About this Guide
Web Parler is email marketing made easy—developed as the antithesis to all of the unnecessarily complicated and confusing alternatives out there. We’ve found many of our competitors’ guides to be longwinded and boring… and so to compliment our streamlined service, we’ve developed a series of Quick Guides to help you to get the most out of your account without feeling like you need to read an academic degree’s worth of material first! But don’t worry—if you like the longer, more detailed guides, we have those too! You can find them, along with many other helpful bits and pieces, in the Resources section of the website.
Helpful Hint: Save time—the intro is the same for all of the Quick Guides. Skip it next time!
Creating a Campaign
The Create-a-Campaign process couldn’t be simpler, and in no time you’ll be creating attractive, compelling emails like a pro!
Log-in to your Web Parler account and click the CAMPAIGNS tab followed by “Create a Campaign” from the Quick Links Menu.
Note: Depending upon your choice of template in the first step of the Create-a-Campaign process, the process may consist of either seven OR eight steps (i.e. if you opt to use a new prebuilt template, a “Choose a prebuilt template” step will be added). Pay attention to the section titles within this guide, which each correspond to the ‘subject’ of a step (which can be viewed by hovering the mouse cursor over a step in the pink navigation bar in the website) and not necessarily the number.
Quick Guide to:
Creating a Campaign
1. Choose a Campaign Name and an Email Template
Be sure to choose a Campaign Name that will help you to easily identify it later. This name WILL NOT be displayed to email recipients (i.e. it is not the email’s subject). Each campaign must be given a unique Campaign Name.
Select a template option from the dropdown list:
• “No Template (enter HTML)” – You will be able to paste the HTML code for your
own predesigned email in the next step
• [The name of a custom template or a saved prebuilt template] – From the
TEMPLATES tab, you can upload your own templates or save a prebuilt template to your list of My Templates (check the Resources section of the website for the full guide to Creating a Campaign)
• “Choose a Prebuilt Template” – Click this to browse Web Parler’s selection of
fully customizable prebuilt email templates.
Helpful Hint: Click “Save and Continue” whenever you are satisfied with your work and ready to proceed to the next step. You can revisit a previously completed step by clicking the “Back” button or a specific step in the pink navigation bar (i.e. don’t use your browser’s ‘back’ button otherwise your work might not be saved!)
2. Choose a Prebuilt Template
Note: If in the first step you selected any option other than “Choose a Prebuilt Template” from the dropdown list, this step will not appear and you should proceed to 3. Enter HTML / Populate the Email’s Editable Content of this guide.
When you find the template that you would like to use, click on it to highlight it and then click “Save and Continue”.
Helpful Hint: You can also double-click a template to select it and immediately proceed to the next step.
3. Enter HTML / Populate the Email’s Editable Content
The first thing to do is to give your email an enticing Subject Line—this will be the first thing that recipients see before they open the email.
If you selected “No Template (enter HTML)” in the first step, this will be your opportunity to type the email’s text or paste your pre-prepared HTML code.
If you selected a custom email template, a saved email template, or a prebuilt template, this will be your opportunity to populate the email’s editable content.
You can enter the HTML / populate the editable content in either “Standard Mode” (add content to grouped sections of images, text, and links) or “Display Mode” (add content ‘in situ’, i.e. click an editable area within the email design to edit it).
Helpful Hint: Web Parler’s WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) text editor lets you change your text’s font, add color, add tables, and more—right from within your web browser!
Note: It is required by law that your postal address is included in each email that you send through Web Parler, and we will automatically attach the address from your “My Accounts” page to the bottom of any prebuilt template that you select. For custom-built templates and HTML entered during the campaign creation process, it is your responsibility to ensure that your postal address is displayed.
4. Preview Your Email
In this step, you will be presented with a visual representation of your current email design. From here, you can:
• “Send a Test Email” – Sometimes your email might be displayed differently in a
recipient’s inbox, so it’s a good idea to send yourself a test email to as many different email clients/services as possible. You should play around with the links and such to make sure that everything works as they should, before finalizing your send.
• “Preview in Email Clients” – With Web Parler, you can generate graphical
previews of how your email will look in the most popular email clients and services. Just check the boxes for the previews you’d like, and we’ll handle the rest! No need for multiple usernames and passwords!
• “Spam Check” – Click to run an automated spam test—in seconds you will be
presented with a spam score and details to help you improve your email’s deliverability.
Helpful Hint: Avoid these poor design tactics that spam filters target:
• Using generic, ‘spammy’ phrases such as “Click Here!” and “Act Now!” • USING ALL CAPS, particularly in the subject line
• Excessive use of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!! • Using bright red or green fonts
• Creating an HTML email that consists solely of one large image and little or no
text (because spam filters cannot ‘read’ images, they assume that these emails are from spammers trying to trick them)
Check the Knowledge Bank to learn more about spam. You can also visit http:// www.ftc.gov/ and search “can-spam” to read up on “The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business”.
5. Choose the Campaign’s Recipients
Check the appropriate boxes to send your campaign to “All Active Customers”, to any of your Customer Lists, and/or to individually selected customers. Note that even though some customers might be represented on multiple Customer Lists, Web Parler will automatically filter your list of campaign recipients to ensure that each unique email address receives only one email per campaign send.
6. Delivery Options
Select a “Sender’s Email” from the dropdown list and type a “Sender’s Name”—these WILL be displayed in recipients’ inboxes as from whom the email appears to have been sent. You can type any Sender’s Name that you like, but the Sender’s Email, to which any replies will be forwarded, must be selected from a list containing emails that you have set up on the “Email Senders” page (accessed by clicking “View Senders’ Email Addresses” from the Quick Links menu on the My Account page).
You can either send your emails through Web Parler’s servers or through your own. If you choose to send through your own server, make sure that it allows connections from external IP addresses.
Helpful Hint: You can set up a default SMTP server from the My Account page—Click “Change Account Details” from the Quick Links menu and the option is about half-way down the page.
7. Schedule When to Send the Campaign
Choose when you would like to initiate the campaign-send and how many emails to send per batch.
8. Confirm Campaign Details and Send
Take a few minutes to confirm that your campaign’s details are correct, send a few test emails, and maybe run a final spam check. Remember that you can revisit a previously completed step by clicking the step in the pink navigation bar. When you’re happy with everything, click “Confirm and Send”.
Helpful Hint: You can locate your confirmed campaign by clicking the CAMPAIGNS tab from the top of the page. On the Campaigns page, campaigns are separated into four groups:
• Draft Campaigns – Unconfirmed campaigns (i.e. campaigns of various stages in
the design process; the campaign-send has not been confirmed)
• Scheduled Campaigns – Campaigns that have been confirmed for a future date • Active Campaigns – Campaigns that have ‘launched’, with some but not all emails
‘batch-Resources Section
Search our comprehensive Knowledge Bank, download additional guides, and more!
http://webparler.com/resources.asp
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http://webparler.com/account_helpdesk.asp
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http://webparler.com/contactus.asp
