Your business must have the Scheduled Email Marketing feature enabled in order to use this module with a valid FROM email address identifying your business as the sender. If you don’t have a FROM email address we’ll issue one to you. Please check your Feature Dashboard to verify Scheduled Email Marketing has a green checkmark. If its red, click the red button to request enabling of the module.
Although not required your business should also have the Digital Coupons feature enabled to advertise redeemable offers or mobile friendly advertisements from inside your email marketing campaigns.
There are a few different design strategies you can take with email marketing and its helpful to understand the unique differences of each strategy to save you as much time as possible.
First, click MARKETING> Scheduled Email Marketing from the back office to get you to the right starting point. From here you have three (3) choices as follows:
If you choose the first option (1. Copy a previously sent campaign) then this means you have a campaign style and content you would like to copy and send again with appropriate customizations. Click View Campaigns from the Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and locate the campaign in your Sent list you want to copy. Mouse over the Action column and select the Copy icon as shown below. This action will load the previously saved campaign into the email marketing editor so you can apply customizations.
Please note campaigns in your View Campaigns list do not stay in your account forever. These campaigns are periodically purged after a year to clean out the database. This purge process is the main difference between a campaign and a template. Templates are stored permanently whereas campaigns are deleted after a period of time.
If you choose the 2nd option (2. Load a saved template (stock or customized) then you’re using a template that is stored in your permanent library. Click Create Email Campaign from Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and then select the Load Template button. From this screen you’ll be able to search a library of both free stock templates and templates you’ve customized and saved as a NEW TEMPLATE. Select the Load button under the appropriate template to load that specific template into your email marketing editor.
All stock templates available for free contain graphics and promotional content that is easily editable. In addition, stock templates feature {tags} in curly brackets that are designed to display values automatically at send time e.g., logo, phone number, website, social links. In many cases, its helpful for email marketers to load one of the available templates to start with a framework and customize from there.
If you choose the 3rd option (3. Build a new campaign from scratch then this means you’re planning to design a campaign from a blank slate with no layout or content. Click Create Email Campaign from the Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and you’ll be ready to start creating content.
When designing an email campaign you’ll be working extensively with the ‘drag and drop’ email editor on the right side of the screen. This editor is divided into 3 main sections as follows:
CONTENT: Contains content blocks designed for easy drag and drop with your mouse by selecting a block, holding it down while you drag it over to the left and drop it into place.
ROWS: Allows users to create different sections inside their campaign of various layout types. Content blocks are then dragged into the row elements.
SETTINGS: Controls attributes such as font colors, background colors, padding between cells, URLs linked to buttons and much more.
Content blocks represent your campaign’s content, including text copy, images, hyperlinked buttons and more. It takes a little while to get accustomed to working with the content blocks but after a few minutes you’ll be zipping, dragging and dropping like a pro. Select the type of content block you want to bring into your campaign by holding down the mouse click button and ‘dragging’ the block over to the left side (campaign area). Wait for a blue bar to display allowing you to let go with your mouse and ‘drop’ it into place.
Here is a brief overview of the various content blocks.
Text: This is a block of text that lets you manually type out sentences and paragraphs. All your text copy will be typed into text blocks.
Image: Images are photos or images you upload from your own files or search a free library of royalty free images that are available to insert into your campaign.
Button: Buttons are designed to be tapped or clicked for a call to action including hyperlinking to a webpage, sending a message or placing a call. Users customize and configure button properties in the Settings section.
Divider: Dividers place a horizontal line into your campaign to divide sections from each other for ease of user viewing.
Social: The social block enables users to add social links manually to their campaigns. However, this block is usually unnecessary because users can add the {social} or {social_lg) tag anywhere inside a text block to automatically generate social links as configured in MARKETING> Social Media Links.
HTML: This block is appropriate for more technical users and digital marketers for adding their own HTML code to a campaign for graphical, technical or analytical purposes.
Video: Add a thumbnail and link to video hosted somewhere else (Vimeo, YouTube etc.) by dragging the video block into your campaign.
Countdown Timer: The countdown timer helps users create urgency in their campaign by showing a live countdown in days/hours/minutes displayed on screen. Countdown timers are ideal for promoting an upcoming event or product that has limited shelf life to encourage visits or conversions.
GIFS: The GIFs block opens a free library of animated photos users can drop into their campaigns to increase engagement.
Stickers: Similar to GIFs, stickers offer a free library of animated clip art to add some playful fun to your campaign.
Rows are the foundational building blocks of your campaign and provide formatting flexibility to individual elements inside your campaign. Tap the ROWS tab in the email editing toolbar and you’ll see several different row formats.
Think of rows as the ‘house structure’ of your campaign with content blocks as ‘rooms’ inside that house that can be independently decorated. Select a row format from the editing toolbar and drag and drop it into your campaign to see how this works. After your row is dropped into place, click the CONTENT tab and drag a content block inside the row. You can try this with a basic text block or an image to get the hang of it. The important takeaway to remember is the content blocks are dropped into the appropriate row cell. By dragging rows into place and then dragging content blocks into the rows you can build a custom campaign from scratch in minutes.
Let’s look at a simple example campaign and dissect the rows and content blocks more closely.
In the above example, the top block is a row with 1 long rectangle and a text block dropped inside it with the tagline “TRY OUR BURGER SPECIAL FOR 10.99”. There is a design advantage for inserting a content block into a row as opposed to dragging and dropping an individual content block outside of a row-- you will have more control over style and settings. Notice how this top row is colored black with white text that is separate from the rest of the campaign with a white colored background.
When you setup rows correctly with content blocks dropped inside the rows users can click outside the block in the outer whitespace to isolate the row’s properties. You’ll know you did this right when you see the little trash can / copy icon displaying in blue. Then over on the right side, users can customize the row’s elements such as changing the background color black for this specific row. The user then clicked inside the text block, highlighted the text copy and used the popup editing toolbar to change the text color white so it contrasts nicely against the black background.
The next block in the campaign is a row with 2 identical cell widths flanking right and left. The user then dragged a text block into the left cell and dragged an image block into the right cell.
The next element underneath is a row with 3 identical width cells: left, middle and right. The user dragged a button content block into each individual row cell. When clicking inside a button, you’ll be able to edit the text label on the button and style the font. You’ll also see options on the right side editing toolbar to configure the button’s properties such as hyperlinking to a specific webpage or calling a specific phone number. Lastly, the user dragged divider blocks (horizontal lines) to the top and bottom of this row to provide cleaner separation inside this campaign.
The final section has another text block followed by a divider followed by some tags in curly {brackets} that perform an automated function. In this case, the {logo} tag will automatically display the business logo as configured in SETTINGS> Business Profile. The {phone} tag drops in the merchant’s phone number and {social_lg} automatically adds the merchant’s social media links in super-sized format for maximum clarity as configured in MARKETING> Social Media Links.
Click the Show Tags button above the campaign editing screen anytime to see the tags available that can be added to your campaign along with a brief description.
Tags are used to automatically insert a specific value or perform a function to save precious time. For example, why bother manually configuring and hyperlinking social media buttons inside your campaign when you can just drop in {social_lg} and the links automatically display and link to the proper social site automatically.
A digital coupon adds a redeemable ‘clickbait’ image announcing your offer inside your campaign. We recommend reading our article, How to Create and Deploy Digital Coupon Offers for more guidance on this strategy.
Once you’re comfortable how to add coupons, click the Add Coupon blue button and tap it. This action will bring up the standard coupon dialog window. Tap the Load button to pull up a list of all available offers already created in MARKETING > Digital Coupon Offers or start building a brand new offer from scratch. When using the Load button, highlight the offer you want to activate and press the Select button. Then repeat as necessary if you want to add a 2nd or 3rd offer. You can add multiple digital coupon offers to the same campaign. The deal themes will stack on top of each other wherever the {coupon} tag is located inside the campaign.
After configuring your digital coupons you must add the {coupon} tag to your campaign. You can insert this tag anywhere inside any text block where you want your digital coupons to start displaying. This is the step that officially activates the {coupon} tag in curly brackets inside email or text message campaigns and displays the graphical deal theme wrapper.
We recommend using the Preview button above your campaign area to review how your campaign looks from both desktop and mobile devices. Previewing your campaign gives you an opportunity to see how it will generally look when received by recipients. When you are happy with the preview, use the Test Your Campaign utility to enter your email address and send yourself or your colleagues’ a test email to review inside the inbox.
Your Recipients box shows all subscriber lists available, including lists generated and refreshed daily by the system and separately uploaded lists that have been imported into your account. You can view all available subscriber lists and a description of each virtual list we maintain for you from Scheduled Email Marketing> View Lists.
Select and highlight the recipients you wish to target with this campaign. You may hold down the control key and select more then one list to send. You’ll find the All Opted In Email list at the very top of the Recipient box. All Opted In emails includes every unique email address inside your patron database from all sources combined. This list covers everybody.
There are two (2) save options as follows:
Save Draft to Campaigns: This option saves the campaign to your View Campaigns page as a draft. Campaigns inside this view are purged from the database after 1 year.
OR
Save as New Template: This option saves the campaign to your permanent template library that is never purged. When selecting this option you’ll always be able to find your campaign when selecting the Load Template button.
And that covers the basics for how to create and edit an email campaign. You’re ready to schedule your campaign for delivery which you can do in the Send Schedule field area when ready.
This article covers how to edit an existing scheduled email campaign or create a brand new email marketing campaign to deliver to recipients’ inboxes.
Your business must have the Scheduled Email Marketing feature enabled in order to use this module with a valid FROM email address identifying your business as the sender. If you don’t have a FROM email address we’ll issue one to you. Please check your Feature Dashboard to verify Scheduled Email Marketing has a green checkmark. If its red, click the red button to request enabling of the module.
Although not required your business should also have the Digital Coupons feature enabled to advertise redeemable offers or mobile friendly advertisements from inside your email marketing campaigns.
There are a few different design strategies you can take with email marketing and its helpful to understand the unique differences of each strategy to save you as much time as possible.
First, click MARKETING> Scheduled Email Marketing from the back office to get you to the right starting point. From here you have three (3) choices as follows:
If you choose the first option (1. Copy a previously sent campaign) then this means you have a campaign style and content you would like to copy and send again with appropriate customizations. Click View Campaigns from the Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and locate the campaign in your Sent list you want to copy. Mouse over the Action column and select the Copy icon as shown below. This action will load the previously saved campaign into the email marketing editor so you can apply customizations.
Please note campaigns in your View Campaigns list do not stay in your account forever. These campaigns are periodically purged after a year to clean out the database. This purge process is the main difference between a campaign and a template. Templates are stored permanently whereas campaigns are deleted after a period of time.
If you choose the 2nd option (2. Load a saved template (stock or customized) then you’re using a template that is stored in your permanent library. Click Create Email Campaign from Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and then select the Load Template button. From this screen you’ll be able to search a library of both free stock templates and templates you’ve customized and saved as a NEW TEMPLATE. Select the Load button under the appropriate template to load that specific template into your email marketing editor.
All stock templates available for free contain graphics and promotional content that is easily editable. In addition, stock templates feature {tags} in curly brackets that are designed to display values automatically at send time e.g., logo, phone number, website, social links. In many cases, its helpful for email marketers to load one of the available templates to start with a framework and customize from there.
If you choose the 3rd option (3. Build a new campaign from scratch then this means you’re planning to design a campaign from a blank slate with no layout or content. Click Create Email Campaign from the Scheduled Email Marketing menu page and you’ll be ready to start creating content.
When designing an email campaign you’ll be working extensively with the ‘drag and drop’ email editor on the right side of the screen. This editor is divided into 3 main sections as follows:
CONTENT: Contains content blocks designed for easy drag and drop with your mouse by selecting a block, holding it down while you drag it over to the left and drop it into place.
ROWS: Allows users to create different sections inside their campaign of various layout types. Content blocks are then dragged into the row elements.
SETTINGS: Controls attributes such as font colors, background colors, padding between cells, URLs linked to buttons and much more.
Content blocks represent your campaign’s content, including text copy, images, hyperlinked buttons and more. It takes a little while to get accustomed to working with the content blocks but after a few minutes you’ll be zipping, dragging and dropping like a pro. Select the type of content block you want to bring into your campaign by holding down the mouse click button and ‘dragging’ the block over to the left side (campaign area). Wait for a blue bar to display allowing you to let go with your mouse and ‘drop’ it into place.
Here is a brief overview of the various content blocks.
Text: This is a block of text that lets you manually type out sentences and paragraphs. All your text copy will be typed into text blocks.
Image: Images are photos or images you upload from your own files or search a free library of royalty free images that are available to insert into your campaign.
Button: Buttons are designed to be tapped or clicked for a call to action including hyperlinking to a webpage, sending a message or placing a call. Users customize and configure button properties in the Settings section.
Divider: Dividers place a horizontal line into your campaign to divide sections from each other for ease of user viewing.
Social: The social block enables users to add social links manually to their campaigns. However, this block is usually unnecessary because users can add the {social} or {social_lg) tag anywhere inside a text block to automatically generate social links as configured in MARKETING> Social Media Links.
HTML: This block is appropriate for more technical users and digital marketers for adding their own HTML code to a campaign for graphical, technical or analytical purposes.
Video: Add a thumbnail and link to video hosted somewhere else (Vimeo, YouTube etc.) by dragging the video block into your campaign.
Countdown Timer: The countdown timer helps users create urgency in their campaign by showing a live countdown in days/hours/minutes displayed on screen. Countdown timers are ideal for promoting an upcoming event or product that has limited shelf life to encourage visits or conversions.
GIFS: The GIFs block opens a free library of animated photos users can drop into their campaigns to increase engagement.
Stickers: Similar to GIFs, stickers offer a free library of animated clip art to add some playful fun to your campaign.
Rows are the foundational building blocks of your campaign and provide formatting flexibility to individual elements inside your campaign. Tap the ROWS tab in the email editing toolbar and you’ll see several different row formats.
Think of rows as the ‘house structure’ of your campaign with content blocks as ‘rooms’ inside that house that can be independently decorated. Select a row format from the editing toolbar and drag and drop it into your campaign to see how this works. After your row is dropped into place, click the CONTENT tab and drag a content block inside the row. You can try this with a basic text block or an image to get the hang of it. The important takeaway to remember is the content blocks are dropped into the appropriate row cell. By dragging rows into place and then dragging content blocks into the rows you can build a custom campaign from scratch in minutes.
Let’s look at a simple example campaign and dissect the rows and content blocks more closely.
In the above example, the top block is a row with 1 long rectangle and a text block dropped inside it with the tagline “TRY OUR BURGER SPECIAL FOR 10.99”. There is a design advantage for inserting a content block into a row as opposed to dragging and dropping an individual content block outside of a row-- you will have more control over style and settings. Notice how this top row is colored black with white text that is separate from the rest of the campaign with a white colored background.
When you setup rows correctly with content blocks dropped inside the rows users can click outside the block in the outer whitespace to isolate the row’s properties. You’ll know you did this right when you see the little trash can / copy icon displaying in blue. Then over on the right side, users can customize the row’s elements such as changing the background color black for this specific row. The user then clicked inside the text block, highlighted the text copy and used the popup editing toolbar to change the text color white so it contrasts nicely against the black background.
The next block in the campaign is a row with 2 identical cell widths flanking right and left. The user then dragged a text block into the left cell and dragged an image block into the right cell.
The next element underneath is a row with 3 identical width cells: left, middle and right. The user dragged a button content block into each individual row cell. When clicking inside a button, you’ll be able to edit the text label on the button and style the font. You’ll also see options on the right side editing toolbar to configure the button’s properties such as hyperlinking to a specific webpage or calling a specific phone number. Lastly, the user dragged divider blocks (horizontal lines) to the top and bottom of this row to provide cleaner separation inside this campaign.
The final section has another text block followed by a divider followed by some tags in curly {brackets} that perform an automated function. In this case, the {logo} tag will automatically display the business logo as configured in SETTINGS> Business Profile. The {phone} tag drops in the merchant’s phone number and {social_lg} automatically adds the merchant’s social media links in super-sized format for maximum clarity as configured in MARKETING> Social Media Links.
Click the Show Tags button above the campaign editing screen anytime to see the tags available that can be added to your campaign along with a brief description.
Tags are used to automatically insert a specific value or perform a function to save precious time. For example, why bother manually configuring and hyperlinking social media buttons inside your campaign when you can just drop in {social_lg} and the links automatically display and link to the proper social site automatically.
A digital coupon adds a redeemable ‘clickbait’ image announcing your offer inside your campaign. We recommend reading our article, How to Create and Deploy Digital Coupon Offers for more guidance on this strategy.
Once you’re comfortable how to add coupons, click the Add Coupon blue button and tap it. This action will bring up the standard coupon dialog window. Tap the Load button to pull up a list of all available offers already created in MARKETING > Digital Coupon Offers or start building a brand new offer from scratch. When using the Load button, highlight the offer you want to activate and press the Select button. Then repeat as necessary if you want to add a 2nd or 3rd offer. You can add multiple digital coupon offers to the same campaign. The deal themes will stack on top of each other wherever the {coupon} tag is located inside the campaign.
After configuring your digital coupons you must add the {coupon} tag to your campaign. You can insert this tag anywhere inside any text block where you want your digital coupons to start displaying. This is the step that officially activates the {coupon} tag in curly brackets inside email or text message campaigns and displays the graphical deal theme wrapper.
We recommend using the Preview button above your campaign area to review how your campaign looks from both desktop and mobile devices. Previewing your campaign gives you an opportunity to see how it will generally look when received by recipients. When you are happy with the preview, use the Test Your Campaign utility to enter your email address and send yourself or your colleagues’ a test email to review inside the inbox.
Your Recipients box shows all subscriber lists available, including lists generated and refreshed daily by the system and separately uploaded lists that have been imported into your account. You can view all available subscriber lists and a description of each virtual list we maintain for you from Scheduled Email Marketing> View Lists.
Select and highlight the recipients you wish to target with this campaign. You may hold down the control key and select more then one list to send. You’ll find the All Opted In Email list at the very top of the Recipient box. All Opted In emails includes every unique email address inside your patron database from all sources combined. This list covers everybody.
There are two (2) save options as follows:
Save Draft to Campaigns: This option saves the campaign to your View Campaigns page as a draft. Campaigns inside this view are purged from the database after 1 year.
OR
Save as New Template: This option saves the campaign to your permanent template library that is never purged. When selecting this option you’ll always be able to find your campaign when selecting the Load Template button.
And that covers the basics for how to create and edit an email campaign. You’re ready to schedule your campaign for delivery which you can do in the Send Schedule field area when ready.
