Editing Email Newsletter Templates

tosd — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:42:51 +0000

Newsletter templates have default headings, images and text that act as placeholders. They are there to help users make sense of the layout and to carry important styling information . The result is that in principle all that is required to edit these templates with the supplied WYSIWYG editor is to update the headings, replace the images and edit the content. In practice however, there are a few tricks that can save a little frustration.

1. Editing text

To control the appearance of your text a Newsletter template has invisible styling information that is embedded in tags at the start and end of each paragraph. Simply highlighting and deleting the marker text and replacing it with your new content can have the undesired effect of deleting the styling information as well. The result is that the text may no longer have the same font, colour and size as the original template.

The following example demonstrates the problem. The sequence from Fig 1 to Fig 3 show what may happen when the entire paragraph is deleted. It is usually not a pretty sight. As you can see all the original styling information has been overwritten.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

One way to overcome this is to not delete the entire paragraph. Instead highlight only that part of the text between the first and last letters before you hit delete (Fig 1). The result is shown in (Fig 2) Note that the “M” that started the paragraph and the “s” that finished it are still in place.

Fig 4

Fig 5

It is then just a matter of clicking between (in this case) the “M” and “s” and typing the new text (Fig 3)

Fig 6

Finally click your cursor AFTER the first letter and use the Backspace key to delete it and BEFORE the last letter using the Del key to remove it. The result is in (Fig 4)

Fig 7

It looks like a bit of a fiddle at first but it soon becomes second nature … and it certainly reduces the frustration factor.

Note: This same technique is equally applicable to headings and text hyperlinks.

2. Replacing “Placemarker” Images

This is a simpler process. The main thing to watch is that the image is correctly prepared before it is uploaded. For the web that means that the image should be set to a resolution of 72 or 96 dpi. In terms of its size, you can gauge this by checking the size of the placemarker image (right click on the image – select “Modify Image Properties …” and you will see the width and height). In general try and keep images to the same width as the placemarker.

SendStudio Email Newsletter Marketing – Quick Start Guide

tosd — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:39:18 +0000

The following guidelines have been prepared to help get you up and running with your first email marketing campaign as quickly as possible. If you need further information please refer to the detailed user manual.

Access

URL: http://www.tosd.com.au/sendstudionx/admin/index.php
Username: yourusername
Password: yourpassword

If you don’t know your Username and Password contact TOSD.

Overview

The Email Newsletter Marketing centres around “Subscribers”, who join a “Mailing List”, which is in turn assigned to an “Email Campaign”. The Email Campaign is the actual mailout.

Subscribers can be added manually, or via a web site subscription form. Subscriptions are automatically managed, meaning that users can subscribe and unsubscribe (from the link in every newsletter) without reference to yourself. In this way your mailing list is essentially self managing.

Templates

When you create an email campaign the newsletter is based on a template. This makes it easy to prepare the newsletter and also ensures that it goes out in a form that can be correctly read by the majority of email applications. Usually there are one or more templates available for your selection when you create a new campaign. If your business requires additional templates contact TOSD.

First Steps

1. Add the initial subscribers.

Access admin (see above)
Go to Subscribers / Add subscribers to add customers one at a time, or Subscribers / Import subscribers to import a mailing list in bulk. If you need assistance with this contact TOSD.

2. Test subscription form

TOSD will have set up a newsletter subscription form on your web site. Add at least one subscription (e.g. your own details) to this form to check its operation. Once you have submitted your details the system will email you a confimation link. This must be clicked on to complete the subscription. It is a security precaution to ensure that a real person is signing up as opposed to an automated spambot.

3. Create an Email Campaign

Select Email Campaigns / Create Email Campaign
Give it a name e.g. Update Dec ’07 or whatever
Select a template
Replace the template content (text and images)with your own (this will not overwrite the template)
- Note: at the top left of the editor icon bar there is an icon that allows you to view and edit the newsletter in a full screen. When you have finished editing you will need to click the same icon again to return to the view with the “Save” buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Save the Newsletter at intervals while you are working on it.
In the ‘Email Validation’ section click on each of the two buttons to check your newsletter for words that may trigger SPAM traps and to ensure that it presents correctly in each of the common email clients listed. Both these checks are important to ensure the maximum open rate for your mailout.
When it is done send a test preview to your own email address.
Save to finish when you are satisfied.

4. Suggestions
Before you send your first mailout ask TOSD to check it.

It is also recommended to have a test subscriber list that has your own email address and details as a subscriber. This enables you to do a ‘real’ test sending. Much better to find a problem this way that send out a campaign to thousands of subscribers on your main list only to find out when it is too late that it had a problem. With email marketing testing is vital.

5. Send the email Campaign

Select Email Campaigns / Send Email Campaign
The first screen gives you the option to select some of your subscribers based on certain criteria. If you want to sent to all subscribers on your list click [next]
Select the Email Campaign (the one you just created)
Select the Firstname field (usually ‘First name’ from the pull down box to personalise the email.
Uncheck (deselect) “Embed Images” – this is important.
Click [next] then [Yes, send this campaign]

The sending is scheduled. It is not immediate. The actual time it will be sent is indicated onscreen.

The Online Shop Designer Blog » email newsletter

Editing Email Newsletter Templates

SendStudio Email Newsletter Marketing – Quick Start Guide