So you want to create an email-to-target action
targeting top tier councillors...
This help file will take you through all the steps on how to create a campaign action targeting top tier local councillors, such as County Councillors in two-tier counties or Unitary/Borough Councillors.
What are two-tier councils?
While in some part of England there is just one tier of local government (unitary council) providing all local services, many parts of the country have to tiers including county councils and district, borough or city councils. The latter will cover smaller areas then county councils and will have different set of responsibilities.
This ‘step-by-step’ guide doesn’t cover the details on setting up specific elements of the campaign; there is another help file for that. It focuses on how to create all relevant versions of the campaign action and connect them together so that supporters can write to the relevant councillor in the area they live in.
Why do I need several actions for this campaign?
Engaging Networks provides two separate databases holding local councillors data:
• County Councillors
• Unitary/District/Borough Councillors
For each individual campaign you can only select a single database so if you would like to target relevant councillors depending on who holds the main responsibility in the specific council (County Councillors or Unitary/District/Borough Councillors), a combination of both databases will be necessary.
In order to set this up, you will need two separate campaigns connected together using a ‘redirect and filter’.
How do I set the campaign up then?
The easiest way to create a new ‘local councillors 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 to target’ action would have been set up too, so you can simply find it, 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 sort this out.
Key things to remember 1…
Before we start properly…
If you’ve used this guide previously or have built Email to Target actions before and just want a little reminding on what to do in order to create the basic campaign actions before you link the councillor actions together, here are the key things to remember.
Key things to remember 2…
• Duplicate an existing Email to target action by going to 'Campaigns' >
'Duplicate a Campaign' and select it from the drop down list.
• Go to ‘Campaigns’ > ‘Manage Campaigns’ and go to the admin section of the action by clicking on the admin icon -
• Select the database that you would like to target in the ‘target’ drop down and submit the page.
• Go to the ‘Build’ page of your new action by clicking on the build icon -
• Duplicate and modify each of the following components:
form instruction
• letter instruction
thank you page (or action redirect, depending on the layout) message subject
• message content
• thank you email.
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)
Key things to remember 3…
• 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 form fields questions
Page 2:
Letter instruction contact list
message subject message content sender address block Page 3:
Thank you page (don’t add this page if you are using action redirect)
• Test the action out using the test icon - - and when you are ready to publish it, click on the ‘make it live’ icon in ‘Design’ or change the status in Campaigns > Manage campaigns to ‘LIVE’ by clicking on the admin icon - - and updating it there.
• You can also add advanced features to your action like ‘reference data’ or
‘redirect and filter’. Click on the help icons when you are in the software to find out more.
This is a quick overview on how to set up an Email to Target action. For full details please have a look at the guide titled
‘SET_UP_EMAIL_TO_TARGET_ACTION’
So…to start
A. Create the core campaign action targeting Unitary/Borough/District councillors
1. Click on ‘Campaigns’ > ‘Duplicate a Campaign’ in the top navigation.
2. From the ‘Select campaign:’ drop down, select the template local contact action.
3. ‘Enter a new name:’ (following the naming protocol:
Date_CampaignName_Councillor_UnitaryBorough) . 4. Click ‘Submit’ - Your new action will now have been
created…it’s now time to update the copy and format.
5. Click on ‘Campaigns > manage campaigns’ and then click on the ‘Admin’ page icon on the right hand side of the new campaign
6. In the target dropdown list select ‘AO database: UK / English: District/ Unitary Authority Councillors’
7. Click ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of the page to save the changes
8. Follow the guidelines given in the corresponding step by step guide – So you want to set up an email to target action – the separate guide includes the details on how to add copy, select a target database, create pages and other elements that you will need to finalise the action set up. Alternatively, please have a look
in the section above (Key Things to remember) for an overview of the main steps
9. Once the campaign is finalised with all the copy and tested, please proceed with the steps below
B. Create a version of the campaign targeting the County councillors
1. Click on ‘Campaigns’ > ‘Duplicate a Campaign’ in the top navigation.
2. From the ‘Select campaign:’ drop down, select the core target campaign created in the section above (Unitary/District/Borough campaign action)
3. ‘Enter a new name:’ (following the naming protocol:
Date_CampaignName_Councillor_County) .
4. Click ‘Submit’ - Your new action will now have been created…it’s now time to update the target database for this action.
5. Click on ‘Campaigns > manage campaigns’ and then click on the ‘Admin’ page icon on the right hand side of the new campaign
6. In the target dropdown list select ‘AO database: UK / English: County Councillors’
7. Click ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of the page to save the changes
C. Now you need to connect both actions together
1. Click on ‘Campaigns’ > ‘manage campaigns’ in the top navigation.
2. Click on ‘Build’ icon on the right hand side of the county council campaign created in section B above: ‘...County’
3. Click on the ‘Redirect and filter’ folder on the list of folders along the left hand side of the page - it is the last folder under the
‘More advanced’ header
4. Create a redirect for Unitary/Borough councillors - Click on ‘create new’ icon next to the ‘Contact Validation’ header and follow the below tips to complete the page:
a. Reference name: type
‘Date_CampaignName_UnitaryBoroughRedirect’
b. Priority: type ‘1’
c. Redirect location: select the Unitary/Borough/District councillor campaign action from the dropdown below, select ‘Start page’ ‘2’ and click ‘insert’ (selecting start page 2 will make sure that the ‘form page’ of the County Councillor action will be submitted in the background and supporter will be redirected immediately to the ‘letter page’ of the campaign. Please note that ‘form page’ always needs to be created in the design view of this campaign even if it will not be presented to supporters)
d. Contact list: tick the box next to contact titled ‘No County Council for this area’.
e. Click ‘submit to save the changes’
5. Additional custom filters: In some campaign scenarios you might need to create custom redirects for individual councils. For example: if you would like to redirect supporters in a specific County council to a separate campaign or page on your website.
If you create any additional filters, do make sure to prioritise them accordingly (2, 3 etc.)
6. Finally once all relevant redirects are created, select the checkbox next to each redirect you would like to activate for your campaign and click ‘Submit’ to save the changes.
Before you launch the campaign…
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. This is a fully working action but it’s in DEMO mode, meaning the email to the campaign targets will not be delivered to them, they will come back to the email address you enter in the email address form field. Just to be safe, check the link in your browser. You will see the word DEMO in the URL.
You can now check the copy, fill in the form, check that the page
submits and check that you get the correct campaign target(s) with the correct message.
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!
Make sure you test ALL campaign actions!
1. Test each of the councillor actions separately (county councillor action and district/unitary/borough action) to make sure they work and pull up the relevant councillor based on your postcode 2. Test the county council action to check that you get
redirected to the corresponding version of the action based on your postcode. In two-tier areas you should get redirected to the county councillor campaign. You can see that the ‘ID number’ of the campaign will change in the address bar in your browser window.
3. Please make sure the ID number is correct. You can check the ID number of each campaign by clicking on their name in
‘Campaigns’ > ‘Manage campaigns’ when you are in the software.
And finally:
Make your campaigns live
1. Click on ‘Campaigns > manage campaigns’
2. Click on the ‘Admin’ icon on the right hand side of each of the 3 campaigns. This one:
a. Update the status to ‘Live’
b. Clear the data by selecting the ‘Clear data’ checkbox c. Submit the page to save the changes
Please note: If you clear the data it will get rid of all the test data in your account relating to that campaign action.
3. Repeat the steps for all of the actions you’ve created for this campaign.
Where do I get the live link from?
1. Go to ‘Campaigns > manage campaigns’. You’ll now see that the status has changed to ‘LIVE’ so you are all set up.
2. Click on the orange reference name county council action and grab the Campaign URL. (you can find it under ‘summary
information’) - please remember to add tracking parameters if you would like to publish your campaign on different channels (Facebook , Twitter etc). See the separate help file in the software under ‘Campaigns’ > ‘Manage Tracking’ for more information on this.
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!
