This component of the eMarketing module provides the ability to create campaigns for new and existing single and multiple contacts or to re-send a campaign.
NB: Details of campaigns to contacts are automatically recorded in the contact history in ARM.
NB: If multiple brands are created in ARM Pro, when creating a campaign, the ‘From’ address field reflects the address of the current brand login.
Create campaign
eMarketing provides the ability to communicate with large numbers of contacts. Please note that if a campaign is created for 1000’s of contacts, they will be sent at the rate of approximately 5 emails per second (or 300 per minute). This means that a very large campaign of 10,000 will take more than 30 minutes to send.
To schedule campaign:
- Enter a ‘Campaign name’
- Select the ‘Reply to email address’ from the drop-down menu
- Select the staff to receive the unsubscribe emails from the drop-down menu
- Select either the ‘Personal’ or ‘Corporate’ email signature or none for the campaign
- Set how the ’Sent from email address’ is to be displayed
- Set how the ’Reply to email address’ is to be displayed to the recipient
- Select the check box for the SPAM and privacy obligations
- Enter email name for the initial communication
- Choose the communication category
- Select template
- Preview template as required
- Choose to connect automated communications
- Select when – ‘Immediately’ or ‘At a future date’
- Selecting ‘Later’ will create a new drop-down area
- Select date and time
To add recipients, refer section ‘Remove Add contacts to contact lists’, as the functions are the same in both instances.
- Select ‘Next’
- Select ‘Finish’
Connect automated communication
This component of the eMarketing module provides the ability to schedule a series of campaigns based on specific triggers.
- Choose to connect automated communications
- Select ‘Yes’
- Select from the new communication menu
- Choose the communication category
- Enter a name
- Select template
- Preview template as required
- Select a send trigger
- Select an action
- Enter a send delay after action (number of days)
NB: If send delay is set to zero days, the communication will be sent when the specified time next occurs (which may be the next day).
- Enter a time zone
- Enter send time
- Review send set-up
You can choose to use a different send set–up from the initial communication
Selecting ‘Yes ‘will introduce a new drop-down menu prefilled from the initial communication.
- Enter any changes
- Close the new communication by selecting back in the menu
NB: Additional automated communications can be created by selecting the ‘Add communication’ icon.
Create campaign to existing single contact
eMarketing also offers a quick way to send an individual campaign out to a single recipient.
- Select ‘Communication category’ from the drop-down menu
- Select relevant ‘email template’ from the drop-down menu
- Select ‘Quick send email’
- Search contacts
- Select send to self or send to contact
- Select ‘Send’
NB: This email will not be tracked and therefore a report will not be available.
Administer existing campaigns
- Identify the relevant campaign and select the relevant button
- For scheduled (unsent) campaigns, select ‘Contacts’. Edit or exclude a contact/s from campaign.
- Delete to delete scheduled campaign
- For sent campaigns, select ‘Details’. View history of campaign e.g. date sent, accessed, contact list.
- Archive to archive campaign
- Complete action as required
NB: Unarchiving an old campaign will not unarchive the related email template as well.
Identify recipient responses
If links have been included in campaign text recipient responses can be tracked (e.g. who clicked links).
NB: Plain text email links are not tracked.
To monitor campaign activity:
- Identify the relevant campaign
- Review the details from the Sent, opened, opt out unsub and bounced lists on screen
Identify bounced emails
To identify bounced email from a campaign:
- Identify the relevant campaign
- To create a new contact list of clients whose emails have bounced, select ‘Create contact list’. Enter a name for the contact list, add any notes and select ‘Save’
Review + reduce bounced emails
To reduce bounced emails, it is recommended that a process is developed to ensure that the content to be distributed is less likely to be captured by a client’s spam filter. Prior to sending a campaign, check for potential spam classification. There are many websites to run these checks – one is website: http://www.isnotspam.com/.
If our mail server cannot reach the destination server, the system will try to resend the email based on following rules
- first retry: 10 mins
- second retry: 30 mins
- third retry: 60 mins
- subsequent retry: 240 minutes
- fail message life time: 30 hours
NB: If email bounces because recipient email is not valid or no longer exists, then the system will not resend the email.
After the campaign has been distributed then check the reports for the reason for the bounce back.
You can also maintain your database using ‘Reason’ column.
There are eight bounce-back reasons and depending on the reasons, you may need to update/remove email addresses to reduce bounce-back emails in the future.
Reasons for failure to send are as below.
- Domain name error
- Failed to send
- Mailbox disabled
- Mailbox full
- Mailbox misconfiguration
- Mailbox not found
- Marked as SPAM
- Unknown
Checking content prior to distribution will reduce the ‘marked as spam’ numbers.
Unsubscribe, opt-out + manage email preferences functions
To ensure compliance with the Spam Act, all campaigns contain the ability to unsubscribe. When the unsubscribe link is selected, the contact will be removed from all future campaign communications.
To provide additional flexibility, eMarketing also includes an ‘opt-out’ option which enables recipients to only opt-out from receiving particular types of communications. The opt-out function is based on the eMarketing template categories. The applicable category name will appear in the opt-out link at the bottom of campaigns, so it is recommended that categories are named appropriately.
The following text is included to manage personal email preferences.
In accordance with the Spam Act 2003, we offer you the opportunity to ‘MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES’ for < Organisation> : <unique unsubscribe link>
OR ‘UNSUBSCRIBE’ from any further <Organisation> communication by clicking the following link: <unique unsubscribe link>
Your email preferences for <email address> that relate to <organisation> have been successfully saved.
