Focus On: Broadcast Email Console

Welcome to our Focus On series. In this series of e-mail tutorials, we will show you a few overlooked features in our system. We encourage you to print this document to follow along through the lesson.

Tutorial: Broadcast Emails

In this tutorial, you will learn:

Lesson 1: Simple set-up for Broadcast Emails and Reply-to Addresses
Lesson 2: Advanced Set-Up for Broadcast Emails and Bounce Checking
Lesson 3: Bounce Preferences
Lesson 4: Broadcast Email Report

Lesson 1: Simple set-up for Broadcast Emails and Reply-to Addresses.  

This lesson will get you up and running with Broadcast Emails. If you are interested in bounce checking, you will need to follow lesson 2.

Broadcast Email is a feature used with our Custom Report Generator. However, in order for Broadcast Email to work, you need to have Broadcast Email set-up in your system.

To set-up a new Broadcast Email account:

1. Go to System > Broadcast Email.

 

2. Click on the window next to Add Account to maximize this menu.

 

3. Next to Email Type, select Broadcast Email. This is the email address you want the Broadcast Email to appear in the “From” area of your email. For instance:

To: Bob Donor (Bob@Donor.com) 

From: Joe Candidate (TheCandidate@TheCampaign.com)

4. Leave the box unchecked for bounce checking. We will go over bounce checking in Lesson 2.

5. Type the address into Email. This must be a valid email address.

6. Click Add.

7. You should get a message at the top of your screen that says: Sender account successfully configured! Please check email inbox for verification instructions.

8. Check the email account of the address you typed into the Email field. You should see an email from CompleteCampaigns.com with a link. Click on the link to verify the address. If you have trouble clicking on the link, copy and paste the link into your browser. Once the address has been verified, you can send from it when you run a Broadcast Email. If you do not verify the address, you will not be able to send from that account.

To set-up a new Reply-To Address (optional):

 

This is the email address you want responses to your Broadcast Email to come to when someone replies. For instance, the email came from TheCandidate@TheCampaign.com but when a recipient hits the reply button the email is sent to Assistant@TheCampaign.com. The Assistant@TheCampaign.com is the Reply-To address. This is optional. If you do not set up a reply-to address, any responses will go to the email address that the Broadcast Email was sent from.

 

1. Go to System > Broadcast Email.

 

2. Click on the window next to Add Account to maximize this menu.

 

3. Next to Email Type, select Reply-To. This must be a valid email address.

 

4. Type the address into Email. This must be a valid email address.

5. Click Add.

6. You should get a message at the top of your screen that says: Sender account successfully configured! Please check email inbox for verification instructions.

7. Check the email account of the address you typed into the Email field. You should see an email from CompleteCampaigns.com with a link. Click on the link to verify the address. If you have trouble clicking on the link, copy and paste the link into your browser. Once the address has been verified, you can send from it when you run a Broadcast Email. If you do not verify the address, you will not be able to send from that account.

Lesson 2: Advanced Set-Up for Broadcast Emails and Bounce Checking

Bounce Checking is an advanced feature in the Broadcast Email Console. It allows CompleteCampaigns.com to check the email account you set up for emails that have bounced and handle those emails in various ways.

You will need these three things before proceeding with this lesson:

• Email Account: An email account specifically designated for sending out Broadcast Emails and does not receive any personal mail or other committee mail. For instance, newsletter@TheCampaigns.com might be reserved just for sending out Broadcast Emails. If you use an account that is NOT specifically designed for this purpose, you will incorrectly classify real emails as bad emails.

• Reply Account: A reply-to email address set-up in BackOffice (see Lesson 1)

• Pop Account Information: You will need the pop account information for the email address that you are setting up. Pop account information can be obtained from your email administrator. For our CompleteEmail users, this information will be entpop.quexion.com.

1. From the Broadcast Email Console, click on the window next to Add Account to maximize this menu.

2. Next to Email Type, select Broadcast Email. This is the email address you want the Broadcast Email to appear in the “From” area of your email. For instance:

To: Bob Donor (Bob@Donor.com) 

From: Newsletter (Newsletter@CandidateforCongress.com)

3. Check the box Enable Bounce Checking. The menu should expand:

 

4. Type the address into Email. This must be a valid email address.

5. In the Mail Server line, type your pop account information.

6. In the Mail Login, type the login information for the account (this will usually be the email address).

7. In the Mail Password, type the password for this account.

8. Click Test Pop. If all the information is correct, you will get a success message of Connection Verified!

If you do not receive this message, check all your Mail information and retry.

9. If your connection was verified, click Save. You should now see the email address appear in the Email Senders area of the Broadcast Email Console.

Lesson 3: Bounce Preferences

Bounce preferences are the actions you wish the database to take when a message is returned from a Broadcast Email. You must have enabled bounce checking (Lesson 2) in order for this to work.

 

1. Go to System > Broadcast Email.

 

2. Click on the window next to Bounce Preferences to maximize this menu.

3. Next to each bounce type is the default action you wish the database to take when it receives that types of bounce.

No Action – Do not remove the email address or inactivate the email address. In the next Broadcast Email, this address will be included in the results.

Make Inactive – The email address will remain in the database but in the next broadcast email, this email address will NOT be included in the results.

Delete Email – Remove the email from the database.

 

4. If you need a definition for the different Bounce Types, click here.

5. Once you have selected the actions you wish to take with each bounce type, click the Update button.

Once you have completed these steps, you have laid the groundwork for your broadcast email. If you’d like to learn how to do Broadcast Emails, check out our Broadcast Emal Tutorial, here.

Lesson 4: Broadcast Email Reports

Once you begin using the Broadcast Email tool, you will want to run reports. Broadcast Email reports can give you a summary report detailing broadcast email history, unsubscribes and bounced emails.

1. Go to Reports --> Standard Report.

2. Select the Type: General and Format: Broadcast Email Report.

3. Click Generate.

4. There are three areas in the Broadcast Email Report. Click on the window next to each area to maximize this menu.

Emailing Statistics – This area gives a summary of your email bounces, history and addresses.

Broadcast History – This area details all the Broadcast Emails sent, the date sent, the subject of the email and the number of unsubscribe requests from that email.

Unsubscribes – This area shows you which email addresses have opted out of your Broadcast Emails.

Do you have an idea for our next Focus On? Is there something you would like to know more about? Simply email us at: support@completecampaigns.com. We’d love to hear from you!