Sending

Simple Automated Email Tutorial

How To Use Spell Check

Spell Check is available for the text portions of your static content boxes.

To check spelling, follow these steps:

1. Click the Content tab.
2. Click the my emails folder.
3. Open the email by clicking on the name.
4. Click the modify button on a static content box.
   The content-building wizard opens.
5. Click to check the spelling within that content box.

Note: You can check spelling on only one content box at a time.

How To Use the Content Detective

1. Click the Content tab.
2. Click the my emails folder or whichever subfolder holds the email.
   If the Content Detective status is Not Checked, the Content Detective has not been run on this email (or has not been run since the last time the email was modified). 
3. Select the checkbox next to the email and click the Content Detective button.
   The Content Detective scans your email and presents a list of the potential triggers (if any) found, along with ways in which you can remove these triggers. If you made any changes to the text version of the email, the Content Detective presents its results separately for the HTML version and the text version.

The buttons at the bottom of the Content Detective dialog box give you the following options:

• Print: You can print the results by clicking this button, which brings up the standard Windows Print dialog box.
• Save: You can save the results to a text file by clicking this button, which brings up the standard Windows File Download dialog box with the option to open or save the file (choose the Save option).
• Close: Click this button to exit the Content Detective.

If potential problems were found, the Content Detective status changes to Warning until edits are made to the email, at which time the status will return to Not Checked.

A Content Detective status of OK means that the Content Detective has been run and no potential triggers were found. If the email is edited further, the status will return to Not Checked.

How to Preview and Modify Text Versions of Emails

Note: Modifying the text version of an email should be done only after the content of the email is final. Once you make any changes to the text version, the link between the text version and the HTML version is broken; modifications to one version are reflected in the other unless you restore the link, which undoes all changes you've made to the text version (the HTML version is not affected by any changes you make to the text version).

Follow these steps to view and edit the text version of your email:

1. Click the Content tab.
2. Click my emails.
3. Open the email in the email editor workspace by clicking the name of the email.
4. Click the Edit Text Version tab.
   The Edit Text Version mode of the email editor workspace shows you how the email appears to clients who cannot see the HTML version.
5. Adjust the text as needed.
6. Click the Save button when done.

Now that you've adjusted the text version, any modifications that you make to the HTML version are reflected in the text version.

If you are going to make further changes to the HTML version and want those changes automatically reflected in the text version, go back into Edit Text Version tab and click the Restore button on this screen. All manual changes that had been made to the text version are lost, and the link between the text version and the HTML version (which allows the application to update the text version as you update the HTML version) is restored.

How To Use The Email Validate Feature

The email validate feature checks for

• the presence of an unsubscribe link
• the presence of a physical mailing address
• correct syntax for attributes used as personalization strings
• the existence of any content areas defined in the dynamic content rules. 

Use the following steps to validate the email:

1. Click the Content tab in the navigation bar.
2. Click my emails. Click the folder that contains the email.
3. Select the checkbox next to the email you wish to validate.
4. Click the Validate button in the toolbar.
    If you have data extensions enabled in your account, the following steps apply to you:
5. Select the Target of the Email Send. Valid values include:
   • Subscribers Lists/Groups - Select this value to validate the email against your subscriber attributes.
   • Sendable Data Extension - Select this value to valid the email against the fields in the data extension you choose. If you select this value, you must select the data extension to validate against.
6. Click Validate.

How To Test Your Email

Testing your email means performing the following steps throughout the creation process:

• Previewing the HTML and text versions of the email: Use the View HTML Version and Edit Text Version tabs of your email editor workspace. 
• Previewing the dynamic content (if used) for attributes: Use the Preview button in your dynamic content boxes.
• Previewing the email for a subscriber: Use the Inbox Preview feature.
• Delivering the email to a test email address: Performing a test send of your email is an important final step before sending the email to subscribers. You can test-deliver your email in the following ways:
  • Test send: See How To Send an Email Using Test Send.
  • Test list: Set up a list that consists only of test email addresses. If you're the sole tester of the email, then set up a list consisting only of yourself. When you go through the Email Send Wizard, select this list only as the recipient so that the email is generated for just the test email address(es).
  • Suppress this send from Reports: This feature allows you to send the email to all subscribers on the designated list.
  • Redirect all emails to a single email address: If this feature is enabled in your account, the Email Send Wizard includes an option labeled Send All Emails to.  If you choose this option, an email is generated for each subscriber in the lists and groups that you select in the wizard, but each of those emails are delivered to a single test address that you specify.
    The key benefit of this option is that you are able to see exactly how each email looks to each subscriber. If you used personalization strings and/or dynamic content in the email, each email contains the data specific to the targeted subscriber.
    However, if the lists and groups that you select in the wizard consist of many subscribers, keep in mind that the test email address you specify receives as many emails as there are subscribers in the selected lists and groups. Sending a very large number of emails to the test email address may not be a feasible option.

Note: Emails that you send to a test list or via the Email Send Wizard's test option are charged to your account in the same way as any emails that you send to your subscribers.