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Email Marketing Tool
User’s Guide & Documentation
Last Modified: September 18, 2003
8 7 1 1 B u r n e t R o a d S u i t e B -3 5 • A u s t i n , T X 7 8 7 5 7
phone: 512.453.1268 • fax: 512.453.1277
web: www.sierratech.com
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Contents
Login............................................................... 3
Client Specific Information ................................... 3
Navigation ........................................................ 4
Global Elements ............................................... 4
Tool Specific Tabs ............................................. 5
Email Campaigns ................................................ 6
Page Anatomy.................................................. 6
Step One : Copy or Create a Campaign..................... 7
Step Three : Enter Recipient Criteria...................... 11
Step Four : Select Recipients ............................... 12
Step Five : Review the Campaign .......................... 13
Send the Campaign........................................... 14
Errors and Send Failures ..................................... 15
Campaign Statistics ............................................16
Campaign Clicks .............................................. 17
Campaign Recipients ......................................... 18
Campaign Unsubscribes ...................................... 19
Campaign Links ............................................... 19
Subscribers......................................................20
Page Anatomy................................................. 20
Page Functionality............................................ 21
Sub Navigation / Advanced Features....................... 22
Subscriber Details and Campaign History.................. 26
Campaign Add-Ins ..............................................27
Signature....................................................... 27
Salutation ...................................................... 27
Privacy Statement ............................................ 27
Global Add-Ins ..................................................28
Image Inventory............................................... 28
Templates ..................................................... 28
Email Tool Setup ...............................................30
Form & Report Fields ........................................ 30
Database Fields ............................................... 32
Technical Support..............................................33
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Login
Client Specific Information
Email Tool URL:
Username:
Password:
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Navigation
Global Elements
Upon logging into any tool you will see a list of the tools you have subscribed to on the top
of the screen. To the right of this list you have a button to update your profile. If you are
an administrator you will also have a button to administer users of each tool. This top line
of navigation will remain constant throughout your session and will help you navigate
between all of the tools.
Your Profile
At any time you can update your email address and password by clicking the “Your
Profile” button in the top navigation bar.
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Tool Users
If you are a tool administrator you will be able to create and modify users and their
permissions to each tool.
Tool Specific Tabs
Tool specific tabs depend on which tool you select from the top navigation. Since this
document is for the Email Marketing Tool we will only go over it’s tabs and features.
Email Campaigns : View, edit, create, delete, and get statistics for all email campaigns.
Subscribers : View, edit, create, delete, find, and query subscriber database.
Campaign Add-Ins : View, edit, create, and delete signatures, salutations, and privacy
statements.
Email Tool Setup : If you are an administrator you will have access to database fields, forms,
and report layouts.
Image Inventory* : Upload, copy, and remove images from your image inventory. These images
can be inserted into email campaigns, newsletter articles, and global templates.
Templates* : Create templates for use in the email marketing and newsletter tools.
* Accessible across multiple tools
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Email Campaigns
Page Anatomy
Create a New Campaign
To create a new campaign type in a unique Campaign Name and click
the Create button.
Find a Campaign
Search In : You can search for text within the campaign name and/or
the email subject.
Search For : Type in the search text.
Date Criteria : You can search for campaigns that were created
between and/or sent between a specified start date and an end
date.
Customize Fields
You can select any number of fields from this multiple select box and
view only that information which is important to you. While holding
the Ctrl button click the fields you would like shown then click the
Customize button
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Step One : Copy or Create a Campaign
Copy Previously Sent Campaigns
Clicking on the copy icon ( ) next to the desired campaign will produce this screen:
You can click “Preview Campaign” to see a preview of the campaign in a new window or
click “Make a Copy” to make a duplicate of this campaign. After clicking the “Make a
Copy” link you will then be able to edit the campaign
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Create or Edit Campaigns
Creating a new campaign, clicking on the edit icon ( ) next to the desired campaign, or
copying a previously sent campaign will send you to the screen below. From here you will
enter all of the information related to the email you are going to send to your subscribers.
• Campaign Name – Name of the campaign. This distinguishes this campaign from others when
viewing reports.
• Email Subject – The subject of the email campaign. This text will appear in the subject line of
the recipients email.
• From Name – The name you want to appear as the sender of the email campaign.
• From Address – The email address you want your recipients to reply to.
• Preferences – These four options are filled with preferences you can customize for your
campaigns (see the Campaign Add-Ins section). The template will appear around the html version
of your email. The salutation is how you wish to great your recipients and will appear at the top
of your campaign. The signature and privacy link will appear at the end of your email campaign.
• HTML and Plain Text Body - This is the body of your email campaign. The html tab allows you to
create or modify the html version of the campaign. The plain text tab allows you to create or
modify the plain text version of the campaign. **Suggestion : we recommend you start with plain
text and use the “get text from plain text version” link and then add formatting tags.
• Goals – track your goals for this campaign. This section doesn’t appear anywhere in the email
campaign and is only for information purposes
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Campaign Formatting
Use these buttons to add HTML formatting to your
content.
Text Formatting
Bold
Italicize
Underline
Paragraph Alignment
Center
Right
Paragraph Spacing
Paragraph Break
Single Line Break
Other
Non-breaking space
Horizontal Rule
Add a hyperlink to another web site
Adding Images to Campaign
Add images to your content by clicking the arrow (9) next to the desired image. This will
insert code that will later be translated into an image. These images can be managed
through the Image Inventory tab in the Global Navigation. You can also add an image by
clicking the Add Images button.
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Step Two : Preview & Send a Test Email
Preview Campaign
It is important that your campaign appear the way you want to send it out. Click through
the HTML and Plain Text previews by selecting them from the drop down list. Click the
back button to make any changes.
Send a Test Email
Click on the “Send Test Email” button to send yourself the HTML version of this campaign.
You will be prompted to enter your email address. After you receive your email you can
either click the “Back” button to make further changes or click the “Next” button to
continue.
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Step Three : Enter Recipient Criteria
You now need to find the subscribers that will be receiving the email campaign. Enter the
criteria you want your recipients to have. If you want all subscribers to receive this
campaign then click the “Next” button.
• Match All/Any Criteria – select whether you want your subscribers to match all or any of the
criteria you enter.
• Saved Query – you have the option to save lists of subscribers in the subscriber’s section and in
the next step. This drop down list will contain all previously saved queries.
• Subscriber’s From – You may have multiple web forms that populate your subscriber database.
This drop down list will contain all predefined forms set up through the Tool Setup section
• Subscriber’s Who Clicked – This drop down list will contain all previously sent campaigns.
Selecting one of these campaigns will return all users who clicked a link within that campaign.
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Step Four : Select Recipients
Once you have reached this step and your criteria has been entered, a quick send icon ( )
will appear next to the campaign on the “Campaigns” screen. Clicking this icon will send
you to the last “Review” screen, bypassing all other steps.
Results
If your search results in less than 500 subscribers then you will be able to select the
specific recipients from your results. Otherwise you will only be able to send the campaign
to all subscribers found in your search.
Save Subscriber Query
You can save your recipient list as a query in this step. If your search resulted in less than
500 subscribers then you can either save the entire list or only those subscribers you have
selected. You can then save this list of subscribers as a new query or over an existing query
by selecting it from the drop down list. If you are creating a new query you will be
prompted for the name you want to give the query.
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Step Five : Review the Campaign
Review your HTML and Plain Text version of the campaign before you send. You will see a
list of users that will receive each version of the campaign.
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Send the Campaign
Immediately
This option will send your email instantly. Your recipients will receive their email as soon
as the email leaves the server.
A Scheduled Time
When you click this option you will have to specify the time you would like to send the
campaign. The campaign will wait in the queue until the specified time.
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Errors and Send Failures
Whether it is a malformed email address or simply a time out issue, errors happen. For
every email that is sent a record is added to the database indicating that the user has been
sent the email. This prevents duplicates from being sent. If for some reason you encounter
an error you will see a repair icon ( ) next to the campaign and/or the “ERROR” link that
appears in the “Sent Date” field.
Clicking on this link will give you options on how you would like to complete the campaign.
You can remove the error by ignoring it or by completing the campaign.
• Complete this Campaign – clicking on this link will continue sending the campaign to the
remainder of the subscribers.
• Ignore this Error – clicking on this link will mark the campaign as complete and remove the error
from the campaign.
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Campaign Statistics
Clicks, recipients, unsubscribes and links contained within the campaign are all tracked and
can be accessed by clicking on the view icon ( ) next to the campaign name, the total number
sent, or the unique click count for each campaign.
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Campaign Clicks
This screen shows you all clicks that have occurred for the selected campaign.
• Link – The text that the user clicked on.
• URL – The address of the link that the user clicked.
• Subscriber – The subscriber who clicked on the link. Click on the magnifying glass ( ) to view
the subscriber’s campaign history or the subscriber’s name to view all data points collected for
him/her.
• First Visit – The first date the subscriber clicked on the link.
• Last Visit – The most recent date the subscriber clicked on the link.
• Clicks – The number of times the subscriber clicked on the link.
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Campaign Recipients
This screen shows you all subscribers that received the selected campaign.
• Subscriber – The subscribers name. Click on the magnifying glass ( ) to view the subscriber’s
history or click on their name to view all data points collected for him/her.
• Email – The email address of the subscriber.
• Version – Once a subscriber has clicked we can determine whether or not they receive the html
or plain text version of the campaign.
• Clicked – This checkbox indicates if the subscriber has clicked a link within the selected
campaign.
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Campaign Unsubscribes
This screen shows you all of the people who unsubscribed through this campaign.
• Subscriber – The subscribers name. Click on the magnifying glass ( ) to view the subscriber’s
history or click on their name to view all data points collected for him/her.
• Email – The email address of the subscriber.
• Date Unsubscribed – This date will help you determine how long after the campaign was sent did
the person unsubscribe.
Campaign Links
This screen shows you all links within the html version of the selected campaign.
• Link Text – the text that the user can click on that directs them to the URL.
• URL – The web address of the link within the selected campaign.
• Unique Visitors – The total number of unique visitors that clicked on this link.
• Total Clicks – The total number of times this link has been clicked.
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Subscribers
This screen displays all subscribers and their details.
Page Anatomy
Saving Results
After you have returned results from either a quick or advanced search you have the
option to save those results in a query. You can save over a current query by selecting
one form the drop down list and clicking the “Save Results” button or you can create a
new query by selecting “(New Query)” from the drop down list.
Sorting Subscribers
Alphabetically by Last Name – You can view subscribers by similar last names by
clicking on the alphabetical list at the top and bottom of the page subscriber page.
Specific Page Number – You can jump to a specific page of your subscribers at any time
by clicking the page numbers on the top of the subscriber page. You can also go to the
next and previous pages by clicking the “<< Previous Page” and “Next Page >>” buttons
at the top and bottom of the page.
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Page Functionality
Add a Subscriber
Add a subscriber quickly here. First Name, Last Name, and
Email Address are the only required fields. To add all fields
for a new subscriber click the “Advanced Add” link or the
Advanced Add tab in the top navigation.
Quick Search
You can find specific users by using the Quick Search
feature. You can search through all subscribers in the
database or only those listed in the subscriber table to the
right. Select the fields you would like to search by (First
Name, Last Name, and/or Email Address) and type your
criteria in the box at the bottom. You can type in partial
names or addresses and find all subscribers starting with
your criteria. You can also search using multiple criteria by
separating each with a comma.
Customize Results
Display Fields From – You can customize which fields you
want to display for each subscriber using this feature. This
is a list of customized forms and reports that have been set
up through the Tool Setup section.
Subscribers From – You can view subscribers that originated
from a specific source using this feature. This is a list of
customized field layouts that are used as subscription forms
on the web and that have been set up through the Tool
Setup section.
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Sub Navigation / Advanced Features
Export to Excel
Sometimes it is handy to have a list of particular subscribers in an Excel format. This
option allows you to customize what subscribers, what fields, and in what order you
want your excel report to appear.
• Subscribers – You can narrowed down your list of subscribers by using the search options on
the subscriber’s page and by selecting the “Results from Subscriber Page” option. This will
return only those subscribers that resulted from your search.
• Fields to Include – This is a list of all fields we are currently capturing from one source or
another. Select all fields that you would like displayed in your Excel report.
• Order By – You can select up to three fields you want you Excel report to be sorted by. Once
you are in Excel you can further order your criteria.
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Email Validation
SierraTech provides an additional service to validate your email addresses. We will run your
database through an email validator and then update your database with the results. If any
email addresses are flagged they will appear in this window. You can then inactivate or
delete subscribers based on their email status.
• Icons – to the left of each subscriber name there are three icons. An active checkbox ( ) where
you can activate/deactivate individual users, an update icon ( ) that sends you to the
subscribers personal details form, and a delete icon ( ) where you can delete individual users
from the database.
• Status – This field is the result of our validation. Examples of status include Bad syntax, Not exist
(SMTP), Not in DNS, and Unknown.
• Remove Options – All subscribers are ordered by status so that you can perform bulk actions
based on this status. You can either Delete or Inactivate Section. This will delete or inactivate
all subscribers that have that same status.
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Advanced Search
Clicking on this tab will pop up a search form in a new window. This search box is identical
to step three of the creation process. You can select your search criteria and sort order
through this form. Click the “Search” button to continue.
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Advanced Add
Clicking on this tab will pop up a subscription form in a new window. All starred items (*)
are required. When you have completed the form click the “submit” button.
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Subscriber Details and Campaign History
The icons beside each subscriber will take you to specific functions for that user. The edit
icon ( ) will pop up the subscriber form for you to modify subscriber details. The delete
icon ( ) will delete the subscriber from the database permanently. The magnifying icon
( ) will open the subscribers campaign history and click-throughs.
Campaigns Sent to Subscriber
This tab will display all campaigns that have been sent to the subscriber. For the
campaign details click on the magnifying glass beside the campaign name.
Clicked Campaigns
This tab will display all clicks for this subscriber. Click on the magnifying glass beside
the campaign to view it’s details.
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Campaign Add-Ins
Signature
The signature appears at the bottom of an email campaign. This usually includes the
author’s name or company name with links to your website.
Salutation
The salutation appears at the beginning of the email campaign and addresses your
subscribers individually by name.
Privacy Statement
The privacy statement appears as a link below the signature line.
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Global Add-Ins
Image Inventory
The Email Marketing and Newsletter Tools have access to the Image Inventory. Images
can be stored in the inventory and later inserted into templates, email campaigns, and
newsletter articles with the click of a button.
Templates
Templates are used as wrappers around email campaigns and newsletter issues. Once a
template has been created it is accessible from both the Email Marketing and
Newsletter Tools.
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Create or Modify a Template
Clicking on the edit icon ( ) or the “Add a Template” button will produce this screen:
• Template Name – Every template needs a unique name so that it can be identified from a
drop down menu.
• Template Type – If you are subscribed to the Newsletter tool this option allows you to select
whether the template is a Newsletter Issue (the newsletter’s Table of Contents page)
template, a Newsletter Article template, and/or an Email Campaign template.
• Display Authors & Descriptions – Once again this option only appears if you have access to
the Newsletter Tool. If this template is an Issue template or an Email template you will have
to decide whether or not you would like to display the article author and/or the article
description in the Table of Contents and the Newsletter Email.
• Active – Only active templates will appear in template drop down menus.
• Header HTML – This is the code that will appear BEFORE your content. You c an add
formatting and images from the right hand options in the same manner you add them in your
email campaign.
• Footer HTML – This is the code that will appear AFTER your content. Again, HTML formatting
and images from your image inventory can be added.
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Email Tool Setup
Form & Report Fields
This screen allows you to create and update forms and reports.
Forms are a collection of fields that are seen and used by the audience of your website. All
entries made through these forms are inserted directly into your subscriber database.
Reports are a collection of fields that are used by the tool to display information about users.
These reports are used in the subscriber section.
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Create New Form or Report
Clicking on this link will take you to the create form.
• Name – The name you want to assign the report or form. This should be as specific as possible so
that you will recognize it later.
• Type – Will this be a subscription form or a subscriber report? In other words, is this going to be
an input form for users subscribing to email updates from your web site or are you going to use
this collection of fields as a report view on the subscriber’s page?
• Fields – This is a list of all available fields. Select the fields you wish to appear in this form or
report.
• Inside Gray Box – If this is a form for your subscribers do you want it to appear in a box similar to
what is around this form?
• Check Email First – If this is a form for your subscribers would you like them to enter in their first
name, last name, and email address first to check if they are already subscribers?
• Table Alignment – Where do you want the table aligned? If it is inside the Gray Box we suggest
centering the table so the gray box will align in the center of the page.
• Left Column Alignment – The left column is where all of the input labels are located. This
includes the labels “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Email Address”, etc. These labels can all line up
on their left or they can line up to the right next to the input boxes. In the above image the left
column is aligned to their right.
• Wrap Field Names after Chr – Sometimes labels can be long. For example “Would you like to
subscribe to our monthly newsletter”. Putting a number in this field keeps the left column from
stretching as long as your longest label.
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Database Fields
In this section advanced users have the ability to modify field names and types as well as
deleting unwanted fields.
Administrators can add new fields by clicking the up or down arrows (to place a field above
or below) next to the field that will appear before/after.
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Technical Support
If you have any questions regarding information in this document or think you need help
through the Email Marketing tool give us a call or write us an email!
Phone: 512.453.1268
Fax: 512.453.1277
Email: info@sierratech.com
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