Seriously powerful email marketing, made easy
Table of Contents DOTMAILER QUICK START GUIDE... 3 Main Screen... 4 Getting Started... 6 STEP 1: CAMPAIGN SETTINGS... 7 STEP 2: CAMPAIGN CONTENT... 8 Editing your template... 9 To change the font... 9 Changing Background Colour... 10 Changing Text Colour... 10 Using Images... 11 Using Actions... 15 Inserting Links... 17 Creating a Plain Text Version... 17 Previewing your Campaign... 18 Spam Check... 19 STEP 3 REVIEW YOUR CAMPAIGN SUMMARY... 21 TEST SEND... 23 CONTACTS... 25 Creating a new Address Book... 26 CREATING A WEBSITE SIGN UP AND UNSUBSCRIBE FORM... 29 CREATING AN AUTO-RESPONSE EMAIL... 35 SEND YOUR EMAIL CAMPAIGN... 38 Execute your campaign... 38 CAMPAIGN REPORTING... 40
dotmailer Quick Start Guide The purpose of this guide is to enable you to access dotmailer and learn how to build and manage a campaign so that you are up and running as quickly possible. To access your account, go to www.dotmailer.co.uk. Select the option to LOGIN which can be found on the far right of the navigation bar running along the top of the home page. The LOGIN screen will now be displayed: Enter your email address and password and click on the button. 3
Main Screen Once you have accessed dotmailer the Overview screen will be displayed which comprises of three key areas. The top menu bar which remains present throughout your use of the system and consists of four options. When you first login to the system, you are, by default, in the EMAIL MARKETING option. The left hand navigation menu which remains present throughout your use of the system. The menu displayed will change dependent on the option you are currently in. The main work area of your screen which changes dependent on the selections you make from both the left hand navigation menu and the top menu bar. 4
Main Screen The Overview screen is the default view in the EMAIL MARKETING option. There are several windows of information: Recent Campaigns that you have created Recent Campaigns that have been sent Your health check list this will draw your attention to areas of the system where changes to the configuration will enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns. Once you start running campaigns, your health check list will also display key performance indicators which will show the effectiveness of your campaigns against the industry standard. Latest News the latest news from dotmailer will be displayed here along with news from the industry in general. Throughout this guide you will see various symbols that are meant to assist or provide valuable information. VALUABLE INFO? Be careful here to avoid words associated with Spam such as free or Special Offer. VALUABLE TIP An example could be The Welcome Team or Customer Care Dept. You can enter what you like in this field but think of your audience This guide is designed to take you through the basics of setting up your first campaign. By following this guide you will learn how to create a Campaign, upload your contacts, send your Emails and view the reporting. 5
Getting Started Until you are familiar with the system, we would recommend that you use one of the design templates already available within dotmailer. This is the quickest way to set-up your first campaign and gain familiarity with the key functionality. To create a new campaign, select Campaigns from the side navigation bar and then select Template Library from the sub-menu that appears. The default view is Free templates. My templates will be empty until you save your own templates into this area. VALUABLE TIP Remember all these templates can be edited. Pre-loaded templates are now displayed within the main area of the screen. By dragging the scroll bar you move through the templates until you come to one that suits your proposed campaign layout. For the purpose of this Quick Start Guide, we are using the Corporate2 V2 template. Move your scroll bar down until you see this template. To see a template in more detail, select the template by clicking on it and the template will appear in the preview tab on the right-hand side of screen. To start editing the template, click on the top right of the preview screen. button at the This will take you to the Campaign Settings window. 6
Step 1: Campaign Settings? VALUABLE INFO Be careful here to avoid words associated with Spam such as free or Special Offer. Name this is where you enter or edit the name of the Campaign as it will appear in the list of your campaigns. Subject you can enter what the recipient will see as the subject line of their email once it arrives in their inbox.? From Address By default, dotmailer will create an account for you. From Name this is known as the friendly from name. You can enter the name of a specific person or department that you would like to show this campaign was sent from. VALUABLE TIP An example could be The Welcome Team or Customer Care Dept. You can enter what you like in this field but think of your audience and what they might like to see first. Reply Action the default setting is Forward and Web Mail. This will mean that all replies will be stored in your Reporting area and a copy will also be sent to the email address detailed in the Reply Email field. Reply Email this is the address to which replies to your campaign will be forwarded on to. Once you have completed the required information on the screen, click on the button to create your campaign content. 7
Step 2: Campaign Content The Create your campaign content screen consists of two tabs. The first tab labelled HTML is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that you use to create or edit the HTML version of the template. The second tab labelled Plain Text is the plain text version of the email which is sent along with the HTML version and is delivered if the recipient is unable to receive HTML emails. Just above the template you have opened, you will see the WYSIWYG toolbar. This toolbar provides all the functionality required to edit or create your template. 8
Step 2: Campaign Content Editing your template Before we begin, it is important to understand that the templates are made up of tables, consisting of rows and columns and that each place you enter text or insert a graphic, is a cell within that table. This layout style should apply if you start creating your own templates. Using the editor is very similar to using a standard word processing package. So, to change the heading, simply select it using your mouse VALUABLE INFO Ensure you save your work regularly using the Save button.? and then start to type your new heading:? VALUABLE TIP You can preview your template at anytime by clicking on the Preview button. To change the font To change the font you can select one of the pre-set paragraph styles as shown here or simply select a new font from the drop down list. You can also change the size of the font the text here is currently Arial with a font size of 5. 9
Step 2: Campaign Content Changing Background Colour To change the background colour right click in the cell where you want the change to apply, e.g. if we wanted to change the background colour where the word dotmailer appears, from black to green, then we would click within the cell that contains the word dotmailer. Right clicking will display a pop-up menu. Select Set Cell Properties from the options displayed. A pop-up window now appears detailing the Cell Properties as shown below. The Background is showing as not set. To change this to another colour click on the down arrow to bring up the colour options: You can simply select one of the colours displayed by clicking it or add your own colour by selecting Add Custom Color. When you have selected your colour, click on the OK button. Changing Text Colour To change the colour of your text, highlight the text you wish to change and click on the Foreground icon situated on the WYSIWYG toolbar. A drop down box appears in the same way as it does with Background colour. Again select one of the colours displayed or add your own custom colour. 10
Step 2: Campaign Content Using Images You can insert images such as your company logo into your template. To do this you must first upload the images you wish to use into the image manager. Upload an Image To upload an Image, click on the Image Manager icon The following window is displayed: on the WYSIWYG toolbar. Click on the Choose File button to select the image you wish to upload from your machine. Once selected, the location of the image will be displayed in the File box on the screen. You will need to type in a name for the image in the Image Name box. Once you have done this, click on the green button. The image will now appear in the list. You will notice that the Width, Height and Size of the image are all displayed. You can create folders, if you wish, to group your images together. 11
Step 2: Campaign Content To delete an image from your area simply click on the checkbox to the left of the image and click the red button at the bottom of the screen. Inserting an Image To find out the space available for your image, right click in the appropriate cell in the template and select Set Cell Properties from the menu displayed. The Height and Width of the cell are displayed on the Cell Properties screen. Once you know the available space, you can resize your image using the Edit facility within the Image Manager once you have uploaded the image. 12
Step 2: Campaign Content Before you insert an image, make sure your cursor is in the correct cell where you wish the image to appear. If you are replacing an image already in the cell then ensure that you have the image selected. To use a graphic from your area, click on the Image Manager icon and then click on the image name, i.e. dotmailerlogo VALUABLE INFO? Make sure that you complete the Alternate Text box to give your image a meaningful name before you insert it into your template. This will be helpful to your recipients if the graphics do not display in the email they receive. When they pass their cursor over where the image should be, it is the Alternate Text name they will see. Once you have selected the image, information will appear on the right-hand side of the Image Manager.? If you need to resize or crop your image (to fit within the dimensions of the cell) then you can do that here by clicking on the Edit link, next to Image Preview. Clicking on the Edit link will open a new window. There are two tabs available. The first enables you to select a new size for your image by either entering the dimensions directly into the Width and Height boxes or by using the slider which you can simply drag. 13
Step 2: Campaign Content The second tab enables you to crop your image. VALUABLE INFO? BE CAREFUL about including too many images within your template. REMEMBER certain browsers will automatically turn images off. Once you have made your changes, click on to return to the Image Properties screen. Before inserting your image, ensure your cursor is in the correct cell within your template and when ready, click on the button. The graphic will appear within the template. In our example, we have replaced the original image with the dotmailer Logo.? 14
Step 2: Campaign Content Using Actions Sitting above the WYSIWYG toolbar you can find the Insert Action functionality. Clicking on this button will open another window. The Action tab contains a list of automatic links that can be inserted directly into your email. Two of these actions should appear in every template you send. These are the Can t read link and the Unsubscribe actions. You must give every recipient the option to unsubscribe from your address book in the event that they do not want to receive further e-shots from you in the future. Some browsers may block some of the content in your emails or your email may not render correctly. Either way, it makes sense to have a Can t read link action near the top of your template so that recipients can click the link to view the campaign in a browser. To use an Action, move your cursor to where you want the action to appear and simply click on Insert against the appropriate action from the list. To change the default text inserted, highlight the link, select Link Manager from the sub menu. You can then edit the text displayed. We also recommend that you add a Link Name so that you can easily track which links have been clicked. 15
Step 2: Campaign Content The Personalise tab enables you to insert personal information relating to each recipient within the body of the template such as First Name, Full Name, etc. For this information to appear within your emails, these fields must be populated when you upload your contacts. This is covered in more detail within the Contacts section of this guide. You can also add further customised data for each contact such as Age, Job Title, Birthday, Date of Birth etc. These additional fields must be created within your Address Books. To use personalisation, move your cursor to where you want the personalisation to appear and simply select the appropriate field from the list. In our example we have inserted Dear @ FULLNAME@ within our template. 16
Step 2: Campaign Content Inserting Links By using the Link Manager you can insert web and email links. Highlight the text to be hyperlinked, and click on the Link Manager icon. Type the destination URL in to the link field, i.e. http://www.dotmailer.co.uk. Other links you have used will appear in the Select previous drop down list. VALUABLE INFO? When you create your test sends, make sure you test both the HTML and the Text versions of your campaign. VALUABLE TIP Remember to add your unsubscribe link and Can t Read link as this will take the recipient to a web browser version of your html email. Link name: We would recommend that you add a Link name so that you can easily track which links have been clicked through the Reporting. Now click on the button and the link will be active. Creating a Plain Text Version dotmailer sends emails as multi-part. This means if a recipient is on a hand-held device such as a Blackberry or has blocked HTML, they will automatically be sent your plain text version.? To create a plain text version click on the Plain Text tab. Type in the text just as you would within a word processor. You can still insert Actions, Links and Personalise your campaign if you wish by clicking on the appropriate options. 17
Step 2: Campaign Content Previewing your Campaign Make sure you preview both the HTML and Text versions of your campaign. To do this click the Preview button A new window opens showing how your email will look. You can toggle between views by clicking on the Show HTML and Show plain text tabs. To preview personalised data, you can search for a particular contact by entering search criteria in the Search for box and then click on the button. Alternatively, you can click on the button and this will display the ten most recent contacts loaded. You can then preview each one in turn. 18
Step 2: Campaign Content Spam Check Once you have finished editing and previewing your campaign, you should Spam check your template. To do this click on the located above the WYSIWYGY toolbar. A pop-up window appears: Your email is passed through the dotmailer Spam filter and is scored accordingly. Our email has scored very low which is good news! You can click on Show minor points to display why the template scored 1 as shown below: From the minor points list, we can see what certain text within our template is scoring and this provides the opportunity to change that text if required. Once you have Spam checked your template, you can click on the button. 19
Step 2: Campaign Content When the Next Step button is clicked, the system checks your campaign. Any concerns are displayed in a dialogue box:- At this point, you can still Save anyway although you should resolve the issues displayed in the Warning box prior to sending your campaign. If you wish to return to the Create Campaign Content screen to correct your template, click on the button. Having clicked on the Next Step button you will be taken to the Review your Campaign Summary screen. 20
Step 3: Review your Campaign Summary This screen consists of three tabs and the default view is the Content Summary tab: This screen shows the size of your HTML and Plain Text emails. It also displays any links you have and whether those links are valid; this is shown by a green tick. In addition, you can also see the Link Name that you have entered. It is important to have a Link Name as this enables you to track which links have been clicked when you review your reporting. If you notice an error in the URL or Link Name listed, then you can make the necessary change by using the edit pencil. This will display the Link Manager, click on OK to return to the Campaign Summary screen. The Overview tab displays the settings you entered in Step 1: 21
Step 3: Review your Campaign Summary VALUABLE INFO? The Test Send function can ONLY be used for testing your campaign NOT for sending it. You can make changes to these settings by clicking on Edit settings against Step 1 of your campaign. You can change any of the content of your email template by clicking on Edit content against Step 2 of your Campaign. Once you have checked all the content and settings of your campaign, you can now carry out a Test Send from this screen. You can also initiate Test Send from the My Campaigns screen.? Test Sends are an essential part of verifying your campaign. This is so that you can check how your email will appear within different browsers. If possible, try to add different ISP and email providers to your test accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, AOL etc. 22
Test Send The Test Send function is initiated by clicking on the button available in the Review your Campaign Summary screen. Alternatively, you can access this function from the My Campaigns screen by clicking on the icon under the Test Send column. The following screen is displayed: Any email addresses you have already uploaded to your test address book or entered will appear in a list. This process is covered in detail under the Contacts section of this guide. To enter an email address at this point, click on the Add email address link. Enter the Email Address, First Name and Last Name for the Test Address and click on the Save button. The Test Send screen will refresh and the recipient(s) you added will be displayed. Once you have tested your email, and ensured it is correct, you need to prepare your contacts address book. 23
Test Send To select email addresses to receive the Test Send, check the box against each address as shown below. You can select the Format of the email this address should receive. i.e. HTML, Plain Text or Both. We recommend that you leave the selection as Both for your test sends. Once the email addresses have been selected, click on the will appear: button. The following screen Once the screen disappears, your test sending has been completed. You can now check the mailbox(s) for the email addresses you selected to verify that your campaign template appears as intended. To accompany your test send is an advanced Inbox Preview feature. This is available from the second tab of the Test Send window. Inbox Preview enables you to preview your campaign in numerous ISPs without having to set-up lots of different email addresses. Inbox Preview is chargeable so please contact your Account Manager. 24
Contacts The Contacts area is where you manage all your address books. Select Contacts from the left navigation bar to see all the options available. Contacts are stored in Address Books. This enables you to have multiple address books to better organise your contacts. You may have an Address Book for each Campaign you run. Two address books are created by default; the All Contacts address book and the Test address book. In addition, you have the functionality to create Segmentation queries. Segmentation queries enable you to select a group of Contacts across multiple address books. If a contact appears in more than one address book, they will only be selected once in the query. All Contacts Address Book All contacts entered into any Address Book, whether manually or by upload, will also appear in the All Contacts address book as well. Each contact will only appear once in this address book. This provides you with a central place to review all contacts. Test Address Book This address book is supplied so that you can perform test sends on your emails prior to releasing your campaign. It is essential that you do this! The Test address book can ONLY be used for testing your campaign NOT for sending it. 25
Contacts Creating a new Address Book To send your campaign to your recipients, you will need to upload your campaign mailing list (up to 20 email addresses for your free trial account). These can be uploaded directly into the All Contacts address book or you can create a separate address book. See following section for details. Select the option from the Address Book tab. Give your address book a unique name; in this example let s use Trial. You can add a description as shown above. Once you have completed the relevant information, click on the button. Upload Addresses to your Trial Address Book Your trial address book now appears in the list: Click on the Add Contacts icon against the address book you wish to upload your contacts to. You now need to select which address books you wish to upload these contacts to and which method you wish to use; add contacts manually or through using an Excel Spreadsheet, CSV or XML file. 26
Contacts Select the Excel option and the following screen is displayed: Click on the Browse button and select the appropriate file from your machine. The email address entered will receive a notification when the upload has been completed. Once you have selected the file, click on the button. The import process will try to detect the type of file you are attempting to upload. In this example we have used an Excel file. The fields detailed under the File columns heading are in the import file and the Map to data field column details the fields available in the address book. Where the columns in your file and address book share the same name, they are mapped by default as shown here against Full Name and First Name. You can skip a column to import by leaving skip column selected or click the down arrow to select a field in the address book to map to.the mapping of fields in this example would be as follow Email Address to Email FullName to FullName FirstName to FirstName Surname to Lastname Type to Emailtype 27
Contacts When ready click on the button. Once your import has been completed the following statistics are displayed. If you entered an email address at the start of the process, you will receive an email notification to confirm the import has been completed. Click on My Contacts in the left navigation menu to display your address books. Your Trial address book is now displayed. 28
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form dotmailer enables you to create advanced web sign-up and unsubscribe forms at the click of a mouse. This will allow your contacts to visit your website and opt-into or unsubscribe from single or multiple address books and to add or update new or existing information about themselves. For example, you can create a form on your website that allows visitors to sign-up in real time to your e-newsletter, and send them an auto-response Thank You email. In the example that follows we are going to demonstrate how to create a web form which will automatically populate your address book(s) and then send a Thank You email back to the contact automatically. 3 simple steps to creating a web sign up form and automatic thank you email 1 2 3 Create your Thank You email. Create your Address Book (for sign ups or unsubscribes) Generate the web form. Step 1. Create your Thank You email The first step is to ensure the Thank You campaign you wish to send as a result of the sign-up has been set as a Triggered campaign. You can do this when you are first creating the campaign or you can use the Edit Settings option if your campaign has already been created. When creating a campaign, select the Campaigns option from the left-hand navigation pane and then select Template Library from the sub-menu that appears. Select the template you are going to use for this campaign and click NEXT STEP. 29
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form On the Campaign Settings screen, check the Show advanced settings option as shown below:- The campaign type is set as Standard by default. Using the drop-down, select Triggered from the list displayed and then click Next Step to continue. Save your campaign in the normal way. On the Campaign Settings screen, check the Show advanced settings option as shown below:- The campaign type is set as Standard by default. 30
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form If your campaign has already been created, select Campaigns from the left-hand navigation pane. Your existing campaigns are displayed in the list under the Unsent tab. Alongside the campaign you wish to set as triggered, click on the summary icon :- You can now edit your campaign settings by clicking on the Edit settings link. This will open the Campaign settings screen. Check the Show Advanced settings option and select Triggered from the drop-down menu as described earlier in this section. Your campaign type is now set. It is important to note that campaigns set as triggered will not be displayed on your list of campaigns under the My Campaigns option. Instead, all campaigns set with a type of Triggered are displayed under the Triggered Campaigns menu option. 31
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form Step 2. Create your Address Book The next step is to create the Address Book for the automatic sign ups. Create your address book in the normal manner, giving it an unique name and entering a description:- Click on the Show advanced options checkbox and a series of tabs are displayed:- The first tab Join Action displays the campaigns you have set as Triggered. Select the campaign you wish to send automatically whenever a new contact joins this address book. In our example below, we have selected the Thank You Campaign. If you wish to edit your message at this point, you can use the Triggered Campaigns link on this screen to go directly to the Triggered Campaigns Content option, then edit your content in the WYSIWYG editor. 32
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form If you are setting up a web form and auto-response message for unsubscribes, select the second tab Unsubscribe Action instead and select your campaign in the same manner. Click on when you are ready to continue. Step 3. Create your web form To create your web form, select the Contacts option from the lefthand navigation pane. From the sub-menu displayed, select Advanced Features. The Contacts forms screen is displayed:- This screen is split into three separate steps:- 1 2 3 Select the Form mode required: you have a choice of subscribing or unsubscribing to either one or multiple address books. Use the radio buttons to make the appropriate choice. Address books: select the address book(s) that are being subscribed to or unsubscribed from. If you selected a single address book in Step 1 then you will only be able to select one address book. If you are unsubscribing, you have a choice of one or all. Use the radio buttons to make the appropriate choice. Custom fields: by default, dotmailer will collect the email address. Use the checkboxes to select the existing custom data fields you wish to have displayed on the web form. Any data entered by the contact into these fields will automatically be added to the address book. If you are unsubscribing, you are not given the option of selecting custom fields. 33
Creating a Website Sign Up and Unsubscribe Form In our example below we have selected a single address subscribe to the address book we created earlier, Newsletter Sign Up. You can also see the custom fields we have selected:- At the bottom of the screen, you can enter a URL for a web page to send your contacts to, after they have completed the sign-up form. In the example below, we have entered the dotmailer newsletter sign-up thank you page. When you are ready to continue, click. A window will now appear displaying the HTML code for your web form that dotmailer has generated. Use your scroll bar to move down the screen. You can now pass this code to your web developer for inclusion on your website. An easy way to do this is to highlight the code, right click and select copy. Now open a basic editor, such as Notepad and simply paste the code in. 34
Creating an Auto-Response Email In general, when we creating an email campaign, you will include contact us links such as email addresses within your campaign template. There are occasions when an email recipient will ignore these links and click the reply button within their email client instead. This can be a particular problem if you generate your emails from an unmonitored mail box. dotmailer enables you to set an auto response email either as a default or on a campaign by campaign basis. An auto response email is sent whenever your email recipients click the Reply button once they have opened your email. In the example that follows we are going to demonstrate how to set a default auto-response for your campaign(s) which sends an email back to the contact automatically. This email could tell your contact that this email address is not monitored and suggest alternative contact methods. 2 simple steps to creating an auto-response 1 2 Generate the web form.. Create your Auto-Response email. Set your default auto-responder. Step 1. Create your auto-response email The first step is to ensure the auto-response campaign you wish to send as a result of the Reply action has been set as a Triggered campaign. You can do this when you are first creating the campaign or you can use the Edit Settings option if your campaign has already been created. See page 29 for guideance on creating setting a campaign as triggered. Step 2. Set your default auto responder The next step is to set the campaign you have created as the default auto response. Select the Campaigns option from the left-hand navigation pane. From the sub-menu displayed, select Advanced Features. 35
Creating an Auto-Response Email The Campaigns Advanced Features screen is displayed which consists of six tabs. Select the second tab Default auto responder as shown below:- Select the campaign you wish to send automatically whenever a contact uses the reply action within their email client. In our example below, we have selected the Auto Response. Please note that the campaign selected will be sent to all replies received from all campaigns you send. Once you have made your selection, click on the SAVE button. Setting a Campaign specific auto-reply If you wish to have a different auto-response for different campaigns, select Campaigns from the left-hand navigation pane. Your existing campaigns are displayed in the list under the Unsent tab. 36
Creating an Auto-Response Email Alongside the campaign you wish to set the auto-response for, click on the summary icon :- The Campaign content screen is displayed which has three tabs. Select the tab Auto- responder :- You can now select the campaign you wish to use for this particular campaign as the auto response. Once set, this response will be sent to all replies received from this particular campaign. Once you have made your selection, click on the SAVE button. 37
Send your Email Campaign As e xplained in the Test Send chapter, you must send test emails first. This is so that you can check how your email will appear within different browsers. If possible, try to add different ISP and email providers to your test accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, AOL etc. It is good practice to test both HTML and Plain Text formats. This gives you the opportunity to view both formats as a recipient thereby identifying any potential issues. Execute your Campaign Once you are satisfied with your test sends, you are now in a position to send your campaign to your recipients. Make sure you have uploaded your live address book(s) first through the Contacts option.? To Send a Campaign, select Campaigns from the left-hand navigation menu. VALUABLE INFO? REMEMBER: Do not use your Test address book for sending your trial campaigns. The Test address book can ONLY be used for testing your campaign. A list of unsent campaigns are displayed. To Send a particular campaign, click on the icon situated in the Send column against the relevant campaign. You will be prompted to choose your address book: Select one or more address books to send the Campaign to and click You now need to specify when you want the Campaign sent. Check the Immediately box if you want the Campaign to go now or set a date and time for it to be sent in the future by checking the Scheduled for box. When ready click on the button. The Campaign settings are displayed for you to review. 38
Send your Email Campaign When ready click on the button. A final confirmation warning is displayed: Clicking on the OK button will execute the Campaign. The Campaign is moved to the Outbox while processing occurs and this is shown by the indicator displayed under the Status column. Once completed, the Campaign will appear under the Sent tab. 39
Campaign Reporting Once your Campaign has been executed, detailed reporting on the success of the campaign can be viewed from the Reporting area, in real time. Select Reporting from the left navigation menu. The main reporting screen will be displayed which details a list of all sent campaigns for the current month. To get a detailed overview of the success of a campaign, click on the name of the campaign (highlighted in blue). The top of the reporting page contains the details of the campaign such as Campaign Name, Subject etc and a thumbnail of your email. Underneath the Campaign details are a list of Reports. Those highlighted in blue can be clicked to display more data. The icon denotes that graphical representation is also available. For example, clicking this icon against Unique Opens displays the following: This graph consists of three views; Per day, Per time of day and First 24 hours. You can also View other charts by clicking on the option located in the top right of this screen: 40
Campaign Reporting Underneath the Conversion Funnel are three further options: You can produce a hard copy of the statistics by selecting this option which can then be customised with your company logo and details of the campaign, as required. The report previews your template and shows how many times the links in this campaign were clicked. When you place your cursor near a link a pop-up appears: This pop-up tells you how many times a particular link was clicked and how many unique clicks there have been on this link. This option enables you to specify up to five email addresses to receive the reports on either a daily or weekly basis. Everything in blue on the reporting section is a link that drills down. A brief explanation of the reporting data available is as follows: 41
Campaign Reporting Emails Sent shows how many emails in total were sent for that Campaign. Emails Delivered the actual number of sent emails delivered to their intended recipients. Unique Opens shows have many of the emails were tracked as being opened. This is worse case scenario as not all email clients or business email servers allow emails to be tracked. Views & Forwards shows how many times the email you sent was viewed this could be the recipient reading it twice or as result of the email being forwarded to someone else at the same organisation. Non Openers those recipients who have not opened the email. Estimated Forwards shows how many times the email was forwarded on based on the system registering an open in a different email client and IP address to the original recipient of the email. Forwards to a Friend This is an Action that can be inserted into your template and this shows the number of times that link was clicked. Links Clicked the total number of links in your emails that were clicked on by the recipients. Unique User Click through registers the number of users who clicked links. Link clicks the number of links clicked. Page Views the number of page views your Campaign has had. Bookmark Views - the number of views your Campaign has had via a social networking sites. Replies this indicates the number of replies you have had in response to this campaign and can be read as and when you wish. Hard Bounces for example email addresses that are incorrect or no longer in use. Soft Bounces for example out-of-office or mailbox-full replies. Unsubscribe Requests this shows how many recipients have asked to be removed from the address book. This also includes recipients who have reached their bounce back threshold (set in the Control Panel) and those who have used Hotmail and AOL This is junk functions. dotmailer will automatically remove these email addresses from your address books so that they cannot be emailed in the future. 42
Campaign Reporting The bottom of the reporting screen shows the following tabs: Links this tab shows all the links in the template and statistical information in relation to the number of clicks. Page Views this tab shows which pages in the website were accessed from the email and how many times. Site Tracking must be enabled for this to work. ROI markers shows the true success of your campaign based on the set criteria of your website, for example this could be a monetary value. Email domains Top 10 domains by opens, delivered, clicks etc. Hot Prospects on this tab you can specify the number of opens and clicks that would constitute a hot prospect. Once set, all users who meet this criterion will be displayed. 43