Setting up an E-Marketing Campaign

• Setting up the campaign
• Scheduling the campaign
• Tracking the campaign

Below is the Centrex Software training video that describes how to setup an E-Marketing campaign. 

Setting up the campaign

To set up an e-marketing campaign, you must have completed the following 3 steps in order:

• Step 1 - Setting up a sender 
• Step 2 - Building a contact list
• Step 3 - Creating an email template

Step 1 - Setting up a sender

Senders are the email address messages will be delivered from. You will be required to set up Senders with SMTP settings from a provider of your choice. If you do not currently own your SMTP, you can review our article on recommended providers here.

1. From the e-marketing tab, click Setup Senders.
   
   
2. Do either of the following:
   • To edit an existing list, go to the Existing Email Senders section and click the icon for the sender you want to edit. Edit the content as required.
   • To create a new sender list, enter the content as required (see below).
     
3. Go to the SMTP Server Settings section and enter the appropriate information where indicated.
   

   NOTE
   You should be able to find these with your SMTP Relay provider. Enter the SMTP Host address (Ex. smtp-relay.gmail.com), Port (check with your provider for the correct Port number) and SMTP username and password. Then select to use SSL or TSL protocol; you will likely use TLS (but check with your SMTP provider for the correct option). 

   
   
4. Before saving this sender, click the Test SMTP Settings button to ensure your SMTP settings are working. When finished, click Save Sender found at the bottom left of the page (see below).

Back to top

Step 2 - Building a contact list

Contact lists are dynamic and in real-time, meaning every time you load a list it will populate with the most current set of contacts based on the filters you have set up. Every day at the scheduled time, the Email Campaign will run and send the message to contacts populating the list at that time. 

• Next, build a list that will populate the contacts you want to be emailed for the campaign.
  

  NOTE
  Refer to the Knowledge Base for more information on building contact lists here.

  

Back to top

Step 3 - Creating an email template

Next, you will need to build an email template (if one is not already built).

1. From the E-Marketing tab, click Create Email Template.
   
   The E-Campaign Designer opens. 
2. When finished, click Save Design. 

Back to top

Scheduling the campaign

1. From the E-marketing tab, click Schedule A New Campaign.
   
   The Schedule A Launch page opens.
   
   
2. Enter the appropriate information, where indicated:
   • Campaign Title - Start by giving the campaign a descriptive title and check the Active checkbox (you can later un-check this box to temporarily stop a campaign from running if needed).
   • Is this a single or a re-occurring campaign? - Choose if the campaign will run once or if it will re-occur.
     
     

     NOTE
     If you selected re-occurring, the following information is requested.

     
     
   • How often would you like this campaign to occur? Select the number of days, weeks, etc. you'd like the campaign to be resent.
   • Don't Repeat If Already Opened - This prevents sending duplicate campaigns to contacts who have already opened a previously sent occurrence.
   • When would you like this campaign to start? - Select the start date and time of day the campaign will run on each occurrence.
   •  
3. In the Email Delivery section, select the three items that were previously set up in Setting up the campaign.
   
4. In the Unsubscribe Redirect, add a web address the contact would be taken to in the case they click Unsubscribe.
   This can be used to send them to a page on your website reminding them of information or in the case of a marketing campaign, to make another attempt to sign up with your business.
5. In the Options section, do any of the following:
   • Select the Notify Assigned To On Open checkbox to be notified when someone opens the email from your campaign.
   • Select the Notify Campaign Creator On Open checkbox to use this as a marketing tool so that you can attempt to directly contact the person by phone while they are viewing your marketing email.
6. Once finished, click Schedule This Launch.

Back to top

Tracking the campaign

Once you have scheduled the campaign, you will be taken back to the E-Marketing tab main page. The campaign (and any other active/inactive campaigns) is listed in the Upcoming section (far left of the page) and waiting to launch.

• Within the campaign information listed there, you will see the Next Run date and time, how often the campaign will occur (if applicable), and if it is considered active (identified by a small green circle) or inactive (identified by a small red circle).
  
  
• Once a campaign launches AND finishes running, it will appear under the Past Sent Campaign section (accessible by clicking the blue View All Sent button. There you will find some data about the campaign, including the number of emails sent, the number opened, and a percentage of those numbers, as well as the number of unsubscribes and the percentage of that number. This information can be exported to CSV by clicking on Export To CSV, located at the top left of the page.
  
• By clicking on any entry under the "Email Template" column shown above, a page like the one below will open providing you further details on who received and who opened your e-marketing campaign message.

IMPORTANT
The campaign will not land in the Recently Sent section until the campaign finishes running all processes. If a campaign is scheduled for morning or afternoon, the campaign won't appear under Recently Sent until much later in the day or the next morning. Keep this in mind when checking scheduled campaigns.

Back to top