So you want to create an Email a Friend action

So you want to create an Email a Friend action This help file will take you through all the steps on how to create a simple and effective email a friend action. It doesn t cover the advanced features; there are other help files for that. It s more for clients starting out with us, new staff members of existing clients or for those who need a little refresher. What is it? Email a friend actions are fairly self-explanatory. Through a webpage, your supporters can generate emails to a few of their friends asking them to support your organisation as well. The email they send can contain a link to an Engaging Networks action or it could simply promote some work you are doing. How do I set one up then? The easiest way to create a new email a friend action is to duplicate an existing one and then update what s required. There s no need to create one from scratch each time. When your account was set up an email a friend action would have been set up too, so you can simply find that one, duplicate it and away you go. Alternatively, someone in your team might have set a good one up in the past. If that s the case, just find that one instead. If there is not one set up, you can t find it, or it s not quite looking as it should, please contact us and we will help to sort this out. PAGE 1 OF 23

Key things to remember 1 Before we start properly If you ve used this guide previously or have built Email a Friend actions before and just want a little reminding on what to do, here are the key things to remember. Duplicate an existing Email a Friend action by going to 'Campaigns' > 'Duplicate a Campaign' and select it from the drop down list. Go to the Build page of your new action by clicking on the build icon - Duplicate and modify each of the following components: Some form instruction (in Other Copy) a final thank you page (in Other Copy) a message subject (in Message Subject) and an e-mail message (in Email Message) Note: Make sure you edit newly created components. Don't overwrite existing ones as this will overwrite copy on live campaigns (where these components are used). You can duplicate the components by using the duplicate icon - on the right hand side when you are in the relevant section in Build. Once you have created the new component, tick the box by its side and deselect the old one(s). Then submit the page(s) PAGE 2 OF 23 PAGE 2 OF 23

Key things to remember 2 To add the above content to action pages, click on the Design button - at the bottom of the page in Build and pull your content onto the relevant pages. You can use this suggested format: Page 1: Form instruction email address field friends email address form message subject email message content Page 2: final thank you copy When your Email a Friend action is built and designed, go back to 'Manage Campaigns', click on the admin icon - Then submit the page. - and set the campaign to 'LIVE'. You can then grab the final URL by clicking on the orange campaign name in 'Manage Campaigns'. This is a quick overview on how to set up an Email a Friend action. We ll now go into full detail on the following pages. PAGE 3 OF 23

So to start Log in to your account and click on Campaigns > Duplicate a Campaign in the top navigation. From the Select campaign: drop down, select the template email a friend action from the drop down list and then Enter a new name: Your new action will now have been created it s now time to update the copy and format. Now what? The Build Phase - Once you have saved your new action, click on Campaigns > Manage Campaigns and you will see it at the top of the page, underneath any folders you may have set up. Don t worry about all the icons. To get your action working you will need to worry about the ones in the grey box beneath: Build So click on Build first. Design Test Admin PAGE 4 OF 23 PAGE 4 OF 23

Build This is where you create and select the building blocks for your action. You ll see some headings in the left hand side panel in the software please see the image opposite for details of what you will see. When you put these blocks together, they will make the content and framework for your action. HTML Template Your Email a friend action will take the look and feel (in other words the design) of the HTML Template. The code for the page is already in your Engaging Networks account and can be edited by your web team in Account Defaults > Manage Account Wrappers. Form This contains the form fields that appear on your email a friend action. It s where your existing supporters information goes. The emails sent to the friends are generated from our system but they are made to look like they come from the email address of your existing supporters. Other copy Any copy block that appears on your action needs to be created in here. This might be the instructional copy at the top of the first page, telling your supporters what they need to do, or the final confirmation page, telling them that they have sent the emails off to their friends. Questions You might want to ask your supporters some questions, as well as asking them to fill in the email addresses of their friends and sending them an email. If you do, you can add them here. It s not a common PAGE 5 OF 23

thing to do, so for the purposes of this help file, we can ignore this bit. Please see the relevant help file on questions for more information. Thank you email You might also want to thank your supporters for emailing their friends. In this case, you can create a thank you email to send to them. Again, this isn t that common and as they may well have received another thank you email for taking part in the main campaign action (Email to Target action) it could be thank you email overkill! So for the purposes of this help file we can ignore this bit too. Please see the help file on thank you emails for more information. Message subject This is the subject line of the email that your supporters friends will receive. Email form This is where your supporters enter the email address of their friends. When the message is submitted on the email a friend action it will be sent to these email addresses. Email message This is the email copy that will get sent off to your supporters friends. Action redirect You can link actions together with this advanced feature. Don t worry about this for now. This is explained in a separate Step-by-step guide (How to Link Actions Together). PAGE 6 OF 23 PAGE 6 OF 23

Error Alerts If a supporter fills a form out incorrectly, they will be presented with clear error messages on the page. These can all be customised. Attachments You can attach a file to all the messages that your supporters send off to their friends. You, not your supporters, control what s attached. What do I need to do? Now of course, you can change anything in this Build area, this flexibility is one of the key benefits of the Engaging Networks software but for the purposes of this help file, just worry about: Other Copy Message Subject Message Content Why am I not touching the other bits? These are all shared features that can work across any action or aren t really required. If your action is going to look like your existing website, you ll want to use the same HTML template as that code is already in your Engaging Networks account. The Form fields that your supporters fill in to generate the emails will usually be the same so you can just use the existing form field selection. As mentioned above, for the purposes of this help file, we aren t going to include any Questions or a Thank You Email. The Email Form (where your supporters fill in the email addresses of their friends) will also be shared across actions though there are some features that we will mention shortly. PAGE 7 OF 23

Action Redirect is an advanced feature that won't be looked at in this help file. The Error Alerts are also shared and Attachments aren t really required (there s a separate help file hooked up in the software page if you want to add any). So you just need to worry about three parts: Other copy Message Subject Message Content TIP: when creating the new building blocks as listed below, you will need to make sure they are named properly. This will make the management of your account much easier and you will be able to find what you are looking for. A suggested structure is: Cut them free campaign - email a friend action - thank you page - May 2013 1) Other copy For email a friend actions, Other copy should be used for the instructional copy that will come at the top of the first page, before your supporters send their emails off and the thank you page copy, after they have done so. You can also drop in other copy blocks onto the first page of your action (like a data protection statement that sits underneath the form). Click on Other Copy in the Build panel PAGE 8 OF 23 PAGE 8 OF 23

There will be at least two copy blocks that are already being used in this action. The first page copy and the thank you page copy. You will see that they are in use, as both will have a tick by the side of their reference names, here s one of them as an example: Click on the duplicate icon: - for the first copy block that s in use. You will see it next to its reference name. Enter a new reference name this will be what your copy block will be called in the Other Copy list. When you have added your reference name, click on the orange duplicate button. The page will refresh and your new Other Copy block will appear at the top of the list. Click on the orange reference name link, the one you just created, and then edit the copy by using our editor (see the following page): PAGE 9 OF 23

Tip: You can insert links to Engaging Networks actions:, other links:,or images (the tree icon in the top tool bar) that have already been loaded into Engaging Networks in the libraries section ( Libraries > Manage Images and Files. For a full explanation of the editor and all the tools available, please see the associated help file that can be accessed by clicking on the? icon. Tip: If you want to keep the formatting of the existing copy block in place, try to keep the fonts in the same format, that way it will look the same when you come to test the page. DON T paste text straight in from Word or a similar tool as this will carry over extra formatting and may cause your formatting to lose its structure. Either copy it into a plain text editor first, or type it directly in. PAGE 10 OF 23 PAGE 10 OF

Once you have made your changes, click on the orange Submit button at the bottom of the page. You ll be taken back to the Other Copy list. Now, do exactly the same for the second copy block you need to create. This is for the thank you page copy. So find it from the list and continue (go back to the start of this section if you need to follow the steps). If you want to add any more copy blocks for other parts of your Email a Friend action, just repeat this process again. Remember, you can have as many blocks as you like. Once both new blocks have been created, you will now need to deselect the copy blocks that were being used when you duplicated the action and select your new one instead. So untick the blocks that were being used and tick the blocks that you ve just created. When you ve done this, click on the orange Submit button at the bottom of the page to save the changes. Tip: You should add all your email a friend copy blocks into a separate folder to stop this page getting messy. Click on the New Folder icon, give the folder a name and press Save. Then click on the folder icon by the side of each copy block s reference name that you want to add to the folder: New Folder icon click on this icon by the side of the reference name to add it to your folder PAGE 11 OF 23

And add them, one by one, to the folder. This will help to keep the list nice and clean! 2) Message subject This is the subject line of the email that gets sent to your supporters friends. Click on Message Subject from the build list. Find the message subject that s already being used, it will be ticked in the list. Click on the duplicate icon: in use. by the side of the reference name that s Enter a new reference name this will be what the copy block will be called in the message subject list. When you have added your reference name, click on the orange duplicate button. The page will refresh and your new message subject element will appear at the top of the list. Click on the orange reference name link and then edit the subject line text. PAGE 12 OF 23 PAGE 12 OF

When you ve made the changes, click on the orange Submit button. You ll be taken back to the message subject list and you will see your new one at the top of the list. You will now need to deselect the message subject that was being used when you duplicated the action and select your new one instead. Just un-tick and tick the relevant boxes. Tip: you can rotate subject lines in an action. So the first message goes with one subject line, the next with another and so on If you want to do this, create as many subject lines as you want and then select the required ones from the list. When you are done, press the orange submit button at the bottom of the message subject list page. Tip: you might also want to add your email a friend subject lines to a separate folder. This Message Subject build area is also used for subject lines for emails that are sent to campaign targets, as part of email to target actions. So keeping the two types of subject lines separate, in different folders, will keep the area clean and tidy. 3) Email Form Just a quick note here to explain what can be done with this feature. You can have the Email Form (where your supporters fill in the email addresses of their friends) in various formats. PAGE 13 OF 23

You can decide how many email field boxes appear on the page and also include boxes where they can enter the names of their friends too. This can be inserted into the email copy. You can decide if you want the layout to be in one or two columns as well as also having the option to change the field label names in the Field Names box. Finally, you can decide on the number of boxes to display on the page. Our format, for the purposes of this help file, will be the Email Only One Column layout, meaning only the email address boxes will appear. 4) Email Message This is the email message that will get sent off to your supporters friends. Messages can be sent as a plain text email or in HTML (so you could build an e-card and send that). For the purposes of this help file, we ll be looking at plain text. Click on Email Message from the build list panel. Find the Email Message that s in use with the action at the moment, the radio button will be selected by the side of the reference name. Click on the duplicate icon: in use. by the side of the reference name that s PAGE 14 OF 23 PAGE 14 OF

Enter a new reference name this will be what the new Email Message content element will be called in the Message Content list. And click on the orange duplicate button. The page will refresh and your new Email Message element will appear at the top of the list. Click on the orange reference name link and then edit the message copy through the panel on the page. Here s what you will see (next page): Follow these notes to fill in the copy correctly. PAGE 15 OF 23

Reference name: the name that you already assigned when you duplicated the component. HTML content: don t worry about this one unless you want to build an e-card that your supporters can send to their friends. Just leave it blank in this case. If you would like to set up an HTML e-card please call Engaging Networks client support and we can give you some tips. Plain text: add your email copy in here. This is the copy that your supporters will be sending off to their friends. As it s plain text, they can also edit the message if they want to when they see it on the final webpage. Insert: if you want to insert an Engaging Networks action into the email copy, so your supporters friends can take part in something, just find the action from the drop down list. Using your mouse and cursor, click on the space in the email copy that you want to add the link to and then press the orange insert button. A line of code will be added to your email copy, which will be a link to the relevant action when the email is sent off. If you don t want to add any links to the email copy, just ignore this insert tool. Mode: make sure you select the Plain text option if you have created a plain text email. If you have created a HTML one, select the HTML option instead. Once you have made your changes, click on the Submit button. You ll be taken back to the Message Content list. You will now need to deselect the message content that was being used when you duplicated the action and select your new one instead. Just click on the radio button by the side of your new email copy reference name. PAGE 16 OF 23 PAGE 16 OF

Finally click on the Submit button to save your changes. 5) A quick note on error alerts These should already be selected if you duplicated an action that had these in place. But it s always worth checking that the radio buttons are selected. The error alerts are all accessed by clicking on Error Alerts in Build. The key one that you need to ensure is active for an email a friend action is the Email a friend error. A message will then appear on the page if a supporter tries to submit the message without filling in any email addresses of their friends. If this one isn t selected, just click on the radio button by the side of the reference name. If no reference name even appears, click on create new and then add some copy (such as: please fill in at least one friend s email address) and then save it. Another important one to select is the invalid email address error, as this will stop your supporters from trying to send the message if they ve entered an invalid email format. And the mandatory form fields one as well. You can leave any others switched on too. There s no harm in having them active. These are just the key ones. If you ve made any edits to the Error Alerts click on the orange Submit at the bottom of the page. The Build stage should be over now But to be sure, you should click on the validate button - - that you ll see underneath the Build list. All being well you will see this message at the top of the page: PAGE 17 OF 23

If something is missing, you ll see a pop up box explaining what the issue is. It will just be a case of going into the relevant build section and fixing the issue. It could be something like you are missing a form. They re pretty easy to fix up! So, I ve built the action. What s next? All your building blocks have now been created for your action but we ve yet to confirm the order of these blocks and the page layout. That s what the design stage is for. The design stage - To get to this area, click on the orange Design button - you will see underneath the build list. - that Some advice about designing your action This Design area is where you decide on the ordering of the building blocks you ve just updated, and the number of pages for your action. You can set your email a friend action up to be on as many pages as you like, with the building blocks in any order, but generally you would follow this suggested format: Page 1 Some instructional copy about your email a friend action so this is the copy you created in Other Copy in build. PAGE 18 OF 23 PAGE 18 OF

The form fields these are the form fields that your existing supporters fill in with their own information. Generally this will be a form that only contains a field for them to enter their own email address. The form field section for your supporters to fill in with their friends email addresses so this is the Email Form you created in build. The subject line that will appear in the inbox of your supporters friends so this is the Message Subject you created in build. The email copy that will be sent to your supporters friends so this is the Message Content you created in build. Page 2 Some thank you page copy to tell your supporters that they have successfully sent the message off to their friends - so this is the copy you created in Other Copy in build. This is what it might look like in the software design panel: Page 1 the form page PAGE 19 OF 23

Page 2 the thank you page So what do I need to do? You ll see any new building block that you created in the build stage (things like copy blocks, or the message elements) in the available elements column on left hand side. Any building block that you didn t touch when stepping through the edit of the build, such as the existing supporter form fields and Email Form will still be in the main design panel in the centre. Using your mouse, just drag the bits and pieces from the available elements column into the central design panel and drop them into the order you want to see things on the page(s). Make sure you save each page by clicking on the save icon after you have set the order. If you want to add something to page 2 of your action, click on the page 2 link on the right hand side and then drop them into place there. PAGE 20 OF 23 PAGE 20 OF

If page 2 doesn t exist for some reason, click on the orange add page link on the right hand side and the software will add one for you. Once everything is dragged into place in the relevant order and you have saved the layout by clicking on the save button for each page, click on the validate button and the software will tell you if everything is as it should be, or not. Again, if something has gone wrong you will get a pop up box explaining what the problem is and how you can fix it. If everything is OK, you will see: Tip: Make sure you name all elements properly in the build stage, otherwise when you come to the design panel you won t know what to drag where! A brief description, type and date should be enough such as: Cut them free campaign - email a friend action - thank you page - May 2013 How can I edit copy in my Email a Friend action? Easy! Either go back to the build stage, click on the relevant item from the build list and then edit the copy by clicking on the link to that element. Tip: when you ve made any changes, just submit the page where you actually edit the copy. Don t submit the list page where you see all the elements relating to that building block type. PAGE 21 OF 23

It s not the end of the world but it will mean that you will have to drag the ticked elements back into the design panel one by one. So it s best not to submit the list unless you have to (you will have to if you need to add extra blocks as these will need to be selected from the list before the list is submitted). How can I check if my action is OK? On the design panel page (or when you go to Campaigns > Manage Campaigns and find your action from the list), you will see this icon: Click on this and then your action will appear in a new window. You can now check the copy, fill in the forms; the initial one with your main email address and the Email Form with perhaps a secondary email address of yours or maybe a colleagues. Check that the page submits and check that you get the email or emails that are destined to go to friends when the action is active. If you need to make any changes, remember you can go back and edit it in the build stage or move things around in the design stage. It might also be good to only part fill in the form, or fill in some fields incorrectly, to check that the error messages are working (if they aren t, remember you can add them in the build stage, under Error Alerts ). When it s all OK, we re ready to go! You ll now just need to make your action live and clear any test records data. This won't magically make it appear on your website, but it will just activate it in the system. Click on Campaigns and Manage Campaigns in the software and find your action. You will see that the status column (first column) will say New. This is what we need to change. PAGE 22 OF 23 PAGE 22 OF

Click on the admin cog:.. Set the status drop down list to Live and tick the clear data check box. It will then activate your campaign action and wipe all the test data. It goes without saying but don t click on the clear data button after your action has gone live, or you will lose your supporter data! Where do I get the live link from? You ll now see that the status has changed to Live so you are all set up. Click on the orange reference name and grab the top Campaign URL. You can now plug the action into your website, through your Content Management System, or insert the link into your emails your campaign is up and running! PAGE 23 OF 23