....................................................... 12 Sending A Test Message ..................................................... 12 Sending To Your Mail List ................................................... 13 Scheduling The Campaign .................................................. 13 GETTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT .......................................... 14
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THE WALKTHROUGH
Thank you for purchasing Email Campaign. This printed walkthrough provides an Email Campaign example that will help you quickly create and send your first message. If you don't have the Email Campaign icon on your desktop, go to your Start menu, choose the Programs option, and locate Email Campaign in the Summitsoft folder. Now open Email Campaign by double clicking the Email Campaign icon... In order to run the software, you will need to first enter your serial number located on the back of your CD sleeve (if you purchased a boxed version) or in your confirmation email (if you purchased a download version). Once the registration process is complete, Email Campaign will open to the Edit tab of the Message section with a blank message. The Edit tab is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) style of interface where you can easily type and format your message similar to any word editor.
For our purposes, we will use one of the pre-designed templates to quickly design a message to send to our mail list. To view the template options, go to the Message dropdown in the main program toolbar and choose: Message | From Templates…
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You will see template categories for Announcements, Letters, Newsletters, Press Releases, Promotions, Seasonal, Transactions, and Updates.
Most categories contain Center Justified HTML, Left Justified HTML, and Plain Text templates. To open a template, select it in the preview window and the click the OK button to open the template in the Message window. For our example, please choose the Center Justified HTML green “Sale” template from the Promotions category:
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The promotions template will automatically open to the Edit section in order for you to instantly see how it will look and allow you to make changes to the text directly in the Edit tab (the templates give you a good place to start, but you obviously will need to personalize the text to fit your message). If you are a bit more advanced at HTML editing, you can choose to make changes to the template by clicking the HTML tab. The HTML section shows the HTML code behind the message you see in the Edit or Preview sections (the HTML code is what is interpreted by a person's email client, which gives you what you see in the Edit and Preview windows). To make it easier to find the text you need to change, the HTML code has been separated out to keep the editable text separate. This means that any line in this section that begins with a "<" and ends with a “>” is code that generally should not be touched unless you know what you are doing. The lines that don't begin with "<" and end with “>” are what you should focus your attention on:
As you make changes to the editable text, you can see how it looks at any time by going back to the Edit or Preview sections. If you are planning on using the "sale" image that is in this message, you will need to follow these steps:
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1) Locate the image by looking at the current location of it on your PC. This is found in the HTML section, looking at the code between the two lines of text that are above and below it when viewed in Edit or Preview: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
Please Note: All images included with the pre-designed templates are located in the Email Campaign Program Files folder (C: | Program Files | Summitsoft | Email Campaign | Images). If the images are not showing up in the template you opened, you can get them to appear by replacing: ../../../../ With: C:/Program Files/Summitsoft/Email Campaign In our example, the new link would now look list this: <img src=" C:/Program Files/Summitsoft/Email Campaign/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
2) Once you locate the salegradient4.jpg in the Images folder, you will need to upload it to a location on your current website. We recommend you upload the entire Images folder all at once; the size of this folder is small and you can then link to other images in these folders using the same URL logic without much hassle. The most common way to do this is to use FTP software if you are already able to connect to your website source by this method; you would then only need to connect to your site and upload the Images folder to your site location. If you have a tech person managing your website, then you would just need to contact them, give them the Images folder and tell them you want this folder uploaded to your site location. For example, say your website is located at: http://www.yourwebsite.com You can upload the Images folder to the root of this website if you want, which means the Images folder would be located at: http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images...
If you do this, then in order for others to view the images in the pre-designed templates you would now need to change the image link in the HTML code from: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> to:
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<img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> This way, once you send the email message, all people on your mail list will be able to view this image because it is now able to be downloaded directly from your website. If you kept the original image link, only you would be able to view the image in the message because it is directly linked to your computer (which other people won't have access to).
3) You might also notice "Sale" in the image link: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> This is alternate text which you can edit that displays if someone hovers their mouse pointer over that image. For example, you can change this to: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale expires Friday, April 23rd!" />
When your mail recipients hover their mouse over the image now, they will see: Sale expires Friday, April 23rd! 4) One final note about images in your message...if you choose to replace any image in the pre-designed templates with your own, make sure you also change the width and height in the HTML code. For example, if the included image is pointing to a location on your website: <img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
You might want to replace it with a picture of a house, for example, called "pictureofhouse.jpg". <img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/pictureofhouse.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> However, if your house picture is a different size than the sale image (width="600" height="300") you will need to also change the width and height in the HTML code; otherwise it will get stretched or scrunched because it does not fit into the dimensions of the current HTML code. To find out the size of your picture on a PC, just hover your mouse over the image to view the Dimensions, or right mouse click and choose "Properties". In the window that opens, you will see Dimensions under the "Details" tab: width x height If your house picture dimension is 500 x 400, then change the HTML code to reflect this new size:
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<img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/pictureofhouse.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Picture of house" /> Your image should now show up correctly in the message, and by changing the "alt" tag from "Sale" to "Picture of house", your picture can be correctly identified.
The Campaign Subject
Your final step in completing your message is to make sure your Subject line is what you want.
The Subject should be something catchy, enticing or even just straightforward:
• • • •
(your name/company name) June Newsletter (your name/company name) Press Release (your name/company name) Introduces New Product/Service (your name/company name) Sale - Save up to 50%
This is the summary of your message that someone on your mail list will first read when your message enters their Inbox, so it is important to get it right. Once you enter a subject line in the dropdown field, click the plus (+) button next to the dropdown to add the subject to Email Campaign. Any added subject line will be available in future campaign projects you might have, using the dropdown. Email Campaign will not send your message without a subject line. Once you are happy with your changes, check them once more in the Edit or Preview section and then move on to the Mail List section.
MAIL LIST
Pulling Together Your Mail List
When you first view the Mail List section, it will look blank:
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It is now your job to fill it with the people on your mail list, which can be done several ways... 1) Click the “three dots” import button ( (.csv) files located on your computer. ) next to Export to search for text (.txt) or CSV
•
To manually add new contacts to your mail list, just click the Add button; you will need to add at least the new contact’s email address, but any additional information may come in handy later.
Email Campaign will automatically remove any duplicates and addresses with bad syntax from your Mail List. Depending on how large your list or mailbox is, this may take some time so be patient. Smaller lists should fill almost instantly. 2) Select the Extract Emails option from the sidebar. This allows you to extract email addresses from Microsoft® Outlook®, Outlook® Express, Windows Address Book, or any file on your computer. Once you extract your emails, you can then easily add them to your Mail List, clean up the emails, or add the extracted emails to your remove list (a useful feature if you keep a folder in your Outlook for Unsubscribe requests). Once your list is imported, you will need to either click the checkbox in the column header to automatically check all contacts in your mail list, or carefully go through and check the contacts you want your message to be delivered to. Only contacts in your mail list that are
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checked will receive your message. You should also "Save" your list by clicking the Save button. Once your list is saved, it will now be available to you in the pull-down menu next to the “three dots” import button for any future email campaign. When you are finished with your Mail List, it is now time to set up Email Campaign to get ready to send your message. Click the Settings icon in the Email Campaign toolbar.
SETTINGS
Making Email Campaign Ready to Send the Message When the Settings window first opens, you will see this:
By default, the send option “Email campaign using recipient server (MX)” is selected. This is a good method to use if you plan on sending your campaign during the day, your list is over 150 people, and most of the people on your mail list don’t have email addresses that end in common web based email service domains (like yahoo.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com ,etc.). If you need to send your campaign using your own SMTP settings (the recommended delivery method that will be able to send more messages to your mail list with fewer “failure” problems), then the main thing you need to do is set up your SMTP host. Select the SMTP send option and the fields below it will then become active.
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Who do you get your Internet from?
Before we go any further it is important to understand your Internet connection. Most Internet providers don't allow you to just start sending out thousands of emails all at once at any time of the day; most have strict guidelines about how many emails can be sent in a certain amount of time, and what time of the day they can be sent. If your list is only a few hundred (and you think it will stay about this size), you probably don't have to worry too much as long as you adjust your email speed settings for a slower delivery. If your list is larger than a few hundred, or you intend to do regular email campaigns, you should call your Internet provider about setting up a business account or what you need to do in order to comply with their bulk mail policy.
If you are able to use your current email account settings (because your list is not more than a few hundred) then you can find what needs to go in the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" field by going into your current email settings. For example, if you currently use Microsoft Outlook, you can open Outlook and select Account Settings… from the Tools menu. Double click on the email account you are using to open its settings. You will see an “Outgoing mail server (SMTP)” field in this window, which is what you will use in Email Campaign. To add SMTP information, click the plus (+) button to open the Advanced Settings window: The “SMTP” tab allows you to add your SMTP details; you can add as many as you want (in case you manage multiple websites and accounts). The “From” tab allows you to enter additional information that you will select in the Send window of Email Campaign.
For the other fields:
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My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication: you can most likely keep this unchecked, in which case the Account ID and Password fields can remain blank. To find out if you have authentication, open Outlook and select Account Settings… from the Tools menu. Double click on the email account you are using to open its settings and then click the More Settings… button. Choose the “Outgoing Server” tab and see if the checkbox for authentication is checked here. If not, you are fine keeping this unchecked in the program and the User Name and Password blank. Email Speed: Depending on the size of your mail list and the time of day you want to send your campaign, you will need to select one of these options. If you have a large list, it is recommended you send it after 11:00pm and use the “Night Send” option. Delivery Log: If you have a small mail list, there is no problem keeping the Delivery Log option selected. The log will record all details of the delivery process to each person on your mail list, so this can add a considerable amount of time to your campaign delivery time. Logs are also useful in determining any problems you might have during the sending process. If you want your campaign to be sent quicker, then make sure to choose the “No Log” option.
• •
You can read more in the Help file on each of these options.
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When you are finished with the Settings, click the Save button to update your project file. You are now almost ready to send your first campaign.
SENDING THE MESSAGE
Sending a Test Message
Now that you are ready to send, it is good practice to send a test message to yourself before sending to the people on your list. This way, if you see any glaring mistakes, or broken links, etc., you can change them before it is too late. To send a test message, select "Test" from the Email Campaign toolbar.
The "From (Name)" dropdown is who you want the message to come from, like a company name for example. The “Send to:” dropdown is the email address the message will come from. Both of these dropdowns are populated by what you entered in the Advanced Settings window and reflect your own personal or company information. We recommend you add an email that you can check on another computer, or an online account like Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, GMail, etc.; this way, if you have images placed in your message you can make sure they show up when sent. Once these dropdowns are selected and any additional information is added in the other fields, click the Send button. This will send the campaign to your email address.
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Sending to Your Mail List
If all looks good from your test then you are now ready to send your email campaign. Click the Send button in the Email Campaign toolbar to open the send window.
Select the From Options dropdowns (new entries here can be added in the Advanced Settings window). If you plan on sending immediately, then make sure “No Schedule” is selected in the Schedule Delivery section. Finally, choose if you want to send the HTML or Plain Text version of your message. Now click the Send button to begin your campaign. A progress window will open giving you a real-time update of the delivery process. Once the delivery is complete, a new window will open telling you the campaign has been successfully sent; you can now close the progress window and exit Email Campaign if needed.
Scheduling the Campaign
You can also schedule when to begin by selecting "Schedule Campaign" in the Schedule Delivery section. If you are scheduling it, then adjust the date and time you wish the campaign to begin and when you want it to stop sending (this is useful if your ISP only allows you to send between
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the hours of 11:00pm and 4:00am, for example). Then check the Send Campaign checkbox and click the Save button in the toolbar. This will open a window that saves the schedule as a task on your computer. Once you click apply this task, your campaign will now be scheduled and the send process will begin during the time you set.
Once the scheduled delivery begins, a progress window should open giving you a real-time update of the delivery process. Once the delivery is complete, a new window will open telling you the campaign has been successfully sent; you can now close the progress window and exit Email Campaign if needed.
You are now done with your first email campaign!
For more detailed information on the features of Email Campaign, please refer to the Help file located in the Help menu of the program.
GETTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Purchasing your Summitsoft program gives you free access to Summitsoft’s online technical support. Many questions may be answered by checking our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) web page. If you cannot find your answer among the FAQs or the Help file, you can email us for technical assistance with your problem. Online Support: http://www.summitsoftcorp.com/support.asp Email Technical Support: [email protected]
You can also check for updates to the software by selecting Check for Product Updates in the Help menu.
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This guide is distributed with software that includes an end-user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Summitsoft Corporation. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with the software that includes an end-user agreement. The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Summitsoft Corporation. Summitsoft Corporation assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.
Product Registration
Registering Email Campaign is important. Registration provides you with timely access to the latest product and database updates, technical support, valuable information about new product releases, and special offers on other Summitsoft products. You can register online at www.SummitsoftCorp.com/Register.asp To check to see if your version of the program is current, open the program and select Help on the main menubar. Choose Check for Product Updates. The program will connect to the Summitsoft website. If an update is available, follow the online instructions to update your copy of the program.
©2008 Summitsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Email Campaign, Summitsoft and the Summitsoft logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Summitsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Any reference to company names and/or people in sample templates and screenshots are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual organization or person.
Summitsoft Corporation Omaha, Nebraska USA www.SummitsoftCorp.com
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRODUCT REGISTRATION ....................................................... 1 THE WALKTHROUGH................................................................ 3 The Campaign Subject .......................................................... 8 MAIL LIST ................................................................................... 8 Pulling Together Your Mail List ............................................ 8 SETTINGS ................................................................................. 10 SENDING THE MESSAGE ....................................................... 12 Sending A Test Message ..................................................... 12 Sending To Your Mail List ................................................... 13 Scheduling The Campaign .................................................. 13 GETTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT .......................................... 14
2
THE WALKTHROUGH
Thank you for purchasing Email Campaign. This printed walkthrough provides an Email Campaign example that will help you quickly create and send your first message. If you don't have the Email Campaign icon on your desktop, go to your Start menu, choose the Programs option, and locate Email Campaign in the Summitsoft folder. Now open Email Campaign by double clicking the Email Campaign icon... In order to run the software, you will need to first enter your serial number located on the back of your CD sleeve (if you purchased a boxed version) or in your confirmation email (if you purchased a download version). Once the registration process is complete, Email Campaign will open to the Edit tab of the Message section with a blank message. The Edit tab is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) style of interface where you can easily type and format your message similar to any word editor.
For our purposes, we will use one of the pre-designed templates to quickly design a message to send to our mail list. To view the template options, go to the Message dropdown in the main program toolbar and choose: Message | From Templates…
3
You will see template categories for Announcements, Letters, Newsletters, Press Releases, Promotions, Seasonal, Transactions, and Updates.
Most categories contain Center Justified HTML, Left Justified HTML, and Plain Text templates. To open a template, select it in the preview window and the click the OK button to open the template in the Message window. For our example, please choose the Center Justified HTML green “Sale” template from the Promotions category:
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The promotions template will automatically open to the Edit section in order for you to instantly see how it will look and allow you to make changes to the text directly in the Edit tab (the templates give you a good place to start, but you obviously will need to personalize the text to fit your message). If you are a bit more advanced at HTML editing, you can choose to make changes to the template by clicking the HTML tab. The HTML section shows the HTML code behind the message you see in the Edit or Preview sections (the HTML code is what is interpreted by a person's email client, which gives you what you see in the Edit and Preview windows). To make it easier to find the text you need to change, the HTML code has been separated out to keep the editable text separate. This means that any line in this section that begins with a "<" and ends with a “>” is code that generally should not be touched unless you know what you are doing. The lines that don't begin with "<" and end with “>” are what you should focus your attention on:
As you make changes to the editable text, you can see how it looks at any time by going back to the Edit or Preview sections. If you are planning on using the "sale" image that is in this message, you will need to follow these steps:
5
1) Locate the image by looking at the current location of it on your PC. This is found in the HTML section, looking at the code between the two lines of text that are above and below it when viewed in Edit or Preview: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
Please Note: All images included with the pre-designed templates are located in the Email Campaign Program Files folder (C: | Program Files | Summitsoft | Email Campaign | Images). If the images are not showing up in the template you opened, you can get them to appear by replacing: ../../../../ With: C:/Program Files/Summitsoft/Email Campaign In our example, the new link would now look list this: <img src=" C:/Program Files/Summitsoft/Email Campaign/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
2) Once you locate the salegradient4.jpg in the Images folder, you will need to upload it to a location on your current website. We recommend you upload the entire Images folder all at once; the size of this folder is small and you can then link to other images in these folders using the same URL logic without much hassle. The most common way to do this is to use FTP software if you are already able to connect to your website source by this method; you would then only need to connect to your site and upload the Images folder to your site location. If you have a tech person managing your website, then you would just need to contact them, give them the Images folder and tell them you want this folder uploaded to your site location. For example, say your website is located at: http://www.yourwebsite.com You can upload the Images folder to the root of this website if you want, which means the Images folder would be located at: http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images...
If you do this, then in order for others to view the images in the pre-designed templates you would now need to change the image link in the HTML code from: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> to:
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<img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> This way, once you send the email message, all people on your mail list will be able to view this image because it is now able to be downloaded directly from your website. If you kept the original image link, only you would be able to view the image in the message because it is directly linked to your computer (which other people won't have access to).
3) You might also notice "Sale" in the image link: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> This is alternate text which you can edit that displays if someone hovers their mouse pointer over that image. For example, you can change this to: <img src="../../../../Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale expires Friday, April 23rd!" />
When your mail recipients hover their mouse over the image now, they will see: Sale expires Friday, April 23rd! 4) One final note about images in your message...if you choose to replace any image in the pre-designed templates with your own, make sure you also change the width and height in the HTML code. For example, if the included image is pointing to a location on your website: <img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/salegradient4.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" />
You might want to replace it with a picture of a house, for example, called "pictureofhouse.jpg". <img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/pictureofhouse.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Sale" /> However, if your house picture is a different size than the sale image (width="600" height="300") you will need to also change the width and height in the HTML code; otherwise it will get stretched or scrunched because it does not fit into the dimensions of the current HTML code. To find out the size of your picture on a PC, just hover your mouse over the image to view the Dimensions, or right mouse click and choose "Properties". In the window that opens, you will see Dimensions under the "Details" tab: width x height If your house picture dimension is 500 x 400, then change the HTML code to reflect this new size:
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<img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/Images/graphics/promotions/pictureofhouse.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Picture of house" /> Your image should now show up correctly in the message, and by changing the "alt" tag from "Sale" to "Picture of house", your picture can be correctly identified.
The Campaign Subject
Your final step in completing your message is to make sure your Subject line is what you want.
The Subject should be something catchy, enticing or even just straightforward:
• • • •
(your name/company name) June Newsletter (your name/company name) Press Release (your name/company name) Introduces New Product/Service (your name/company name) Sale - Save up to 50%
This is the summary of your message that someone on your mail list will first read when your message enters their Inbox, so it is important to get it right. Once you enter a subject line in the dropdown field, click the plus (+) button next to the dropdown to add the subject to Email Campaign. Any added subject line will be available in future campaign projects you might have, using the dropdown. Email Campaign will not send your message without a subject line. Once you are happy with your changes, check them once more in the Edit or Preview section and then move on to the Mail List section.
MAIL LIST
Pulling Together Your Mail List
When you first view the Mail List section, it will look blank:
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It is now your job to fill it with the people on your mail list, which can be done several ways... 1) Click the “three dots” import button ( (.csv) files located on your computer. ) next to Export to search for text (.txt) or CSV
•
To manually add new contacts to your mail list, just click the Add button; you will need to add at least the new contact’s email address, but any additional information may come in handy later.
Email Campaign will automatically remove any duplicates and addresses with bad syntax from your Mail List. Depending on how large your list or mailbox is, this may take some time so be patient. Smaller lists should fill almost instantly. 2) Select the Extract Emails option from the sidebar. This allows you to extract email addresses from Microsoft® Outlook®, Outlook® Express, Windows Address Book, or any file on your computer. Once you extract your emails, you can then easily add them to your Mail List, clean up the emails, or add the extracted emails to your remove list (a useful feature if you keep a folder in your Outlook for Unsubscribe requests). Once your list is imported, you will need to either click the checkbox in the column header to automatically check all contacts in your mail list, or carefully go through and check the contacts you want your message to be delivered to. Only contacts in your mail list that are
9
checked will receive your message. You should also "Save" your list by clicking the Save button. Once your list is saved, it will now be available to you in the pull-down menu next to the “three dots” import button for any future email campaign. When you are finished with your Mail List, it is now time to set up Email Campaign to get ready to send your message. Click the Settings icon in the Email Campaign toolbar.
SETTINGS
Making Email Campaign Ready to Send the Message When the Settings window first opens, you will see this:
By default, the send option “Email campaign using recipient server (MX)” is selected. This is a good method to use if you plan on sending your campaign during the day, your list is over 150 people, and most of the people on your mail list don’t have email addresses that end in common web based email service domains (like yahoo.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com ,etc.). If you need to send your campaign using your own SMTP settings (the recommended delivery method that will be able to send more messages to your mail list with fewer “failure” problems), then the main thing you need to do is set up your SMTP host. Select the SMTP send option and the fields below it will then become active.
10
Who do you get your Internet from?
Before we go any further it is important to understand your Internet connection. Most Internet providers don't allow you to just start sending out thousands of emails all at once at any time of the day; most have strict guidelines about how many emails can be sent in a certain amount of time, and what time of the day they can be sent. If your list is only a few hundred (and you think it will stay about this size), you probably don't have to worry too much as long as you adjust your email speed settings for a slower delivery. If your list is larger than a few hundred, or you intend to do regular email campaigns, you should call your Internet provider about setting up a business account or what you need to do in order to comply with their bulk mail policy.
If you are able to use your current email account settings (because your list is not more than a few hundred) then you can find what needs to go in the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" field by going into your current email settings. For example, if you currently use Microsoft Outlook, you can open Outlook and select Account Settings… from the Tools menu. Double click on the email account you are using to open its settings. You will see an “Outgoing mail server (SMTP)” field in this window, which is what you will use in Email Campaign. To add SMTP information, click the plus (+) button to open the Advanced Settings window: The “SMTP” tab allows you to add your SMTP details; you can add as many as you want (in case you manage multiple websites and accounts). The “From” tab allows you to enter additional information that you will select in the Send window of Email Campaign.
For the other fields:
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My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication: you can most likely keep this unchecked, in which case the Account ID and Password fields can remain blank. To find out if you have authentication, open Outlook and select Account Settings… from the Tools menu. Double click on the email account you are using to open its settings and then click the More Settings… button. Choose the “Outgoing Server” tab and see if the checkbox for authentication is checked here. If not, you are fine keeping this unchecked in the program and the User Name and Password blank. Email Speed: Depending on the size of your mail list and the time of day you want to send your campaign, you will need to select one of these options. If you have a large list, it is recommended you send it after 11:00pm and use the “Night Send” option. Delivery Log: If you have a small mail list, there is no problem keeping the Delivery Log option selected. The log will record all details of the delivery process to each person on your mail list, so this can add a considerable amount of time to your campaign delivery time. Logs are also useful in determining any problems you might have during the sending process. If you want your campaign to be sent quicker, then make sure to choose the “No Log” option.
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You can read more in the Help file on each of these options.
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When you are finished with the Settings, click the Save button to update your project file. You are now almost ready to send your first campaign.
SENDING THE MESSAGE
Sending a Test Message
Now that you are ready to send, it is good practice to send a test message to yourself before sending to the people on your list. This way, if you see any glaring mistakes, or broken links, etc., you can change them before it is too late. To send a test message, select "Test" from the Email Campaign toolbar.
The "From (Name)" dropdown is who you want the message to come from, like a company name for example. The “Send to:” dropdown is the email address the message will come from. Both of these dropdowns are populated by what you entered in the Advanced Settings window and reflect your own personal or company information. We recommend you add an email that you can check on another computer, or an online account like Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, GMail, etc.; this way, if you have images placed in your message you can make sure they show up when sent. Once these dropdowns are selected and any additional information is added in the other fields, click the Send button. This will send the campaign to your email address.
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Sending to Your Mail List
If all looks good from your test then you are now ready to send your email campaign. Click the Send button in the Email Campaign toolbar to open the send window.
Select the From Options dropdowns (new entries here can be added in the Advanced Settings window). If you plan on sending immediately, then make sure “No Schedule” is selected in the Schedule Delivery section. Finally, choose if you want to send the HTML or Plain Text version of your message. Now click the Send button to begin your campaign. A progress window will open giving you a real-time update of the delivery process. Once the delivery is complete, a new window will open telling you the campaign has been successfully sent; you can now close the progress window and exit Email Campaign if needed.
Scheduling the Campaign
You can also schedule when to begin by selecting "Schedule Campaign" in the Schedule Delivery section. If you are scheduling it, then adjust the date and time you wish the campaign to begin and when you want it to stop sending (this is useful if your ISP only allows you to send between
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the hours of 11:00pm and 4:00am, for example). Then check the Send Campaign checkbox and click the Save button in the toolbar. This will open a window that saves the schedule as a task on your computer. Once you click apply this task, your campaign will now be scheduled and the send process will begin during the time you set.
Once the scheduled delivery begins, a progress window should open giving you a real-time update of the delivery process. Once the delivery is complete, a new window will open telling you the campaign has been successfully sent; you can now close the progress window and exit Email Campaign if needed.
You are now done with your first email campaign!
For more detailed information on the features of Email Campaign, please refer to the Help file located in the Help menu of the program.
GETTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Purchasing your Summitsoft program gives you free access to Summitsoft’s online technical support. Many questions may be answered by checking our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) web page. If you cannot find your answer among the FAQs or the Help file, you can email us for technical assistance with your problem. Online Support: http://www.summitsoftcorp.com/support.asp Email Technical Support: [email protected]
You can also check for updates to the software by selecting Check for Product Updates in the Help menu.
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