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Creating a Mailing

A Mailing combines Contacts (the recipient or target audience of a Mailing) and Content (the e-mail itself).

Before you begin

  • To create a Mailing, you need Mailing Management rights and Write permissions for the Folder.
  • You must have created at least one Distribution List
  • You must have created an E-mail Page
  • You must have created Folders to organize your Mailing

About this task

Creating a Mailing involves:

  • Filling in general Mailing settings
  • Specifying an E-mail Page (content and design)
  • Specifying Distribution Lists containing the target audience of your Mailing (Contacts)
  • Specifying the Address Books to which the Contacts in your Distribution Lists must belong
  • Previewing and saving the Mailing

Procedure

  1. Open the Content Manager Explorer.
  2. In the Publication in which you want to create a Mailing, select Outbound E-mail.
  3. Select the Folder in which your Mailings are stored.
  4. In the Ribbon toolbar Create tab, select New Mailing.
    The New Mailing window appears.
  5. In the top section of General tab, fill in the following:
    1. Mailing title—enter a descriptive name that is unique across all Mailings (this field is used internally only).
    2. E-mail subject—enter the text displayed in the e-mail subject field.
    3. Page—select the E-mail Page you want to send. Click the Browse button to display the Page Picker in a separate window, then browse through the available Pages to select an E-mail Page and click OK.
    4. Publication Target—select a Publication Target that is used to render the Mailing when you test it (when you send the Mailing it uses the rendered content the last time the Mailing was tested).
    5. From—enter the name of the sender you want to appear in your e-mail.
    6. E-mail reply address—enter the e-mail address where replies to this e-mail are sent, if different from the E-mail sender address.
    7. E-mail sender address—enter the e-mail address from which the e-mail is sent.
  6. By default, e-mails are sent to all Contacts who have confirmed their subscription (opted-in). In the Subscription Status field, you can also choose to send e-mails to Contacts with a different subscription status:
    • Select the Have shown interest check box to send to Contacts who have indicated interest (opted-in or subscribed but have not confirmed).
    • Select the Do not wish to receive e-mail check box to also send to Contacts who do not wish to receive e-mails (opted-out or unsubscribed).
  7. By default, e-mails are sent to all addresses where there is no record of having problems delivering the message. In the E-mail error status field, you can also choose whether to send e-mails to addresses that have experienced problems:
    • Select the Temporary problems check box to send the e-mail to addresses that encountered a temporary problem with delivery, for example because the recipient's mailbox was full.
    • Select the Persistent problems check box to also send the e-mail to addresses that have encountered persistent problems, for example the e-mail address does not exist.
  8. In the Advanced settings, select Archive personalized e-mail check box to have Outbound E-mail save each e-mail message it sends out, which you can then view by examining the Mailing statistics for a Contact. For more information, see .
  9. In the Advanced settings, select or deselect the Use maximum E-mails limit check box:
    • selecting prevents the e-mail from being sent if the Contact has already received the configured maximum number of e-mails within a designated period of time
    • deselecting sends e-mails regardless of whether the maximum permitted for a Contact has been reached
  10. After you have tested the Mailing, you can select Triggered mailing:
    • Start Date—specify a start date
    • End Date—specify an end date
    For more information, see Triggering a Mailing.
  11. In the Distribution List tab, select Distribution Lists from the Available Distribution Lists and click Add to add them to the Selected Distribution Lists. Contacts in the selected Distribution Lists are the target recipients of a Mailing (if they are also a member of a selected Address Book):
    • You can see how many members a Distribution List has by examining the Total Contacts column.
    • The Refresh button will refresh the numbers displayed in the screen after you have refreshed statistics. For more information, see Refreshing statistics.
    • The Priority column shows the order in which Distribution Lists are processed when the Mailing is sent (the higher the number, the sooner the e-mails are sent).
  12. In the Address Books tab, select Address Books from the Available Address Books and click Add to add them to the Selected Address Books:

    To receive an e-mail, a Contact must fulfill the following criteria:

    • Must be a member of a selected Distribution List.
    • Must also be a member of a selected Address Book.
  13. Click Save.
  14. Click Preview (in the General tab) to verify that the e-mail message looks the way you want it to look.
  15. Click Save and Close.

Results

You have created and previewed a Mailing.