Beginning February 1st, 2024, Google and Yahoo inboxes will be implementing stricter requirements for what type of mail they accept. Please review and re-verify your sender authentication to ensure it contains valid SPF and DKIM records as well as a DMARC policy such as v=DMARC1; p=none or stricter. Consult your IT department for the DMARC configuration that best meet your needs.
This article is part of a series. At the bottom is a link to the next article. If you want to start with an overview then click here to go to the beginning of the series.
Introduction
The Send Email tool allows you create a message, build a list of recipients, and send the message either now or later. On the left side, there are three tabs: Message, Profiles, and Send.
- The Message tab is where you either create a message or choose a template.
- The Profiles tab is where you build a list of recipients.
- The Send tab is where you choose when the message should be sent and finish the process.
Sending an Email
- Click on the Communication menu and Send Email.
Message Tab
- Enter a Subject.
- In the text box, enter your message, or choose a template.
- You will only see templates assigned to you or assigned to all users.
- When you select a template, it will populate immediately if there is nothing in the text box, but if you added any content and then choose a template, you will be prompted to append or overwrite (overwrite will replace everything and append will add it to the end).
- Any changes to the message after selecting a template is saved only to that email and does not change the template itself (click here for more information on changing a template).
Above the text box is a formatting bar with a lot of options including HTML, images, and special fields. You can read more about these options here.
- Click on the Profiles tab.
Profiles Tab
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Enter the From Email and From Name.
At any point, if you need to save your message and return to it later, click Save in the upper right corner. Loading the saved draft is a function of the Message Admin.
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Click on the To drop down list to choose the recipient(s).
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- Create New List in Profile Selector: This option will let you build a custom list of recipients based on profile information. It will take you into the Profile Selector. There is an article about the Profile Selector which breaks down these fields. Once you choose the desired search field(s), click Email List to return to the Send Email screen.
- Select Saved Data View: This option will let you build a custom list of recipients based on pre-existing data views that have been provided. If you select this, another drop down list will appear below the To drop down list to choose a data view.
- Create New List in Invoice Selector: This option will let you build a custom list of recipients based on invoice information. It will take you into the Invoice Selector. Once you choose the desired search field(s), click Email List to return to the Send Email screen.
- Add Manual Email: This option will let you add one or more email addresses manually. You will be able to add up to two, but you can click Add at the top to add more. Once you enter the names and email addresses, click Save to return to the Send Email screen.
After you build a list of recipients, you will see more options to email this to each profile's main contact or billing contact. If you leave these unchecked, the email will be sent to the email address of the recipient. You can read more about these additional options here.
If you forgot what you added or create more lists and want to see all of the criteria, click Show Summary.
If you click Show Summary to see a breakdown, you will also see an option to Clear All Search Criteria if you want to remove all criteria and start fresh.
- Click on the Send tab.
Send Tab
- If you want to send a test email to the email address defined earlier, click Send Test Email. It will populate with a random profile if there are any special fields. Recipient profiles must be added to the Profiles tab (based on a selector or saved data view) for this to work.
There are options such as adding an attachment or adding a contact record of this email to the profile. You can read more about these additional options here.
- Choose when the email should be sent:
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- Send Immediately: If selected, it will send the email to a queue and go out as soon as possible.
The queue is a shared email service. Like all mass email tools, the message will be delivered over a period of time that may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours, depending on the volume currently on the service and the number of trackable links in the message of your email.
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- Delay Send: If selected, it will schedule the email to be sent at a future date and time (the default time will be your computer's local time zone).
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Set As Recurring: If selected, it will turn this into a recurring email. For steps that are specific to scheduling a recurring email, click here.
- Choose Daily, Weekly, Monthly (By Date), or Monthly (By Day of the Week).
- For Weekly, you will need to choose which day of the week and time.
- For Monthly (By Date), you will need to choose which date (1st, 2nd, etc.) and time.
- For Monthly (By Date of the Week), you will need to choose which day of the month (first Sunday, second Monday, etc.) and time.
- If you chose Monthly By Date, the "Last Day" option will vary according to month.
- On the day you chose, the email will be "held" in the mass communicator queue until the time that you chose (based on your local time).
- Override all Do Not Email flags each time this email is sent: If enabled, the recurring email will still be sent to profiles even if you enabled the profile option: Do Not Email.
- Choose Daily, Weekly, Monthly (By Date), or Monthly (By Day of the Week).
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- Stop sending recurring email after date: If enabled, you may specify a date after which this recurring email will no longer be sent.
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- Click Send Email Now. If you chose Delay Send or Recurring then the button will be labeled Send Delayed Email or Send Recurring Email.
There should be a green success message that tells you that your email was put in a queue for delivery and that a confirmation email will be sent to you once this email is actually sent.
If you do not see a success message after clicking Send then go back and look at each tab (Message, Profiles, and Send). Something may be missing.
Another way to know that your message was queued is to look for an Analytics tab underneath the Send tab. This tab will appear if the message has been queued.
Managing Scheduled/Recurring Messages
Scheduled messages (Delayed Emails) are sent once at a future date and time. Recurring messages are sent repeatedly on an interval (daily, weekly, monthly).
Scheduled Messages
When you send a scheduled message to the queue:
- It will appear in the Message Admin (Communication > Message Admin).
- If the email has not been sent to the recipients yet, you can go back and edit the subject, message, and send options (not the recipients), and you can also delete the email, by going to the Scheduled tab of Message Admin, and clicking on that email's subject or Edit button.
- Once sent, it will no longer appear under the Scheduled tab, but you can still go back and view the sent message and analytics.
Recurring Messages
When you send a recurring email:
- It will appear in the Message Admin (Communication > Message Admin).
- You can go back and edit future occurrences by going to the Recurring tab of Message Admin, and clicking on the subject of that message.
A message under the Recurring tab is the template from which MC Trade will create a copy and email at the defined time.
- Once sent, it will continue to appear under the Recurring tab (serving as a template for future occurrences), but you can go back and view the sent message and analytics.
Viewing Message History and Analytics
Message History
- Every email is archived and available in the Message Admin (Communication > Message Admin).
- After a message is sent, it can be found under the Sent tab of the Message Admin.
For scheduled and recurring messages, the Send button puts the message in a queue. When they are actually sent to the recipient (at the scheduled time that you defined), they will appear under the Sent tab.
Analytics
- Message-wide analytics can be accessed under the Analytics tab of the Message Admin.
- Message-specific analytics can be accessed by clicking on the Sent tab of the Message Admin, opening the email by clicking on the subject, and then clicking on the Analytics tab.
- The message-specific analytics includes an option to resend the message.
Click here to learn more about the Message Admin.
Additional Settings
Message Tab
Formatting Bar
The formatting bar includes a long list of options, so a complete breakdown will be available later.
The list below highlights important options that you may find useful:
Add Image: This allows you to pull from images that were already uploaded or upload a new image that will be added to the collection for future use. It will drop the image on your cursor in the text box.
Once you add an image, double click on it for more options.
Email Special Fields: Special fields include dynamic fields for profile information (e.g., recipient's first name), date fields that insert the current date, and dynamic links for linking to self-service areas of MC Trade. The dynamic fields and links will populate based on the profiles selected (Profiles tab).
Click here for more information.
These fields will NOT populate if you add manual emails to your recipient list. Also, if you used one of the additional settings from the Profiles tab to send the email to a related contact (e.g. to the Billing Contact), the dynamic fields will still populate with the profiles selected (Profiles tab).
If you choose the special field, Printable Invoice, then you MUST use Create New List in Invoice Selector under the Profiles tab.
Copy Formatting/Remove: These buttons copy or clear the formatting of the highlighted word.
If you are copying (the option on the left), you can select another word and it will immediately apply the copied formatting. This is useful if you have text with numerous things going on (e.g., the font size is larger, it's bold, and underlined).
Below is an example:
Link/Unlink: These buttons add or remove a hyperlink to the highlighted text.
Maximize: This button allows you to expand the text box so that it fills your screen and makes it easier to see all of your content. You can click it again to return to the normal view.
Profiles Tab
After creating a list of recipients, you will see more options:
- Send Email to Main Contact of Profiles: If this is checked, the email will be sent to the Main Contact of each recipient profile.
If there is no Main Contact or if the Main Contact has no email, the displayed profile's email will be used.
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- Only send to Main Contact if Profile Email is blank: This is a sub-option and will appear if you enable the option: Send Email to Main Contact of Profiles. If this checked then the email will only be sent to the Main Contact for profiles that do not have an email address.
- Send Email to Billing Contact of Profiles: If this is checked, the email will be sent to the Billing Contact of each recipient profile. If that profile does not have a Billing Contact, the Main Contact's email will be used. If that profile does not have a Main Contact OR a Billing Contact (or it does, but they do not have email addresses) then the recipient profile's email will be used.
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- Send Email to Invoice's Communicate with Profile if different than Billing Contact: This is a sub-option and will appear if you enable the option: Send Email to Billing Contact of Profiles. If you are emailing an invoice and this option is checked, the email will be sent to the person defined on the invoice under "Communicate with related profile," if they are different than the Billing Contact.
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- Only send to Billing Contact if Profile Email is blank: This is a sub-option and will appear if you enable the option: Send Email to Billing Contact of Profiles. If this is checked, the email will only be sent to the Billing Contact for profiles that do not have an email address.
- Send to Specified Email Types: If this is checked, the email will be sent to to send to additional email address types on the Email tab of the recipient profiles. This setting enables you to copy multiple people on emails (e.g., an admin assistant for the CEO if the assistant's email is on the CEO's profile as an additional email).
You can go back and change the desired email types by clicking Change Email Types.
Removing/Exporting Recipients
Once you build your list of recipients, if you want to remove any, select them by checking the box, click Select Action, then Remove Selected Rows, and click the arrow button to the right.
After clicking Select Action, there is an option to Export to Excel, which will export the list of recipients - the profile ID, name, email address, and email type. You do not need to select anyone for this option.
Send Tab
Attachments
- If you would like to add an attachment, click Add Attachment.
- Choose a Content Type.
- Click Choose to select one or more files from your local drive.
- Click Upload.
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- The files will be attached to the email and uploaded to MC Trade as Web Content Records.
- If you need to remove an attachment, click on the trash can symbol (far right).
Attachments in large, mass emails are not a best practice. They can be flagged as spam or stripped before hitting an inbox. Also, try to limit attachments to smaller, focused email lists and keep the file size as small as possible (1 MB or less). MC Trade will allow you to upload files up to 4 MB.
Create Contact Records On Profile: Enable this checkbox and choose a Contact Type if you want this email to be added as a contact record to the profile. The Contact Type is based on a list of codes that you create (Admin > Manage Codes > Profile Codes > Contact Types).
In the Recent Contacts panel, when viewing the profile, the description of the contact record will appear blank, but if you click Manage All, you will access a view where the description is available.
Allow Duplicates: There may be cases where someone entered the same email address for multiple profiles. If those profiles were added to the list of recipients, the system will catch this, and only send the email once (if this is left unchecked).
However, there may be a desire to allow duplicates. For example, the email contains special fields with links that are specific to each profile, so enable this checkbox if you want duplicates to be sent.
Enable List Unsubscribe: To ensure that the emails you send out of MC Trade have the highest possible deliverability rates, you can configure a "List Unsubscribe header" for your large emails.
This option is necessary when sending large, non-transactional emails such as event promotions or newsletters. It is not for smaller emails such as annual renewal invoices or new member confirmation emails.
This is in addition to the "Unsubscribe" link that can be inserted into the body of the email, allowing inbox applications like Gmail to parse out the unsubscribe options from inside emails, giving users an alternative way to remove themselves from email lists.
When it is included, a header value will be included in the code of the email that can be read by the email client. If a user click the email client's unsubscribe feature, an email will be sent to the e-mail address entered here noting that the [Gmail, Yahoo, etc.] client would like to be unsubscribed.
Special Fields Alternate Values: If you have used any Special Fields (dynamic profile field values) in the body of your message, you will see them appear above the Send Email button with a field for entering an alternate value. For example, if the FIRSTNAME special field was added, but a profile's first name field is blank, you might want it to say: Valued Member, so you would enter that in the First Name field.
These values will be populated if the profile field is blank for any profile. Note that these alternate values will NOT be used for manual emails, or in cases where a field does not exist at all for a profile.
Training Video
Next in series: Using the Message Admin Tool