Using Mass in LeashTime: Tips and Caveats

Transcription

1 Using Mass in LeashTime: Tips and Caveats LeashTime offers a mechanism for sending mass s to your clients or sitters. The mechanism helps you filter the list of clients or sitters to receive these s. The title of the page, Broadcast, is really a misnomer, because each is sent individually, so it can be customized with details pertinent to the recipient. LeashTime's templates can be used in conjunction with the Broadcast pages to help you quickly craft your message and reach out to many correspondents. The messages you send with this tool can be about anything, but if they are advertisements or otherwise commercial in nature, then in the U.S. they are governed by a federal law called the CAN-SPAM Act. This law protects the rights of recipients by defining the responsibilities of organizations that send out mass s. LeashTime helps you stay in compliance with this law, but if you are going to use this tool, we recommend that you familiarize with the CAN-SPAM act to stay on the right side of the law. There is very readable compliance guide offered by the Federal Trade Commission to help you understand your legal responsibilities: Taking ten minutes to read this before you use the Broadcast tool (and using the OPTOUT tag described below) can save you trouble down the road. Sending Mass to Clients To reach the Client Broadcast page, select the CLIENTS > / Alerts pulldown menu option. This page shows you all of your clients in two groups: active clients followed by inactive clients. If a client has an address on record and has not opted out of receiving mass s from you, an active check box will appear next to their name. Filtering the Recipient List You can reduce this list by clicking the Filter Clients link which shows you a dialog like this:

2 Filling out this form and clicking Find Clients can bring a very long list down to just a few clients. After you have checked the names of clients you wish to reach and composed your , you can click the Send to Selected Clients button. This creates the s and places them in the outbound queue. in the queue is sent out every five minutes, so there may be some delay before the is actually sent, and very long lists of recipients (or very long messages) can lengthen the time it takes to deliver all of the messages. Composing Your Message Use the Message box to enter your message. All messages are delivered in HTML format, so this means you can include HTML tags in your note. There is no need to use <P> or <BR> tags, though; LeashTime converts all blank lines into <P> tags, and all other line breaks into <BR> tags. As in other LeashTime locations where you can send , you can include certain substitution or mail merge tokens which will be replaced for each client before the is delivered. Here is a list of tokens: #LOGINID# - the client's login Username #TEMPPASSWORD# - the temporary password (if any) that has been provided for the client. LeashTime does not send out permanent passwords under any circumstances and discourages the practice, which constitutes a serious security risk. #RECIPIENT# - firstname lastname for client #FIRSTNAME# - client firstname #LASTNAME# - client lastname #LOGO# - the business logo you see in the LeashTime banner

3 #BIZNAME# - your Short Business Name or your full Business Name if no short name is supplied. #PETS# - an English list of the client's active pets' names. E.g., Moxie, Pepsi, and Pibb #OPTOUT# - the opt out link described below Template-Specific Tokens Some tokens are substituted only when certain templates are used: #SCHEDULE# - the client's upcoming schedule. Used only by the Upcoming Schedule template. For more information about using templates in LeashTime, please watch the video: How to Create Templates at The CAN-SPAM Act and the LeashTime OPTOUT Token In the United States, a federal law called the CAN-SPAM act protects the rights of recipients by defining certain responsibilities for senders of mass . A compliance guide at spells out these responsibilities with admirable clarity. They mostly involve being honest and forthright about the nature of your if it is a commercial message, but they also include your responsibility to offer a convenient way for an recipient to opt out of future mass s from your business. LeashTime can help you out with this requirement. Every client has a set of Communication Preferences available from 1. the Communication tab of their Client Profile (the Comm Preferences link) 2. the ADMIN > Communication Preferences page (default preferences for all clients and access to individual preferences) When a client expresses a preference to be taken off your list, you can use these tools to record this preference and that client's name will no longer be selectable in the Broadcast page. You can let the client remove her name from the list by including an #OPTOUT# tag in any sent to her using the Broadcast page. Here is how to use it: The #OPTOUT# tag is replaced with a special link, click me which works once per client. In the body of your message, wrap some explanatory text around the #OPTOUT# tag such as: Please <b>#optout#</b> to opt out of future from Dog's Life. If this link does not work, you can us at <a href='mailto:info@dogslife.com?subject=please remove my address from your list'>info@dogslife.com</a> to remove yourself from our list. The client would see something like this: Please click here to opt out of future from Dog's Life. If this link does not work, you can us

4 at to remove yourself from our list. When the client clicks the click here link, a browser window should open up showing a message like: This indicates that the client's No Mass preference has been automatically set to yes. In the example above, we include a mailto: link as well, in case the recipient's or computer are not configured properly to make the click here link work. If a user asks by or some other method to be removed from your mass list, the CAN-SPAM Act requires you to honor that request within 10 business days. The #OPTOUT# token works only in the Client Broadcast page, and nowhere else in LeashTime. If you feel the need to provide an opt-out mechanism in your other s, then we suggest that you use a MAILTO: link or some other method to meet your need. Sending Mass to Sitters To reach the Sitter Broadcast page, select the SITTERS > / Alerts pulldown menu option. This page shows you all of your sitters in two groups: active sitters followed by inactive sitters. If a sitter has an address on record, an active check box will appear next to their name. Filtering the Recipient List You can reduce this list by clicking the Filter Client link which shows you a dialog like this:

5 Filling out this form and clicking Find Sitters can bring a very long list down to just a few sitters. After you have checked the names of sitters you wish to reach and composed your , you can click the Send to Selected Sitters button. This creates the s and places them in the outbound queue. in the queue is sent out every five minutes, so there may be some delay before the is actually sent, and very long lists of recipients (or very long messages) can lengthen the time it takes to deliver all of the messages. Composing Your Message Use the Message box to enter your message. All messages are delivered in HTML format, so this means you can include HTML tags in your note. There is no need to use <P> or <BR> tags, though; LeashTime converts all blank lines into <P> tags, and all other line breaks into <BR> tags. As in other LeashTime locations where you can send , you can include certain substitution or mail merge tokens which will be replaced for each sitter before the is delivered. Here is a list of tokens: #LOGINID# - the sitter's login Username #TEMPPASSWORD# - the temporary password (if any) that has been provided for the sitter. LeashTime does not send out permanent passwords under any circumstances and discourages the practice, which constitutes a serious security risk. #RECIPIENT# - firstname lastname for sitter #FIRSTNAME# - sitter firstname #LASTNAME# - sitter lastname #LOGO# - the business logo you see in the LeashTime banner #BIZNAME# - your Short Business Name or your full Business Name if no short name is supplied.

6 Template-Specific Tokens Some tokens are substituted only when certain templates are used: #SCHEDULE# - the sitter's upcoming schedule. Used only by the Upcoming Schedule template. Client Schedule to Sitters template tokens: #PETS# - an English list of the client's active pets' names. E.g., Moxie, Pepsi, and Pibb. #CLIENTNAME# - firstname lastname for client. #ADDRESS# - the client's one-line address #PHONE# - the client's phone number (unless suppressed at manager preference). #FLAGS# - the flags associated with this client. For more information about using templates in LeashTime, please watch the video: How to Create Templates at