EmailForge UserGuide Last En

EmailForge4 Userguide

30/09/2014

2

EmailForge 4 User Guide

March 2015

Summary

Welcome .............................................................................................................................. 7

Thank you for choosing Splio EmailForge 4 ...................................................................... 7

Getting started ..................................................................................................................... 7

Connecting to EmailForge 4 .................................................................................................. 7

Login zone ............................................................................................................................................. 7

Getting around ......................................................................................................................... 8

Top bar .................................................................................................................................................. 8

Quick access buttons ......................................................................................................................... 9

Left menu .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Front page dashboard ..................................................................................................................... 10

Recent campaigns ........................................................................................................................... 10

Billing information .............................................................................................................................. 11

Campaign Manager .............................................................................................................. 11

Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Settings ................................................................................................................................ 13

Configuring your account .................................................................................................... 13

Configuring SPF and DKIM ............................................................................................................... 13

Two steps authentication ................................................................................................................. 14

Global options ................................................................................................................................... 14

Personal options ................................................................................................................................ 15

Managing user permissions ................................................................................................... 15

Permission levels ................................................................................................................................. 15

Social Settings .......................................................................................................................... 16

Facebook ............................................................................................................................................ 16

Twitter ................................................................................................................................................... 17

Alert centre .............................................................................................................................. 17

Alert categories and events............................................................................................................ 18

Create a new alert ........................................................................................................................... 18

3


March 2015

Edit an existing alert .......................................................................................................................... 18

Delete an existing alert .................................................................................................................... 19

Campaign moderation ......................................................................................................... 19

Couponing ............................................................................................................................... 20

Databases ........................................................................................................................... 22

Managing your database .................................................................................................... 22

Importing new contacts ........................................................................................................ 22

Preparing your file ............................................................................................................................. 22

Importing an export from another platform ................................................................................ 23

Database vs. temporary file ............................................................................................................ 24

Supported mobile numbers format ............................................................................................... 24

Mapping your fields .......................................................................................................................... 25

Subscribing imported users to lists .................................................................................................. 26

Upload history .................................................................................................................................... 26

Fields and fulfilment rate .................................................................................................................. 27

Messages ............................................................................................................................ 28

Message types & libraries ...................................................................................................... 28

Email library ......................................................................................................................................... 28

SMS library ........................................................................................................................................... 29

SMS message creation .......................................................................................................... 29

HTML message creation ........................................................................................................ 30

Header & statistics parameters ...................................................................................................... 30

HTML Message options ..................................................................................................................... 30

Inbox preview ..................................................................................................................................... 32

Text version ......................................................................................................................................... 32

HTML Templates ....................................................................................................................... 33

Preparing the file ............................................................................................................................... 33

Creating a template......................................................................................................................... 33

Using a template ............................................................................................................................... 33

Using variables in your messages ........................................................................................ 36

Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only)........................................................................ 36

4


March 2015

Date variables (email and SMS) ..................................................................................................... 37

Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns only) ............................................... 38

Social Sharing Buttons (email only) ................................................................................................ 38

Last click category ............................................................................................................................ 39

Sending ID ........................................................................................................................................... 40

URL variable prefix ............................................................................................................................. 40

Conditional blocks in HTML emails ...................................................................................... 40

What are conditional blocks?......................................................................................................... 40

CB for personalisation ....................................................................................................................... 41

CB for content .................................................................................................................................... 41

Control structures .............................................................................................................................. 42

Operators ............................................................................................................................................ 43

Tips ........................................................................................................................................................ 44

More examples .................................................................................................................................. 44

Testing conditional blocks and personalisation preview................................................ 45

Preview and Simulate tool ............................................................................................................... 45

Campaigns ......................................................................................................................... 48

Campaign Types ............................................................................................................................... 48

The process ......................................................................................................................................... 48

Creating a new campaign .................................................................................................. 48

Email campaign ................................................................................................................................ 48

SMS Campaign .................................................................................................................................. 52

Social Campaign .............................................................................................................................. 55

Facebook Meta tags ........................................................................................................................ 57

A/B testing ................................................................................................................................ 57

Testing your campaigns performance ........................................................................................ 57

A/B test setup ..................................................................................................................................... 57

A/B test edition .................................................................................................................................. 58

Selecting several messages ............................................................................................................ 59

Control group .......................................................................................................................... 59

Testing your populations behaviour ............................................................................................. 59

5


March 2015

Creating automatic campaigns ......................................................................................... 60

Automatic email campaign ........................................................................................................... 61

Triggered campaigns ............................................................................................................. 62

Automatic SMS campaign .............................................................................................................. 63

Monitoring automatic campaigns ................................................................................................. 64

Follow-up campaigns ............................................................................................................ 64

Setting up a reminder (follow-up) .................................................................................................. 64

Setting up a cross-channel follow-up ............................................................................................ 65

Segmentation ..................................................................................................................... 66

What is a segment (aka group)? ........................................................................................ 66

Interface .............................................................................................................................................. 68

.............................................................................................................................................................. 68

Conditions and counting ................................................................................................................. 70

Segments and folders in campaigns ............................................................................................. 71

Creating your first segment ............................................................................................................. 71

Gender based segment .................................................................................................................. 72

Using dates in segmentation ........................................................................................................... 72

Segmentation on a single list .......................................................................................................... 73

Welcome segment ........................................................................................................................... 73

Birthday segment .............................................................................................................................. 74

Interval segment ................................................................................................................................ 74

Segment by occurrence of past and future dates .................................................................... 74

Segments by age range .................................................................................................................. 75

Intersecting segments ...................................................................................................................... 75

Marketing fatigue .............................................................................................................................. 76

Email Retargeting ................................................................................................................... 76

Basic segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 76

Advanced segmentation ................................................................................................................ 78

Managing Marketing Fatigue ......................................................................................................... 80

Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 82

Campaign statistics (email) .................................................................................................. 82

6


March 2015

General statistics ............................................................................................................................... 83

Delivery status .................................................................................................................................... 84

Opening & clicks per hour ............................................................................................................... 85

Email agents ....................................................................................................................................... 85

Mobile platforms ................................................................................................................................ 86

Top unsubscribe reasons .................................................................................................................. 86

Queue evolution................................................................................................................................ 87

Recipients targeted .......................................................................................................................... 88

Advanced Email statistics ................................................................................................................ 88

Extract data from campaigns ........................................................................................................ 89

SMS statistics ....................................................................................................................................... 91

Mobile reports .................................................................................................................................... 91

Segments performance ........................................................................................................ 91

Group evolution ................................................................................................................................. 92

Reactivity evolution .......................................................................................................................... 92

Social reports ........................................................................................................................... 92

Facebook reports .............................................................................................................................. 92

Twitter reports ..................................................................................................................................... 93

Forward integration ................................................................................................................ 93

Support ................................................................................................................................ 94

Cant find what youre looking for? ................................................................................... 94

Contact us .......................................................................................................................................... 94

International support contacts ............................................................................................ 94

7


March 2015

Welcome

Thank you for choosing Splio EmailForge 4

Welcome to EmailForge 4, the most powerful multichannel campaign management

platform on the market. This comprehensive user guide will walk you through the

various options and possibilities of EmailForge 4. Please make sure you are reading the

latest version by checking any available update in EmailForges contact section.

If you want to learn more about content customization, templates or read expert

guides about e-marketing, please make sure to check our website at

http://www.splio.com or contact your account manager to ask for our white papers,

guides and walkthroughs.

In order to improve the readability of this document, we will sometimes refer to

EmailForge 4 as EF4.

Getting started

Connecting to EmailForge 4

Login zone

To connect to EF4, simply go to https://www.splio.com/pl/login-e4/

If you havent received your administrator login invitation yet,

please contact your local customer service. Be advised that

for security reasons, we might deny your request if you are

not the account owner / main administrator.

Only account owners are allowed to request / change login

privileges. This is made to ensure that no 3rd parties will ever

access your database.

To contact our support please use the following

[email protected] or find the number for your zone at the end

of this document.


v4.6 2014-09-30

Getting around

The front page gathers all the key points required for any EF4 action, your consumption

and user login logs, as well as a small dashboard with a summary of your databases

evolution.

The navigation is divided in 3 parts:

Top bar

The top bar groups all account related information and actions.

Left Corner: username & universe

Right Corner: News, Options, Contact & Log out

The contact form is the preferred place to get in touch with SPLIO for any technical

related issues or questions. We have a dedicated team answering to questions and

problems 6 days a week, from 8am to 8pm (UTC/GMT +1).

9


March 2015

The profile picture (avatar) displayed appears when a Facebook or Twitter account is

synchronised to your EF4 account. If both are synchronised, only your Facebook profile

picture will show. Your profile picture will not be shown to other EF4 users.

Quick access buttons

EmailForge 4 now provides 3 quick access buttons in the top area.

The New Campaign button provides the options to start an email, mobile, social or

automatic campaign in just one click.

Databases gives access to a dashboard, where you will find your database

information and actions such as find or add a user, edit the subscription form, etc.

The Reports button brings you to the campaigns statistics.

Left menu

Dashboard returns you to the front page from anywhere.

The Campaign Manager displays all scheduled campaigns,

automatic campaigns, and recently sent campaigns.

SETTINGS:

Users: create and edit all your EF4 users and their permissions.

Social settings: synch a Facebook & Twitter account to EF4.

MESSAGES:

Email Library & SMS Library: stores all your templates.

New Email & New SMS: write or upload new HTML emails,

templates and SMS messages.

DATABASE:

Databases: access to the database dashboard (same as the

quick access button)

Groups (segments): add, edit, and delete segments.

Lists: add, edit, and delete membership lists

Files: store temporary files, external lists that should not be

merged with your data

Blacklists: stores your blacklists, by type. Download lists, add or

remove members.

Some sections will not be shown depending on the users permission

level.

10


March 2015

Front page dashboard

The main dashboard gives a preview of your databases KPIs. Total contacts, contacts

with phone numbers, global evolution in X days*, and database evolution for the past

30 days. The email and mobile phone numbers are displayed as well as the growth

and churn for both KPIs over time.

* The rate shown is relevant to the amount of campaigns you send per month. For instance, if you send

4 campaigns a month, the evolution rate will be shown for 30 days. But if you send 9 campaigns a week,

the evolution will be shown for 7 days.

Recent campaigns

The 8 latest campaigns are displayed with a quick preview of their performances. A

small thumbnail preview of the text or HTML file sent, volume of recipients, start date

and subject are mentioned as well as quick shortcuts to the messages details in the

library or the complete campaigns report. Finally, a pie chart displays the campaign

overall success with the amount of messages successfully delivered, opened, clicked

or rejected.

11


March 2015

Billing information

The front page also provides a month-by-month consumption log for the universe. This

is especially useful to check if you are sending less or more than planned, and

determine you need to switch to a new subscription plan.

Campaign Manager

The Campaign Manager allows you to create, modify or

delete existing or upcoming campaigns and to view the

details of campaigns that have ended.

This is the campaign control centre, where you will find your Automatic, unfinished and

last 15 completed campaigns.

All your campaigns therefore appear in the manager. You can access 3 options:

- Follow-up regarding a past or upcoming campaign

- View statistics of a campaign that has ended or is on-going

- Modify settings of upcoming campaigns

12


March 2015

Reports

The reports page, also called statistics, contains all your campaigns from the last 30

days. To access the reports page, click on the reports button located the top right

section of the header.

13


March 2015

Settings

Configuring your account

Access: Top bar > Cog icon (options).

When you connect to EF4 for the first time, your account manager will already have

configured most settings. However, you can change most settings if you need to.

The settings are available in the top bar, on the right.

Configuring SPF and DKIM

EF 4 provides an automatic configuration for SPF, SenderID and DKIM. If you wish to

configure your email authentication settings manually using your own domain

parameters, feel free to submit your domain authentication information. The changes

will be applied immediately.

If you dont know what this is, you should leave the default settings to automatic

outgoing email authentication enabled.

If you wish to learn more about email authentication and consequences on your

deliverability, contact your account manager.

14


March 2015

Two steps authentication

EF4s security settings can be reinforced with SMS authentication whenever a new

device tries to connect to the platform. The system we used is called 2FA (two-factor

authentication).

2FA consists in combining your usual security with a physical key. For instance, a safe

could require a password and a key. For EF4 it would be your login (login + password

+ universe), reinforced by a numeric code sent by SMS to your cell phone.

This method is optional but strongly recommended. The 2FA identification can be

saved on your computer for a 30 days period.

Global options

Global options allow you to modify the core settings of your account such as your

universes name (if your company name changes, or if you want to use it for a different

15


March 2015

brand), as well as the default from email address and the very important time zone,

which will be used for campaigns scheduling.

Personal options

This is the place to change and edit password

settings for the logged in account, as well as the

personal time zone (different from the universes

time zone) and the language settings for the

logged in account.

Note: language settings will not affect the universes

language settings. The personal language setting will

determine your EF4 interface language (texts, menus,

etc).

Managing user permissions

Access: Left menu > Settings group > Users.

EF4 allows you to manage the rights of users connected to the platform in an

advanced manner. You can create as many users as you want.

In order to protect your databases from fraudulent use (access to the data,

downloads, deletion), EF4 provides a choice of 5 permission levels.

Permission levels

Administrator

The administrator can access all of the universe's features, create new users and

modify their permissions.

The administrator can download and delete the universes data.

We recommend having only one admin per universe.

16


March 2015

Standard user

Each user can access all of the universe's features. A user cant:

Download a database or export statistics nor modify the universes settings.

Create new accounts or modify their permissions.

Statistics

Statistic users can only access the statistics of campaigns to which access was granted

by an admin or standard user (campaign configuration area, step 4).

Creative

The creative user can create/edit HTML emails, but cant delete them. The creative

can only access the messages it created.

Disabled

Disabled accounts can no longer login to the platform.

Social Settings

Access: Left menu > Settings group > Social settings.

To synchronize your favourite social media, go to Social Settings in the left menu.

Facebook

Click on Click here to link your Facebook and EmailForge profiles and fill in your

Facebook login and password. In order to link your Corporate Facebook Page, your

linked Facebook account must be admin of that page.

/!\ Please leave all Facebook permissions as is, otherwise this feature will not work properly /!\

Your profile picture, name and page will show in their respective section when you

refresh the page.

You can synchronise an unlimited number of Facebook pages and profiles.

17


March 2015

Twitter

Click on Click here to link your Twitter account to your EmailForge universe and fill in

your Twitter login and password.

Your profile picture and name will show when you refresh the page.

You can synchronise an unlimited number of Twitter profiles.

Alert centre

Many events can occur on your universe. Some are critical and should be brought up

to your attention as quickly as possible, for instance when your SMS credits are too low

or when a new user is created. The Alert Centre provides you with a way to setup your

own alerts and get alerted 24/7 about such important events, by email and SMS.

Warning: Note that the SMS channel will only be available when the e-mail notification is active. The e-

mails will provide more details on the issue.

Warning: Each SMS sent from the notification centre will be deducted from your universes balance. If

you run out of SMS credits, the user will receive the email notification only.

18


March 2015

Alert categories and events

The Alert Centre contains a variety of events, each classified under a specific

category.

User Events

User management alerts notify you when there is unusual activity on your universe.

Suspicious login: when a user connects from an unusual location

Admin creation: a new user with an admin profile has been created

User creation: a new user with a user profile has been created

User login failure: a user has failed to log in too many times

User login: a user has successfully connected to the universe

Campaign Events

Alerts based on the status of a campaigns sending.

Automatic campaign not sent: an automatic campaign could not be sent.

Consumption Events

Alerts based on the universes consumption.

SMS credits: remaining SMS credits have reached a threshold.

Create a new alert

To create a new alert:

1. Go to Settings > Alerts

2. Click on the button Create new alert, which will open a wizard that will guide

you through the creation steps

3. Select a category (e.g. Consumption)

4. Select an event (e.g. SMS Credits)

5. You can then choose an operator and a value (e.g. SMS Credits > 100), as

well as configure the alert

6. Select users you wish to be alerted, as well as the channel on which they will

be notified.

7. You can also include non-user recipients. They will then receive the alert by

email.

Edit an existing alert

To edit an alert:


2. Identify the alert you want to edit in the list

19


March 2015

3. Click on the Edit icon next to the alert, which will open a wizard that will guide

you through the edition steps

4. You can now edit the alert (category, event, configuration, users)

5. Once youre done editing, click on the Save button

Delete an existing alert

To delete an alert:


2. Identify the alert you want to delete in the list

3. Click on the Delete icon next to the alert

4. You will be asked to confirm your choice to delete the alert

Campaign moderation

You can moderate all your campaigns if you provide us with a list of email addresses

of your defined moderators.

All send-outs for a given universe will have to be accepted/blocked by one of the

moderators before being sent.

Moderators will receive for each campaign an email to accept or block the

campaign.

Any moderator can accept / block the campaign.

No message can be sent without confirmation.

If you click on ACCEPT this message, you must confirm your choice again.

If you click on BLOCK this message, campaign will immediately be blocked

without any further confirmation.

WARNING: A blocked campaign cannot be sent, the message and the sending is blocked even if you

change your mind later on. If for any reason you dont receive the moderation email, your campaign will be blocked.

Please contact your account manager for more information or to setup this feature.

20


March 2015

Couponing

Coupon codes can be assigned to your campaigns. You can even indicate their start

and end dates.

You have to upload a file with your coupons. Be careful you have to upload enough

coupons to send your campaign. Otherwise, your campaign will be stopped except

if you reload new coupons (assigned to the same category).

All coupons are stored in EF4, you can check if all your coupons are already used or

not.

Each coupon is related to a category that you have to use, in your message to display

your coupons.

Here is an example of a birthday coupon: $CouponBirthday$ and

$ExpCouponBirthday$ allow you to display your coupon and its expiration date.

You can upload coupon files along with the following settings:

Category (welcome, birthday, )

Start date

End date (when we should stop sending these coupons)

Expiration date (the date we should display in emails)

You can define a start and an end date in your coupon file and choose a specific

format:

Or you can define a start and end date directly in EF4:

21


March 2015

22


March 2015

Databases

Access: Header > Databases button || Left Menu > Database group > Databases.

Managing your database

A wide range of tools is available to manage, edit, upload and analyse your database

in EmailForge 4. The main functions are listed in the database page, which can be

easily accessed from the top shortcut.

The main tools are listed on top of the page for easy and fast accessibility.

Find: Find subscribers, view and edit the values of the related fields (surname, first

name...).

Add: Manually add subscribers to the database.

Upload: Import new lists or temporary files.

Download: Export your database, partially or entirely.

Form: Generate a registration form on your website that will be linked to your

EmailForge database.

Fields: Add, edit or delete your databases fields.

Remove: Unsubscribe, delete or blacklist a subscriber or a list of emails.

Uploads History: Keeps track of all the imports and import logs.

Importing new contacts

To import contacts, use the upload button in the database page.

To configure an automatic data flow to synchronize your database daily

or hourly, contact your account manager.

Preparing your file

Improper fields

23


March 2015

Try to avoid naming your fields with names already taken by EmailForges database

or variables. Using the same names can interfere with proper personalisation and

conditional blocks.

Avoid words like:

email md5email

cellphone firstname

lastname last_click_categ

last_click_date last_open_date

mirrorUrl fbshareUrl

unsubUrl etc

File type

The supported file formats are CSV, TXT*, ZIP or RAR files. We strongly recommend using

the UTF-8 base encoding which supports the widest types of characters and

languages.

* Windows users: The Tab Delimited Text file format (TXT) is preferred.

* Mac users: The Windows Comma Separated file format (CSV) is preferred.

/!\ If your database contains dates (birth dates for instance), the recommended format is YYYY-MM-

DD. All other formats will be treated as regular text. Regular text fields for dates will not allow you to use

date variables (to learn more on these, read the variables section.)

Zipping your database is possible and recommended for faster synchronization. Make

sure that the zip archive is not password protected, and that you have only one file in

the zip.

/!\ Using the right date format is important to work properly with EF4 Segmentation and to use date

variables.

/!\ The primary key on EF4 is either an email address or a cell phone number. Each new email addresses

and cell phone numbers that are not associated together will create a new user profile.

/!\ Each user in the database can have 1 email address and/or 1 telephone number.

/!\ When a new file is uploaded, if the email or the cell phone number is already found in the database,

the profile will be updated with the new data.

Importing an export from another platform

If your data is an export from another platform (CMS, ERP, or another email marketing

platform), you need to clean your file.

24


March 2015

Open your database into EXCEL, and select Save As in the File menu:

1. Type in your database name

2. Select the proper file format* in the type scroll list

3. Save and close Excel

* Windows users: The Tab Delimited Text file format (TXT) is preferred.

* Mac users: The Windows Comma Separated (CSV) or Tab Delimited Text (txt)

formats are preferred.

Supported delimiters are: comma ( , ), semicolon ( ; ), tab, and pipe ( | ).

Database vs. temporary file

When uploading a new file, two options are available: upload to database and store

as a temporary file.

Database

When uploading to database, you will have to choose a list to which your members

will be subscribed. Users can subscribe to multiple lists. For instance, a user could be

subscribed to both Newsletter and Partner offers.

The segmentation engine will access data from lists.

For more information on lists and segmentation, go to Managing Database.

Temporary file

The temporary files are completely separated from the global database.

The segmentation engine cannot access data from temporary files.

Uploading to database or as a temporary file?

It is always recommended to upload your lists into the database (existing or new) when

uploading a new file. However, if you are uploading data from a partner, client or any

unknown source and dont want to erase / edit your own clients information, use the

temporary file option to avoid overwriting your database.

Supported mobile numbers format

EF4 supports several formats for mobile phone numbers in order to be able to host

foreign and local phone numbers from any country.

Here are the guidelines to upload mobile numbers on the platform:

Level 1 format Preferred format +33626440150

25


March 2015

Level 2 format Accepted format 0033626440150

Level 3 format

Accepted and completed

according to your account

language

0626440150

Example, if the account is set as

English (UK), the telephone

number will become:

+44626440150

Level 4 format NOT SUPPORTED

626440150

In that case, EmailForge 4 will try

to complete the phone number

but errors might occur

Mapping your fields

Once your file has been uploaded, you must establish the mapping of the fields by

assigning the columns in your raw file to the columns in your EF4 database.

You can choose to import all the columns from your file or just a few.

/!\ You need at least an email column or a cell phone number column. /!\

The table below displays the raw data, as it should look when you open your database

from Excel.

email surname first name address Zip Dob optin gender

[email protected] Boisnard Olivier 4 rue des plantes 75015 1984-05-02 Yes H

[email protected] Billon Benjamin 5 rue des coquelicots 75015 1982-02-12 Yes H

[email protected] Elise Hosemans 6 rue des acacias 75015 1978-03-07 Yes F

The picture below displays the mapping form. Select or create the fields in your

database. If the field already exists with the same name, the mapping will be done

automatically.

26


March 2015

To create a field, select new field and enter the name (do not use accents or special

characters).

Subscribing imported users to lists

You need to select at least one membership. A single user can be subscribed to as

many lists as you want to. In the example below, we subscribe our imported users to

Newsletter and Promotions.

You can create up to 64 lists.

Upload history

To view your upload history and log files, use the button Uploads history from the

database page.

This page provides a full history log of all files uploaded to the platform and the various

operations made on each new file.

Every new upload, EF4 creates a report, which contains the lists of rejected addresses

and/or telephone numbers and the reason why.

EF4 can reject an address for different reasons, such as:

Non-compliant format to RFC guidelines

Wrong or unknown encoding

Duplicate, already found in the database

Hard bounce, already detected as invalid

You are now ready to create your first message.

Only the manual file uploads are logged in the history.

27


March 2015

Fields and fulfilment rate

The fields page allows you to create or delete custom fields, reorder them, and see

the fulfilment rate of each field.

Create a field

To create a new field, go to the

bottom of the page and fill in the

box. Click the save button to

create the new field.

Reorder fields

To change the order of the fields, you can click the green switch on the fields

right end. Clicking the switch will send the corresponding field below the next

one.

Fields fulfilment rate

You can calculate the fields fulfilment rate on demand. To do so, click the

Recalculate button. Once the button clicked, your database will either be

calculated right away or be put in queue.

You can request a recount once every 3 hours.

While your database is being recounted, you can proceed to other tasks and come back later. All

calculations are done in the background, and will not affect your campaigns from being sent properly.

28


March 2015

Messages

Message types & libraries

Before creating any type of campaign, you need to have a message at the ready.

There are 2 types of messages you can create: HTML, SMS. They will be grouped within

their respective libraries.

The libraries store all your messages, whether they be HTML files, templates, or SMS

messages. Libraries are accessible through the left menu.

Email library

The email library stores your HTML messages and templates, and contains filter buttons

and a search engine. You can search messages using keywords from their name,

subject, sender and date of creation.

Once you found your message, you can select it or delete it. Hitting Use this message

will bring you to the message page, where you can edit it, test it, duplicate it, send as

campaign or delete it.

A message that has already been sent cannot be used twice (identified with a lock

icon). To use the same message, click the Use this message button and duplicate

the locked message. It will automatically create a copy.

29


March 2015

SMS library

The SMS library is similar to the Email library, without the filters. You can also search

messages using keywords and/or creation date.

SMS message creation

From the left menu, select New SMS and fill-in the required fields.

Message Name: for your

own records

Message Sender: Sender of

the SMS campaign, appears

with the phone number (Not

supported in all countries)

Message content: Write the

content of the text message

here

Use Unicode: Support for

special characters (Chinese,

Arabic...)

Allow long messages: A text

message is 153 character or

67 encode character, select the option to be able to send longer messages

(billed).

You have the possibility to personalize your domain name for SMS instead of

www.spl.io.

If you want to set up your domain name, please contact your account manager.

30


March 2015

HTML message creation

From the left menu, select New Email.

Header & statistics parameters

Fill in the required fields:

- Messages subject (subject that appears into your users inbox)

- Message name (for your own records)

- Senders email address (ex: [email protected])

- Senders name (ex: Splio)

- Reply to email address (if different from senders email address)

- Language message (default language, will be used for the unsubscription

page)

HTML Message options

You will find 2 options that can be applied to

your html message upon saving.

Save as a template

This option will ensure that your message is saved as a template. For more information

on templates, read the HTML template section.

Fix and optimise HTML code for email

This option cleans and optimises your code for email. It will apply all CSS classes found

in the code to inline styles (class= to style=). It will also remove all sensible tags

rejected by ISPs, such as , , , , etc.

Use this option carefully. It works well for simple html code, but can be tricky to use with complex html.

Test thoroughly your message after using this option.

Google Analytics

If you are using Google Analytics on your website and wish to identify your visitors

source, fill in the fields. The information you type in will be transmitted to your GA

account, to help identify the source of visitors coming from your campaigns.

Campaign name: Indicates from which campaign your visitor came from. For

instance, if you are using different kinds of email campaigns, you could name them

accordingly (ex.: 2013-04-10_ PromoWinter_Paris, Weekly_Newsletter_05-04-13).

Medium: You can enter anything youd like, the default being email.

31


March 2015

Source: This is to identify the source of your campaigns, in case you are using multiple

direct marketing service providers. The default source is Splio, but you can change

it if you wish.

Note that GA will not count openings or openers. It will only track the users that clicks links going to your

website.

Importing HTML

There are 4 available options to import your HTML.

- File: Upload a zip file containing your HTML and pictures, relatively linked

- Visual editor: Create your HTML using a WYSIWYG editor /!\ not recommended

- Code editor: Copy & paste your HTML

- Web page URL: Upload an HTML file directly from an URL

/!\ Any JavaScript or PHP will be stripped in order to avoid being rejected by IPSs. /!\

File

There are two ways to use the file mode.

1. Upload a Zip file (images hosted by Splio)

- The links of your images must be relative in order to be hosted. - The Zip archive must follow the chain of your links (ex: /img/ or /images/).

A relative link is when the link originates from the HTML file, following the structure of your zip (ex:

/images/logo.png).

An absolute link is when the link originates from the root of the server (ex:

http://www.splio.com/images/logo.png)

2. Upload an HTML file only, with the images hosted online (using absolute links).

Visual editor

Using the WYSIWYG* editor is just like using Microsoft Word.

32


March 2015

Features:

Add images with drag & drop

Move / resize images with drag & drop

Crop images during upload (with right click / context menu)

Drag & drop table resizing

Edit HTML header properties

Show all html blocks for easy debuggig

Do not break stylesheets : keep responsive design working

Do not html-encode > and < characters in Splioconditional blocks

Easily chose colors, edit element properties (like images ALT text)

/!\ This method is not recommended as the HTML may not be optimised for all inboxes. /!\

* What You See Is What You Get

Code editor

You can use the code editor to copy & paste your HTML code directly instead of

uploading your HTML file.

Web page URL

Copy & paste the URL of an HTML email hosted online.

Inbox preview

EmailForge integrates Email on Acids inbox preview tool, directly within a messages

page.

If the option is activated on your

account, you can visualise your

emails rendering in the different

webmails, desktop mail clients

and mobile phones. To do so, go

to an HTML messages page, and click on the Email on Acid button.

It will automatically open a new page with a complete list of email clients.

Text version

EF4 supports the dispatch of messages in multipart mode, which allows you to send a

text message and an HTML message at the same time.

The recipient's mail client will choose the version to display based on the application's

33


March 2015

preferences. HTML overrides text by default.

HTML Templates

An HTML template is an HTML message that will act as a model. The message can be

duplicated and edited, but cannot be deleted. Using and customising a template will

automatically create a new HTML message based on the template.

Preparing the file

In order to be used as a template, you need to prepare your HTML and separate it in

editable blocks. Once your HTML is ready, you can add the class edit to any block

youd like to be editable in the template.

Ex:

Any block with the class edit can be edited, duplicated or deleted by the user.

When adding your edit classes, remember to insert them in the html tag nearest to

the content. That prevents your HTML structure from being edited by your users.

Creating a template

Once your HTML is ready, upload it as a regular message, and check the option Save

as a template.

Your template will be in the library section, under the filter Templates.

Using a template

To create a new message based on a template, go to the email library, in the

templates section. Find the template and click on the corresponding Customise this

template button.

You can then change the messages subject, the name, and add Google Analytics

parameters.

To customise the content, rollover your mouse on the desired blocks; the editable parts

(class=edit) will detach from the rest. You can edit the block, duplicate it, or delete

it.

34


March 2015

When clicking an editable block, a pop up will open with a WYSIWYG editor containing

the editable content. You can either use the visual editor or the HTML editor.

Once you are done, click on apply.

Click anywhere

any item to edit it

Duplicate button

&

Delete button

35


March 2015

You can drag and drop your image directly in the editor template if you want to add

it and you can crop your image during upload.

Specificity about editable links

If you want to edit the css style of your links, click on "advanced" to access CSS.

Its possible to choose the type of link, for example if you want to create an anchor in

your newsletter.

Tip: If your text is already considered like a link you can double click on the text to edit the link.

When you are done editing the template, saving the changes will create a new HTML

message based on this template. Then you will find it in the HTML library.

36


March 2015

Using variables in your messages

When using the visual editor, you can now find your variables and custom fields within

the first toolbar. Clicking a custom field will insert the variable for you.

How to use:

1. Click on the visual editor button

2. In your html, click where you want to insert the variable

3. Click the custom field icon and pick the wanted variable

View screencast: http://www.splio4.com/static/news/4.3_variables.mp4

Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only)

Unsubscription

Having an unsubscription link is strongly recommended, as it is mandatory in many

jurisdictions. We also recommend using EF4s unsubscription process, as it is the

quickest way for the user to unsubscribe. Having additional steps (such as login in) than

a one-click unsubscription is also illegal in many countries and could hurt your e-

reputation.

Mirror page

Providing a mirror page is an extra service for users who cant see the email properly

in their inbox or cant load images. Statistics on subscribers that clicked on this link can

also give you an indication that your HTML isnt optimised for email.

Adding the links using EF4 variables

EF4 provides variables to quickly implement unsubscribe & mirror page links. These

variables will automatically be replaced by unique, tracked, links.

The mirror page is generated within the campaign and is customised for each user, to

keep personalisation while reading online.

Variable Generates Example

$unsub$ > To unsubscribe, click here. $unsub$

37


March 2015

$unsubUrl$ > http://www.s3s.fr/425485/desabo/[email protected] To unsubscribe to this newsletter,

Click here

$mirror$ > To read this email in your browser, click here. $mirror$

$mirrorUrl$

http://www.s3s.fr/425485/miroir/[email protected] Do you want to read this page online? Click here

Date variables (email and SMS)

Date variables are really useful for any regular or automatic campaign. Using one of

these variables will automatically insert the current days date when sending the

campaign. Indeed, it doesnt need any manual intervention from you.

Examples

$today$ > current day* $year$ > current year $year$ > currentyear, 4 digits

You can also personalize your date with a specific field. For example, you have a date

you want to display in D/M/Y format. Unfortunately, the date included in your file is in

YYYY-MM-DD format. You can use this variable:

$d/m/y$expiration_date$

The formula [$format]$field$[modifier$] allows you to create date modifiers within your

messages, such as today + 15 days, or this field + 15 days for example. Changes

apply to emails, mirror pages, tracked links and SMS.

Format would be optional, with any combination of d, m, y, and separators -

, /, or nothing.

Field would be any custom field, or $today$ for the current date of the send-out

(based on the universes timezone).

Modifier would be any calculation based on a number of days, weeks, months, or

years, for example +5d, +1m, -1y.

Examples:

$today$

$d/m/y$expiration_date$

$today$+1m$

$ymd$today$+5d$

38


March 2015

These variables are available for emails (sending engines), mirror pages, tracked links and SMS.

Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns

only)

When you are sending an automatic campaign, it is possible to use a variable to fetch

the emails subject. This is particularly useful if the HTML is hosted on your server and

the file changes periodically.

To use a dynamic subject, your message must contain a tag in the

of your HTML. Put your emails subject in the tag, then, in the automatic

email creation page, instead of inserting a subject, you can type in $title$.

Social Sharing Buttons (email only)

Social variables are similar to the unsubscription and mirror link variables. Theyre a

quick way of inserting Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons or links in your HTML email.

To create a Facebook link with your own picture

$fblikeUrl$

$fblikeUrl:http://www.splio.com$

$fblikeUrl:spliogroup$

Facebook like button with the official Facebook design

Creates the button and link automatically

$fblike$

$fblike:http://www.splio.com$

$fblike:spliogroup$

Facebook share button with your own design

Example of use:

$fbshareUrl$

39


March 2015

$fbshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$

$fbshareUrl:spliogroup $

Facebook share button with the official Facebook design


$fbshare$

$fbshare:http://www.splio.com$

$fbshare:spliogroup$

Twitter sharing button with your own design

Example of use:

$twshareUrl$

$twshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$

Twitter sharing button with Twitter official design


$twshare$

$twshare:http://www.splio.com$

Customise Twitter Variables with Twitter Intents parameters

You can insert parameters into the Twitter variables generating the

share links and buttons, that will pre-enter text to tweet for the user.

Example:

$twshare:[hashtags=newsletter][via=Splio][text=Read this!][url=http://www.splio.com]$

If you dont specify an URL, it will automatically share the Mirror Page.

The same is applicable for $twshareUrl$, except for the Mirror Page. You must specify

an URL when using this variable.

Note: The buttons will not show within the visual editor. To make sure your button is working, you need to

send yourself a test message.

Last click category

If a link category has been indicated in your links, EmailForge will store the last one

clicked per user. You can use the Last Click Category value in segmentation and

conditional blocks to send targeted content to your users.

To do so in conditional blocks, use $last_click_categ$.

See the Segmentation chapter to learn how to segment by interests.

40


March 2015

Sending ID

$envoiid$ can be added in your tracking URLs to return the sending ID of your

campaigns. It can be useful to track from which message users got on your website.

$envoiid$ will return the sending ID that the user received. A Sending ID is a unique

code, identifying the message sent in a campaign (Ex: 6PDz8u4uJ). If you send an

email campaign with 2 messages, each message will have its own Sending ID. When

using $envoiid$, it will return the ID of the message the user received.

Here are examples of how it can be used in your messages, with Google Analytics:

My Link

My Link

URL variable prefix

In the case where you have URLs in your database and wish to use them for

personalisation, you will need to add a prefix to your variable, to prevent special

characters, such as /, from being encoded.

The prefix is added directly in front of the variable, as seen below.

Variable: $myUrl$ Prefixed variable: $url_myUrl$

Example without the prefix: http:%2%2www.google.com%2analytics

Example with the prefix: http://www.google.com/analytics

Conditional blocks in HTML emails

What are conditional blocks?

Conditional blocks (CB) allow displaying certain information in function of your

databases content or user disclosed information. Specific contents would be

displayed to a specific target conditionally, thus making the user experience more

personal for the recipients.

41


March 2015

For instance, if you would like to start your email with Hello firstname!, but youre not

sure if every user mentioned their first name, you would write a CB that says if firstname

exists, write Dear $firstname$, else write Hello!.

Conditional blocks can be used in:

HTML messages

SMS messages

Email Subjects

Email headers (sender email address, sender name, reply-to address)

CB for personalisation

Starting with an already existing HTML design, youll only have to duplicate the part or

parts you want to customize, and adapt the text with the right gender, then, add the

specific CB tags around these parts. For each recipient, the system will check in the

database the corresponding value for gender, and display the right block

accordingly. The blocks that dont match the value are ignored.

Here's a quick sample of what the code would look like.

{SPLIO IF $title$ = "Mme"} // If female write:

Mrs. Johnson,

{SPLIO ELSEIF $title$ = "M"} // If male write:

Mr. Johnson,

{SPLIO ELSE} // if gender is undisclosed:

Greetings, ...

{SPLIO ENDIF}

CB for content

With CB, you can customize a single message, which will include recipient specific

information.

For the next example, lets pretend you are a music label company.

At the subscription stage, you offer your users to choose their preferred music genre(s)

in order to send them related information.

Instead of preparing a different email for each genre, you would prepare only one

HTML, containing multiple content blocks, one block for each genre. This would

prevent a user that selected Rock, Rap and Punk from receiving 3 emails at once.

42


March 2015

For instance, if the user is a fan of Rock music, he will then receive an email with Rock-

related information only. If the user is a fan of both Rock and Rap, he would receive

an email with both Rock and Rap related information, but not the House related

information.

Here is what the code would look like:

{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rock"}

**Rock Section**

{SPLIO ENDIF}

{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "House"}

**House Section**

{SPLIO ENDIF}

{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rap"}

**Rap Section**

{SPLIO ENDIF}

Control structures

The tags available for CB can be used as shown below. EF4 will analyse and execute

them while sending the campaign, but they wont be displayed in the message

delivered to the recipients.

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

Each syntax has a specific purpose, detailed below:

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

This function is used to define punctual conditions, which act on their own, and do not

affect any other conditional block. Which means that it will display each block that

meets a condition.

This is the function used in the music label example.

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

This function is used to display one content or the other, with no other alternatives.

43


March 2015

First name example: If $firstname$ is disclosed, write Dear $firstname$ else write

Dear customer.

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

This function is used when many variants are required for a specific part of the

message.

For instance: If user lives in France, show Sale -50%, else if user user lives in England,

show Sale -30%. If none of the country values match, nothing will be displayed.

{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}

This function is similar to the previous one, but with a default block to display in case

no condition matched:

If user lives in France, show Summer Sale -50%, else if user lives in England, show

Summer Sale -30%, else show Winter collection arrived.

Operators

Operators that can be used to display, or not, the conditional blocks are shown below.

There are quite a few, and can be used in any necessary way.

- =

- != or for not equal

- >, >=,

44


March 2015

Tips

- Always separate the operators by blank space ($var1$ > $var2$, not

$var1$>$var 2$)

- You cannot add the conditional specifications by going through the visual

editor in EmailForge. This has to be done directly in the HTML file or through the

HTML code editor.

- The conditional blocks always start with an IF statement, and end by ENDIF.

- It is not possible to imbricate conditional blocks. The syntax {SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO

ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} must be used instead.

More examples

Welcome email example

Now lets prepare a Welcome email with different content for new members who did

purchase a product (customers), and those who didnt (subscribers):

Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}customer{SPLIO ELSE}subscriber{SPLIO ENDIF},

Please check the information you submitted:

First name: {SPLIO IF $firstname$ != ""}$firstname${SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}

Last name: {SPLIO IF $lastname$ != ""}$lastname${SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}

A quick look at the code:

Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}customer

says if the user ordered more than 0 times, write customer

{SPLIO ELSE}subscriber{SPLIO ENDIF}

else, write subscriber, end of condition.

First name: {SPLIO IF $firstname$ != ""}$firstname$

says if first name is disclosed, write first name

{SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}

else, write (not specified), end of condition.

Multilanguage emails

You can use the conditional blocks to manage multiple languages at once in the

same message.

Here is an example with a SMS message:

45


March 2015

{SPLIO IF $language$ = FR}Bienvenue chez Splio ! Pour vous connecter sur EmailForge,

visitez www.splio.com!{SPLIO ELSEIF $language$ = ES}Bienvenido/a a Splio! Para

conectaros a EmailForge, visitad www.splio.es !{SPLIO ELSE}Weclome to Splio! To login on

EmailForge, visit www.splio.com{SPLIO ENDIF}

Email subjects

Conditional blocks are allowed in email subjects.

Here is an example of personalised subject:

{SPLIO IF $firstname$ != }$firstname$, delectable offer inside!{ SPLIO ELSE}Dear subscriber,

delectable offer inside!{SPLIO ENDIF}

Email Headers

CB can also be used to personalise email messages headers based on a value from

the database.

/!\ Domains must be signed and authenticated. Otherwise, the sender email address will fallback on

the default universes settings. /!\

Default email headers:

To personalise the Senders email address based on whether the contact is a customer or not:

{SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}[email protected]{SPLIO ELSEIF $nb_orders$ =

0}[email protected]{SPLIO ELSE}[email protected]{SPLIO ENDIF}

Testing conditional blocks and personalisation

preview

Preview and Simulate tool

Within the message tools, you can find a Preview and Simulate button. This feature

allows you to test conditional blocks and preview your messages personalisation.

46


March 2015

In this tool, you will find all your database fields, system or custom. You can choose an

individual field and input the value to test your conditional blocks, or enter an email to

preview the personalisation.

Heres an example with the

personalisation preview, with

a Welcome message.

The header with the variables

looks like this:

To verify that your personalisation works properly, you can select email from the

menu, and input any email address and have a preview of the message that person

will receive as such:

47


March 2015

To test conditional blocks such as language or country for instance, select the field

and input the value, the preview pane will show the appropriate content according

to your conditions.

48


March 2015

Campaigns

Campaign Types

There are 2 types of campaign you can choose from Regular campaign or

Automatic campaign on 3 differents channels. Regular campaigns can be sent

through 3 differents channels: email, SMS, or social networks (Facebook and Twitter),

and automatic campaigns can be sent through email or SMS.

The process

Before creating a campaign, if it hasnt been done already, you need to create your

messages. To do so, follow the instructions in the Library section.

You will then be able to choose messages from your library in the campaign wizard.

Creating a new campaign

To start a new campaign, use the top quick access button New Campaign. Select the

desired campaign type from the dropdown menu.

Email campaign

Access: New campaign button > Email

Before creating a new campaign, make sure you

created your HTML message first, so that you can select

it once in the campaign creation wizard.

The campaign creation wizard guides you through the

5 steps required to complete your campaign setup.

Once youre at step 4, your campaign is automatically

saved; if you leave the page, you can get it back in the

Campaign Manager, in the Unfinished Campaigns

section.

Note that at any step you can go back using your browsers back button.

Step 1 Message Selection

Select the HTML message you would like to send. If you havent created one yet, you

will be automatically redirected to the library.

49


March 2015

Tip: Rollover the magnifiers to view a thumbnail preview of your message.

If you want to send several HTML files at once (split targeting), the option is available at the 4th step of

the wizard.

Step 2 Recipients

Step 2 is separated in two half steps.

1. Message parameters and targeting

These parameters are for you only; no recipient will ever see these.

Campaign Name:

Label used to find your campaign within EmailForge. Examples: MKT-Jan Launch

Party, Auto-welcome women only). This is not the campaigns subject; the

subject is set in the message.

Operation Code (optional):

Adding an identical operation code to several campaigns will combine their

statistics into one single report. The operation is manual. (Examples: 234681, EN-

Welcome)

Category (optional):

Assigns a category to the campaign. The campaign category is used to increment

recipients individual scoring towards that category, when/if they open or click a

campaign. This is mostly used for retargeting (see the retargeting section).

50


March 2015

You can then select your recipients from lists, segments and/or temporary files.

Once you have selected the recipients, click NEXT. You will be brought to:

2. Recipients exclusions (optional)

Same as targeting, select the lists, segments and/or temporary file you wish to exclude

from your recipients.

Example of targeting: Target lists Online Store and Physical Store, exclude

segments males 30-45 and has bought at least once in the last 30 days.

Step 3 Extracting

From the selected elements in Step 1 and Step 2, EF4s engine will generate the final

list of recipients for the campaign.

The engine will also automatically exclude all types of toxic addresses such as hard

bounces, spam complaints, spam traps (if identified), and all other addresses in your

blacklist.

Duplicates are also cleansed; it is impossible to send duplicates with EmailForge 4.

If a duplicate email is found (ex: list A and temporary file), EF4 will prioritise the email in the database

and will exclude the email from the temporary file.

Step 4 Final Parameters

51


March 2015

The fourth step of the wizard allows you to configure sending options. There are 7

available settings:

HTML selection

This is a reminder of the message you selected at Step 1. You can either change it or

select multiple HTML messages. When multiple messages are selected, EF4 will send all

of them evenly and randomly to the recipients.

Date and time of expedition

Select the time and date of your campaign. You can either send it right away or select

a later date.

/!\ Be aware of your recipients time zones, as the message will be sent using the personal time zone of

the EF4 user sending the campaign. /!\

Stats users

Give access to this campaigns statistics reports to one or many statistics users.

(Read the User Permissions chapter to learn how to add statistics users).

Limit delivery speed

Especially useful in business-to-business email marketing or in Asia pacific, slowing

down your campaigns can sometimes improve the performance. If private anti-spam

filters sometimes block you or if you are sending campaigns to China, this is strongly

recommended.

Seed list

The seed list is used to send the campaign to emails that are not within the subscribers.

A useful feature if you need to send the campaign to your inbox, co-workers... The

campaign will be delivered even if the address is blocked, unsubscribed or in the

blacklist.

Share on social networks

This feature is to post simultaneously your campaign on Facebook and/or Twitter. The

process is similar to sending a social campaign. Select the desired accounts and

include variables that relate to your campaign, such as $subject$, $url$... Once

shared, the post on the social network will redirect to the campaigns mirror page.

/!\ Note that personalisation does not work on social networks. /!\

Step 5 Confirmation

52


March 2015

The confirmation page summarises your campaign.

Read the page very carefully, as all key information about your campaign is gathered

on this page. Targeting, exclusions, parameters and HTML files selected are displayed

for you to make sure that everything is 100% ready to go.

Once you are ready, click on:

SMS Campaign

Access: New campaign button > SMS.

Before creating a new campaign, make sure you created your text message first, so

that you can select it once in the campaign creation wizard.

The campaign creation wizard guides you through the 5 steps required to complete

your campaign setup. Once youre at step 4, your campaign is automatically saved;

if you leave the page, you can get it back in the Campaign Manager, in the Unfinished

Campaigns section.

Note that at any step you can go back using your browsers back button.

Step 1 Message Selection

Select the message youd like to send. If you havent created one yet, you will be

automatically redirected to the library.

If you want to send several messages at once (split targeting), the option is available at the 4th step of

the wizard.

Step 2 Recipients

Step 2 is separated in two half steps.

1. Message parameters and targeting

53


March 2015

These parameters are for you only; no recipient will ever see these.

Campaign Name:

Label used to find your campaign within EmailForge Examples: MKT-Jan Launch

Party, Auto-welcome women only). This is not the campaigns subject.

Operation Code (optional):

Adding an identical operation code to several campaigns will combine their

statistics reports. The operation is manual. (Examples: 234681, EN-Welcome)

Category (optional):

Assigns a category to the campaign. The campaign category is used to increment

recipients individual scoring towards that category, when/if they open or click a

campaign. This is mostly used for retargeting (see the retargeting section).

You can then select your recipients from lists, segments and/or temporary files.

Once you have selected the recipients, click NEXT. You will be brought to:

2. Recipients exclusions (optional)

Same as targeting, select the lists, segments and/or temporary file you wish to exclude

from your recipients.

Example of targeting: Target lists Online Store and Physical Store, exclude

segments males 30-45 and has bought at least once in the last 30 days.

54


March 2015

Step 3 Extracting

From the selected elements in Step 1 and Step 2, EF4s

engine will generate the final list of recipients for the

campaign.

The engine will also automatically exclude all types of toxic

addresses such as hard bounces, spam complaints, spam

traps (if identified), and all other addresses in your blacklist.

Duplicates are also cleansed; it is impossible to send

duplicates with EmailForge 4.

If a duplicate number is found (ex: list A and temporary file), EF4 will

prioritise the number in the database and will exclude the number from the temporary file.

Step 4 Final Parameters

The fourth step of the wizard allows you to configure sending options. There are 5

available settings:

SMS selection

This is a reminder of the message you selected at Step 1. You can either change it or

select multiple messages. When multiple messages are selected, EF4 will send all of

them evenly and randomly to the recipients.

Date and time of expedition

Select the time and date of your campaign. You can either send it right away or select

a later date.

Note that the calendar starts on Sunday when selecting a date.

/!\ Be aware of your recipients time zones, as the message will be sent using the personal time zone of

the EF4 user sending the campaign. /!\

Stats users

Give access to this campaigns statistics reports to one or many statistics users. (Read

the User Permissions chapter).

Seed list

The seed list is used to send the campaign to emails that are not within the subscribers.

A useful feature if you need to send the campaign to your inbox, co-workers... The

55


March 2015

campaign will be delivered even if the address is blocked, unsubscribed or in the

blacklist.

Step 5 Confirmation

The confirmation page summarises your campaign.

Read the page very carefully, as all key information about your campaign is gathered

on this page. Targeting, exclusions, parameters and messages selected are displayed

for you to make sure that everything is 100% ready to go.

Once you are ready, click on launch:

Social Campaign

Access: New campaign button > Social.

Before publishing a social campaign, make sure you have synched your social

accounts. For more information, read the chapter Using Social Networks.

To publish a campaign on your Facebook page or profile, fill-in the dedicated form.

Message: Content of the Facebook post that will appear on your page

Picture (optional): Any thumbnail that you wish to display next to the content

URL: Adds a link (to your website or newsletter for instance)

URL name (optional): Displays a custom URL name instead of the full URL

Ex: if your URL is http://www.splio.com/product=?id474853, you could replace it with only

http://www.splio.com or even just splio.com

56


March 2015

Here is a preview of a Facebook campaign:

To publish on Twitter, the process is the same:

Status: Content of your Twitter status

Accounts: Select Twitter accounts where the status will be published

Note that you can include an URL in your Twitter campaigns. URLs will be automatically

shortened using our URL rewriter (http://spl.io) and tracked.

Here is the result of a Twitter campaign:

57


March 2015

Here is the result of a Twitter campaign with a link:

Facebook Meta tags

You can change the appearance of the Facebook post by using Meta tags in the

header of your message. You can modify:

- Title

- Image

The URL appearing cannot be modified, as it will also change the URL it directs to.

To modify the title and the image of your Facebook share, add these Meta tags to

your header:

A/B testing

Testing your campaigns performance

A/B testing (or multivariate) can be used to test your campaigns performance on a

sample of your target. The testing possibilities are up to you, whether you want to test

the messages subject, design, texts or even your targets behaviour.

You can choose to send one message to a small percentage of your database, or

test many at once.

You can later select your best performing message to send to the rest of your target.

You will find it in the Campaign Manager.

A/B test setup

First you need to set up your new campaign as usual.

You can choose the number of messages you wish to tests in step 1 or 4.

58


March 2015

When at step 4, click on the A/B test tab:

1

EmailForge UserGuide Last En

Documents

Transcript of EmailForge UserGuide Last En