How do I send an email campaign?
Follow our step-by-step guide to sending an email campaign to customers or prospects
After you have your final list ready and loaded on your screen, click on the Email Campaign icon in the toolbar row above your list to start building your email campaign.
First, you will be asked to name and save the campaign. You can see the total number of emails available from your final list as “Send to ### leads” as well as the cost of the campaign.
If you have not uploaded Customer Data with emails or arranged to purchase emails appended to Customer Data, you will be renting email addresses for any records obtained through Genie databases.
PRO TIP: For the emails you’ve already collected and included with a Customer Data upload, the Email Marketing tool can be used with no additional charge. Your Genie subscription includes an email management platform for your existing email lists!
You can proceed as far along as you want in building the campaign, save your progress, come back and make changes and return at any time to finish and launch. At each step in the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Email Campaign Builder, you will have the option to Save your progress, go Back to the previous step or move on to the Next step.
You can always find a list of started, incomplete and completed email campaigns by going to the “My Account” main menu item in the home dashboard and selecting the “Email Campaigns” sub-menu item.
The Email Campaign List displays the Name of the campaign, date created, last date updated, scheduled date, quantity and status. At the far right is a gear icon under “Actions” that allows you to resume working on or sending that campaign, edits its recipients or delete that email campaign from this list.
You will walk through the following 6 simple steps to build and send your email campaign:
Get Started - Build Your Professional Email Marketing Campaign
After you have built your list, we want to make sure that every record on the list has an email address. From your List View page, select "Email" under Business Characteristics.
Click the checkbox, "Only companies with an Email Address". This will make sure that every record has an email address.
Click Update Count (to see the number of records that have an email and also match your list criteria) or click "Run Search".
From the List View screen, you will see your updated count. This example, we have 306 records. Now hover "Email Campaign" in the top right menu. You will see the number of records available for your Email Campaign.
You'll notice that the number of emails available for email campaigns is higher than the number of contact emails. (Example below: 754 Campaign emails vs 306 Prospecting emails) This is due to the additional email sources we have available to send Email Campaigns. In this example, you would have 754 records available to include in your campaign.
Click "Email Campaign" to get started.
Next you will see:
- The number of emails available in your list
- You should name your email campaign. Pick a name that is descriptive, as it will make it easier to track in the future.
- Choose to send to all records in the list, or you can select a random "Nth" or random number of records. (Example: 500 out of 754)
- Click "Next".
Choose from one of two options:
- I Want To Design My Email: With our fun and free easy-to-use Email Editor, you can build your own email in minutes, from start to finish. Select this to launch your own DIY email marketing campaign.
- I Want an Expert To Design My email: Submit your content and let our experts design your custom email. You will be asked for follow-up contact information for our experts Please allow one business day for them to get back to you, though oftentimes it is much quicker. They will arrange securing your content to build the email for your campaign.
PRO TIP: When our experts build your campaign, they save it so you can reuse or modify that design in future campaigns. That’s part of our marketing concierge service.
When you choose “I Want To Design My Email”, your will be walked through the remaining steps to launching an email campaign.
Step 1 of 6 - Create Email Campaign
- Name Your Campaign
- Enter Email Subject Line
- Enter the Reply To email address
- Enter the Sender’s Physical Address. This is required to comply with federal CAN-SPAM regulations. If you are sending this email campaign on behalf of a client, enter their physical address. Here are some CAN SPAM & Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Compliance Tips:
- The Subject Line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
- The From Name must be the company name that will be represented in the content of the email.
- The Physical Address must be valid. A PO Box or commercial mailbox is also fine as long as the address is USPS compliant.
Step 2 of 6 - Choose Your Template
Choose the type of email you want to send to start with an established and proven layout, from these choices:
- Memo email
- Product email
- Coupon email
- Newsletter
- Event
OR scroll down to browse templates from the different types of emails. Once you click on the template you like, click "Next".
PRO TIP: Select “Other” or choose to Skip this step to proceed directly into the design process and a wide range of email templates
Choose to “Use a previous design” as your starting point. You will then asked to choose from a list of previous email campaigns deployed in your account.
Choose to “Upload a template”. Click the “Upload Files” button to upload your files. Browse and find the folder that contains your design files. Select your files and click the “Open” button to begin uploading them.
Allowed file types include html*, .htm*, .png, .gif, or .jpg files, but one .html, or .htm file is required. Check the Upload Report to make sure all the files you have chosen have uploaded successfully.
Step 3 of 6 - Customize Your Email
- Much like editing a Powerpoint or Google Slide, click on each design element to change the image and text.
- Change Color Theme will change the overall color theme for your email.
- Click on Modify Layout in the top right corner to choose different modular presentations quickly.
- You can upload your own logos and images.
- Update headlines and text.
- Make sure you periodically "Save" your template.
- When you're finished editing, click "Next".
Step 4 of 6 -Confirm Plain Text Content
This plain-text email is displayed if recipients can't (or won't) display your HTML email. Your message might get trapped in spam filters without a plain-text message.
We have automatically copied the text content from your HTML email as a starting point for your Plain-Text message. Notice your sending name, organization and address is included at the:
- View email as web page
- Forward email
- Unsubscribe from email
Step 5 of 6 - Test and Approve Email
There are two steps to this screen. With your designed email on display to the right of your screen, use the tabs at the top go through the 3 display options: Preview, HTML Email (default view) and Plain-Text Email views.
(1) Send a Test Email to a maximum of 10 email addresses that you can enter here
PLEASE NOTE: Sending the test email can take a few minutes. (typically no more than 2 - 3 minutes) Please be patient and wait for the processing pop-up to disappear.
Note: You must send a test before you will be allowed to proceed to the next step and “Approve Email”.
(2) Approve Email after reviewing the test email in your inbox. By checking the “I approve the email” box and the entering your initials below, you agree that the spelling, content, and layout of the email are correct. You also understand the content of your email is subject to approval by an email expert.
(3) Click "Approve Email" to go to the next step.
Note: Data Axle will establish the initial population of email addresses / records from its proprietary databases and will then perform processing to validate those records. Records found to be invalid will be excluded from the population of emails to be deployed, potentially resulting in fewer records included in the end user deliverable.
The contract will be considered fulfilled if the number of emails sent is greater than 80% of the initial population noted. You will only be charged email credits for the exact number of deliverable emails.
Step 5 of 6 - Schedule your Email
Schedule the date and time that you'd like your email to be sent. Please allow 2 business days for content approval. Call us at 888.941.9350 to expedite your order.
Note: This step also allows you to apply a suppression list to remove those email addresses from your email campaign audience. Previous unsubscribes are automatically removed from your email campaign audience.
Accept the "CAN-SPAM Compliance Agreement Waiver" and your email campaign will be schedule and deployed.
