Informz Mailing Designer 2 Broadcast Email User Guide

April 2024

Log into Informz

Log into Informz with your SPE credentials and be sure to have Java downloaded on your computer.

Section Officers: http://www.spe.org/emailsections

Student Chapter Officers: http://www.spe.org/chapters/emails

Select Your Template

Select the Mailing Designer 2.0 icon >> Create >> Mailing.

Choose Basic when you want to send a quick

email – such as welcoming new members or a
meeting notice.

Choose Newsletter when you have multiple

stories - such as announcements and events.

It is best practice to consolidate your emails

and not send more than two emails a week.
By sending more emails you risk your
members no longer opening your emails or
unsubscribing.

Templates provided in Informz were

developed in SPE’s brand style and comply
with SPAM laws.

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 Set-up Your Properties

Name
Set your mailing properties from the Name sub-tab.

• Mailing Name – for the admin view only; your members will not see this.
• Folder: choose Main Folder or create a new folder from the View Mailings page.
• Tentative Send Date—adds to your Informz calendar and helps multiple users stay organized. (Does not actually
schedule mailings to send.)

Targeting
Target groups are predefined
categorized lists of members.

Set recipients for your mailing

by expanding the
Personify360 MKT Lists folder
and clicking the + next to the
list you would like to add.

Available Section Target Lists:

Target lists are not synced every day. Allow up to 3 days for the lists to be refreshed and consider sending emails during
the first week of the month—not the first day.

1. Members (No Students): professionals paid for the current year, no students
2. Members Unpaid: professionals who were paid last year but have not renewed for the current year
3. Members and Students: professionals and students paid for the current year
4. New Members from Previous Month: professionals, paid for the current year, who were new to your section
last month
5. Recent graduates Paid: professionals, paid for the current year, who graduated from university within the past
12 months and joined your section
6. Recent Graduates Unpaid: students who were tied to your section but have now graduated from university
within the past 12 months and not joined SPE as a professional (non-members). *This list includes all recent
graduates over the past 12 months. Some are more recent than others, so your email cannot be too time -
specific. For example, if they graduated 11 months ago, they did not just graduate.
7. Section Officers: current officers listed on the roster, paid and unpaid for the current year
8. Senior professionals: professionals aged 55+, paid for the current year
9. Students: students paid for the current year; includes all students tied to your section—even if their university
does not have a student chapter
10. Transferred Members from Previous Month: professional members, paid for the current year, who transferred
to your section from another section last month
11. Young Professionals: professionals aged 35 or younger, paid for the current year

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Available Student Chapter Target Lists:
1. Chapter Officers: current officers listed on the roster, paid and unpaid for the current year
2. New Students from Previous Month: members, paid for the current year, who were new to your student
chapter last month
3. Students Graduating Next Month: members, paid for the current year, who have a graduation date next month
4. Students Paid: members paid for the current year
5. Students Unpaid: students who were paid last year but have not renewed for the current year

Timelines for sending targeted emails:

Sections— When to Send Emails

Target List When to Send
2 reminders between January and April. Be sure to specifically tell
them they are unpaid, as they probably do not realize they are not a
Unpaid members member.

It is not effective to email unpaids all year.

Welcome Transferred Members First week of each month
Welcome New Members First Week of each month
2 Reminders throughout the year
*This list includes all recent graduates over the past 12 months. Some
Recent Graduates, unpaid are more recent than others, so your email cannot be too time-
specific. For example, if they graduated 11 months ago, they did not
just graduate.
Recent Graduates, paid After the graduation period in your area
Student Chapters – When to Send Emails
Target List When to Send
Members, Not Renewed 2 reminders from January through April (same tip as above)
Upcoming Graduates Before the graduation period in your area
Welcome New Members First week of each month

Do not select “Enter a list of email addresses for the entire mailing”. You may not add non-members to the email
system. This is to ensure SPE is compliant with global privacy laws.

If you want to target by story, this is done from the Design tab. Selecting one of more target groups on this page will
send the ENTIRE MAILING, with ALL stories to the selected lists.

Envelope
• The ‘From,’ ‘Friendly From,’ and ‘Reply To’ fields are pre-populated for you and should not be modified.
o If your templates have the standard [email protected], you will NOT receive replies to that address.
It is not a real account. Instead, if you wish to receive replies to an email sent through Informz, hyperlink
the reply email address in the text body of your email. For example, “RSVP to Erin”.
o If your section or student chapter has a shared group email account, such as Gmail, Informz will not
allow you to change the to/from address to this, as you cannot impersonate certain domains.
• Add your subject line.
o Tip - Name your email based on what information you would like to disseminate to your members, such
as “July Dallas Section Newsletter.”

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 Design Your Mailing

Design tab
Select Add Content
to start building your
message.

Select the content

type you would like
to add to your
mailing. In the
example, we use the
“Image with Text”
option.

Text Properties
Add and format your
message using the
Text Properties
editor.

To add another
story, select the Add
Content button
again and repeat for
as many stories as
you need.

Image Properties
Select/upload the image you would like to insert. There are basic editing options
avaiable – such as resizing.

Be sure to add alt text for accessibility.

You have the option to hyperlink your image.

Tip: For Distinguished Lecturer (DL) content, decide if you want to include the DL’s
photo and select the corresponding image story type here. You may also simply
copy/paste text, without including a photo—such as the DL’s abstract and/or bio. DL
photos, abstracts, and bios are saved in the Connect library.

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 Targeting
When sending messages to different Target Groups, it is best practice
to select the Target Group for each Story option if you intend to
target multiple groups using the same mailing—YPs, unpaid
members, or new members, and more. This prevents the need to
send one mailing, make a copy, and send another.

Tip: Use targeted stories to send paid and unpaid members an

invitation to an event. Then, within the same mailing, add a separate
story to remind unpaid members to renew their dues. Paid members
will only see the event invitation. Unpaid members will see both
stories within one, consolidated email.

Set recipients for your mailing by expanding the Personify360 MKT

Lists folder and clicking the + next to the list you would like to select.

Review & Send tab

Preview different
versions of your
mailing.

Scroll down to test,

send to others for
review, or
schedule/send your
mailing.

Check Content
Test your mailing - Always test before sending!

Scheduling Options
Send Mailing Now – This option is not recommended. It does not give
you a chance to make emergency edits or corrections if needed.

Tip: Use the Emergency Link Change option to fix a hyperlink once a
mailing is scheduled or sent.

Schedule One-Time – It is advised to schedule for tomorrow or the

next day.

Recurring Mailings – You can schedule weekly or monthly emails—such as those welcoming new members.

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Delivery Methods
It is recommended to choose Optimized. If you frequently email the same group of people, you can select “Optimized.”
This option sends an email over 24 hours, allowing the email to deliver at the average time that the user opens emails.

Tips to Avoid Spam Filters

- Encourage recipients to classify mailings as ‘not spam’

- Keep messages consistent with your ‘from address’
- Ask recipients to add the ‘from’ email address to the safe senders list
- Check your mailing content for spam triggers such as
o Exposed URLs
o Excessive image use
o Suspicious subject lines
o “!” or words like “FREE” in the subject line
o Including attachments
o Bright red text
- Ask recipients to have their IT department whitelist your Informz IP address (email us at [email protected] or
[email protected] for your IP address)
- The open rate no longer means your recipient actually selected to open your mailing. Apple devices pre -
download content which makes it appear to have been opened.
- Avoid including too many images—especially toward the top of your mailing.
Many readers will need to select to download images/show pictures, so be
sure to include text toward the top of your mailing, so they do not suspect
your mailing is spam. This may also be avoided by limited your use of
images.

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