Creating and sending an email involves four steps:
- Adding basic information, like the sender and subject
- Building or selecting a distribution list
- Creating the content
- Sending the email
Navigate to the Control Panel > Communications Tab > Website Modules > Blast Emailing.
Click Add Emailing.
Basic Information
Click Edit Basics.
- Category - Select a category. If the selected category is configured to be displayed on the “View Emails” screen, you will see a new check box field to define whether this email should be shown. See Emailings on Your Menu
- From Names - Specify the From email address and name, if they're different from yours or the club default.
- Send Time - Choose whether the email will be sent immediately or at a future date and time. When sending an email at a future time, the time the email will be sent at the selected time in your club's local time zone (specified in Control Panel > Club Tab > Setup > Name and Description).
- Subject and Content - Specify the Subject and whether the email should be formatted with full HTML or sent using plain text. You can also mark the email as Urgent.
- Tracking - Check the Track Opens option to track who opens your email, and optionally, to resend the email to people who haven't opened it.
- Personalization - Check the Personalization option if you want to personalize each email with replaceable tags.
Distribution List
Click Edit Distribution List.
- Choose Use Saved Distribution List to choose a list you've saved previously. See Email Distribution Lists
- Choose Create a New List to build a new list from the options in the dropdown menu. See Email Distribution Lists
- Click the arrow beside the title to expand the panel and show an initial count of recipients for each component of the distribution list.
- You will also see a count of users where the email address is flagged as invalid or not functional or where the member has enabled their option to refuse general emails from the club.
Content
If you selected Plain Text, you'll only be able to enter text in the email editor. If you selected HTML, you'll see the email canvas.
- If you want to create a new email, see Using the Email Canvas
- If you want to use a template, see Email Templates
- Styles you set in individual emails will override styles you created in Email Default Styles.
To Copy or Delete an element, click the appropriate standard icons.
Sending or Saving the Email
- Click Save and Continue to save your work, but stay in the editing environment to continue making changes.
- Click Save and Close to save your work and return to the Emailings Administration screen.
- Click Save as Template to save the current layout and content as a template for future use.
- Click Send Test(s) to send the email to yourself and, optionally, others, to see what it looks like.
Personalization tags will not work when sending the email to yourself as a test. If you want to test personalization tags, try sending the email to yourself by selecting "One member from the database" and adding yourself as the recipient of the email.
- Click the Ready for Delivery button when everything is ready to be sent; it will not be available until then. Emailings are actually sent by an automated process that runs every 10 minutes or so, and a large email may take a number of minutes to send. You can view the results of your emailing by clicking the Results option on the Emailings Administration page.
- If you scheduled your email to send and click Ready for Delivery, it saves your settings; clicking Ready for Delivery does not immediately deliver the email.