EmailForge4 Userguide
30/09/2014
EmailForge 4 User Guide March 2015
Summary Welcome .............................................................................................................................. 7 Thank you for choosing Splio – EmailForge 4 ...................................................................... 7 Getting started ..................................................................................................................... 7 Connecting to EmailForge 4 .................................................................................................. 7 Login zone............................................................................................................................................. 7
Getting around ......................................................................................................................... 8 Top bar .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Quick access buttons ......................................................................................................................... 9 Left menu .............................................................................................................................................. 9 Front page dashboard ..................................................................................................................... 10 Recent campaigns ........................................................................................................................... 10 Billing information .............................................................................................................................. 11
Campaign Manager.............................................................................................................. 11 Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Settings ................................................................................................................................ 13 Configuring your account .................................................................................................... 13 Configuring SPF and DKIM ............................................................................................................... 13 Two steps authentication................................................................................................................. 14 Global options ................................................................................................................................... 14 Personal options ................................................................................................................................ 15
Managing user permissions................................................................................................... 15 Permission levels ................................................................................................................................. 15
Social Settings .......................................................................................................................... 16 Facebook............................................................................................................................................ 16 Twitter................................................................................................................................................... 17
Alert centre .............................................................................................................................. 17 Alert categories and events............................................................................................................ 18 Create a new alert ........................................................................................................................... 18
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EmailForge 4 User Guide March 2015
Edit an existing alert .......................................................................................................................... 18 Delete an existing alert .................................................................................................................... 19
Campaign moderation ......................................................................................................... 19 Couponing ............................................................................................................................... 20 Databases........................................................................................................................... 22 Managing your database .................................................................................................... 22 Importing new contacts ........................................................................................................ 22 Preparing your file ............................................................................................................................. 22 Importing an export from another platform ................................................................................ 23 Database vs. temporary file ............................................................................................................ 24 Supported mobile numbers format ............................................................................................... 24 Mapping your fields .......................................................................................................................... 25 Subscribing imported users to lists .................................................................................................. 26 Upload history .................................................................................................................................... 26 Fields and fulfilment rate .................................................................................................................. 27
Messages ............................................................................................................................ 28 Message types & libraries ...................................................................................................... 28 Email library......................................................................................................................................... 28 SMS library ........................................................................................................................................... 29
SMS message creation .......................................................................................................... 29 HTML message creation ........................................................................................................ 30 Header & statistics parameters ...................................................................................................... 30 HTML Message options ..................................................................................................................... 30 Inbox preview..................................................................................................................................... 32 Text version ......................................................................................................................................... 32
HTML Templates....................................................................................................................... 33 Preparing the file ............................................................................................................................... 33 Creating a template......................................................................................................................... 33 Using a template ............................................................................................................................... 33
Using variables in your messages ........................................................................................ 36 Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only)........................................................................ 36
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Date variables (email and SMS) ..................................................................................................... 37 Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns only) ............................................... 38 Social Sharing Buttons (email only) ................................................................................................ 38 Last click category ............................................................................................................................ 39 Sending ID ........................................................................................................................................... 40 URL variable prefix ............................................................................................................................. 40
Conditional blocks in HTML emails ...................................................................................... 40 What are conditional blocks?......................................................................................................... 40 CB for personalisation ....................................................................................................................... 41 CB for content.................................................................................................................................... 41 Control structures .............................................................................................................................. 42 Operators ............................................................................................................................................ 43 Tips ........................................................................................................................................................ 44 More examples .................................................................................................................................. 44
Testing conditional blocks and personalisation preview................................................ 45 Preview and Simulate tool ............................................................................................................... 45
Campaigns ......................................................................................................................... 48 Campaign Types ............................................................................................................................... 48 The process ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Creating a new campaign .................................................................................................. 48 Email campaign ................................................................................................................................ 48 SMS Campaign .................................................................................................................................. 52 Social Campaign .............................................................................................................................. 55 Facebook Meta tags ........................................................................................................................ 57
A/B testing ................................................................................................................................ 57 Testing your campaign’s performance ........................................................................................ 57 A/B test setup ..................................................................................................................................... 57 A/B test edition .................................................................................................................................. 58 Selecting several messages ............................................................................................................ 59
Control group .......................................................................................................................... 59 Testing your population’s behaviour ............................................................................................. 59
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Creating automatic campaigns ......................................................................................... 60 Automatic email campaign ........................................................................................................... 61
Triggered campaigns............................................................................................................. 62 Automatic SMS campaign .............................................................................................................. 63 Monitoring automatic campaigns................................................................................................. 64
Follow-up campaigns ............................................................................................................ 64 Setting up a reminder (follow-up) .................................................................................................. 64 Setting up a cross-channel follow-up ............................................................................................ 65
Segmentation ..................................................................................................................... 66 What is a segment (aka group)? ........................................................................................ 66 Interface.............................................................................................................................................. 68 .............................................................................................................................................................. 68 Conditions and counting ................................................................................................................. 70 Segments and folders in campaigns ............................................................................................. 71 Creating your first segment ............................................................................................................. 71 Gender based segment .................................................................................................................. 72 Using dates in segmentation ........................................................................................................... 72 Segmentation on a single list .......................................................................................................... 73 Welcome segment ........................................................................................................................... 73 Birthday segment .............................................................................................................................. 74 Interval segment ................................................................................................................................ 74 Segment by occurrence of past and future dates .................................................................... 74 Segments by age range .................................................................................................................. 75 Intersecting segments ...................................................................................................................... 75 Marketing fatigue .............................................................................................................................. 76
Email Retargeting ................................................................................................................... 76 Basic segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 76 Advanced segmentation ................................................................................................................ 78 Managing Marketing Fatigue ......................................................................................................... 80
Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 82 Campaign statistics (email) .................................................................................................. 82
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General statistics ............................................................................................................................... 83 Delivery status .................................................................................................................................... 84 Opening & clicks per hour ............................................................................................................... 85 Email agents ....................................................................................................................................... 85 Mobile platforms ................................................................................................................................ 86 Top unsubscribe reasons .................................................................................................................. 86 Queue evolution................................................................................................................................ 87 Recipients targeted .......................................................................................................................... 88 Advanced Email statistics ................................................................................................................ 88 Extract data from campaigns ........................................................................................................ 89 SMS statistics ....................................................................................................................................... 91 Mobile reports .................................................................................................................................... 91
Segments performance ........................................................................................................ 91 Group evolution................................................................................................................................. 92 Reactivity evolution .......................................................................................................................... 92
Social reports ........................................................................................................................... 92 Facebook reports .............................................................................................................................. 92 Twitter reports ..................................................................................................................................... 93
Forward integration ................................................................................................................ 93 Support ................................................................................................................................ 94 Can’t find what you’re looking for? ................................................................................... 94 Contact us .......................................................................................................................................... 94
International support contacts ............................................................................................ 94
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EmailForge 4 User Guide March 2015
Welcome Thank you for choosing Splio – EmailForge 4 Welcome to EmailForge 4, the most powerful multichannel campaign management platform on the market. This comprehensive user guide will walk you through the various options and possibilities of EmailForge 4. Please make sure you are reading the latest version by checking any available update in EmailForge’s contact section. If you want to learn more about content customization, templates or read expert guides about e-marketing, please make sure to check our website at http://www.splio.com or contact your account manager to ask for our white papers, guides and walkthroughs. In order to improve the readability of this document, we will sometimes refer to EmailForge 4 as “EF4”.
Getting started Connecting to EmailForge 4 Login zone To connect to EF4, simply go to https://www.splio.com/pl/login-e4/ If you haven’t received your administrator login invitation yet, please contact your local customer service. Be advised that for security reasons, we might deny your request if you are not the account owner / main administrator. Only account owners are allowed to request / change login privileges. This is made to ensure that no 3rd parties will ever access your database. To contact our support please use the following
[email protected] or find the number for your zone at the end of this document.
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EmailForge 4 User Guide v4.6 2014-09-30
Getting around
The front page gathers all the key points required for any EF4 action, your consumption and user login logs, as well as a small dashboard with a summary of your database’s evolution. The navigation is divided in 3 parts:
Top bar The top bar groups all account related information and actions. Left Corner: username & universe Right Corner: News, Options, Contact & Log out The contact form is the preferred place to get in touch with SPLIO for any technical related issues or questions. We have a dedicated team answering to questions and problems 6 days a week, from 8am to 8pm (UTC/GMT +1).
EmailForge 4 User Guide March 2015
The profile picture (avatar) displayed appears when a Facebook or Twitter account is synchronised to your EF4 account. If both are synchronised, only your Facebook profile picture will show. Your profile picture will not be shown to other EF4 users.
Quick access buttons
EmailForge 4 now provides 3 quick access buttons in the top area. The New Campaign button provides the options to start an email, mobile, social or automatic campaign in just one click. Databases gives access to a dashboard, where you will find your database information and actions such as find or add a user, edit the subscription form, etc. The Reports button brings you to the campaigns’ statistics.
Left menu Dashboard returns you to the front page from anywhere. The Campaign Manager displays all scheduled campaigns, automatic campaigns, and recently sent campaigns. SETTINGS: Users: create and edit all your EF4 users and their permissions. Social settings: synch a Facebook & Twitter account to EF4. MESSAGES: Email Library & SMS Library: stores all your templates. New Email & New SMS: write or upload new HTML emails, templates and SMS messages. DATABASE: Databases: access to the database dashboard (same as the quick access button) Groups (segments): add, edit, and delete segments. Lists: add, edit, and delete membership lists Files: store temporary files, external lists that should not be merged with your data Blacklists: stores your blacklists, by type. Download lists, add or remove members. Some sections will not be shown depending on the user’s permission level.
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Front page dashboard The main dashboard gives a preview of your database’s KPIs. Total contacts, contacts with phone numbers, global evolution in X days*, and database evolution for the past 30 days. The email and mobile phone numbers are displayed as well as the growth and churn for both KPIs over time.
* The rate shown is relevant to the amount of campaigns you send per month. For instance, if you send 4 campaigns a month, the evolution rate will be shown for 30 days. But if you send 9 campaigns a week, the evolution will be shown for 7 days.
Recent campaigns The 8 latest campaigns are displayed with a quick preview of their performances. A small thumbnail preview of the text or HTML file sent, volume of recipients, start date and subject are mentioned as well as quick shortcuts to the message’s details in the library or the complete campaign’s report. Finally, a pie chart displays the campaign overall success with the amount of messages successfully delivered, opened, clicked or rejected.
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Billing information The front page also provides a month-by-month consumption log for the universe. This is especially useful to check if you are sending less or more than planned, and determine you need to switch to a new subscription plan.
Campaign Manager The Campaign Manager allows you to create, modify or delete existing or upcoming campaigns and to view the details of campaigns that have ended. This is the campaign control centre, where you will find your Automatic, unfinished and last 15 completed campaigns. All your campaigns therefore appear in the manager. You can access 3 options: - Follow-up regarding a past or upcoming campaign - View statistics of a campaign that has ended or is on-going - Modify settings of upcoming campaigns
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Reports The reports’ page, also called statistics, contains all your campaigns from the last 30 days. To access the reports page, click on the reports button located the top right section of the header.
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Settings Configuring your account Access: Top bar > Cog icon (options).
When you connect to EF4 for the first time, your account manager will already have configured most settings. However, you can change most settings if you need to. The settings are available in the top bar, on the right.
Configuring SPF and DKIM
EF 4 provides an automatic configuration for SPF, SenderID and DKIM. If you wish to configure your email authentication settings manually using your own domain parameters, feel free to submit your domain authentication information. The changes will be applied immediately. If you don’t know what this is, you should leave the default settings to “automatic outgoing email authentication” enabled. If you wish to learn more about email authentication and consequences on your deliverability, contact your account manager.
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Two steps authentication
EF4’s security settings can be reinforced with SMS authentication whenever a new device tries to connect to the platform. The system we used is called 2FA (two-factor authentication). 2FA consists in combining your usual security with a physical key. For instance, a safe could require a password and a key. For EF4 it would be your login (login + password + universe), reinforced by a numeric code sent by SMS to your cell phone. This method is optional but strongly recommended. The 2FA identification can be saved on your computer for a 30 days period.
Global options
Global options allow you to modify the core settings of your account such as your universe’s name (if your company name changes, or if you want to use it for a different
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brand), as well as the default from email address and the very important time zone, which will be used for campaigns scheduling.
Personal options This is the place to change and edit password settings for the logged in account, as well as the personal time zone (different from the universe’s time zone) and the language settings for the logged in account. Note: language settings will not affect the universe’s language settings. The personal language setting will determine your EF4 interface language (texts, menus, etc).
Managing user permissions Access: Left menu > Settings group > Users.
EF4 allows you to manage the rights of users connected to the platform in an advanced manner. You can create as many users as you want. In order to protect your databases from fraudulent use (access to the data, downloads, deletion), EF4 provides a choice of 5 permission levels.
Permission levels Administrator The administrator can access all of the universe's features, create new users and modify their permissions. The administrator can download and delete the universe’s data. We recommend having only one admin per universe.
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Standard user Each user can access all of the universe's features. A user can’t: Download a database or export statistics nor modify the universe’s settings. Create new accounts or modify their permissions.
Statistics Statistic users can only access the statistics of campaigns to which access was granted by an admin or standard user (campaign configuration area, step 4).
Creative The creative user can create/edit HTML emails, but can’t delete them. The creative can only access the messages it created.
Disabled Disabled accounts can no longer login to the platform.
Social Settings Access: Left menu > Settings group > Social settings.
To synchronize your favourite social media, go to “Social Settings” in the left menu.
Facebook Click on Click here to link your Facebook and EmailForge profiles and fill in your Facebook login and password. In order to link your Corporate Facebook Page, your linked Facebook account must be admin of that page. /!\ Please leave all Facebook permissions as is, otherwise this feature will not work properly /!\
Your profile picture, name and page will show in their respective section when you refresh the page. You can synchronise an unlimited number of Facebook pages and profiles.
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Twitter Click on Click here to link your Twitter account to your EmailForge universe and fill in your Twitter login and password. Your profile picture and name will show when you refresh the page. You can synchronise an unlimited number of Twitter profiles.
Alert centre Many events can occur on your universe. Some are critical and should be brought up to your attention as quickly as possible, for instance when your SMS credits are too low or when a new user is created. The Alert Centre provides you with a way to setup your own alerts and get alerted 24/7 about such important events, by email and SMS. Warning: Note that the SMS channel will only be available when the e-mail notification is active. The emails will provide more details on the issue. Warning: Each SMS sent from the notification centre will be deducted from your universe’s balance. If you run out of SMS credits, the user will receive the email notification only.
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Alert categories and events The Alert Centre contains a variety of events, each classified under a specific category.
User Events User management alerts notify you when there is unusual activity on your universe. Suspicious login: when a user connects from an unusual location Admin creation: a new user with an “admin” profile has been created User creation: a new user with a “user” profile has been created User login failure: a user has failed to log in too many times User login: a user has successfully connected to the universe
Campaign Events Alerts based on the status of a campaign’s sending. Automatic campaign not sent: an automatic campaign could not be sent.
Consumption Events Alerts based on the universe’s consumption. SMS credits: remaining SMS credits have reached a threshold.
Create a new alert To create a new alert: 1. Go to Settings > Alerts 2. Click on the button Create new alert, which will open a wizard that will guide you through the creation steps 3. Select a category (e.g. “Consumption”) 4. Select an event (e.g. “SMS Credits”) 5. You can then choose an operator and a value (e.g. “SMS Credits > 100”), as well as configure the alert 6. Select users you wish to be alerted, as well as the channel on which they will be notified. 7. You can also include non-user recipients. They will then receive the alert by email.
Edit an existing alert To edit an alert: 1. Go to Settings > Alerts 2. Identify the alert you want to edit in the list
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3. Click on the Edit icon next to the alert, which will open a wizard that will guide you through the edition steps 4. You can now edit the alert (category, event, configuration, users) 5. Once you’re done editing, click on the Save button
Delete an existing alert To delete an alert: 1. Go to Settings > Alerts 2. Identify the alert you want to delete in the list 3. Click on the Delete icon next to the alert 4. You will be asked to confirm your choice to delete the alert
Campaign moderation You can moderate all your campaigns if you provide us with a list of email addresses of your defined moderators.
All send-outs for a given universe will have to be accepted/blocked by one of the moderators before being sent. Moderators will receive for each campaign an email to accept or block the campaign. Any moderator can accept / block the campaign. No message can be sent without confirmation. If you click on ACCEPT this message, you must confirm your choice again. If you click on BLOCK this message, campaign will immediately be blocked
without any further confirmation. WARNING: A blocked campaign cannot be sent, the message and the sending is blocked even if you change your mind later on. If for any reason you don’t receive the moderation email, your campaign will be blocked.
Please contact your account manager for more information or to setup this feature.
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Couponing Coupon codes can be assigned to your campaigns. You can even indicate their start and end dates. You have to upload a file with your coupons. Be careful you have to upload enough coupons to send your campaign. Otherwise, your campaign will be stopped except if you reload new coupons (assigned to the same category). All coupons are stored in EF4, you can check if all your coupons are already used or not.
Each coupon is related to a category that you have to use, in your message to display your coupons. Here is an example of a birthday coupon: $CouponBirthday$ and $ExpCouponBirthday$ allow you to display your coupon and its expiration date. You can upload coupon files along with the following settings: Category (welcome, birthday, …) Start date End date (when we should stop sending these coupons) Expiration date (the date we should display in emails)
You can define a start and an end date in your coupon file and choose a specific format:
Or you can define a start and end date directly in EF4:
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Databases Access: Header > Databases button || Left Menu > Database group > Databases.
Managing your database A wide range of tools is available to manage, edit, upload and analyse your database in EmailForge 4. The main functions are listed in the “database” page, which can be easily accessed from the top shortcut. The main tools are listed on top of the page for easy and fast accessibility.
Find: Find subscribers, view and edit the values of the related fields (surname, first name...). Add: Manually add subscribers to the database. Upload: Import new lists or temporary files. Download: Export your database, partially or entirely. Form: Generate a registration form on your website that will be linked to your EmailForge database. Fields: Add, edit or delete your database’s fields. Remove: Unsubscribe, delete or blacklist a subscriber or a list of emails. Uploads History: Keeps track of all the imports and import logs.
Importing new contacts To import contacts, use the “upload” button in the database page. To configure an automatic data flow to synchronize your database daily or hourly, contact your account manager.
Preparing your file Improper fields
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Try to avoid naming your fields with names already taken by EmailForge’s database or variables. Using the same names can interfere with proper personalisation and conditional blocks. Avoid words like:
email cellphone lastname last_click_date mirrorUrl unsubUrl
md5email firstname last_click_categ last_open_date fbshareUrl etc…
File type The supported file formats are CSV, TXT*, ZIP or RAR files. We strongly recommend using the UTF-8 base encoding which supports the widest types of characters and languages. * Windows users: The “Tab Delimited Text” file format (TXT) is preferred. * Mac users: The “Windows Comma Separated” file format (CSV) is preferred. /!\ If your database contains dates (birth dates for instance), the recommended format is YYYY-MMDD. All other formats will be treated as regular text. Regular text fields for dates will not allow you to use date variables (to learn more on these, read the variables section.)
Zipping your database is possible and recommended for faster synchronization. Make sure that the zip archive is not password protected, and that you have only one file in the zip.
/!\ Using the right date format is important to work properly with EF4 Segmentation and to use date variables. /!\ The primary key on EF4 is either an email address or a cell phone number. Each new email addresses and cell phone numbers that are not associated together will create a new user profile. /!\ Each user in the database can have 1 email address and/or 1 telephone number. /!\ When a new file is uploaded, if the email or the cell phone number is already found in the database, the profile will be updated with the new data.
Importing an export from another platform If your data is an export from another platform (CMS, ERP, or another email marketing platform), you need to “clean” your file.
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Open your database into EXCEL, and select “Save As” in the “File” menu: 1. Type in your database name 2. Select the proper file format* in the “type” scroll list 3. Save and close Excel * Windows users: The “Tab Delimited Text” file format (TXT) is preferred. * Mac users: The “Windows Comma Separated” (CSV) or Tab Delimited Text (txt) formats are preferred. Supported delimiters are: comma ( , ), semicolon ( ; ), tab, and pipe ( | ).
Database vs. temporary file When uploading a new file, two options are available: upload to database and store as a temporary file.
Database When uploading to database, you will have to choose a list to which your members will be subscribed. Users can subscribe to multiple lists. For instance, a user could be subscribed to both “Newsletter” and “Partner offers”. The segmentation engine will access data from lists. For more information on lists and segmentation, go to “Managing Database”.
Temporary file The temporary files are completely separated from the global database. The segmentation engine cannot access data from temporary files.
Uploading to database or as a temporary file? It is always recommended to upload your lists into the database (existing or new) when uploading a new file. However, if you are uploading data from a partner, client or any unknown source and don’t want to erase / edit your own clients’ information, use the temporary file option to avoid overwriting your database.
Supported mobile numbers format EF4 supports several formats for mobile phone numbers in order to be able to host foreign and local phone numbers from any country. Here are the guidelines to upload mobile numbers on the platform: Level 1 format
Preferred format
+33626440150
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Level 2 format
Accepted format
Accepted and completed according to your account language
Level 3 format
0033626440150 0626440150 Example, if the account is set as “English (UK)”, the telephone number will become: +44626440150 626440150
Level 4 format
NOT SUPPORTED
In that case, EmailForge 4 will try to complete the phone number but errors might occur
Mapping your fields Once your file has been uploaded, you must establish the mapping of the fields by assigning the columns in your raw file to the columns in your EF4 database. You can choose to import all the columns from your file or just a few. /!\ You need at least an email column or a cell phone number column. /!\
The table below displays the raw data, as it should look when you open your database from Excel.
email
surname
first name
address
Zip
Dob
optin
gender
[email protected]
Boisnard
Olivier
4 rue des plantes
75015
1984-05-02
Yes
H
[email protected]
Billon
Benjamin
5 rue des coquelicots
75015
1982-02-12
Yes
H
[email protected]
Elise
Hosemans
6 rue des acacias
75015
1978-03-07
Yes
F
The picture below displays the mapping form. Select or create the fields in your database. If the field already exists with the same name, the mapping will be done automatically.
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To create a field, select “new field” and enter the name (do not use accents or special characters).
Subscribing imported users to lists You need to select at least one membership. A single user can be subscribed to as many lists as you want to. In the example below, we subscribe our imported users to “Newsletter” and “Promotions”. You can create up to 64 lists.
Upload history To view your upload history and log files, use the button “Uploads history” from the database page. This page provides a full history log of all files uploaded to the platform and the various operations made on each new file. Every new upload, EF4 creates a report, which contains the lists of rejected addresses and/or telephone numbers and the reason why. EF4 can reject an address for different reasons, such as: Non-compliant format to RFC guidelines Wrong or unknown encoding Duplicate, already found in the database Hard bounce, already detected as invalid You are now ready to create your first message. Only the manual file uploads are logged in the history.
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Fields and fulfilment rate The fields’ page allows you to create or delete custom fields, reorder them, and see the fulfilment rate of each field.
Create a field To create a new field, go to the bottom of the page and fill in the box. Click the “save” button to create the new field.
Reorder fields To change the order of the fields, you can click the green switch on the field’s right end. Clicking the switch will send the corresponding field below the next one.
Fields’ fulfilment rate You can calculate the fields’ fulfilment rate on demand. To do so, click the “Recalculate” button. Once the button clicked, your database will either be calculated right away or be put in queue. You can request a recount once every 3 hours.
While your database is being recounted, you can proceed to other tasks and come back later. All calculations are done in the background, and will not affect your campaigns from being sent properly.
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Messages Message types & libraries Before creating any type of campaign, you need to have a message at the ready. There are 2 types of messages you can create: HTML, SMS. They will be grouped within their respective libraries. The libraries store all your messages, whether they be HTML files, templates, or SMS messages. Libraries are accessible through the left menu.
Email library The email library stores your HTML messages and templates, and contains filter buttons and a search engine. You can search messages using keywords from their name, subject, sender and date of creation.
Once you found your message, you can select it or delete it. Hitting “Use this message” will bring you to the message page, where you can edit it, test it, duplicate it, send as campaign or delete it.
A message that has already been sent cannot be used twice (identified with a lock icon). To use the same message, click the “Use this message” button and duplicate the locked message. It will automatically create a copy.
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SMS library The SMS library is similar to the Email library, without the filters. You can also search messages using keywords and/or creation date.
SMS message creation From the left menu, select “New SMS” and fill-in the required fields. Message Name: for your own records Message Sender: Sender of the SMS campaign, appears with the phone number (Not supported in all countries) Message content: Write the content of the text message here Use Unicode: Support for special characters (Chinese, Arabic...) Allow long messages: A text message is 153 character or 67 encode character, select the option to be able to send longer messages (billed). You have the possibility to personalize your domain name for SMS instead of www.spl.io. If you want to set up your domain name, please contact your account manager.
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HTML message creation From the left menu, select “New Email”.
Header & statistics parameters Fill in the required fields: - Message’s subject (subject that appears into your users’ inbox) - Message name (for your own records) - Sender’s email address (ex:
[email protected]) - Sender’s name (ex: Splio) - Reply to email address (if different from sender’s email address) - Language message (default language, will be used for the unsubscription page)
HTML Message options You will find 2 options that can be applied to your html message upon saving.
Save as a template This option will ensure that your message is saved as a template. For more information on templates, read the HTML template section.
Fix and optimise HTML code for email This option cleans and optimises your code for email. It will apply all CSS classes found in the code to inline styles (class=”” to style=””). It will also remove all sensible tags rejected by ISPs, such as , , , , etc. Use this option carefully. It works well for simple html code, but can be tricky to use with complex html. Test thoroughly your message after using this option.
Google Analytics If you are using Google Analytics on your website and wish to identify your visitors’ source, fill in the fields. The information you type in will be transmitted to your GA account, to help identify the source of visitors coming from your campaigns. Campaign name: Indicates from which campaign your visitor came from. For instance, if you are using different kinds of email campaigns, you could name them accordingly (ex.: 2013-04-10_ PromoWinter_Paris, Weekly_Newsletter_05-04-13). Medium: You can enter anything you’d like, the default being “email”.
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Source: This is to identify the source of your campaigns, in case you are using multiple direct marketing service providers. The default source is “Splio”, but you can change it if you wish. Note that GA will not count openings or openers. It will only track the users that clicks links going to your website.
Importing HTML There are 4 available options to import your HTML.
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-
File: Upload a zip file containing your HTML and pictures, relatively linked Visual editor: Create your HTML using a WYSIWYG editor /!\ not recommended Code editor: Copy & paste your HTML Web page URL: Upload an HTML file directly from an URL
/!\ Any JavaScript or PHP will be stripped in order to avoid being rejected by IPSs. /!\
File There are two ways to use the file mode. 1. Upload a Zip file (images hosted by Splio)
-
The links of your images must be relative in order to be hosted. The Zip archive must follow the chain of your links (ex: /img/ or /images/).
A relative link is when the link originates from the HTML file, following the structure of your zip (ex: /images/logo.png). An absolute link is when the link originates from the root of the server (ex: http://www.splio.com/images/logo.png)
2. Upload an HTML file only, with the images hosted online (using absolute links).
Visual editor Using the WYSIWYG* editor is just like using Microsoft Word.
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Features:
Add images with drag & drop Move / resize images with drag & drop Crop images during upload (with right click / context menu) Drag & drop table resizing Edit HTML header properties Show all html blocks for easy debuggig Do not break stylesheets : keep responsive design working Do not html-encode > and < characters in Splioconditional blocks Easily chose colors, edit element properties (like images ALT text)
/!\ This method is not recommended as the HTML may not be optimised for all inboxes. /!\ * What You See Is What You Get
Code editor You can use the code editor to copy & paste your HTML code directly instead of uploading your HTML file.
Web page URL Copy & paste the URL of an HTML email hosted online.
Inbox preview EmailForge integrates Email on Acid’s inbox preview tool, directly within a message’s page. If the option is activated on your account, you can visualise your email’s rendering in the different webmails, desktop mail clients and mobile phones. To do so, go to an HTML message’s page, and click on the Email on Acid button. It will automatically open a new page with a complete list of email clients.
Text version EF4 supports the dispatch of messages in multipart mode, which allows you to send a text message and an HTML message at the same time. The recipient's mail client will choose the version to display based on the application's
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preferences. HTML overrides text by default.
HTML Templates An HTML template is an HTML message that will act as a model. The message can be duplicated and edited, but cannot be deleted. Using and customising a template will automatically create a new HTML message based on the template.
Preparing the file In order to be used as a template, you need to prepare your HTML and separate it in editable blocks. Once your HTML is ready, you can add the class “edit” to any block you’d like to be editable in the template. Ex:
Any block with the class “edit” can be edited, duplicated or deleted by the user. When adding your “edit” classes, remember to insert them in the html tag nearest to the content. That prevents your HTML structure from being edited by your users.
Creating a template Once your HTML is ready, upload it as a regular message, and check the option “Save as a template”. Your template will be in the library section, under the filter “Templates”.
Using a template To create a new message based on a template, go to the email library, in the templates section. Find the template and click on the corresponding “Customise this template” button. You can then change the message’s subject, the name, and add Google Analytics parameters. To customise the content, rollover your mouse on the desired blocks; the editable parts (class=”edit”) will detach from the rest. You can edit the block, duplicate it, or delete it.
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Duplicate button & Delete button
Click anywhere any item to edit it
When clicking an editable block, a pop up will open with a WYSIWYG editor containing the editable content. You can either use the visual editor or the HTML editor.
Once you are done, click on apply.
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You can drag and drop your image directly in the editor template if you want to add it and you can crop your image during upload.
Specificity about editable links If you want to edit the css style of your links, click on "advanced" to access CSS. It’s possible to choose the type of link, for example if you want to create an anchor in your newsletter.
Tip: If your text is already considered like a link you can double click on the text to edit the link.
When you are done editing the template, saving the changes will create a new HTML message based on this template. Then you will find it in the HTML library.
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Using variables in your messages When using the visual editor, you can now find your variables and custom fields within the first toolbar. Clicking a custom field will insert the variable for you. How to use: 1. Click on the visual editor button 2. In your html, click where you want to insert the variable 3. Click the custom field icon
and pick the wanted variable
View screencast: http://www.splio4.com/static/news/4.3_variables.mp4
Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only) Unsubscription Having an unsubscription link is strongly recommended, as it is mandatory in many jurisdictions. We also recommend using EF4’s unsubscription process, as it is the quickest way for the user to unsubscribe. Having additional steps (such as login in) than a one-click unsubscription is also illegal in many countries and could hurt your ereputation.
Mirror page Providing a mirror page is an extra service for users who can’t see the email properly in their inbox or can’t load images. Statistics on subscribers that clicked on this link can also give you an indication that your HTML isn’t optimised for email.
Adding the links using EF4 variables EF4 provides variables to quickly implement unsubscribe & mirror page links. These variables will automatically be replaced by unique, tracked, links. The mirror page is generated within the campaign and is customised for each user, to keep personalisation while reading online. Variable
$unsub$
>
Generates
Example
To unsubscribe, click here.
$unsub$
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To unsubscribe to this newsletter,
$unsubUrl$
>
http://www.s3s.fr/425485/desabo/
[email protected]
$mirror$
>
To read this email in your browser, click here.
$mirror$
http://www.s3s.fr/425485/miroir/
[email protected]
Do you want to read this page online? Click here
$mirrorUrl$
Click here
Date variables (email and SMS) Date variables are really useful for any regular or automatic campaign. Using one of these variables will automatically insert the current day’s date when sending the campaign. Indeed, it doesn’t need any manual intervention from you. Examples $today$ > current day*
$year$ > current year
$year$ > currentyear, 4 digits
You can also personalize your date with a specific field. For example, you have a date you want to display in D/M/Y format. Unfortunately, the date included in your file is in YYYY-MM-DD format. You can use this variable: $d/m/y$expiration_date$ The formula [$format]$field$[modifier$] allows you to create date modifiers within your messages, such as “today + 15 days”, or “this field + 15 days” for example. Changes apply to emails, mirror pages, tracked links and SMS. “Format” would be optional, with any combination of “d”, “m”, “y”, and separators “”, “/”, or nothing. “Field” would be any custom field, or $today$ for the current date of the send-out (based on the universe’s timezone). “Modifier” would be any calculation based on a number of days, weeks, months, or years, for example “+5d”, “+1m”, “-1y”. Examples: • $today$ • $d/m/y$expiration_date$ • $today$+1m$ • $ymd$today$+5d$
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These variables are available for emails (sending engines), mirror pages, tracked links and SMS.
Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns only) When you are sending an automatic campaign, it is possible to use a variable to fetch the email’s subject. This is particularly useful if the HTML is hosted on your server and the file changes periodically. To use a dynamic subject, your message must contain a tag in the of your HTML. Put your email’s subject in the tag, then, in the automatic email creation page, instead of inserting a subject, you can type in $title$.
Social Sharing Buttons (email only) Social variables are similar to the unsubscription and mirror link variables. They’re a quick way of inserting Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons or links in your HTML email. To create a Facebook link with your own picture $fblikeUrl$ $fblikeUrl:http://www.splio.com$ $fblikeUrl:spliogroup$ Facebook like button with the official Facebook design Creates the button and link automatically
$fblike$ $fblike:http://www.splio.com$ $fblike:spliogroup$
Facebook share button with your own design Example of use:
$fbshareUrl$
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$fbshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$ $fbshareUrl:spliogroup $
Facebook share button with the official Facebook design Creates the button and link automatically
$fbshare$ $fbshare:http://www.splio.com$ $fbshare:spliogroup$
Twitter sharing button with your own design Example of use:
$twshareUrl$ $twshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$
Twitter sharing button with Twitter official design Creates the button and link automatically
$twshare$ $twshare:http://www.splio.com$
Customise Twitter Variables with Twitter Intents parameters You can insert parameters into the Twitter share links and buttons, that will pre-enter text to Example:
variables generating the tweet for the user.
$twshare:[hashtags=newsletter][via=Splio][text=Read this!][url=http://www.splio.com]$
If you don’t specify an URL, it will automatically share the Mirror Page. The same is applicable for $twshareUrl$, except for the Mirror Page. You must specify an URL when using this variable. Note: The buttons will not show within the visual editor. To make sure your button is working, you need to send yourself a test message.
Last click category If a link category has been indicated in your links, EmailForge will store the last one clicked per user. You can use the Last Click Category value in segmentation and conditional blocks to send targeted content to your users. To do so in conditional blocks, use $last_click_categ$. See the Segmentation chapter to learn how to segment by interests.
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Sending ID $envoiid$ can be added in your tracking URLs to return the sending ID of your campaigns. It can be useful to track from which message users got on your website. $envoiid$ will return the sending ID that the user received. A Sending ID is a unique code, identifying the message sent in a campaign (Ex: 6PDz8u4uJ). If you send an email campaign with 2 messages, each message will have its own Sending ID. When using $envoiid$, it will return the ID of the message the user received. Here are examples of how it can be used in your messages, with Google Analytics: My Link My Link
URL variable prefix In the case where you have URLs in your database and wish to use them for personalisation, you will need to add a prefix to your variable, to prevent special characters, such as /, from being encoded. The prefix is added directly in front of the variable, as seen below. Variable: $myUrl$
Prefixed variable: $url_myUrl$
Example without the prefix: http:%2%2www.google.com%2analytics Example with the prefix: http://www.google.com/analytics
Conditional blocks in HTML emails What are conditional blocks? Conditional blocks (CB) allow displaying certain information in function of your database’s content or user disclosed information. Specific contents would be displayed to a specific target conditionally, thus making the user experience more personal for the recipients.
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For instance, if you would like to start your email with “Hello firstname!”, but you’re not sure if every user mentioned their first name, you would write a CB that says “if firstname exists, write ‘Dear $firstname$’, else write ‘Hello!’”. Conditional blocks can be used in: HTML messages SMS messages Email Subjects Email headers (sender email address, sender name, reply-to address)
CB for personalisation Starting with an already existing HTML design, you’ll only have to duplicate the part or parts you want to customize, and adapt the text with the right gender, then, add the specific CB tags around these parts. For each recipient, the system will check in the database the corresponding value for gender, and display the right block accordingly. The blocks that don’t match the value are ignored. Here's a quick sample of what the code would look like.
{SPLIO IF $title$ = "Mme"}
// If female write:
Mrs. Johnson, … {SPLIO ELSEIF $title$ = "M"}
// If male write:
Mr. Johnson, … {SPLIO ELSE}
// if gender is undisclosed:
Greetings, ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
CB for content With CB, you can customize a single message, which will include recipient specific information. For the next example, let’s pretend you are a music label company. At the subscription stage, you offer your users to choose their preferred music genre(s) in order to send them related information. Instead of preparing a different email for each genre, you would prepare only one HTML, containing multiple content blocks, one block for each genre. This would prevent a user that selected Rock, Rap and Punk from receiving 3 emails at once.
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For instance, if the user is a fan of Rock music, he will then receive an email with Rockrelated information only. If the user is a fan of both Rock and Rap, he would receive an email with both Rock and Rap related information, but not the House related information. Here is what the code would look like: {SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rock"} **Rock Section** {SPLIO ENDIF} {SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "House"} **House Section** {SPLIO ENDIF} {SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rap"} **Rap Section** {SPLIO ENDIF}
Control structures The tags available for CB can be used as shown below. EF4 will analyse and execute them while sending the campaign, but they won’t be displayed in the message delivered to the recipients. {SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} {SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} {SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} Each syntax has a specific purpose, detailed below:
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} This function is used to define punctual conditions, which act on their own, and do not affect any other conditional block. Which means that it will display each block that meets a condition. This is the function used in the music label example.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} This function is used to display one content or the other, with no other alternatives.
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First name example: If $firstname$ is disclosed, write “Dear $firstname$” else write “Dear customer”.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} This function is used when many variants are required for a specific part of the message. For instance: If user lives in France, show “Sale -50%”, else if user user lives in England, show “Sale -30%”. If none of the country values match, nothing will be displayed.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} This function is similar to the previous one, but with a default block to display in case no condition matched: If user lives in France, show “Summer Sale -50%”, else if user lives in England, show “Summer Sale -30%”, else show “Winter collection arrived”.
Operators Operators that can be used to display, or not, the conditional blocks are shown below. There are quite a few, and can be used in any necessary way. - = - != or for « not equal » - >, >=,
