Managing Letters and Emails with Event Software Online You can communicate with your supporters using printed letters, PDF documents, or email. Your existing templates, letters, and pictures can now be sent using email. Setting Email Permissions As an administrator, you can grant yourself or other users permission to send emails to your supporters. 1. From the Organization Homepage under General Tasks, click on User Management. 2. Click the Edit button associated with a User Name. 3. In the Default Permission area, click Send Emails to give this user general permission to send emails. You can select Apply Defaults to all Projects so this user will always have this ability for all current projects. Alternatively, you can assign permission for specific projects. In the Project Name Permissions area, click Send Emails to give this user permission to send emails for this project only. When you are done setting email permissions, click the Save button. Note: When the Email button is gray, this indicates that the user does not have permission to send emails. Creating or Copying a Letter or Email From the Project Homepage, click on Manage Letters and Emails under the Project menu, or click on the Manage Letters and Emails link under Project Tasks. OR To create a new letter or email, click, Add. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 1
To copy one or more existing letters, place a check mark next to the letters you wish to copy and then click, Copy. When creating a new letter, you can start with any template or you can build one from scratch. To use an existing Auctionpay template, choose one from the template list, and then click, Use Template. This will load the template into the editor below. You are free to customize your letters to fit your specific needs. Merging Data into a Letter or Email You use merge fields when you want to create letters or emails that are essentially the same but where each document contains personalized information from the database. Merge fields can be used by clicking on the merge field icon in the top left of the editor. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 2
These merge fields represent information pulled from your project and/or supporter data. Merge fields save you time by customizing your letters for each recipient without the need to manually type them. A simple merge field example is the salutation (either formal or informal). By inserting the formal or informal salutation field into your letter and saving it, each recipient will receive a personalized greeting based on the data in the associated fields in their record. For example, if you used: Dear {FormalSalutation}, Your letters will display personalized information: Dear Dr. Samuel Smith, Configuring Merge Field Blocks Many of the merge fields in the main letter editor actually represent groupings or blocks of dynamic text. Each grouping or block can be customized even further. The main customizable blocks include the following: Donor Items Purchased Packages (all packages purchased by a supporter in this project) Staff Item List (all items solicited by a soliciting staff member) Payments (all payments made by a supporter in this project) Informal and Formal Salutations Assigned Committee (all committees a staff member is assigned to) For example, assume a user has the {DonorItems} in a donor thank you letter and wants to configure how the list of Donor Items appears. To do this, the user will need to navigate to the Configure Merge Fields area below the main editor and expand the section marked, Configure {DonorItems} merge fields. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 3
For each of these special merge field blocks, there are configurable settings specific to that block. For example, a user can configure whether they want items to appear as a bulleted list or in sentence form. Also, keep in mind that each of these merge field blocks can be customized further by using the text editor below the settings. Also note that each editor contains additional merge fields specific to that block. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 4
The following is a list of merge fields that are located within each block configuration: {DonorItems} block: Item Name Item Value Item Cost Date Received Purchaser Item Description Item Description Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) Item Restrictions Item Restrictions Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) {PurchasedPackages} block: Package Name Package Number Package Value Package Price Package Tax Deductible Amount Package Description Package Restrictions Note Package Description Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) Package Restriction Notes Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) {StaffItemList} block: Solicited Item Name Solicited Item Value Solicited Item Date Received Solicited Item Restriction Notes Solicited Item Description Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) Solicited Item Restriction Notes Stripped (to exclude any prior formatting for the catalog) Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 5
{Payments} block: Payment Amount Payment Date Adding images to your letter Adding images to a letter is done by clicking on the Image icon in the letter editor, and then choosing an existing image or uploading a new image. Image Icon: To upload a new image, click the Upload button at the top of the Image Manager. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 6
After you locate the image you want to use, click Upload. This will add the image to your image folder. Note: Before uploading an image file, be sure the image is not larger than 200 KB. Only files with a.jpg,.jpeg, or.gif extension are permitted. Once you upload an image, it will appear on the list in the Image Manager. You can then use them in any letters or emails you create. In emails, images are represented by links to the actual images. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 7
If you click on your image in the left pane, you can preview it and insert it into your letter by using the Insert button. As an example, you may want to use images in your letters to incorporate a signature or an organizational logo. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 8
Previewing your letter or email You can preview your message in any of three formats: Email (HTML), Adobe Acrobat (PDF), or Microsoft Word (DOC). Select one of these and then click the Refresh Preview button. In Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat previews, you can specify Page Size, Orientation, and Margins. Email preview has none of these options. Note: When you preview your letter, you will see sample data to represent your data in the merge fields, (Joe Q Sample, 123 N Main St, etc.) used as temporary placeholders for the preview. Choosing Who Will Receive Your Letter For email, see the next topic: Choosing Who Will Receive Your Email. Step 1: Printing a letter works similarly to running a report. Go to the supporter grid, narrow down your distribution list using advanced search, and then indicate who should receive the letter. When you have chosen the recipients, click the Letters & Emails button. Note: If no supporters are selected (checked) in the grid, the system will create letters for all records in the current search. Step 2: For Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word letters, click the Print button next to the letter you want to print. Step 3: Change any options you like, including whether you want the letters to be created as a Microsoft Word file or an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. When you are finished setting your options, click the Print button. Step 4: Either save or print your letters from the document that is created. If you need to make changes to the letter s design, return to Manage Letters and Emails and click, Edit next to the letter you wish to modify. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 9
Choosing Who Will Receive Your Email Step 1: Go to the supporter grid, narrow down your distribution list using advanced search, and then indicate who should receive the email. When you have chosen the recipients, click the Letters & Emails button. Note: If no supporters are indicated (checked) in the grid, the system will send emails for all records in the current search. Step 2: Click the Email button next to the letter or email you want to send. Step 3: In the options that appear, be sure to type your name in the From Name box and your email in the From Email Address box. Add a Subject for the email. Note: When your supporters reply to the email they receive, those replies will go to the email address you provided in the From Email Address box. Step 4: Click the Email button to display a preview of the emails that are about to be sent. Review the emails for correctness, and if you re happy with the preview, click the Email button to send the letters to your supporters. Review Sent Emails After you send email to your supporters, you can see how many of the emails were sent and if any failed to be received. From the Event Homepage, click on Review Sent Emails under the Project menu, or click on the Review Sent Emails link under Project Tasks. OR Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 10
In the Letter column, you can click on the Letter name to view the basic text used for the email. In the Number Sent column, you can see how many emails were sent and click on the number to see the list of supporters the message was sent to. In the Number failed to receive column, you can click on the number to see a list of supporters who did not receive the email and possible reasons for this. Possible reasons for a supporter failing to receive an email include: Bad or mistyped email address Supporter has chosen to not receive emails Supporter s email server may be down Number sent and Number failed to receive on this page may change later when the email is resent and is successful. Conducting a Successful Email Campaign When done smartly and successfully, sending email to your supporters is a powerful and inexpensive way to communicate and build goodwill. When abused, mass emailing can offend your supporters and reflect poorly on your organization. Last year, more than 100 billion unwanted emails were received every day. Large scale abuse of email to sell products has led to the need for spam filters to block our email inboxes from receiving unwanted emails. Spam filters work by analyzing email content looking for words commonly used in spam, for example: free, sex, and urgent. Spam filters also watch for senders who ve been reported for sending spam and then block other similar email from those senders. Remember that your supporters have given you permission to send them information about your organization and your projects. If you are respectful of that permission, they will read your email gratefully. If you abuse that permission, they may choose to stop accepting email from your organization and may even be less likely to support your projects. Here are some suggestions for conducting a successful email campaign: Use simple formatting. When formatting your email, keep it simple and professional. Excessive use of different colors, fonts, sizes, and images will result in a higher spam filtering rate. Use a maximum of two or three different font types and sizes. Do not include too many images. Use a template. Use an Auctionpay Online letter template or create your own so that all your emails have the same professional look and feel. Include your organization name in the From Name or Subject line. Doing so lets your supporters know they are receiving email from a trusted source even before they open the email. Respect the permission they have given you. By giving you their email address, your supporters have given you permission to communicate with them. If you send unnecessary or unwanted email, they can click the link at the bottom of every email you send and choose to no longer accept email from you. Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 11
Test your campaign. Create test accounts on gmail.com, hotmail.com, and yahoo.com. Before you send your email to your supporters, send it to your test accounts. If the email ends up in the junk folder for your test accounts, then it will probably not reach your supporters either. How Supporters can Subscribe and Unsubscribe to Your Email When your supporters originally give you their email address, they are considered to have given you opt-in permission to receive email from your organization. On the bottom of each email you send them, they can see the name and address of your organization. They also see this sentence: To unsubscribe from emails from <your organization>, please click here. Clicking on the link takes them to a web page where they can choose to unsubscribe from receiving emails from your organization. Note: While the supporter may think they are unsubscribing from a specific event, they are in fact unsubscribing from all email sent from your organization using Auctionpay Event Software and Join Me. You can see if a supporter has unsubscribed. In the Contact Information section of the Supporter s data, there is a checkbox for Opt out of receiving email. If that box is checked, they will not be sent email even if you include them in an email distribution list. If a supporter asks you to stop sending email, you can select the Opt out of receiving email checkbox in the Contact Information area to block them from receiving future emails. If a supporter who has unsubscribed later chooses to subscribe to receiving email, you cannot remove the Opt out of receiving email check. Only the supporter can do that. You must send them a link to a web page where they can subscribe. The link can be found on the Review Sent Emails page of Auctionpay Online, or you can send an invitation to subscribe from the Supporter form while editing it. The Opt in to Email List page looks like this: Managing Letters and Emails in Event Software Online Page 12
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