Creating Email messages

Prepare your email message

To create an email message, select Message> Email > New. You can create an HTML message from scratch, load one from a template, or upload your own message template. You can then review and edit the message using the built-in HTML editor. 

Upload your own HTML message

Click the New icon which will bring up our built-in HTML editor. Here, you can directly load a message created from outside the console (e.g. using an external HTML editor such as Adobe® Dreamweaver®). Then, if needed, you can edit it in the message editing window.

Best Practices for creating a successful email message

Once you are ready to send the message:

1. Always send the message to a Test group first. Unless you do so, it's impossible for you to verify that tracked links and the unsubscribe to link work.( A default group is set up in the groups list marked TEST.)
   
   
2. Insert an automatic unsubscribe link into any e-mail message by using the "Uns" button in the HTML editor (New From File). The system will add a [http://[unsubscribe]/|http://unsubscribe/] link to the which will be dynamically activated during the delivery of the message.
   
   
   
3. Automated Tracking: You can also track all links that exist in your message by clicking the Advanced button on the HTML Editor page. Technically speaking, the string "[track]" is added to the URL. So http://www.myWebSite.com would become http://\[track\]www.myWebSite.com – As mentioned above, these links will not work in the message preview window, because of the "[track]" string. They will work only as a received message. So always add your own email to a test group and send the message to that test group to verify that all links in the message work properly before you send the message to an active recipient group.
   
   
   
   
4. Manual Tracking: If you are using the built-in HTML editor, you can manually add a link using the Insert Link feature in the HTML editor toolbar, and turning off the "Automated Link Tracking". To track the link, click on "Track This Link" in the pop-up window where the link is setup.
   
   
5. Double check the content of your message in order to avoid it being classified as spam (e.g.: you certainly don't want to add words typically used in SPAM messages in the Subject field). There is a lot of information on the Internet on how to avoid writing messages that end up being considered SPAM.
   
   
6. By default your messages will include a header and a footer. You can find the contents of the default Header and Footer by clicking on the Header and Footer buttons on the Html setup page. We recommend that:
   
   1. You leave the header as is. It's a simple link to a Web page that displays the same email content in a browser in case the recipient cannot properly view it in his/her email.
   2. You add your address and contact information to the footer, and leave the rest as is. Many countries' consumer privacy regulations require that you include your contact information in your email messages.
      
      
7. You can add Dynamic Fields (e.g. a customer's name) to the message by clicking the Dyn. Fields button. When the option is turned on, the system will automatically replace the tags you add to your message with the corresponding values. A list of tags is displayed at the bottom. For example, Dear [first name] [last name] could be used.
   
   
8. Use Email Check-up. This is the icon presented at the toolbar in Saved Email Messages. E-Mail Check-up takes you through a checklist of items to ensure your email message is received properly.
   
   
9. Do a quick test by using the Quick Send feature. It allows you to quickly add up to 10 different email address to which you can instantly send the message that you just worked on in order to see how it looks, test that the links take the recipient where they should, etc.