Sending an email marketing campaign
Design your template, create a sender address and you are ready to send an email marketing campaign using Websand.
Here’s what you need to know and the process you need to follow.
Creating an email marketing campaign
Your data is uploaded and flowing. You’ve created a segment and created a message that is perfectly suited to the audience you’ve selected. Some marketing campaigns are best suited as a single campaign, some are designed to be part of a bigger plan with automation.
This section focuses on a single email marketing campaign. That is a one-off message to your audience.
For automation, see creating a marketing automation
Creating your email marketing campaign
You can create a send campaign from three separate sources; the send screen, the email template screen or the segment screen.
From the Send Menu
Access the send menu from the Websand menu running down the side of the left of the page – look for the paper airplane (three blocks down the page).
To create a new email marketing campaign, click on the [ + new send campaign ] button in the top right corner of the screen.
Hit the ‘Next Step’ button and you’ll be directed to the Send Campaign screen.
Sending from your segment
If you have already created a message created a segment, you can take a shortcut and create a send campaign from the segment page.
Click on the ‘Send these folks a message’ button, and you’ll then be directed to a form to select which message you want to send to that segment, the name of the campaign and which sender the message comes from.
Hit the ‘Next Step’ button and you’ll be directed to the Send Campaign screen.
Sending from your email template
If you already have the message created for the segment, you can create a send campaign from the segment page.
Click on the ‘Send’ button, and you’ll then be directed to a form to select which message you want to send to that segment, the name of the campaign and which sender the message comes from.
Hit the ‘Next Step’ button and you’ll be directed to the Send Campaign screen.
Setting up your email campaign
In the Send Campaign screen, follow these simple steps.
Give your Campaign a name (make it specific for historical reference, you’ll thank us later for that tip)
Select your template (the email message you’ve created for this automation)
Select the segment (your audience for this campaign).
Pick your send identity – which email address is this message coming from?
If you wanted to select the ‘full audience’ you will have had the option to do so from the initial [+ new send campaign] screen.
Send now
To send your email marketing campaign immediately. Simply click on the ‘send now’ button after the settings on the left column of the screen.
Setting the time of sending
To schedule a send campaign, select the date and time you want the campaign to be issued.
Note the time of the message will be scheduled based on UTC (Universal Co-ordinated Time). See more on UTC time by clicking here.
Once scheduled the time for the message sending will appear in the top right corner of the screen in a red box.
Reporting on your Campaign
Access all your Send Campaigns from the Send Campaign screen. The “Sent?” column shows you the status of the each campaign. ‘Sent’ means the campaign has been issued. ‘Queued’ means that the campaign is scheduled to be sent. If the column has no entry that means the campaign is still in the planning stage (not scheduled, not sent).
After your email marketing campaign has been sent, when you click into the campaign you will no longer see the setting of the campaign. You will now see the campaign performance.
If you want to check or view the performance of a previous email marketing campaign, simply click on the name of the campaign from your list of send campaigns.
Explaining the email campaign reporting
The reporting table shows the number of people included in the campaign. The number of people have engaged with the campaign through opening or clicking, and those who have unsubscribed or are no longer reachable (bounced).
It also shows a graph of the performance of the campaign over time. Click on the key of the graph to include or remove the component parts of the graph.
The Top Clicks gives a report of the number of clicks recorded against every link featured in the campaign. If you want to create a segment to understand who clicks on which link you can do this through the ‘Freestyle’ segment.
FAQ about email campaign reporting
Here are some of the most asked questions related to email marketing reporting.
Often the number of people included will be less than the total featured in the campaign. That is because any people that have previously unsubscribed will be removed from the segment or audience before the campaign was sent.
Clicking on one of the boxes will create a segment for this audience, e.g. people that have opened that campaign. As with all the segments, that segment will update with every new person that opens the campaign. You can also create a segment for campaigns or automations using the marketing segment
The reporting totals in the boxes at the top of the report show the number of people that have either been included, opened, clicked, bounced, or unsubscribed from the campaign. The ‘Active’ clicks show the number of times someone has clicked on a specific link. Therefore the total of the count in the Active clicks column show the number of clicks recorded against that campaign. This count is usually higher than the number of people that clicked as people often click more than one link if they are engaged in an email marketing campaign.
Need help with your email campaigns?
If you need more help using the Websand platform, or want further help with your email marketing or data strategy. We can help, so please get in touch.
Email support@websand.co.uk or give us a call +44.113.2045925.