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EmailForge 4 User Guide
March 2015
Summary
Welcome .............................................................................................................................. 7
Thank you for choosing Splio EmailForge 4 ...................................................................... 7
Getting started ..................................................................................................................... 7
Connecting to EmailForge 4 .................................................................................................. 7
Login zone............................................................................................................................................. 7
Getting around ......................................................................................................................... 8
Top bar .................................................................................................................................................. 8
Quick access buttons ......................................................................................................................... 9
Left menu .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Front page dashboard ..................................................................................................................... 10
Recent campaigns ........................................................................................................................... 10
Billing information .............................................................................................................................. 11
Campaign Manager.............................................................................................................. 11
Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Settings ................................................................................................................................ 13
Configuring your account .................................................................................................... 13
Configuring SPF and DKIM ............................................................................................................... 13
Two steps authentication................................................................................................................. 14
Global options ................................................................................................................................... 14
Personal options ................................................................................................................................ 15
Managing user permissions................................................................................................... 15
Permission levels ................................................................................................................................. 15
Social Settings .......................................................................................................................... 16
Facebook............................................................................................................................................ 16
Twitter................................................................................................................................................... 17
Alert centre .............................................................................................................................. 17
Alert categories and events............................................................................................................ 18
Create a new alert ........................................................................................................................... 18
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Edit an existing alert .......................................................................................................................... 18
Delete an existing alert .................................................................................................................... 19
Campaign moderation ......................................................................................................... 19
Couponing ............................................................................................................................... 20
Databases........................................................................................................................... 22
Managing your database .................................................................................................... 22
Importing new contacts ........................................................................................................ 22
Preparing your file ............................................................................................................................. 22
Importing an export from another platform ................................................................................ 23
Database vs. temporary file ............................................................................................................ 24
Supported mobile numbers format ............................................................................................... 24
Mapping your fields .......................................................................................................................... 25
Subscribing imported users to lists .................................................................................................. 26
Upload history .................................................................................................................................... 26
Fields and fulfilment rate .................................................................................................................. 27
Messages ............................................................................................................................ 28
Message types & libraries ...................................................................................................... 28
Email library......................................................................................................................................... 28
SMS library ........................................................................................................................................... 29
SMS message creation .......................................................................................................... 29
HTML message creation ........................................................................................................ 30
Header & statistics parameters ...................................................................................................... 30
HTML Message options ..................................................................................................................... 30
Inbox preview..................................................................................................................................... 32
Text version ......................................................................................................................................... 32
HTML Templates....................................................................................................................... 33
Preparing the file ............................................................................................................................... 33
Creating a template......................................................................................................................... 33
Using a template ............................................................................................................................... 33
Using variables in your messages ........................................................................................ 36
Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only)........................................................................ 36
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Date variables (email and SMS) ..................................................................................................... 37
Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns only) ............................................... 38
Social Sharing Buttons (email only) ................................................................................................ 38
Last click category ............................................................................................................................ 39
Sending ID ........................................................................................................................................... 40
URL variable prefix ............................................................................................................................. 40
Conditional blocks in HTML emails ...................................................................................... 40
What are conditional blocks?......................................................................................................... 40
CB for personalisation ....................................................................................................................... 41
CB for content.................................................................................................................................... 41
Control structures .............................................................................................................................. 42
Operators ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Tips ........................................................................................................................................................ 44
More examples .................................................................................................................................. 44
Testing conditional blocks and personalisation preview................................................ 45
Preview and Simulate tool ............................................................................................................... 45
Campaigns ......................................................................................................................... 48
Campaign Types ............................................................................................................................... 48
The process ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Creating a new campaign .................................................................................................. 48
Email campaign ................................................................................................................................ 48
SMS Campaign .................................................................................................................................. 52
Social Campaign .............................................................................................................................. 55
Facebook Meta tags ........................................................................................................................ 57
A/B testing ................................................................................................................................ 57
Testing your campaigns performance ........................................................................................ 57
A/B test setup ..................................................................................................................................... 57
A/B test edition .................................................................................................................................. 58
Selecting several messages ............................................................................................................ 59
Control group .......................................................................................................................... 59
Testing your populations behaviour ............................................................................................. 59
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Creating automatic campaigns ......................................................................................... 60
Automatic email campaign ........................................................................................................... 61
Triggered campaigns............................................................................................................. 62
Automatic SMS campaign .............................................................................................................. 63
Monitoring automatic campaigns................................................................................................. 64
Follow-up campaigns ............................................................................................................ 64
Setting up a reminder (follow-up) .................................................................................................. 64
Setting up a cross-channel follow-up ............................................................................................ 65
Segmentation ..................................................................................................................... 66
What is a segment (aka group)? ........................................................................................ 66
Interface.............................................................................................................................................. 68
.............................................................................................................................................................. 68
Conditions and counting ................................................................................................................. 70
Segments and folders in campaigns ............................................................................................. 71
Creating your first segment ............................................................................................................. 71
Gender based segment .................................................................................................................. 72
Using dates in segmentation ........................................................................................................... 72
Segmentation on a single list .......................................................................................................... 73
Welcome segment ........................................................................................................................... 73
Birthday segment .............................................................................................................................. 74
Interval segment ................................................................................................................................ 74
Segment by occurrence of past and future dates .................................................................... 74
Segments by age range .................................................................................................................. 75
Intersecting segments ...................................................................................................................... 75
Marketing fatigue .............................................................................................................................. 76
Email Retargeting ................................................................................................................... 76
Basic segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 76
Advanced segmentation ................................................................................................................ 78
Managing Marketing Fatigue ......................................................................................................... 80
Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 82
Campaign statistics (email) .................................................................................................. 82
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General statistics ............................................................................................................................... 83
Delivery status .................................................................................................................................... 84
Opening & clicks per hour ............................................................................................................... 85
Email agents ....................................................................................................................................... 85
Mobile platforms ................................................................................................................................ 86
Top unsubscribe reasons .................................................................................................................. 86
Queue evolution................................................................................................................................ 87
Recipients targeted .......................................................................................................................... 88
Advanced Email statistics ................................................................................................................ 88
Extract data from campaigns ........................................................................................................ 89
SMS statistics ....................................................................................................................................... 91
Mobile reports .................................................................................................................................... 91
Segments performance ........................................................................................................ 91
Group evolution................................................................................................................................. 92
Reactivity evolution .......................................................................................................................... 92
Social reports ........................................................................................................................... 92
Facebook reports .............................................................................................................................. 92
Twitter reports ..................................................................................................................................... 93
Forward integration ................................................................................................................ 93
Support ................................................................................................................................ 94
Cant find what youre looking for? ................................................................................... 94
Contact us .......................................................................................................................................... 94
International support contacts ............................................................................................ 94
EmailForge 4 User Guide
March 2015
Welcome
Thank you for choosing Splio EmailForge 4
Welcome to EmailForge 4, the most powerful multichannel campaign management
platform on the market. This comprehensive user guide will walk you through the
various options and possibilities of EmailForge 4. Please make sure you are reading the
latest version by checking any available update in EmailForges contact section.
If you want to learn more about content customization, templates or read expert
guides about e-marketing, please make sure to check our website at
http://www.splio.com or contact your account manager to ask for our white papers,
guides and walkthroughs.
In order to improve the readability of this document, we will sometimes refer to
EmailForge 4 as EF4.
Getting started
Connecting to EmailForge 4
Login zone
To connect to EF4, simply go to https://www.splio.com/pl/login-e4/
If you havent received your administrator login invitation yet,
please contact your local customer service. Be advised that
for security reasons, we might deny your request if you are
not the account owner / main administrator.
Only account owners are allowed to request / change login
privileges. This is made to ensure that no 3rd parties will ever
access your database.
To contact our support please use the following
[email protected] or find the number for your zone at the end
of this document.
EmailForge 4 User Guide
v4.6 2014-09-30
Getting around
The front page gathers all the key points required for any EF4 action, your consumption
and user login logs, as well as a small dashboard with a summary of your databases
evolution.
The navigation is divided in 3 parts:
Top bar
The top bar groups all account related information and actions.
Left Corner: username & universe
Right Corner: News, Options, Contact & Log out
The contact form is the preferred place to get in touch with SPLIO for any technical
related issues or questions. We have a dedicated team answering to questions and
problems 6 days a week, from 8am to 8pm (UTC/GMT +1).
EmailForge 4 User Guide
March 2015
The profile picture (avatar) displayed appears when a Facebook or Twitter account is
synchronised to your EF4 account. If both are synchronised, only your Facebook profile
picture will show. Your profile picture will not be shown to other EF4 users.
Quick access buttons
EmailForge 4 now provides 3 quick access buttons in the top area.
The New Campaign button provides the options to start an email, mobile, social or
automatic campaign in just one click.
Databases gives access to a dashboard, where you will find your database
information and actions such as find or add a user, edit the subscription form, etc.
The Reports button brings you to the campaigns statistics.
Left menu
Dashboard returns you to the front page from anywhere.
The Campaign Manager displays all scheduled campaigns,
automatic campaigns, and recently sent campaigns.
SETTINGS:
Users: create and edit all your EF4 users and their permissions.
Social settings: synch a Facebook & Twitter account to EF4.
MESSAGES:
Email Library & SMS Library: stores all your templates.
New Email & New SMS: write or upload new HTML emails,
templates and SMS messages.
DATABASE:
Databases: access to the database dashboard (same as the
quick access button)
Groups (segments): add, edit, and delete segments.
Lists: add, edit, and delete membership lists
Files: store temporary files, external lists that should not be
merged with your data
Blacklists: stores your blacklists, by type. Download lists, add or
remove members.
Some sections will not be shown depending on the users permission
level.
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March 2015
Front page dashboard
The main dashboard gives a preview of your databases KPIs. Total contacts, contacts
with phone numbers, global evolution in X days*, and database evolution for the past
30 days. The email and mobile phone numbers are displayed as well as the growth
and churn for both KPIs over time.
* The rate shown is relevant to the amount of campaigns you send per month. For instance, if you send
4 campaigns a month, the evolution rate will be shown for 30 days. But if you send 9 campaigns a week,
the evolution will be shown for 7 days.
Recent campaigns
The 8 latest campaigns are displayed with a quick preview of their performances. A
small thumbnail preview of the text or HTML file sent, volume of recipients, start date
and subject are mentioned as well as quick shortcuts to the messages details in the
library or the complete campaigns report. Finally, a pie chart displays the campaign
overall success with the amount of messages successfully delivered, opened, clicked
or rejected.
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Billing information
The front page also provides a month-by-month consumption log for the universe. This
is especially useful to check if you are sending less or more than planned, and
determine you need to switch to a new subscription plan.
Campaign Manager
The Campaign Manager allows you to create, modify or
delete existing or upcoming campaigns and to view the
details of campaigns that have ended.
This is the campaign control centre, where you will find your Automatic, unfinished and
last 15 completed campaigns.
All your campaigns therefore appear in the manager. You can access 3 options:
- Follow-up regarding a past or upcoming campaign
- View statistics of a campaign that has ended or is on-going
- Modify settings of upcoming campaigns
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Reports
The reports page, also called statistics, contains all your campaigns from the last 30
days. To access the reports page, click on the reports button located the top right
section of the header.
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Settings
Configuring your account
Access: Top bar > Cog icon (options).
When you connect to EF4 for the first time, your account manager will already have
configured most settings. However, you can change most settings if you need to.
The settings are available in the top bar, on the right.
Configuring SPF and DKIM
EF 4 provides an automatic configuration for SPF, SenderID and DKIM. If you wish to
configure your email authentication settings manually using your own domain
parameters, feel free to submit your domain authentication information. The changes
will be applied immediately.
If you dont know what this is, you should leave the default settings to automatic
outgoing email authentication enabled.
If you wish to learn more about email authentication and consequences on your
deliverability, contact your account manager.
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Two steps authentication
EF4s security settings can be reinforced with SMS authentication whenever a new
device tries to connect to the platform. The system we used is called 2FA (two-factor
authentication).
2FA consists in combining your usual security with a physical key. For instance, a safe
could require a password and a key. For EF4 it would be your login (login + password
+ universe), reinforced by a numeric code sent by SMS to your cell phone.
This method is optional but strongly recommended. The 2FA identification can be
saved on your computer for a 30 days period.
Global options
Global options allow you to modify the core settings of your account such as your
universes name (if your company name changes, or if you want to use it for a different
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brand), as well as the default from email address and the very important time zone,
which will be used for campaigns scheduling.
Personal options
This is the place to change and edit password
settings for the logged in account, as well as the
personal time zone (different from the universes
time zone) and the language settings for the
logged in account.
Note: language settings will not affect the universes
language settings. The personal language setting will
determine your EF4 interface language (texts, menus,
etc).
Managing user permissions
Access: Left menu > Settings group > Users.
EF4 allows you to manage the rights of users connected to the platform in an
advanced manner. You can create as many users as you want.
In order to protect your databases from fraudulent use (access to the data,
downloads, deletion), EF4 provides a choice of 5 permission levels.
Permission levels
Administrator
The administrator can access all of the universe's features, create new users and
modify their permissions.
The administrator can download and delete the universes data.
We recommend having only one admin per universe.
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Standard user
Each user can access all of the universe's features. A user cant:
Download a database or export statistics nor modify the universes settings.
Create new accounts or modify their permissions.
Statistics
Statistic users can only access the statistics of campaigns to which access was granted
by an admin or standard user (campaign configuration area, step 4).
Creative
The creative user can create/edit HTML emails, but cant delete them. The creative
can only access the messages it created.
Disabled
Disabled accounts can no longer login to the platform.
Social Settings
Access: Left menu > Settings group > Social settings.
To synchronize your favourite social media, go to Social Settings in the left menu.
Facebook
Click on Click here to link your Facebook and EmailForge profiles and fill in your
Facebook login and password. In order to link your Corporate Facebook Page, your
linked Facebook account must be admin of that page.
/!\ Please leave all Facebook permissions as is, otherwise this feature will not work properly /!\
Your profile picture, name and page will show in their respective section when you
refresh the page.
You can synchronise an unlimited number of Facebook pages and profiles.
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Twitter
Click on Click here to link your Twitter account to your EmailForge universe and fill in
your Twitter login and password.
Your profile picture and name will show when you refresh the page.
You can synchronise an unlimited number of Twitter profiles.
Alert centre
Many events can occur on your universe. Some are critical and should be brought up
to your attention as quickly as possible, for instance when your SMS credits are too low
or when a new user is created. The Alert Centre provides you with a way to setup your
own alerts and get alerted 24/7 about such important events, by email and SMS.
Warning: Note that the SMS channel will only be available when the e-mail notification is active. The emails will provide more details on the issue.
Warning: Each SMS sent from the notification centre will be deducted from your universes balance. If
you run out of SMS credits, the user will receive the email notification only.
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Alert categories and events
The Alert Centre contains a variety of events, each classified under a specific
category.
User Events
User management alerts notify you when there is unusual activity on your universe.
Suspicious login: when a user connects from an unusual location
Admin creation: a new user with an admin profile has been created
User creation: a new user with a user profile has been created
User login failure: a user has failed to log in too many times
User login: a user has successfully connected to the universe
Campaign Events
Alerts based on the status of a campaigns sending.
Automatic campaign not sent: an automatic campaign could not be sent.
Consumption Events
Alerts based on the universes consumption.
SMS credits: remaining SMS credits have reached a threshold.
Create a new alert
To create a new alert:
1. Go to Settings > Alerts
2. Click on the button Create new alert, which will open a wizard that will guide
you through the creation steps
3. Select a category (e.g. Consumption)
4. Select an event (e.g. SMS Credits)
5. You can then choose an operator and a value (e.g. SMS Credits > 100), as
well as configure the alert
6. Select users you wish to be alerted, as well as the channel on which they will
be notified.
7. You can also include non-user recipients. They will then receive the alert by
email.
Edit an existing alert
To edit an alert:
1. Go to Settings > Alerts
2. Identify the alert you want to edit in the list
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3. Click on the Edit icon next to the alert, which will open a wizard that will guide
you through the edition steps
4. You can now edit the alert (category, event, configuration, users)
5. Once youre done editing, click on the Save button
Delete an existing alert
To delete an alert:
1. Go to Settings > Alerts
2. Identify the alert you want to delete in the list
3. Click on the Delete icon next to the alert
4. You will be asked to confirm your choice to delete the alert
Campaign moderation
You can moderate all your campaigns if you provide us with a list of email addresses
of your defined moderators.
All send-outs for a given universe will have to be accepted/blocked by one of the
moderators before being sent.
Moderators will receive for each campaign an email to accept or block the
campaign.
Any moderator can accept / block the campaign.
No message can be sent without confirmation.
If you click on ACCEPT this message, you must confirm your choice again.
If you click on BLOCK this message, campaign will immediately be blocked
without any further confirmation.
WARNING: A blocked campaign cannot be sent, the message and the sending is blocked even if you
change your mind later on. If for any reason you dont receive the moderation email, your campaign
will be blocked.
Please contact your account manager for more information or to setup this feature.
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Couponing
Coupon codes can be assigned to your campaigns. You can even indicate their start
and end dates.
You have to upload a file with your coupons. Be careful you have to upload enough
coupons to send your campaign. Otherwise, your campaign will be stopped except
if you reload new coupons (assigned to the same category).
All coupons are stored in EF4, you can check if all your coupons are already used or
not.
Each coupon is related to a category that you have to use, in your message to display
your coupons.
Here is an example of a birthday coupon: $CouponBirthday$ and
$ExpCouponBirthday$ allow you to display your coupon and its expiration date.
You can upload coupon files along with the following settings:
Category (welcome, birthday, )
Start date
End date (when we should stop sending these coupons)
Expiration date (the date we should display in emails)
You can define a start and an end date in your coupon file and choose a specific
format:
Or you can define a start and end date directly in EF4:
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Databases
Access: Header > Databases button || Left Menu > Database group > Databases.
Managing your database
A wide range of tools is available to manage, edit, upload and analyse your database
in EmailForge 4. The main functions are listed in the database page, which can be
easily accessed from the top shortcut.
The main tools are listed on top of the page for easy and fast accessibility.
Find: Find subscribers, view and edit the values of the related fields (surname, first
name...).
Add: Manually add subscribers to the database.
Upload: Import new lists or temporary files.
Download: Export your database, partially or entirely.
Form: Generate a registration form on your website that will be linked to your
EmailForge database.
Fields: Add, edit or delete your databases fields.
Remove: Unsubscribe, delete or blacklist a subscriber or a list of emails.
Uploads History: Keeps track of all the imports and import logs.
Importing new contacts
To import contacts, use the upload button in the database page.
To configure an automatic data flow to synchronize your database daily
or hourly, contact your account manager.
Preparing your file
Improper fields
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Try to avoid naming your fields with names already taken by EmailForges database
or variables. Using the same names can interfere with proper personalisation and
conditional blocks.
Avoid words like:
email
cellphone
lastname
last_click_date
mirrorUrl
unsubUrl
md5email
firstname
last_click_categ
last_open_date
fbshareUrl
etc
File type
The supported file formats are CSV, TXT*, ZIP or RAR files. We strongly recommend using
the UTF-8 base encoding which supports the widest types of characters and
languages.
* Windows users: The Tab Delimited Text file format (TXT) is preferred.
* Mac users: The Windows Comma Separated file format (CSV) is preferred.
/!\ If your database contains dates (birth dates for instance), the recommended format is YYYY-MMDD. All other formats will be treated as regular text. Regular text fields for dates will not allow you to use
date variables (to learn more on these, read the variables section.)
Zipping your database is possible and recommended for faster synchronization. Make
sure that the zip archive is not password protected, and that you have only one file in
the zip.
/!\ Using the right date format is important to work properly with EF4 Segmentation and to use date
variables.
/!\ The primary key on EF4 is either an email address or a cell phone number. Each new email addresses
and cell phone numbers that are not associated together will create a new user profile.
/!\ Each user in the database can have 1 email address and/or 1 telephone number.
/!\ When a new file is uploaded, if the email or the cell phone number is already found in the database,
the profile will be updated with the new data.
Importing an export from another platform
If your data is an export from another platform (CMS, ERP, or another email marketing
platform), you need to clean your file.
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Open your database into EXCEL, and select Save As in the File menu:
1. Type in your database name
2. Select the proper file format* in the type scroll list
3. Save and close Excel
* Windows users: The Tab Delimited Text file format (TXT) is preferred.
* Mac users: The Windows Comma Separated (CSV) or Tab Delimited Text (txt)
formats are preferred.
Supported delimiters are: comma ( , ), semicolon ( ; ), tab, and pipe ( | ).
Database vs. temporary file
When uploading a new file, two options are available: upload to database and store
as a temporary file.
Database
When uploading to database, you will have to choose a list to which your members
will be subscribed. Users can subscribe to multiple lists. For instance, a user could be
subscribed to both Newsletter and Partner offers.
The segmentation engine will access data from lists.
For more information on lists and segmentation, go to Managing Database.
Temporary file
The temporary files are completely separated from the global database.
The segmentation engine cannot access data from temporary files.
Uploading to database or as a temporary file?
It is always recommended to upload your lists into the database (existing or new) when
uploading a new file. However, if you are uploading data from a partner, client or any
unknown source and dont want to erase / edit your own clients information, use the
temporary file option to avoid overwriting your database.
Supported mobile numbers format
EF4 supports several formats for mobile phone numbers in order to be able to host
foreign and local phone numbers from any country.
Here are the guidelines to upload mobile numbers on the platform:
Level 1 format
Preferred format
+33626440150
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Level 2 format
Accepted format
Accepted and completed
according to your account
language
Level 3 format
0033626440150
0626440150
Example, if the account is set as
English (UK), the telephone
number will become:
+44626440150
626440150
Level 4 format
NOT SUPPORTED
In that case, EmailForge 4 will try
to complete the phone number
but errors might occur
Mapping your fields
Once your file has been uploaded, you must establish the mapping of the fields by
assigning the columns in your raw file to the columns in your EF4 database.
You can choose to import all the columns from your file or just a few.
/!\ You need at least an email column or a cell phone number column. /!\
The table below displays the raw data, as it should look when you open your database
from Excel.
surname
first name
address
Zip
Dob
optin
gender
Boisnard
Olivier
4 rue des plantes
75015
1984-05-02
Yes
Billon
Benjamin
5 rue des coquelicots
75015
1982-02-12
Yes
Elise
Hosemans
6 rue des acacias
75015
1978-03-07
Yes
The picture below displays the mapping form. Select or create the fields in your
database. If the field already exists with the same name, the mapping will be done
automatically.
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To create a field, select new field and enter the name (do not use accents or special
characters).
Subscribing imported users to lists
You need to select at least one membership. A single user can be subscribed to as
many lists as you want to. In the example below, we subscribe our imported users to
Newsletter and Promotions.
You can create up to 64 lists.
Upload history
To view your upload history and log files, use the button Uploads history from the
database page.
This page provides a full history log of all files uploaded to the platform and the various
operations made on each new file.
Every new upload, EF4 creates a report, which contains the lists of rejected addresses
and/or telephone numbers and the reason why.
EF4 can reject an address for different reasons, such as:
Non-compliant format to RFC guidelines
Wrong or unknown encoding
Duplicate, already found in the database
Hard bounce, already detected as invalid
You are now ready to create your first message.
Only the manual file uploads are logged in the history.
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Fields and fulfilment rate
The fields page allows you to create or delete custom fields, reorder them, and see
the fulfilment rate of each field.
Create a field
To create a new field, go to the
bottom of the page and fill in the
box. Click the save button to
create the new field.
Reorder fields
To change the order of the fields, you can click the green switch on the fields
right end. Clicking the switch will send the corresponding field below the next
one.
Fields fulfilment rate
You can calculate the fields fulfilment rate on demand. To do so, click the
Recalculate button. Once the button clicked, your database will either be
calculated right away or be put in queue.
You can request a recount once every 3 hours.
While your database is being recounted, you can proceed to other tasks and come back later. All
calculations are done in the background, and will not affect your campaigns from being sent properly.
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Messages
Message types & libraries
Before creating any type of campaign, you need to have a message at the ready.
There are 2 types of messages you can create: HTML, SMS. They will be grouped within
their respective libraries.
The libraries store all your messages, whether they be HTML files, templates, or SMS
messages. Libraries are accessible through the left menu.
Email library
The email library stores your HTML messages and templates, and contains filter buttons
and a search engine. You can search messages using keywords from their name,
subject, sender and date of creation.
Once you found your message, you can select it or delete it. Hitting Use this message
will bring you to the message page, where you can edit it, test it, duplicate it, send as
campaign or delete it.
A message that has already been sent cannot be used twice (identified with a lock
icon). To use the same message, click the Use this message button and duplicate
the locked message. It will automatically create a copy.
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SMS library
The SMS library is similar to the Email library, without the filters. You can also search
messages using keywords and/or creation date.
SMS message creation
From the left menu, select New SMS and fill-in the required fields.
Message Name: for your
own records
Message Sender: Sender of
the SMS campaign, appears
with the phone number (Not
supported in all countries)
Message content: Write the
content of the text message
here
Use Unicode: Support for
special characters (Chinese,
Arabic...)
Allow long messages: A text
message is 153 character or
67 encode character, select the option to be able to send longer messages
(billed).
You have the possibility to personalize your domain name for SMS instead of
www.spl.io.
If you want to set up your domain name, please contact your account manager.
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HTML message creation
From the left menu, select New Email.
Header & statistics parameters
Fill in the required fields:
- Messages subject (subject that appears into your users inbox)
- Message name (for your own records)
- Senders email address (ex: [email protected])
- Senders name (ex: Splio)
- Reply to email address (if different from senders email address)
- Language message (default language, will be used for the unsubscription
page)
HTML Message options
You will find 2 options that can be applied to
your html message upon saving.
Save as a template
This option will ensure that your message is saved as a template. For more information
on templates, read the HTML template section.
Fix and optimise HTML code for email
This option cleans and optimises your code for email. It will apply all CSS classes found
in the code to inline styles (class= to style=). It will also remove all sensible tags
rejected by ISPs, such as <object>, <script>, <map>, <area>, etc.
Use this option carefully. It works well for simple html code, but can be tricky to use with complex html.
Test thoroughly your message after using this option.
Google Analytics
If you are using Google Analytics on your website and wish to identify your visitors
source, fill in the fields. The information you type in will be transmitted to your GA
account, to help identify the source of visitors coming from your campaigns.
Campaign name: Indicates from which campaign your visitor came from. For
instance, if you are using different kinds of email campaigns, you could name them
accordingly (ex.: 2013-04-10_ PromoWinter_Paris, Weekly_Newsletter_05-04-13).
Medium: You can enter anything youd like, the default being email.
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Source: This is to identify the source of your campaigns, in case you are using multiple
direct marketing service providers. The default source is Splio, but you can change
it if you wish.
Note that GA will not count openings or openers. It will only track the users that clicks links going to your
website.
Importing HTML
There are 4 available options to import your HTML.
File: Upload a zip file containing your HTML and pictures, relatively linked
Visual editor: Create your HTML using a WYSIWYG editor /!\ not recommended
Code editor: Copy & paste your HTML
Web page URL: Upload an HTML file directly from an URL
/!\ Any JavaScript or PHP will be stripped in order to avoid being rejected by IPSs. /!\
File
There are two ways to use the file mode.
1. Upload a Zip file (images hosted by Splio)
The links of your images must be relative in order to be hosted.
The Zip archive must follow the chain of your links (ex: /img/ or /images/).
A relative link is when the link originates from the HTML file, following the structure of your zip (ex:
/images/logo.png).
An absolute link is when the link originates from the root of the server (ex:
http://www.splio.com/images/logo.png)
2. Upload an HTML file only, with the images hosted online (using absolute links).
Visual editor
Using the WYSIWYG* editor is just like using Microsoft Word.
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Features:
Add images with drag & drop
Move / resize images with drag & drop
Crop images during upload (with right click / context menu)
Drag & drop table resizing
Edit HTML header properties
Show all html blocks for easy debuggig
Do not break stylesheets : keep responsive design working
Do not html-encode > and < characters in Splioconditional blocks
Easily chose colors, edit element properties (like images ALT text)
/!\ This method is not recommended as the HTML may not be optimised for all inboxes. /!\
* What You See Is What You Get
Code editor
You can use the code editor to copy & paste your HTML code directly instead of
uploading your HTML file.
Web page URL
Copy & paste the URL of an HTML email hosted online.
Inbox preview
EmailForge integrates Email on Acids inbox preview tool, directly within a messages
page.
If the option is activated on your
account, you can visualise your
emails rendering in the different
webmails, desktop mail clients
and mobile phones. To do so, go
to an HTML messages page, and click on the Email on Acid button.
It will automatically open a new page with a complete list of email clients.
Text version
EF4 supports the dispatch of messages in multipart mode, which allows you to send a
text message and an HTML message at the same time.
The recipient's mail client will choose the version to display based on the application's
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preferences. HTML overrides text by default.
HTML Templates
An HTML template is an HTML message that will act as a model. The message can be
duplicated and edited, but cannot be deleted. Using and customising a template will
automatically create a new HTML message based on the template.
Preparing the file
In order to be used as a template, you need to prepare your HTML and separate it in
editable blocks. Once your HTML is ready, you can add the class edit to any block
youd like to be editable in the template.
Ex:
<div class=edit color: #595959; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; fontweight:normal; text-decoration: none;font-style:italic;>
Any block with the class edit can be edited, duplicated or deleted by the user.
When adding your edit classes, remember to insert them in the html tag nearest to
the content. That prevents your HTML structure from being edited by your users.
Creating a template
Once your HTML is ready, upload it as a regular message, and check the option Save
as a template.
Your template will be in the library section, under the filter Templates.
Using a template
To create a new message based on a template, go to the email library, in the
templates section. Find the template and click on the corresponding Customise this
template button.
You can then change the messages subject, the name, and add Google Analytics
parameters.
To customise the content, rollover your mouse on the desired blocks; the editable parts
(class=edit) will detach from the rest. You can edit the block, duplicate it, or delete
it.
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Duplicate button
&
Delete button
Click anywhere
any item to edit it
When clicking an editable block, a pop up will open with a WYSIWYG editor containing
the editable content. You can either use the visual editor or the HTML editor.
Once you are done, click on apply.
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You can drag and drop your image directly in the editor template if you want to add
it and you can crop your image during upload.
Specificity about editable links
If you want to edit the css style of your links, click on "advanced" to access CSS.
Its possible to choose the type of link, for example if you want to create an anchor in
your newsletter.
Tip: If your text is already considered like a link you can double click on the text to edit the link.
When you are done editing the template, saving the changes will create a new HTML
message based on this template. Then you will find it in the HTML library.
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Using variables in your messages
When using the visual editor, you can now find your variables and custom fields within
the first toolbar. Clicking a custom field will insert the variable for you.
How to use:
1. Click on the visual editor button
2. In your html, click where you want to insert the variable
3. Click the custom field icon
and pick the wanted variable
View screencast: http://www.splio4.com/static/news/4.3_variables.mp4
Unsubscription link and mirror page (email only)
Unsubscription
Having an unsubscription link is strongly recommended, as it is mandatory in many
jurisdictions. We also recommend using EF4s unsubscription process, as it is the
quickest way for the user to unsubscribe. Having additional steps (such as login in) than
a one-click unsubscription is also illegal in many countries and could hurt your ereputation.
Mirror page
Providing a mirror page is an extra service for users who cant see the email properly
in their inbox or cant load images. Statistics on subscribers that clicked on this link can
also give you an indication that your HTML isnt optimised for email.
Adding the links using EF4 variables
EF4 provides variables to quickly implement unsubscribe & mirror page links. These
variables will automatically be replaced by unique, tracked, links.
The mirror page is generated within the campaign and is customised for each user, to
keep personalisation while reading online.
Variable
$unsub$
>
Generates
Example
To unsubscribe, click here.
<div align="center">$unsub$</div>
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To unsubscribe to this newsletter,
$unsubUrl$
>
http://www.s3s.fr/425485/desabo/[email protected]
$mirror$
>
To read this email in your browser, click here.
<div align="center">$mirror$</div>
http://www.s3s.fr/425485/miroir/[email protected]
Do you want to read this page online? <a
href="$mirrorUrl$">Click here</a>
$mirrorUrl$
<a href="$unsubUrl$">Click here</a>
Date variables (email and SMS)
Date variables are really useful for any regular or automatic campaign. Using one of
these variables will automatically insert the current days date when sending the
campaign. Indeed, it doesnt need any manual intervention from you.
Examples
$today$ > current day*
$year$ > current year
$year$ > currentyear, 4 digits
You can also personalize your date with a specific field. For example, you have a date
you want to display in D/M/Y format. Unfortunately, the date included in your file is in
YYYY-MM-DD format. You can use this variable:
$d/m/y$expiration_date$
The formula [$format]$field$[modifier$] allows you to create date modifiers within your
messages, such as today + 15 days, or this field + 15 days for example. Changes
apply to emails, mirror pages, tracked links and SMS.
Format would be optional, with any combination of d, m, y, and separators , /, or nothing.
Field would be any custom field, or $today$ for the current date of the send-out
(based on the universes timezone).
Modifier would be any calculation based on a number of days, weeks, months, or
years, for example +5d, +1m, -1y.
Examples:
$today$
$d/m/y$expiration_date$
$today$+1m$
$ymd$today$+5d$
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These variables are available for emails (sending engines), mirror pages, tracked links and SMS.
Dynamic subject variable (automatic email campaigns
only)
When you are sending an automatic campaign, it is possible to use a variable to fetch
the emails subject. This is particularly useful if the HTML is hosted on your server and
the file changes periodically.
To use a dynamic subject, your message must contain a <title></title> tag in the
<head> of your HTML. Put your emails subject in the <title> tag, then, in the automatic
email creation page, instead of inserting a subject, you can type in $title$.
Social Sharing Buttons (email only)
Social variables are similar to the unsubscription and mirror link variables. Theyre a
quick way of inserting Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons or links in your HTML email.
To create a Facebook link with your own picture
$fblikeUrl$
$fblikeUrl:http://www.splio.com$
$fblikeUrl:spliogroup$
Facebook like button with the official Facebook design
Creates the button and link automatically
$fblike$
$fblike:http://www.splio.com$
$fblike:spliogroup$
Facebook share button with your own design
Example of use: <a href=$fbshareUrl:spliogroup$><img src=logo.png></a>
$fbshareUrl$
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$fbshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$
$fbshareUrl:spliogroup $
Facebook share button with the official Facebook design
Creates the button and link automatically
$fbshare$
$fbshare:http://www.splio.com$
$fbshare:spliogroup$
Twitter sharing button with your own design
Example of use: <a href=$twshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$><img src=logo.png></a>
$twshareUrl$
$twshareUrl:http://www.splio.com$
Twitter sharing button with Twitter official design
Creates the button and link automatically
$twshare$
$twshare:http://www.splio.com$
Customise Twitter Variables with Twitter Intents parameters
You can insert parameters into the Twitter
share links and buttons, that will pre-enter text to
Example:
variables generating the
tweet
for
the
user.
$twshare:[hashtags=newsletter][via=Splio][text=Read this!][url=http://www.splio.com]$
If you dont specify an URL, it will automatically share the Mirror Page.
The same is applicable for $twshareUrl$, except for the Mirror Page. You must specify
an URL when using this variable.
Note: The buttons will not show within the visual editor. To make sure your button is working, you need to
send yourself a test message.
Last click category
If a link category has been indicated in your links, EmailForge will store the last one
clicked per user. You can use the Last Click Category value in segmentation and
conditional blocks to send targeted content to your users.
To do so in conditional blocks, use $last_click_categ$.
See the Segmentation chapter to learn how to segment by interests.
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Sending ID
$envoiid$ can be added in your tracking URLs to return the sending ID of your
campaigns. It can be useful to track from which message users got on your website.
$envoiid$ will return the sending ID that the user received. A Sending ID is a unique
code, identifying the message sent in a campaign (Ex: 6PDz8u4uJ). If you send an
email campaign with 2 messages, each message will have its own Sending ID. When
using $envoiid$, it will return the ID of the message the user received.
Here are examples of how it can be used in your messages, with Google Analytics:
<a href=
http://www.splio.com/?utm_source=Splio&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=CampaignN
ame&utm_messageID=$envoiid$ >My Link</a>
<a href=
http://www.splio.com/?utm_source=Splio&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=CampaignN
ame&utm_$envoiid$=parameter >My Link</a>
URL variable prefix
In the case where you have URLs in your database and wish to use them for
personalisation, you will need to add a prefix to your variable, to prevent special
characters, such as /, from being encoded.
The prefix is added directly in front of the variable, as seen below.
Variable: $myUrl$
Prefixed variable: $url_myUrl$
Example without the prefix: http:%2%2www.google.com%2analytics
Example with the prefix: http://www.google.com/analytics
Conditional blocks in HTML emails
What are conditional blocks?
Conditional blocks (CB) allow displaying certain information in function of your
databases content or user disclosed information. Specific contents would be
displayed to a specific target conditionally, thus making the user experience more
personal for the recipients.
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For instance, if you would like to start your email with Hello firstname!, but youre not
sure if every user mentioned their first name, you would write a CB that says if firstname
exists, write Dear $firstname$, else write Hello!.
Conditional blocks can be used in:
HTML messages
SMS messages
Email Subjects
Email headers (sender email address, sender name, reply-to address)
CB for personalisation
Starting with an already existing HTML design, youll only have to duplicate the part or
parts you want to customize, and adapt the text with the right gender, then, add the
specific CB tags around these parts. For each recipient, the system will check in the
database the corresponding value for gender, and display the right block
accordingly. The blocks that dont match the value are ignored.
Here's a quick sample of what the code would look like.
{SPLIO IF $title$ = "Mme"}
// If female write:
Mrs. Johnson,
{SPLIO ELSEIF $title$ = "M"}
// If male write:
Mr. Johnson,
{SPLIO ELSE}
// if gender is undisclosed:
Greetings, ...
{SPLIO ENDIF}
CB for content
With CB, you can customize a single message, which will include recipient specific
information.
For the next example, lets pretend you are a music label company.
At the subscription stage, you offer your users to choose their preferred music genre(s)
in order to send them related information.
Instead of preparing a different email for each genre, you would prepare only one
HTML, containing multiple content blocks, one block for each genre. This would
prevent a user that selected Rock, Rap and Punk from receiving 3 emails at once.
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For instance, if the user is a fan of Rock music, he will then receive an email with Rockrelated information only. If the user is a fan of both Rock and Rap, he would receive
an email with both Rock and Rap related information, but not the House related
information.
Here is what the code would look like:
{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rock"}
**Rock Section**
{SPLIO ENDIF}
{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "House"}
**House Section**
{SPLIO ENDIF}
{SPLIO IF $pref-music$ = "Rap"}
**Rap Section**
{SPLIO ENDIF}
Control structures
The tags available for CB can be used as shown below. EF4 will analyse and execute
them while sending the campaign, but they wont be displayed in the message
delivered to the recipients.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
Each syntax has a specific purpose, detailed below:
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
This function is used to define punctual conditions, which act on their own, and do not
affect any other conditional block. Which means that it will display each block that
meets a condition.
This is the function used in the music label example.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
This function is used to display one content or the other, with no other alternatives.
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First name example: If $firstname$ is disclosed, write Dear $firstname$ else write
Dear customer.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
This function is used when many variants are required for a specific part of the
message.
For instance: If user lives in France, show Sale -50%, else if user user lives in England,
show Sale -30%. If none of the country values match, nothing will be displayed.
{SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF}
This function is similar to the previous one, but with a default block to display in case
no condition matched:
If user lives in France, show Summer Sale -50%, else if user lives in England, show
Summer Sale -30%, else show Winter collection arrived.
Operators
Operators that can be used to display, or not, the conditional blocks are shown below.
There are quite a few, and can be used in any necessary way.
- =
- != or <> for not equal
- >, >=, <, <=
- LIKE "%something%" or NOT LIKE "%something% to look inside the variables
value
The operators look a lot like those used in JavaScript. One major difference stands for
the logical operators, though. Although && and || may work with JavaScript, their
lettered variant must be used in EmailForge:
- AND
- OR
The information to be compared to the data available in the database (through
variables) can be specified as follow:
- A text string, delimited by double-quotes
- A number
- Another field ($firstname$ = $lastname$)
The logical expressions can be combined with logical operators and brackets to
create advanced conditions
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Tips
-
Always separate the operators by blank space ($var1$ > $var2$, not
$var1$>$var 2$)
You cannot add the conditional specifications by going through the visual
editor in EmailForge. This has to be done directly in the HTML file or through the
HTML code editor.
The conditional blocks always start with an IF statement, and end by ENDIF.
It is not possible to imbricate conditional blocks. The syntax {SPLIO IF} ... {SPLIO
ELSEIF} ... {SPLIO ELSE} ... {SPLIO ENDIF} must be used instead.
More examples
Welcome email example
Now lets prepare a Welcome email with different content for new members who did
purchase a product (customers), and those who didnt (subscribers):
Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}customer{SPLIO ELSE}subscriber{SPLIO ENDIF}, <br/>
<br/>
Please check the information you submitted: <br/>
First name: {SPLIO IF $firstname$ != ""}$firstname${SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}
<br/>
Last name: {SPLIO IF $lastname$ != ""}$lastname${SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}
A quick look at the code:
Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}customer
says if the user ordered more than 0 times, write customer
{SPLIO ELSE}subscriber{SPLIO ENDIF}
else, write subscriber, end of condition.
First name: {SPLIO IF $firstname$ != ""}$firstname$
says if first name is disclosed, write first name
{SPLIO ELSE}(not specified){SPLIO ENDIF}
else, write (not specified), end of condition.
Multilanguage emails
You can use the conditional blocks to manage multiple languages at once in the
same message.
Here is an example with a SMS message:
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{SPLIO IF $language$ = FR}Bienvenue chez Splio ! Pour vous connecter sur EmailForge,
visitez www.splio.com!{SPLIO ELSEIF $language$ = ES}Bienvenido/a a Splio! Para
conectaros a EmailForge, visitad www.splio.es !{SPLIO ELSE}Weclome to Splio! To login on
EmailForge, visit www.splio.com{SPLIO ENDIF}
Email subjects
Conditional blocks are allowed in email subjects.
Here is an example of personalised subject:
{SPLIO IF $firstname$ != }$firstname$, delectable offer inside!{ SPLIO ELSE}Dear subscriber,
delectable offer inside!{SPLIO ENDIF}
Email Headers
CB can also be used to personalise email messages headers based on a value from
the database.
/!\ Domains must be signed and authenticated. Otherwise, the sender email address will fallback on
the default universes settings. /!\
Default email headers:
To personalise the Senders email address based on whether the contact is a customer or not:
{SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0}[email protected]{SPLIO ELSEIF $nb_orders$ =
0}[email protected]{SPLIO ELSE}[email protected]{SPLIO ENDIF}
Testing conditional blocks and personalisation
preview
Preview and Simulate tool
Within the message tools, you can find a Preview and Simulate button. This feature
allows you to test conditional blocks and preview your messages personalisation.
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In this tool, you will find all your database fields, system or custom. You can choose an
individual field and input the value to test your conditional blocks, or enter an email to
preview the personalisation.
Heres an example with the
personalisation preview, with
a Welcome message.
The header with the variables
looks like this:
To verify that your personalisation works properly, you can select email from the
menu, and input any email address and have a preview of the message that person
will receive as such:
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To test conditional blocks such as language or country for instance, select the field
and input the value, the preview pane will show the appropriate content according
to your conditions.
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Campaigns
Campaign Types
There are 2 types of campaign you can choose from Regular campaign or
Automatic campaign on 3 differents channels. Regular campaigns can be sent
through 3 differents channels: email, SMS, or social networks (Facebook and Twitter),
and automatic campaigns can be sent through email or SMS.
The process
Before creating a campaign, if it hasnt been done already, you need to create your
messages. To do so, follow the instructions in the Library section.
You will then be able to choose messages from your library in the campaign wizard.
Creating a new campaign
To start a new campaign, use the top quick access button New Campaign. Select the
desired campaign type from the dropdown menu.
Email campaign
Access: New campaign button > Email
Before creating a new campaign, make sure you
created your HTML message first, so that you can select
it once in the campaign creation wizard.
The campaign creation wizard guides you through the
5 steps required to complete your campaign setup.
Once youre at step 4, your campaign is automatically
saved; if you leave the page, you can get it back in the
Campaign Manager, in the Unfinished Campaigns
section.
Note that at any step you can go back using your browsers back button.
Step 1 Message Selection
Select the HTML message you would like to send. If you havent created one yet, you
will be automatically redirected to the library.
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Tip: Rollover the magnifiers to view a thumbnail preview of your message.
If you want to send several HTML files at once (split targeting), the option is available at the 4th step of
the wizard.
Step 2 Recipients
Step 2 is separated in two half steps.
1. Message parameters and targeting
These parameters are for you only; no recipient will ever see these.
Campaign Name:
Label used to find your campaign within EmailForge. Examples: MKT-Jan Launch
Party, Auto-welcome women only). This is not the campaigns subject; the
subject is set in the message.
Operation Code (optional):
Adding an identical operation code to several campaigns will combine their
statistics into one single report. The operation is manual. (Examples: 234681, ENWelcome)
Category (optional):
Assigns a category to the campaign. The campaign category is used to increment
recipients individual scoring towards that category, when/if they open or click a
campaign. This is mostly used for retargeting (see the retargeting section).
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You can then select your recipients from lists, segments and/or temporary files.
Once you have selected the recipients, click NEXT. You will be brought to:
2. Recipients exclusions (optional)
Same as targeting, select the lists, segments and/or temporary file you wish to exclude
from your recipients.
Example of targeting: Target lists Online Store and Physical Store, exclude
segments males 30-45 and has bought at least once in the last 30 days.
Step 3 Extracting
From the selected elements in Step 1 and Step 2, EF4s engine will generate the final
list of recipients for the campaign.
The engine will also automatically exclude all types of toxic addresses such as hard
bounces, spam complaints, spam traps (if identified), and all other addresses in your
blacklist.
Duplicates are also cleansed; it is impossible to send duplicates with EmailForge 4.
If a duplicate email is found (ex: list A and temporary file), EF4 will prioritise the email in the database
and will exclude the email from the temporary file.
Step 4 Final Parameters
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The fourth step of the wizard allows you to configure sending options. There are 7
available settings:
HTML selection
This is a reminder of the message you selected at Step 1. You can either change it or
select multiple HTML messages. When multiple messages are selected, EF4 will send all
of them evenly and randomly to the recipients.
Date and time of expedition
Select the time and date of your campaign. You can either send it right away or select
a later date.
/!\ Be aware of your recipients time zones, as the message will be sent using the personal time zone of
the EF4 user sending the campaign. /!\
Stats users
Give access to this campaigns statistics reports to one or many statistics users.
(Read the User Permissions chapter to learn how to add statistics users).
Limit delivery speed
Especially useful in business-to-business email marketing or in Asia pacific, slowing
down your campaigns can sometimes improve the performance. If private anti-spam
filters sometimes block you or if you are sending campaigns to China, this is strongly
recommended.
Seed list
The seed list is used to send the campaign to emails that are not within the subscribers.
A useful feature if you need to send the campaign to your inbox, co-workers... The
campaign will be delivered even if the address is blocked, unsubscribed or in the
blacklist.
Share on social networks
This feature is to post simultaneously your campaign on Facebook and/or Twitter. The
process is similar to sending a social campaign. Select the desired accounts and
include variables that relate to your campaign, such as $subject$, $url$... Once
shared, the post on the social network will redirect to the campaigns mirror page.
/!\ Note that personalisation does not work on social networks. /!\
Step 5 Confirmation
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The confirmation page summarises your campaign.
Read the page very carefully, as all key information about your campaign is gathered
on this page. Targeting, exclusions, parameters and HTML files selected are displayed
for you to make sure that everything is 100% ready to go.
Once you are ready, click on:
SMS Campaign
Access: New campaign button > SMS.
Before creating a new campaign, make sure you created your text message first, so
that you can select it once in the campaign creation wizard.
The campaign creation wizard guides you through the 5 steps required to complete
your campaign setup. Once youre at step 4, your campaign is automatically saved;
if you leave the page, you can get it back in the Campaign Manager, in the Unfinished
Campaigns section.
Note that at any step you can go back using your browsers back button.
Step 1 Message Selection
Select the message youd like to send. If you havent created one yet, you will be
automatically redirected to the library.
If you want to send several messages at once (split targeting), the option is available at the 4th step of
the wizard.
Step 2 Recipients
Step 2 is separated in two half steps.
1. Message parameters and targeting
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These parameters are for you only; no recipient will ever see these.
Campaign Name:
Label used to find your campaign within EmailForge Examples: MKT-Jan Launch
Party, Auto-welcome women only). This is not the campaigns subject.
Operation Code (optional):
Adding an identical operation code to several campaigns will combine their
statistics reports. The operation is manual. (Examples: 234681, EN-Welcome)
Category (optional):
Assigns a category to the campaign. The campaign category is used to increment
recipients individual scoring towards that category, when/if they open or click a
campaign. This is mostly used for retargeting (see the retargeting section).
You can then select your recipients from lists, segments and/or temporary files.
Once you have selected the recipients, click NEXT. You will be brought to:
2. Recipients exclusions (optional)
Same as targeting, select the lists, segments and/or temporary file you wish to exclude
from your recipients.
Example of targeting: Target lists Online Store and Physical Store, exclude
segments males 30-45 and has bought at least once in the last 30 days.
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Step 3 Extracting
From the selected elements in Step 1 and Step 2, EF4s
engine will generate the final list of recipients for the
campaign.
The engine will also automatically exclude all types of toxic
addresses such as hard bounces, spam complaints, spam
traps (if identified), and all other addresses in your blacklist.
Duplicates are also cleansed; it is impossible to send
duplicates with EmailForge 4.
If a duplicate number is found (ex: list A and temporary file), EF4 will
prioritise the number in the database and will exclude the number from the temporary file.
Step 4 Final Parameters
The fourth step of the wizard allows you to configure sending options. There are 5
available settings:
SMS selection
This is a reminder of the message you selected at Step 1. You can either change it or
select multiple messages. When multiple messages are selected, EF4 will send all of
them evenly and randomly to the recipients.
Date and time of expedition
Select the time and date of your campaign. You can either send it right away or select
a later date.
Note that the calendar starts on Sunday when selecting a date.
/!\ Be aware of your recipients time zones, as the message will be sent using the personal time zone of
the EF4 user sending the campaign. /!\
Stats users
Give access to this campaigns statistics reports to one or many statistics users. (Read
the User Permissions chapter).
Seed list
The seed list is used to send the campaign to emails that are not within the subscribers.
A useful feature if you need to send the campaign to your inbox, co-workers... The
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campaign will be delivered even if the address is blocked, unsubscribed or in the
blacklist.
Step 5 Confirmation
The confirmation page summarises your campaign.
Read the page very carefully, as all key information about your campaign is gathered
on this page. Targeting, exclusions, parameters and messages selected are displayed
for you to make sure that everything is 100% ready to go.
Once you are ready, click on launch:
Social Campaign
Access: New campaign button > Social.
Before publishing a social campaign, make sure you have synched your social
accounts. For more information, read the chapter Using Social Networks.
To publish a campaign on your Facebook page or profile, fill-in the dedicated form.
Message: Content of the Facebook post that will appear on your page
Picture (optional): Any thumbnail that you wish to display next to the content
URL: Adds a link (to your website or newsletter for instance)
URL name (optional): Displays a custom URL name instead of the full URL
Ex: if your URL is http://www.splio.com/product=?id474853, you could replace it with only
http://www.splio.com or even just splio.com
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Here is a preview of a Facebook campaign:
To publish on Twitter, the process is the same:
Status: Content of your Twitter status
Accounts: Select Twitter accounts where the status will be published
Note that you can include an URL in your Twitter campaigns. URLs will be automatically
shortened using our URL rewriter (http://spl.io) and tracked.
Here is the result of a Twitter campaign:
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Here is the result of a Twitter campaign with a link:
Facebook Meta tags
You can change the appearance of the Facebook post by using Meta tags in the
header of your message. You can modify:
- Title
- Image
The URL appearing cannot be modified, as it will also change the URL it directs to.
To modify the title and the image of your Facebook share, add these Meta tags to
your header:
<meta property="og:title" content="My new title" />
<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.splio.com/img/logo_1.png" />
A/B testing
Testing your campaigns performance
A/B testing (or multivariate) can be used to test your campaigns performance on a
sample of your target. The testing possibilities are up to you, whether you want to test
the messages subject, design, texts or even your targets behaviour.
You can choose to send one message to a small percentage of your database, or
test many at once.
You can later select your best performing message to send to the rest of your target.
You will find it in the Campaign Manager.
A/B test setup
First you need to set up your new campaign as usual.
You can choose the number of messages you wish to tests in step 1 or 4.
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When at step 4, click on the A/B test tab:
1. Select the percentage or fixed
number wanted for your target
sample. EmailForge will send
the messages you selected
evenly and randomly to your
sample. For instance, if you
choose 2 messages, it will send
half your sample to the first
message, and the other half will
be sent the second one.
2. Choose the date and time you wish EmailForge to send your test messages.
3. Choose whether you want your most performing message to be sent
automatically or manually.
a. Manual: you decide which message to send whether its performing best
or not, at the date and time you wish.
b. Automatic: EmailForge will select the best performing message based
on a criterion of your choice. The selection will be made at the date and
time that you define at Date and time of winning messages analysis
and dispatch.
4. Verify your selected messages, they will be highlighted in blue.
Once youre A/B test is setup, you can view it in the Campaign Manager, under the
A/B test tab. If your test has been sent, you can see the results in the Reports page.
A/B test edition
Once youve sent your test messages, you can edit the settings in the statistics page.
Go to the Report page, click on the actions button, and choose Edit settings.
From there, you can toggle between the manual and automatic mode and schedule
your final sending.
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Selecting several messages
In any campaign, A/B test or not, you can select several HTML files to be sent to the
recipients list. EF4 will evenly and randomly address the HTML files to the whole list.
When selecting several messages, a reminder will always notify you about the various
messages being sent before the campaign is validated.
Control group
Testing your populations behaviour
The purpose of the control group is to exclude a portion of your recipients, in order to
compare their behaviour with the recipients receiving the newsletter. With the results
you can see with perform better and adjust your campaigns accordingly.
To setup a control group, do as you would a regular campaign, keep the complete
targeting setting, and under Control Group, select the percentage or fixed number
you wish to exclude.
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Your control group will automatically be excluded from your campaign.
Once your campaign has been sent, you can download your control group from the
Extract page within your campaign, in order to exclude that same group from other
campaigns or to compare their behaviours in your B.I. software, for instance.
Creating automatic campaigns
EmailForge 4 provides full-support for automatic email and SMS campaigns.
Create your HTML or SMS as you would do for a regular campaign, decide the
frequency and target of the automatic campaign, and setup your campaign. EF4 will
automatically send the campaign at the frequency you setup.
Before sending your first automatic campaign, lets take a look at the way it works:
1. Every day, your database is synchronized with EF4 and segments are updated
(newcomers, buyers)
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2. Right before the automatic campaign starts, EF4 selects your updated target
(which contains new and old addresses, depending on the settings you
applied to the lists / segments, use carefully!).
3. The campaign is sent to your updated target
The key to a successful automatic campaign is to create segments the right way. If
you want help on creating efficient segments, contact your account manager.
Once your segments are ready, using the New Campaign button, hit either
Automatic Email or Automatic SMS.
Automatic email campaign
To setup your automatic email campaign, simply fill-in the dedicated form.
Message details
Campaign Name: for your own records
Campaign Subject: email subject as seen by the recipients of the campaign
Campaign Category: Increase recipients appetence to this category if they
open or click the message
Senders email address and name: Seen by the recipients (from)
HTML / Text version URL: Link to the HTML or plain text file you wish to use for this
campaign
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Verification word: Verification word (optional) that will be searched for in the
HTML code to validate the campaign. This prevents sending the campaign in
case the HTML is no longer on the Internet. This also works for the plain text
version.
Settings
Campaign enabled: enable or disable the automatic campaign
Language of the message: Defines the unsubscribe and mirror page links texts
Periodicity: Rate at which you wish to send the campaign (from daily to
monthly).
Triggered campaigns
To create a triggered campaign, do as you would any automatic campaign, and use
the options in the Trigger box
Set as a trigger campaign: Transforms your automatic periodic campaign into
a triggered campaign.
Real time: Enables real time monitoring of the selected lists and segments (API
synchronisation and Form subscription only).
How it works
A triggered campaign will work similarly as a periodic (automatic) campaign. A
triggered campaign will only be sent once per email address, allowing making unique
campaigns such as Welcome messages.
Plus, if your database is updated with the API, you can use the Real time option; Real
time will ignore the periodicity set for the campaign, and send the message
immediately to the qualified members. The delay between each sending of the Real
time campaign is 60 seconds.
Imported files will not be calculated in real time. New eligible members coming from
external files will receive the email on the day and time set in Settings (periodicity).
How to create your automatic triggered campaign
1. Create a list or segment to which you wish to send your triggered campaign.
2. Create your automatic campaign as usual, select set as trigger campaign.
Select real time if you are synchronising through the API.
3. Wait until EmailForge is done preparing your campaign. This might take a few
minutes depending on the size of your database.
4. EmailForge will automatically start sending your campaign when it is ready, at
the periodicity you set or in real time, depending on the options you chose.
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/!\ Once your campaign is set as a trigger, you will not be able to revert it to a regular periodic
campaign, and vice versa. You will, however, be able to enable and disable the Real time option.
Automatic SMS campaign
To setup your automatic SMS campaign, simply fill-in the dedicated form.
/!\ Be advised that you need enough SMS credit available on your account for the campaign to start. If
your SMS credit account is empty or you have fewer credits than number of recipients, all SMS
campaigns automatic or regular will NOT start. /!\
Campaign enabled: enable or disable the automatic campaign
Message Name: for your own records
Message Sender: Sender of the SMS campaign, appears with the phone
number (Not supported in all countries)
Message content: Write the content of the text message here
Use Unicode: Support for special characters (Chinese, Arabic..)
Allow long messages: A text message is 153 character or 67 encode
character, select the option to be able to send longer messages (billed).
Periodicity: Rate at which you wish to send the campaign (from daily to
monthly)
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Monitoring automatic campaigns
To monitor your automatic campaigns, go to the Campaign Manager. On top of the
page, you will find the Automatic Campaigns section.
All your automatic campaigns, active or inactive, are displayed. You can edit your
automatic campaigns or delete them from there.
If your campaign has not been sent, you will not be able to send it again as EF4 blocks recipients from
getting the same automatic campaign twice.
However, you can bypass this protection by selecting your automatic campaign and clicking on
delete this log next to this days date.
Follow-up campaigns
A follow-up campaign is a reminder campaign sent to a specific segment of another
campaigns recipients. For instance, you could choose to send a reminder to the
recipients that opened the email but didnt buy within the week following your
campaign. You could also resend campaigns to those who didnt open them within a
given timeframe.
Setting up a reminder (follow-up)
From the Campaign Manager or the Statistics Reports page, click on campaigns
Follow-up Campaign button.
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You can choose within 6 types of targets for your automatic follow-up:
- Non openers (Did not open, did not click)
- Openers (Opened and/or clicked)
- Non clickers (Opened but did not click)
- Clickers (Has clicked)
- Non buyers (Clicked but turnover = 0)
- Buyers (Turnover > 0)
These targets only include the recipients with a status of
delivered.
A follow-up can be made using the HTML source
file (the original message) or a new file (if you
want to change the subject or message, for instance).
By default, the HTML used in the original campaign is pre-selected for the follow-up.
Setup
-
Choose your target within the 6 types mentioned above by click on the icon.
The selected target will stay highlighted to indicate youve selected it.
If you wish, change your message for another one located in your library. If
you keep the same message, it will be duplicated automatically and will get
its own statistics report.
Choose a sending date.
Confirm your follow-up.
You will receive a reminder by email three hours before the follow-up campaign, showing the estimated
number of recipients.
You can also cancel the emailing at the last minute if you want.
Setting up a cross-channel follow-up
To setup a cross-channel follow-up, proceed just as you would for the regular followup, but using the SMS Follow-up campaign button instead.
The button will become available as soon as you have cell phone numbers identified as a primary key in
your database.
/!\ If you have fewer SMS credits than the number of recipients, your follow-up campaign will not be
sent.
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Segmentation
Access: Left menu > Database group > Groups.
What is a segment (aka group)?
A segment is an automatic and dynamic selection within your database, based on
one or many conditions, declarative or behavioural. Segmentation gives you great
flexibility when targeting your contacts, from the largest to the most precise group of
individuals.
Once your database has been uploaded, you can start creating segments right away.
Your segments can be used for:
Targeting recipients
Excluding recipients
Statistic purposes
Mix 3 types of data to do come up with the perfect segments.
Type of data
Example
Application
Declarative data
Name, Date of Birth, Zip Code
Customization of content,
segmentation of the
database, statistic
breakdown
Reactivity Data
Open, Clicks, Preferred device, latest
action, entry in database
Second level of
segmentation based on
reactivity, Responsive
design, Marketing fatigue
management
Content Data
Favourite content, latest click
category, favourite type of
campaigns,
Third level of segmentation.
Dynamic content
management, automatic
triggers based on products
interests
Declarative data is anything we can find within the database you provide. Reactivity
and Content data are compiled every time you send a campaign, based on user
activity.
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The content and reactivity data storage is limited in the basic version. If you want to use extended data
storage to increase your prospects and customers knowledge, contact your account manager to try
the Advanced Segmentation Module for EmailForge 4.
Segments can contain people from your whole database or from specific lists (you
can read about this a little further down this chapter.)
Note that all your database fields will be available for segmentation.
Segment example
To create this new group of individuals, simply type in the name of the group, for
instance Perfumes lovers, urban females
Step 1: Select the individuals where gender is female (gender is equal to
female)
Step 2: Select the individuals born between 1978 and 1982 (date of birth x y)
Step 3: Select the zip codes or zip codes range that matches the wanted area
Step 4: Select last clicked category type in perfumes
Step 5: Under device and select iPhone/iPad
That is it! You have created an extremely precise group of individuals by mixing
declarative and dynamic data.
Criteria within a segment can be combined using OR, AND, XOR operators. To remove
individuals from a group, create it and remove it at the campaign targeting.
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Interface
Groups management
This page lists all your segments and actions related to these segments.
View segments statistics
Export segment
Change conditions
Clone Group
Folders
The segments are distributed in different folders. If you didnt create one, you will only
see the root folder. The root folder is represented by a small arrow.
To change the folder of a segment you have to click on change conditions:
And then you have a box folder name that you can fill for your folder name.
This box has an auto-complete function that shows all the folders you have already
created for other segments when you type a letter.
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Once your segments have been attributed a folder you can see it in the display of
your segments:
You can collapse any of your folders to hide its content by clicking on the folders
line.
Counting
The counts are the numbers of members that will be targeted by your segment. They
are displayed in the segment page for information purposes and will be counted in
real time when you use them in a campaign.
Date of last use filter
EF4 is only counting the segments that have been used in a campaign or modified in
the last month.
The other segments are considered as old and not counted everyday but only if you
change some parameters, use it or make them favorites.
The segments considered as old are also not systematically displayed in the segments
page. And you have two buttons to click on to make them appear.
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If you click on More than one month old you will see more segments, highlighted in
grey and another button More than three months old.
If you click on this one, you will see your oldest segments highlighted in red.
For both grey and red highlighted segments, the counts are not up-to-date, and not
recounted every day.
You can click again on both buttons to remove grey and red segments from the
display.
Favorites filter
If you want one of the old segments to be recounted on a daily basis or to be easily
accessible you can add them to your favorite segments by clicking on the star at the
right end of the line.
You will then see a full blue star and it will not be highlighted in red anymore and
displayed in that page all the time.
Conditions and counting
Name, constraint, operator, value
If you change the name, constraint, operator or value, and save your modifications, it
will also change the date of last use and automatically recount your segment
members. And the same if you change the AND/OR condition.
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Comments and Folder
If you change the content of comments or folder boxes, it will change the date of last
use, but it will not recount the numbers. Since the conditions have not changed it is
not necessary.
Apply and Save and Quit
The Apply button update the database with your conditions, comments and folder
informations and remember if you did a modification that needs recounting. The Save
and Quit button will update the database with your last modifications and recount if
necessary.
Segments and folders in campaigns
In step 1 and 2 of your campaign creation, you can select and exclude segments.
Now that you have regrouped segments into groups you can see them here as well.
You have the possibility to check one folder entirely with one click.
If you click on the folders check-box, it will select all the segments in that folders. If you
click on the folders check-box again it will unselect all those segments.
If you want to select all folder but one segment, you can just unselect the check-box
of the segment you want out.
If you collapse one folder and one or more segments of that folder are selected, the
folders check-box stay checked so you know some segments are selected in that
folder.
Warning: you will not see the old segments! If you want to access them you will have to add them to
your favorites.
Creating your first segment
To create a segment, go to Databases then select Groups. Type in the name of
your new group and click the Save button.
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Lets start with a simple example.
Gender based segment
This is a simple segment based on your databases fields. If you have a gender field in
your database, you can group women, men and undisclosed as you wish. Segmenting
by gender can be useful for specific products or HTML graphics distinctions for
instance.
Using dates in segmentation
When you wish to segment using a date, you will need to remember two things.
If you are comparing dates (for instance, emails opened within X and Y) you will need
to use this date format: YYYY-MM-DD.
If you are using dates from your database (ex: birthday segment), you will need to
input the exact date format as your database. For instance, if your birthday fields were
input as DD-MM-YY, you will need to use the same format (ex: 15-12-83, not 83-12-15).
This is important if youre planning to use the date variables.
Date variables in segmentation
When segmenting with dates, you can use variables to dynamically select the current
days date, as used in the birthday segment below.
$day$ > current day
$month$ > current month
$year$ > current year
Remember that, for custom database fields, you need to use the exact format you
entered. If your database dates use the format DD-MM-YYYY and want to use the
variables, enter $day$-$month$-$year$. If you use the format YYYY/MM/DD, use
$year$/$month$/$day$.$
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Segmentation on a single list
By default, the segmentation is applied to
all lists at once. This means that if you are
grouping people from 20 to 30 years old in
a segment, EmailForge 4 will look for them in
all lists.
If you want to reduce the segmentation to
one or several lists, there is a little number
written on the left of each list name:
This is the unique ID for each list. This ID can
be used in the segmentation to reduce the area of a group. Simply use memberships
is equal to ID of the list to make a segment search in only a list.
To make it less restrictive, you can also use subscription contains ID of the list
which will search for people in the list who are also subscribed to other lists nonetheless.
Welcome segment
You can manage certain welcome scenarios by defining groups of recipients
according to the date when they were entered into the database.
You can also use these groups of new registrations in exclusion from the main email
plan. This way, you have total control of the quality and type of messages sent.
To create a group of new registrations, proceed as follows:
You can also write a comment in the box to help you remember what your segment is, or what its for.
Click Save and quit when you are done.
You also obtain the number of contacts added to the database dated yesterday. You
can send them an automatic introductory email.
You can then form segments to send them several qualitative messages specific to
the phase when they are discovering your services, strengths, points of contact etc.
To do this, duplicate your segment and change 1 to 7, 10, 14, 21 Create as many
segments as there are messages in the welcome cycle that are sent to them.
At this stage, it is already a good idea to manage inactive contacts, for example
contacting non-openers of welcome emails with an email summing up the previous
messages and containing an element to encourage them to open it:
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To add a second line, click Apply. A blank condition line will appear below the first one. When you are
done, click Save and quit.
Birthday segment
A birthday segment corresponds to the dynamic population where the contacts
change every day. It is ideal for automatic campaigns, as the same message is sent
every day to a different population.
To create a population by birthday and be able to associate a campaign with it, you
just need to create a segment based on the date of birth field, as follows:
Interval segment
To create a segment limited to a set of values in a single row, you can use the interval
function.
The limits are included. Here is an example of contacts based in the Nord department:
Segment by occurrence of past and future dates
You can send automatic emails aimed at specific segments based on occurrences of
dates to come: subscription to expire in 30 days, loyalty cards, subscription renewal,
warranty extension etc.
For this you need to use the following date format: YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD. The
request will then be of the following type:
You
may
also
create
dynamic
segments
Satisfaction survey, unconfirmed basket, Reminders...
on
past
event:
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Segments by age range
To segment your contacts by age range, you just need to have access to their date
of birth:
You can of course pair these segments with their title and highlight relevant offers
based on these criteria:
To add a second line, click Apply. A blank condition line will appear below the first one. When you are
done, click Save and quit.
Intersecting segments
Once your segment has been created, you can use it as an independent target
recipient in your account. You can also create another segment and cross it with other
segments.
The intersection of segments allows you to mix OR conditions and AND conditions. This
allows you to bring out very specific populations from data.
To do so, select the segments you wish to intersect, and hit the button Create an
intersection of selected groups.
You will now have a new line, containing your intersection. You can change its name
in the field, then click on Save, at the bottom of the list.
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Marketing fatigue
EmailForge allows you to easily manage the marketing pressure applied to your
contacts by managing the number of messages that are received, opened and
clicked on depending on the types of campaigns that are used.
Here are the various segmentation options available to manage the marketing
pressure:
Number of messages received, opened, clicked on
Emails opened within last 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 12 months
Length of time present within the database
Number of clicks
Clicks within 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 12 months
Email Retargeting
Basic segmentation
Email retargeting, or behavioural retargeting, can be used to target members by their
preferences to send them personalised content. Email retargeting can be done as
soon as your newsletter members start receiving your emails, using the trackers
recorded data.
Here are a few cases examples (How-tos below):
1. Exclude members that did not open your emails since 3 months
2. Send an email to inactive members and offer them a We miss you email
3. Target members interested by Australia
4. Target members interested in Flights, except Flights to the US
Inactive users
Case #1 Exclude members that did not open your emails since 3 months
There are at least two main reasons to exclude your inactive members. The first being
to save on email credits; its useless to spend credits on emails that wont be read. The
second and most important one is to manage your reputation on the users side as
well as the ESP. For instance, a user that did not open your emails since 3 months might
be deleting them every week, and on the long run your emails end up appearing in
the spam box.
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To prevent this from happening, you can create an inactive user segment and
exclude it in your campaigns.
/!\ Email openings are recorded when images are downloaded only, therefore we recommend adding
a second line with clicks = 0 to bulletproof your segment.
Case #2 Send an email to inactive members and offer them a We miss you email
Some users havent opened your emails in a while but might still be interested in your
offers. To get them back, you could send them a We miss you email, but you might
not want to target all of your inactive contacts, but only those who were still active
within the last 3 months, but are not active anymore since 30 days.
Target by interests Link categories
To target your members by their current interests, you can use the last click category
condition.
To do so, you need to set your link categories in your HTML by declaring them using
the category attribute.
To segment using the last click category, you can either use is equal to or contain.
When sending your message, EF4 will automatically record and associate clicks &
categories.
/!\ If you use link categories, do not check the option "Fix and Optimise HTML code for email.
Case #3 Target members interested by Australia
Assuming you have the current link categories:
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR">Europe 1</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR">Europe 2</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR">Europe 3</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="US">USA 1</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="US">USA 2</a>
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<a href="# " target="_blank" category="AUS">Australia 1</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="AUS"> Australia 2</a>
Your segment to target all members that last clicked on Australia
Case #4 Target members interested by Flights, except Flights to the US
From these links and link categories:
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR_Hotels">Europe Hotels</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR_Flights">Europe Flights</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="EUR_Cars">Europe Car Rentals</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="US_Hotels">USA Hotels</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="US_Flights">USA Flights</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="AUS_Flights">Australie Flights</a>
<a href="# " target="_blank" category="AUS_Cars"> Australie Car Rentals</a>
Advanced segmentation
The advanced segmentation tool allows you to use a constraint to your condition,
such as an action within a period, within a campaign or link category, or the use of
specific devices.
Once the advanced segmentation module is activated on your universe, the column constraint will
appear in the segmentation table. The available constraint options will show automatically when
selecting a condition name.
Lets take a look at a few examples of what can be achieved with the advanced
segmentation.
1. Target members that clicked the category Flights more than 3 times in the
last 2 weeks
2. Send an email with iPhone accessories to iPhone users only
3. Send an email with iPhone accessories to iPhone users only, that previously
bought for a total of at least 100$ and clicked at least once on category
iPhone_accessories in the last 3 months
Target flights shoppers
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Case 1 Target members that clicked the categories containing Flights more than 3
times in the last 2 weeks
When using the categories with the advanced segmentation, you can use a wildcard to replace the
contain condition.
The wildcard is the % symbol.
%flights = ends with flights
flights% = starts with flights
%flights% = contains flights
Target mobile users
Case #2 Send an email with iPhone accessories to iPhone users only
For this example, lets assume that we are selling sportswear, and that we want to push
our iPhone specific accessories for runners. We will target only members who opened
emails of category running, on an iPhone, at least 3 times within the last month.
Case #3 Send an email with iPhone accessories to iPhone users only, that previously
bought for a total of at least 100$ and clicked at least once on category
iPhone_accessories in the last 3 months
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These being sliding periods, this segment could be used for regular campaigns as well
as automatic campaigns.
Managing Marketing Fatigue
Using the retargeting techniques, you can easily manage the marketing pressure you
put on your contacts.
Here are the various segmentation options available to manage the marketing
pressure:
Number of messages sent, opened, clicked on
Emails opened within last 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 12 months
Length of time present within the database
Number of clicks
Clicks within 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 12 months
Example: Segment members that received more than 10 messages in the last 30 days.
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If you need more information on the advanced segmentation tool, please contact your account
manager.
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Statistics
Campaign statistics (email)
Whenever you send a campaign on EmailForge 4, statistics are displayed at the first
second, in real time. EmailForge 4 provides lots of statistical and reporting tools to
better understand whats working and whats not.
Select the shortcut Reports to access the global page for all statistics related to
campaigns.
In this first page, lots of information is already available.
Top area: a filter gives you the possibility to select the preferred channel for
the statistics
Top area: a sub-filter lets you search for a campaign name, category or
subject and a date area
Left column: the icon symbolizes the channel used (Facebook, Twitter, Email,
SMS or Follow-up by Email, Follow-up by SMS and Facebook relay of an email
campaign).
Date: Date of the campaign start
Message: The name of message sent (this is not the subject)
Recipients: the number of recipients targeted
Stats: Open rate, click rate, bounce rate (email), retweets (Twitter), Likes,
Comments, Click (Facebook).
Email statistics
Campaign statistics are divided into 3 analysis levels.
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The first page represents the first statistical level. These are consolidated rates, and the
tables display the campaign's success and deliverability.
Level 2 consists of 3 tabs: "Heatmap", "Clicks per Link" and "Statistics per Segment".
These menus provide advanced information regarding the Internet users' paths within
the HTML message.
Level 3 contains an exporting engine, that produces dynamic reporting. "Export
selection" can generate exhaustive reporting on the campaign statistics. You may also
create an export by population, get a precise counting and generate temporary files
that can be easily stored on the same universe, for a future retargeting.
General statistics
Recipients
Total number of individuals targeted in the sending
Queued
Messages not yet delivered.
Messages can be shown as queued due to a speed limitation or
deliverability issues.
Success
Successfully delivered messages to remote servers
Soft bounces
Messages not delivered due to remote technical issues or end-user
mailbox full
Hard bounces
Messages not delivered due to expired or inactive email address
Openings
Total amount of openings (per devices*)
A message is considered opened when the images have been
downloaded OR if a click is detected.
Unique openers
Total amount of individuals who opened the email at least once
Clicks
Total amount of clicks (per devices*)
Unique clickers
Total amount of individuals who clicked the email at least once
Forwarded mail
Emails open twice from the same individual with a different IP address
Unsubscribes
Total amount of unsubscribed recipients
Spam complaints
Total amount of spam complaints
Buyers
Total amount of purchasers (per devices*)
Sales
Total turnover from purchasers (per devices*)
* To display the detail per device just click on the KPI you are interested in, all devices will be shown on
the list. You can also find this information when you extract data.
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To monitor the turnover generated by the
campaign, you can ask our teams to
provide you with the EmailForge Sales
Tracker (free).
The table can be
downloaded with the bottom icon (Excel
file).
Delivery status
The delivery status report presents in a
graphical way the same values as the
table above.
The dark blue (openers, clickers) is the
best colour to reach.
The dark red (hard bounces,
bounces) is the colour to avoid.
soft
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Opening & clicks per hour
The opening and clicks per hour
dashboard presents the evolution
of end-users reactivity over time.
In the example on the left, most
clicks and opening happened in
the first 2 hours of the sending
(H+2) then there is a slowdown.
Email agents
The email agents pie chart
displays the mobile
/
PC
breakdown with details about the
type of webmail or email reading
software used by the PC/Mac
users.
This is especially useful to verify
which
webmail
and
software should be supported in
priority for your EDM campaigns.
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Mobile platforms
The mobile platforms dashboard
displays the mobile breakdown
regarding operating systems and
mobile
brands
(Apple
iOS,
Android, other type of phones).
More than 15 Operating Systems
are supported such as Bada,
Blackberry, Symbian.)
Top unsubscribe reasons
The Top unsubscribe reasons
table displays the top reasons
from the cancellation of
subscription form.
The List-Unsubscribe reason is
the link added by Hotmail,
Yahoo and Gmail in their own
user interface, and appears
when the ISP handles the
unsubscription process.
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Queue evolution
The queue evolution dashboard
displays the evolution of the
campaign queue over time, this is
a great insight to monitor the
delivery speed of a campaign
and detect any deliverability or
reputation issues.
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Recipients targeted
The recipients targeted dashboard provides a reminder on the campaign parameters
during the extraction and targeting steps.
This is useful, when looking at an old campaigns results, to remember what targeting
was done. The left column notifies about the targeting options while the right column
provides the list of all the recipients excluded from the campaign.
Advanced Email statistics
EmailForge 4 provides a high level of detailed email statistics available for each and
every campaign. By default, advanced statistics are available 30 days after a
campaign initial start date; this time can be extended to 12 months with the option
extended storage.
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Heatmap
The heatmap provides information on hot and cold areas for all clickable
areas in the HTML design.
The Heatmap also shows click per URL, turnover per URL, global clicks
behaviours and turnover counter.
Per Domain
The statistics per domains dashboard displays the entire open rate and
bounce rate breakdown for each ISP in the database
Per Population
The statistics per population dashboard re-calculate the whole campaign
statistics for a segmented population within the global recipients list. This
new data can be calculated anytime after the campaign was sent.
Extract Data
A powerful engine to extract all data from a campaign such as IP response,
SMTP error codes, clicks behaviours
Extract data from campaigns
Export Selection allows you to get raw data, displayed in a table, containing the
advanced details of your campaign. It actually is a listing of users matching your
selection, proposing a high level of detail.
This file can be: Shown in an HTML table, directly in the browser, download it on your
computer, format .csv, or just duplicate it, directly on the universe, to skip the Export /
Import file, for future usage.
You may, for example, extract clickers on a specific link, on a specific campaign, and
create a temp file of this group, directly in the universe.
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All of your database's
columns:
+ Delivery status
+ SMTP response
+ Number of openings
+ Number of clicks
+ Hard bounce addresses
Filters by status:
+ Openers
+ Successfully delivered
+ Non-openers
+ Pending
+ Openers that forwarded
+ Soft bounce
+ Clickers
+ Hard bounce
+ Openers non-clickers
+ Turnover generated
+ IP address
+ Unsubscribed
Filters by reaction:
+ Unsubscribe reason*
+ Mail opened
+ Clicked links
+ Mail forwarded
+ First name
+ Mail clicked on
+ Surname
+ Unsubscribed
+ Made a purchase
* Unsubscribe reason
The values of the unsubscribe reason field when extracting are as follow:
Interest
I am not interested anymore
Frequency
I receive too many messages
Problem
I cant read the messages
Spam
I never asked to subscribe
Other
Other
Unknown
The user did not select any option
List-unsubscribe
The webmail or email software/antispam made a call to the unsubscribe
link in the headers
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SMS statistics
EmailForge 4 provides separated statistics KPIs for SMS campaigns. The KPIs, while
limited due to the device, provide a great level of information on the campaigns
performance.
Recipients
The total amount of recipients from the campaign extraction data
Queued
Undelivered messages still in queue or blocked
Delivered
Successfully delivered messages
Delivery fail
Failed delivery due to technical errors or wrong handset parameters
Unsubscribe
STOP messages
Clicks
Clicks from a short coded SPLIO url (any link in the SMS is converted)
Mobile reports
It is possible to extract the whole statistics from a mobile campaign by using the
dedicated button. The report will be in Excel / CSV format file.
Segments performance
Access: click the statistics icon on the segments line
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EmailForge 4 now includes a brand new feature to track the performance of your
groups over time. This is especially useful to monitor the quality of newcomers from
acquisition partners, or to simply make a precise analysis of a group performance
during a quarter or a semester.
Group evolution
The group evolution dashboard provides information on the segment growth, churn
and type of data acquired (mobile or email addresses)
Reactivity evolution
The reactivity evolution graph gives important information about the quality of the
data acquired in the group.
Open rates, click rates, hard bounces rates and spam complaints are displayed for
you to easily understand whether the group is outperforming or underperforming.
This report can be exported at the Excel format.
Social reports
Facebook reports
EmailForge 4 provides detailed reports from your social campaigns on Facebook.
Likes
Amount of time your Facebook campaign has been liked
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Coms
Amount of time your Facebook campaign has received comments
Clicks
Amount of time your Facebook campaign has been clicked on
Twitter reports
EmailForge 4 also provides detailed reports from Twitter activity
RT
Amount of retweets from your campaign
Forward integration
Transactional Emails
EmailForge 4 provides detailed reports from your transactional emails within your
EmailForge universe (on demand).
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Support
Cant find what youre looking for?
Contact us
The contact form, available in the top bar (on the right), is the preferred place to get
in touch with the developers, engineers and account managers, providing support all
around the world for our clients.
Our support teams worldwide receive the sent forms every day. Using it is strongly
recommended to access the fastest and most reliable technical answers to any type
of issues regarding EmailForge 4.
International support contacts
France (French, Spanish and English): +33 (0) 1 8473 1111
Spain (Spanish, Italian, French, and English): +34 (0) 93 356 91 68
Italy (Italian, Spanish, French and English): +34 (0) 93 356 91 68
Brazil (Portuguese, French and English): +55 (11) 3774 7270
China (Chinese, French and English): +86 (010) 8523 6468
Poland (Polish, French and English): +48 (0) 22 762 88 84
94
103 boulevard Haussmann - 75008 Paris
Tel. : +33 (0)1 84 73 11 11
www.splio.com
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