FractalContent™ incorporates a Mailing system that allows content editors to create high impact HTML based newsletters. Newsletters are sent to mailing lists from our server. The system is composed of two sections:
Mailing Lists
Mailing Lists contain the recipients for your newsletters. These lists can be easily created from the navigation tree by selecting Newsletters … Mailing Lists. A list of all the created lists appears in the screen:
Here you can easily add or remove mailing lists. Note. Mailing lists involved in previous campaigns cannot be deleted.
A mailing list can be created by providing a name and description. There are three ways to populate a Mailing list:
- By entering email addresses directly. This way you can add a single or multiple email addresses. You can enter one address per line, comma separated or “;” separated. Repeated addressed or entries already contained in the list will be ignored.
- By importing from Excel. This method allows an .xls file to contain the list of addresses. They must be in the first page in the first column. The first row must have the text email. Repeated addressed or entries already contained in the list will be ignored.
- By using online forms. Online form content allows the creation of subscription fields. These fields will display like checkboxes where content creators may offer users to register themselves in certain mailing lists. To learn more about forms, please read the Form Content Type Guide.
Remember that Our mailing system is not meant for sending unsolicited mail, so be careful and responsible with the addresses you add to a mailing list.
Campaigns
Once your mailing list is ready, you may start sending your newsletter. Each newsletter is a campaign. Campaigns consist of a single HTML page which is edited in much the same way was a web site page.
To create a Newsletter go to Newsletters ... Campaigns … Unsent. A list of unsent or pending newsletters appears. There, type in a subject, select list, mail account, template and campaign date.
If no mailing account is available you may create one using the add/edit account button. The account corresponds to the SMTP mailing account you wish to use for sending the newsletter. You may use any SMTP account by providing a SMTP server, account name and password. The Mailing engine acts like a standard emailing system providing the highest reliability and is seldom confused as junk mail by your recipient’s email client.
After creating the newsletter, it appears in the unsent part of the navigation tree. When you select it, three tabs appear in the main page (General, Content Editor, and Preview). The general tab lets you edit the different parameters for the newsletter, the content editor lets you edit the newsletter in the same way you edit a web page and the preview shows a preview of the newsletter as it will arrive to the recipient. Please note that not all content types are available in the Content Editor to ensure the highest compatibility with the recipient’s email clients and web mail pages.
When you finish editing, go to the General Tab. You may test the campaign by clicking on the send “Send Test” button. A pop up asking for a recipient mail appears. Type in your email address and the system will send a newsletter to you only. If you need to correct anything, do so in the content editor. Once you are ready, click on the send to mailing list button. The send proceed will start. Currently the send action is done while the browser is open, so please keep your browser window open until the broadcast finishes. If you cancel or close the window, the campaign will now appear in the “In Progress” leaf of the tree. You may continue the broadcast from there. The system will send the remaining newsletters only.
When the broadcast finishes, the campaign change its status to “sent”. A log window will show you who the mail was sent to.