Writing e-mail campaigns
An e-mail contains a subject and a message. Both areas can be personalized by adding placeholders such as mail merge fields or field variables.
You can format your message. If you have already created a template for the e-mail campaign on your computer, you can upload the template as an HTML file and further edit it in the e-mail campaign data record.
Using placeholders
Placeholders are mail merge fields and field variables
Inserting placeholders
Click the button next to the text editor in the e-mail campaign.
A new area containing the tabs for mail merge fields and field variables appears.
- Place your mouse cursor at the desired position for a placeholder in the Subject field or the Text editor.
- Select the placeholder.
Click the button to insert the placeholder.
You can find this button twice in the data record window so that you can insert the placeholder in the correct field. With the first button, you insert the placeholder in the subject field. With the second button, you insert the placeholder in the text of the message.
Insert link with placeholder opens a window with a sample text, the sample text will include a link below the text and a mail merge field.
You can overwrite the content in the window for your own purposes.
When using mail merge fields, you can create an individual and attractive link for each recipient.
Using previews
With the preview, you can check whether the placeholders are placed correctly and are replaced with the correct data.
The preview is only available if at least one recipient has been added to the e-mail campaign.
Click Preview.
The Preview window opens. The placeholders in the subject field and the message text are replaced by data of a recipient.
- Use the arrow buttons to scroll through the different e-mails.
If you want to test whether the e-mails reach the recipients, use the Send test e-mail function.
Formatting messages
Use HTML to format the message.
Notes on HTML e-mails
You write and edit the text of the e-mail campaign in the text editor that can be found in the lower area of the General tab.
The editor contains functions for formatting the e-mail. To select a function, click on the corresponding icon. You can:
- select font type, size, and color,
- format paragraphs,
- insert hyperlinks, and
- insert GIF or JPG images.
The default font type is the font type that has been defined in the display settings.
Existing texts can be imported as HTML files or copied into the editor from the clipboard. You should keep certain considerations in mind.
Using HTML files
You can load HTML files into this editor. You should be aware of the following conditions:
- The imported file must only contain HTML -- no scripts, flash, and so on.
- You must save any page formatting because external stylesheets are not supported.
- All comments in e-mails are deleted for security reasons, so stylesheet tags must not be put into brackets with comments.
Importing HTML files
Click Load HTML file.
The Windows file selection box opens.
- Select an HTML file and click Open.
If you have already entered content and then load an HTML file, the entire content of the field is overwritten with the content of the HTML file.
Formatting is adopted if it was made directly in the text. CSS statements in the <head> area of an HTML file cannot be adopted.
Examples for formatting that is adopted:
<p style="font-size: 12px; padding: 5px;">Your text.</p>
<p>Text with <b>bold type</b>.</p>
Images are also adopted if they are available on a web server and the link (hyperlink) in the source code of the HTML file refers to the internet address.
Images that are stored on your local hard drive can also be adopted this way. However, there are certain preparations necessary. The images must be stored in an \images subfolder and the path to the HTML file must be absolute. Example:
<img src="C:\HTML\images\image.jpg">
If you use a relative path, the image may not be adopted, for example, \images\image.jpg.
Copying text from the clipboard
When copying and pasting from the clipboard, you may have to reformat the HTML because other applications use different formats.
- Formats from external stylesheets are not adopted.
- If you import text from an MS Office product such as MS Word, the MS Word formatting is converted to HTML. This can often lead to unwanted results.
- You can insert via the context menu in two ways: Insert or Insert as Text. The result of the insertions depends on a number of factors, for example, the complexity of the formatting, or the type of HTML code used.
- In some cases, the best choice might be to Insert as Text and format the text in CAS genesisWorld.
Integrating pictures
You can integrate pictures into your HTML e-mails. You have different options:
Embedding pictures
If you embed a picture directly, the picture is sent to the recipients in the e-mail.
Referring to pictures
If you have saved pictures on your website, you can refer to those pictures in your HTML e-mail. The pictures must not be deleted from the website if you want them to be displayed correctly to your recipients.
Adding attachments
You can add attachments to e-mail campaigns. An attachment can be, for example, an information flyer in PDF format.
Attachments opens the Select attachments window with the following options:
Add attachment You use this option to select an archive document and add it to an existing document data record.
Add a new attachment You use this to add a new document data record. The Create document from window will open.
- In the Create document from window, you can select either a Template for a document or select a File from your computer.