Email marketing
The managing of email marketing directly in DynamicWeb 10
This article will cover the most important things you need to know in order to work with email marketing in DynamicWeb 10, such as:
- Campaigns and their use and how to create them
- Emails and how to create and send them
- How to use email flows
- Using and creating email templates
This article should provide you with a decent introduction to email marketing.
Campaigns
All emails are created and organized in Campaign folders. Campaign folders are mainly an organizational tool – you can create as many folders as necessary, or you can use a single folder with sub-folders. The emails created in a campaign folder will inherit the settings of the specific folder ensuring an efficient and streamlined email campaign.
Campaign folders are organized under the Campaigns folder, and when a folder is selected its overview screen appears:
The screen gives an overview of:
- General campaign information (1)
- Clicks widget; list of all clicks-happenings from the emails (2)
- Email widget; list of all emails in the folder (3)
- The predefined set of email states; drafts, scheduled, or sent (4, 5, 6)
Creating a campaign folder
To create a campaign folder:
Use the context menu for Campaigns or an already made Campaign folder, and select Create folder
Provide the settings for the Campaign folder fields in the tabs:
The General-tab is used to define the most common folder properties:
Setting Use Comments Folder name Set the folder name From: name Set the sender name From: email Set the sender email Description Set an email description Subject Set the email subject Domain Set the domain used for links in the email Render content for each recipient Check/uncheck whether email content should be rendered for each recipient or only once If the email contains user-specific content, it must be rendered for each recipient. Please note that this naturally significantly impacts performance Unsubscribe text Text for the unsubscribe link Redirect after unsubscribe Select a page from the file-selector Recipients will be directed here upon unsubscribing The general-tab is also where the Conversion engagement index settings can be changed. Engagement is measured by assigning an Engagement Index value to various actions, and collecting visitor statistics based on that:
Engagement index Use Open the email Set the value for opening the email Click a link Set the value for clicking a link Adding products to cart Set the value for adding products to cart Signing on to email Set the value for signing on to email Unsubscribes the email Set the value for unsubscribing the emails Click Save and Close
Emails
In DynamicWeb 10, email content is created as pages in the content-area, and these pages are then sent out as emails to a list of recipients using the email marketing tool you’re reading about here.
When you click on an email created in a campaign folder, you will see an email overview screen:
This screen gives an overview of:
- General email information such as state, creation date, sender email, and with access to preview or edit the email content page (1)
- Action menu for scheduling or sending the email (2)
- Clicks widget; list of all clicks-happenings from the email (3)
- Recipient widget; list of all recipients and recipient groups of the email (4, 5)
Create emails
When you have an email content page, you will want to create an email for it in the email area. To do so:
From the context menu of a Campaign folder, click Create email
Provide the settings for the email fields in the tabs. Some properties may already be filled as emails inherit the settings from their Campaign folder - if properties are changed, only this email will be affected:
The General-tab is used to define the most common email properties:
Setting Use Comments Recipients Select recipients Recipient groups Select recipient groups Recipient groups can be from both the Dynamic Segments or User Groups From: name Set the sender name From: email Set the sender email Subject Set the email subject Pre-header Set the email pre-header Page Select an email from the file-selector This is the email content page created in the Content area Domain Set the domain used for links in the email
Send emails
When you have created your email and want to send it, go to the campaign folder and click on the email. From the email overview screen, click the action menu where you have two choices:
- Send email now
- Schedule email - here you select a date and a time for sending out the email
Automation
The Automation tool is an organizational tool, that shows two folders with Active and Inactive emails:
- The Active folder holds all emails with the state Scheduled
- The Inactive folder holds all emails with the state Sent or Draft
Flows
An email flow is a series of emails automatically sent to a group of users in a fixed order and with a fixed delay between each email.
As such, an email flow is an essential part of an email automation setup – especially if the group of recipients is based on dynamic criteria via queries.
To create an email flow:
Click Create flow
Provide the settings:
Setting Use Name Set the flow name Active Check/uncheck whether it should be active Start Select a date Recipients Select recipients Recipient groups Select recipient groups Processing Use the radio button to select an option. Select what to do with recipients no longer included in the selection of recipients Repeat every Select a time interval Don't add new recipients Check/uncheck if new recipients should be added or not Click Save and close
When you have created your flow, you can add steps to it. Each step corresponds to an email being sent to recipients who have reached this step the next time the flow is processed.
To add a step - an email - to the flow:
Click on your email flow to go to the edit screen
Click New step
Provide the settings:
Setting Use Email Select an email from the file selector Delay unit Select a time unit Delay Select a number for the delay unit Click Save and close
Email templates
When creating a new email, it is possible to choose an email template from the folder. This can be utilized for many reasons; it makes the process of creating an email faster, can ensure a consistent look and tone of the emails, or used to create identical emails for different domains.