Mailings Overview

This is where a distributed marketer will access pre-defined templates created by the admin to create mailings to their audiences.

In this list view we can see all the mailings that have been sent, are in draft mode or are pending for review or deployment.

We can see real time stats for emails that have already been sent, and we can see how this mailing compares to other mailings in the group through the use of color coding. A red color denotes lower performance compared to other mailings in the group.  A green color denotes a higher performance compared to other mailings in the group.

As with the other sections in SmarterSends we are able to move this mailing to a folder for better organization, review the mailing, duplicate the mailing or delete the mailing.

Lets go ahead and create a mailing using the template we created in the Templates video

We will go ahead and select the Special VIP Template

As you can see, the user experience for the distributed marketer is significantly different from the template creation screen. The focus is on simplicity and ease of use.

We can see our edit fields, the fields defined as editable by the template creator, on the left and a preview of the mailing on the right.

The process is broken down into simple steps for the distributed user to follow.

First, let’s give the mailing a name. This will not show up in the mailing and is simply for identification purposes.

As we can see, the subject line has been pre-defined by the template creator and has been locked.

Step number 2 is an editable block of text where the distributed marketer can add their own content to the mailing. Lets go ahead and add some copy.

Step number 3 is the conditional section of a user defined image on the left and pre-defined copy on the right. The condition states that this section will only be included in the mailing if an image is added.  As you can see in the mailing preview, this section is not displayed since we have not added an image.

Lets go ahead and select an image.

The preview automatically updates to show the conditional section included in the mailing.

We can also add some notes.  These will not be included in the mailing and are for reference purposes only.

We can send a test mailing at any time by entering an email address or addresses separated by a comma. This will allow you see how the mailing renders in your inbox before finally deploying it.

We are now ready to go through the send process. Lets click Send Email. The send process is divided into 5 steps.

Step 1 We select the audience we want the mailing to go to

Step 2 We select a suppression list, which is an audience we don’t want the mailing to go to

Step 3 We can select a seed list of people we want to receive the mailing, such as colleagues or management.

Step 4 Is the send details screen where we can define or confirm our from name, from address and reply-to address. In the template creation process these can pre-defined and locked down or left open for the user to define. In this case the fields are pre-populated with the group names but are left open for the user to change.

We can select to send the mailing immediately or schedule it for a future date. Lets schedule this for a future date

And Step 5, Our mailing summary page, where we can confirm the mailing settings we just defined before deploying the mailing.

If the user has permission to send mailings, once the schedule mailings button is clicked, the data is passed to the ESP and the ESP takes over. If the user does not have permission to send mailings, when the schedule mailings button is clicked, an approver is notified that a mailing is ready for review. They are then able to review the mailing, make any changes and deploy the mailing.