Broadcast Email

How to

1. Access Broadcast Email
2. Use the Manager Options Menu
   
3. Create or Edit a Broadcast Email
4. Select Email Recipients
   • Selecting Additional Recipients
   • Use Registration Form CSV files to add Additional Users
5. Create the Email Message
   • HTML
     
   • Plain Text version
6. Send

Accessing Broadcast Email

To use Broadcast Email you must be logged in with the administrator toolbar visible across the top of your screen. Select the  button (please note, this button has been renamed Applications in some versions of Aplinx) and then Broadcast Email from the drop down menu on the left of your screen to load the Broadcast Email Manager.

The Manager will look similar to the one below, showing each of the existing Broadcast Emails.

The Manager Options menu appears on the left side of the screen.

Up to ten objects will appear on each page of the Manager. When more than ten Broadcast Email objects exist in a folder, the top of the Manager will change. Forward and back arrows allow movement through the pages. The drop down list shows the ID numbers for the objects on each page.

The Manager Options Menu

When viewing both User and Group recipient list you should see a table much like in the example below. If an individual has been added to the recipient list for a Broadcast Email more than once, or they belong to more than one user group, duplicates will automatically be removed.

Creating or Editing a Broadcast Email

To make a new object in the Manager click 'Create Message' from the Manager Options Menu to begin setting up your email.

To edit an existing Broadcast Email, select the radio button next to that object's ID number and click 'Edit' from the Manager Options Menu.

Setup

This first screen to load, when creating or editing Broadcast Emails, shows options relating to the preperation stage of the email (basically everything minus who you're sending to).

Please note:

Not all Email clients can display HTML messages or might display them incorrectly.

Please make sure that you send yourself a copy of the email to check the content and layout before you send it to other people.

Use the tabs at the top of this object in order to switch to the 'Users' screen and others.

Selecting Broadcast Email Recipients

Clicking on the Recipients or Groups tab allows you to choose individual people or recipient groups you wish to email. By clicking 'Add Recipient' or 'Add Group' from the menu on the left of the Options screen, you can easily and intuitively choose large numbers of people within your applications user listing.

Dynamic Lists

Registration groups allows you to select dynamic (changing) user lists. When people enter their details into the Registration Form manager they have the option of entering themselves into a group. When you click the "Add Registration Group" button whilst inside Broadcast Email you will see a list of groups that have been defined for your Registration Groups. When you choose one of these groups, only users who have selected that group will be sent an email. If you select multiple groups, duplicates will be automatically removed.

Additional Recipients - entered manually

A new feature of broadcast email allows you to manually enter additional email recipients and addresses, that are not already stored in the database of your system. Recipients and addresses that are added in this manner are never stored in the database for later use. They must be added at the time when the Broadcast Email is sent.

Once again: Please make sure you are familiar with the Australian Spam Act 2003 before manually adding new recipients and sending your email.

Please use Caution to save time: If you select the 'Save' button after entering information for Additional Users, all Additional User information will be lost.
If Additional Users are required please do this as the last step prior to sending the Broadcast Email.
After selecting 'Send' the email will be compiled and delivered to all Recipients, Groups and Additional Users. Information for manually added recipients will still not be saved after the Broadcast Email has been delivered.
Responses and Graph information may also not be available for recipients added via this method.

To manually add recipients, select the last tab on the Broadcast Email Manager called 'Additional Users' (shown below). Highlighted in green, you should see an example showing the format required for all manually entered recipients. The format is 'email address', 'first name' followed by 'last name'.

Enter the required infomation in the text box.

Example:  user@domain.com,firstname,lastname
No spaces are required between each of the details. Each Additional User should be placed on their own line in the text box.

Select the 'Send' button to deliver the Broadcast Email to the recipients you have entered.

Using Registration Form CSV file output to add Additional Users

You may wish to sort contact details for users who register on your website via a Registration Form. For more information on exporting form data, please see the section on Exporting from Registration Forms in this Manual.

Once you have exported form data from a Registration form, the data may be sorted. It is recommended that for this process, you use a spreadsheet like application (for example Excel) for this process. Below, you will see the differing manners in which various programs display the data.

Regardless of which program you choose, if you have decided to use Email Personalisation, you will need an end result that shows each of email, firstname and surname (as required). (if personalisation is not being used, skip this step and continue to copy from CSV, below.

In the above example, to create this format, you would need to highlight column D, then cut (CTRL + X), followed by highlighting column A and paste (CTRL + V).

This process results in the following:

The next step in formatting this data for the Broadcast Email, is to add commas between each of the email, firstname and surname fields. To do this:

1. Highlight column B
2. Right Click and select insert
   This will add a column in between Email and Firstname.
3. Insert a comma into the top cell of the new column, then copy this down (see image beow) until all rows with data contain a comma.
   
4. Repeat these steps, to insert commas between first and surnames (as required).

You will now have up to five columns (two containing commas) that may be copied into the Additional Users section of a broadcast email.

Copy Contacts from CSV

Once you have the required layout in the CSV file, simply highlight and copy the required contact's data.

When Email Personalisation is not being used, just copy the details in the email column of your CSV file. (Please Note: If you are using a plain text program such as Notepad to view the CSV file, you will not be able to select specific columns of data.)

Paste the data you have copied into the Additional Users field for the Broadcast Email (remembering these names and email addresses do not save when you save or send the file). The image below shows a correct usage of the above CSV file, with each user's details on an individual line. There is no need to worry about additional spacing between values, as these are ignored.

Creating the Message

Plain text emails do not have any colours, images or tables associated with it (which is referred to as a HTML message)

but is generally the safest way to send your E-mails as most spam-filters will automatically block E-mails with large amounts of HTML within them. In addition, it is an exceptionally good idea to send a Text-Email with your HTML one in case an email client that you are sending to can not view HTML emails.

HTML

The HTML version of your Broadcast Email is created as an ordinary site page in the Page Manager. A Masterpage may be applied - this will by default match the rest of your site, or may be altered and set via the properties options in the Page Manager. Articles inserted onto the page are created in the Article Editor.

To select the page click 'Page to Send' (see image at right). The Page Manager will load. Select the ID number next to the desired page.

Click the 'View' button to ensure you have selected the correct link from the Page Manager. If you have selected the wrong page, simply repeat the previous step to open the Page Manager.

Once a HTML page has been selected as part of the Broadcast Email it cannot be removed. If you wish to send Plain Text only, you will need to re-create a new Broadcast Email in the Manager.

Text Email

To create the plain text version of your message, click on the Text Email tab in the Broadcast Email options screen. Enter the message into the text box.

If you have also provided a HTML version of your Broadcast Email, it is a good idea to include a link to the http address location. If you are unsure of the full address, refer to the Page Manager. Visit the message page in an Internet browser and copy the exact link from the address bar. Paste this address into the Text Email box in your Broadcast Email.

Email Personalisation

Select the Personalisation Tab to enable personalisation of the email you are sending. The following images shows the Personalisation screen:

To enable, you will need to take the following two steps:

1. Ensure the Enable Personalisation checkbox is ticked when the broadcast email is sent.
2. Use the fields (shown on this screen in bold text) in the email:
   • ::firstname:: the user's first name will appear where this occurs in the text of the email.
   • ::lastname:: the user's last name will appear where this occurs in the text of the email.
   • ::email_address:: the user's email address will appear where this occurs in the text of the email.

Please Note: Email Personalisation may not be used in the TEXT EMAIL version. Substitution of the correct personalised values will only occur when you have used these special fields in the page selected in the SETUP tab.

An example of how this feature can be used:

If you do not know the first and surname of a number of broadcast email recipients, it is recommended that these fields not be used in the email's text.

Saving and Sending

When creating your Broadcast Email before you are ready to send it, use the 'Save' button at the bottom of the options box.

Clicking the 'Send' button instead, will deliver the message to the selected recipients.

Once a Broadcast Email has been sent the Manager will reload. If this is the first Broadcast Email sent by your site, a new column showing the time the emails are sent will be filled in. Statistics above the Manager will also be updated. In the example below one plain text email was delivered to a single recipient. Please be aware of the size of the email you are sending. Large files will not only chew up your bandwidth, but also that of your email recipients. Some users and their email clients may also not recieve emails that are too large.