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Sections of the Modular Mailer module administration area

Location of Administration Tools

The Modular Mailer module's admin tools are located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Modules > Modular Mailer]. The module's home page is at this location. The module home page looks like this:

Let's look at each of these sections in more detail:

Email Delivery Queue

The Email Delivery Queue (or simply Email Queue as it's known by its friends) contains all the outgoing email messages that are scheduled for delivery.

The sections of the Email Queue include:

Search Email Queue
A variety of search tools are provided to help you track down the queued emails you seek. Tip: To view all the emails in the queue, search for Recipient Email contains "@", added to the queue between the dates January 1, 2007 & December 31, 2015. That's a quick way to find all the emails that are present in the Queue.

Modular Mailer Email Queue (Search Results area)
The queued emails that match the search criteria will be displayed here. Click one of the gray arrows below the column titles to sort by that column in either ascending or descending order. The search results will display 100 results per page. If more than 100 results are returned, links to each page will be displayed at the bottom of the Search Results (not displayed in the above image).

Queue SID
System ID (SID) of the Email Queue database record. This number is assigned automatically by the Modular Mailer software. It is used for internal tracking purposes and cannot be edited.

Date Added to Queue
This displays the date and time the email message was added to the Email Queue.

Recipient Name & Email
The name and email address that will be used as the recipient of the email. Click the customer's name to view their Customer Details page. Note: Any "test emails" ## an option available when manually sending out an email instance ## in the Queue do not have a name associated with them, so they will list the email address only.

Series & Series Step
The System ID (SID) number of the Email Series associated with this email. (If any.) Click on the Series SID to open it in the Series Editor. Also displayed is the specific step of the Email Series for this email.

Email Template
Displays the name of the template that will be used to generate this email. Click the template name to open it in the Email Template Editor.

Send Date
The date and time the email is scheduled to be delivered to the recipient. Typically, Modular Mailer scans the Email Delivery Queue for due messages every 15 minutes, and delivers a batch of emails that are due for delivery. The number of emails delivered in each batch may vary; because servers often throttle the amount of resources given to email delivery, to keep the server running at its tip-top capacity.

Hold Status
Messages in the Queue can be put on hold. If a message is on hold, an icon will be displayed. Mouse over the icon to see the date the message was put on hold. Messages that are due, but are on hold, will remain in the Queue and will not be delivered until taken off hold.

Checkbox
Select the checkbox for multiple items in the Queue to make mass edits. Checked items can be put on hold, taken off hold or deleted all at once using the options located directly below the Queue's search results table.

Email Template Editor

Every email delivered by the Modular Mailer system is based on a template. Templates contain the email's contents, such as: who the email is from, the subject, text-only version of the message, HTML version of the message, and more. Use the Template Editor to manage the content of your email templates.

The sections of the Template Editor include:

Email Header Options

Subject
The contents of the Subject field will be used as the subject (title) of the email message. The subject may contain up to 255 characters. Selected QuickCode Tags may be used in the Subject field. (See the Email QuickCode Tags section of this manual for more information on using QuickCode Tags in your email messages.)

From Name and Email
This will be the name and email address of the email's sender. To decrease the chances that your emails get stopped by spam filters, use an email address from your domain as the From address. (Example: good@MyWebsite.com vs. bad@SomeOtherWebsite.com)

Reply-To
This will be the email address used for replies and internal routing. To decrease the chances that your emails get stopped by spam filters, use an email address from your domain as the Reply-To address.

Errors-To
If delivery to the recipient fails, any error message returned by their email server will be delivered to this address. To decrease the chances that your emails get stopped by spam filters, use an email address from your domain as the Errors-To address.

Plain Text Version of the Message
Most email messages actually have two versions: a Plain Text and HTML version. Since some devices can't display HTML code, they will display the alternative Plain Text version of the email, if given the choice. To increase the chances of your email messages being received and legible, include a Plain Text version of your message whenever possible.

Include Plain Text Version of email Message Checkbox
Select this checkbox to display a text field containing the Plain Text version of your email message. If deselected, any existing Plain Text message will be deleted when the template is saved.

Plain Text Message text field
Enter the Plain Text version of the email message in this field. The Plain Text version of the email message cannot contain HTML code, images or CSS styles. (If it did, it wouldn't really be "Plain Text" anymore, would it?)

Tip: Some email applications will insert extra line breaks into long lines of text. This can result in funny-looking messages when the Plain Text email is viewed. For example:

Email software has a nasty habit of breaking up lines of
text in inconvenient
places. Your carefully written sentence can
end up looking like this.

To avoid having extra line breaks added to the Plain Text email message when viewed by the recipient, restrict each line in the Plain Text message to a maximum of 65 characters.

HTML Version of the Message

Include Plain HTML Version of email Message Checkbox
Select this checkbox to display a text field containing the HTML version of your email message. If deselected, any existing HTML message will be deleted when the template is saved.

HTML Message text field
Enter HTML version of the email message in this field. The HTML version of the email message may contain HTML code, images or CSS styles.

Important: An unsubscribe link is required in all email messages
All Plain Text and HTML messages must contain an option for the customer to opt-out of the store's mailing list. By opting out, the customer will no longer receive any emails generated by the Modular Mailer module. To add an unsubscribe link to your email messages, use the {EMAIL-UNSUBSCRIBE-URL} QuickCode Tag. When the email is created, this QuickCode Tag will be translated to the URL of the unsubscribe page in your store. Here are some examples of using this QuickCode Tag:

Example of using {EMAIL-UNSUBSCRIBE-URL} in a Plain Text email message
Unsubscribe from future emails at: {EMAIL-UNSUBSCRIBE-URL}

Example of using {EMAIL-UNSUBSCRIBE-URL} in a HTML email message
<color>Click this link to unsubscribe from future emails.</color>

If the {EMAIL-UNSUBSCRIBE-URL} QuickCode Tag is not present in the Plain Text or HTML version of the email message, Modular Mailer will automatically append an unsubscribe link to the end of it when the email is delivered.

Settings & Reporting Options

Active
Email templates can be set as either Active or Inactive. Make a template inactive to prevent any email that uses that template from being sent. Any message in the Email Delivery Queue that uses an inactive template will be treated as if it is on hold; the message will not be delivered even if it is due, while the template is inactive.

Track Links / Clicks
Select this option to track which links in the email have been clicked on by the recipient. These results will be available in the Reports section of the Modular Mailer module'sadministration area. This option will change the format of the links in the HTML version of the email. The links will be changed to point to a tracking page in the shopping cart. The tracking page will record the click and then forward the user to the original link destination. This entire process is instantaneous and invisible to the user. Note: This feature only works with the HTML versions of emails.

Track Message Opens / Reads
Select this option to record the date the email was most recently opened by the recipient, if available. These results will be available in the Reports section of the Modular Mailer module'sadministration area. Note: This feature only works with HTML emails. Also, some email applications will block this feature, preventing the Open Date from being recorded.

Save / Update Template Options

Do not save your changes to this template
Select this option to scrap any changes you've made to this template and continue to the either the main menu or the Send an Email screen.

Save/Update the template
Select this option to save any changes you've made to this template and continue to the either the main menu or the Send an Email screen.

Save as a new template
Select this option to save any changes you've made to this template as a new email template and continue to the either the main menu or the Send an Email screen.

Start Over button
Clicking this button will scrap any changes, remove all of the email template's data from memory, and return you to the Select a Template screen.

Save & Return to Menu button
Clicking this button will save any changes to the email template and then return you to the Modular Mailer module's main menu page.

Save & Send an Email button
Clicking this button will save any changes to the email template and load the Send an Email screen, where you can use this template to send an email to a selection of customers.

Email Series Editor

Once you've mastered email templates, you're ready to create an Email Series. A series is a group of emails that will be delivered in chronological order. Each email in the series is referred to as a "Step". Each step in the series has its own delivery date, which can be minutes, hours, days, or even weeks apart.

The sections of the Series Editor include:

Series Name
The Series Name is only displayed in the administration area. Customers never see it. Give each Series a unique, descriptive name. The Series Name can contain up to 255 characters.

Series SID
System ID (SID) of the Email Series database record. This number is assigned automatically by the Modular Mailer software. It is used for internal tracking purposes and cannot be edited.

Series Steps
The Series Steps section of the Series Editor will list information for all the steps that the Series contains.

Series Step
Each Step will be listed in chronological order, calculated by how long after the customer has joined the series the Step's email is to be sent. For example: In the sample image above, the email in Step 1 will be delivered 45 minutes after the customer joins the Series. Step 2 will be delivered 6 hours and 15 minutes after the customer joins the series. If a new, third Step is added with a scheduled Delivery Date of 2 hours, it will be inserted between the current Steps 1 and 2 when the Series is saved. All the Series Steps will then be renumbered, based on the new chronological order.

The numbering of the Series Steps is always recalculated, based on each Step's Delivery Date, when changes to the Series are saved. This means that new Steps can be added to a Series after a customer has already joined the Series. If a new Step is added to a Series that comes after the customer's current Step, the new Step will be used. This means that changes made to a Series will be retroactively applied to customers subscribed to that Series whenever possible.

Email Template
Select the Email Template to be used for the email generated when the Series Step is triggered. The selected template will be used to construct the email message when it is delivered. This means that you can continue to make changes to the Email Template up until the instant the Step's email is generated.

Delivery Options
Select how long after the customer joins the series the Step will be triggered. All delivery dates are based on the date the customer joins the series. Remember: Delivery dates are based on the original join date, and not based on the date the email from the previous Step was delivered. Selecting a Delivery Date will display an example of when the Step would be triggered. (Not shown in sample image.)

Delete Selected Steps
Clicking this button will delete selected Steps from the Series.

Save Changes to this Series
Clicking this button will add the newest Step to the Series (if any) and will recalculate the order of the Series Steps, based on each Step's Delivery Date.

Send an Email Batch

The Modular Mailer module's home page includes a tool to quickly send an email to a selection of customers. You will have the opportunity to review and optionally schedule the message before it is sent. This tool has two parts:

Step 1: Select an Email Template
This menu will list all of the active Email Templates in your account. Select the desired Email Template from this menu.

Step 2: Select Customer Group(s) to send the email to
Next, select the Customer Groups to send the email to. This section of the tool will display two menus.

The menu on the left, titled Unselected Customer Groups, will display all of the available Customer Groups in red text. These are the Customer Groups that will not receive this email message.

The menu on the right, titled Recipients, will display all of the selected Customer Groups in green text. These are the Customer Groups that will receive this email message.

To add Customer Groups to the Recipients list, follow these steps:

Select one or more Customer Groups from the Unselected Customer Groups menu. (Hold the CTRL button to select multiple Customer Groups from this menu.)
Click the ">>" button to move the selected Customer Groups from the Unselected Customer Groups menu to the Recipients menu.

Use the "<<" button to move Customer Groups from the Recipients menu back to the Unselected Customer Groups menu.

Click the Preview & Send this Email button to review the email message that will be sent to the customers included in the Customer Groups listed in the Recipients menu, and then send the email.

Reports

The Reports area displays statistics about the email messages that have been sent using the Modular Mailer module. This includes both emails from Series and those manually sent using the Send an Email tool.

The sections of the Historical Email Report include:

Search Email History
A variety of search tools are provided to help you track down the delivered emails you seek. Tip: To view all the emails in the history, search for Recipient Email contains "@", added to the queue between the dates January 1, 2007 & December 31, 2015. That's a quick way to find all the emails that are present in the history.

Modular Mailer Email History (Search Results area)
The historical emails that match the search criteria will be displayed here. Click one of the gray arrows below the column titles to sort by that column in either ascending or descending order. The search results will display 100 results per page. If more than 100 results are returned, links to each page will be displayed at the bottom of the Search Results (not displayed in the above image).

History SID
System ID (SID) of the Email History database record. This number is assigned automatically by the Modular Mailer software. It is used for internal tracking purposes and cannot be edited.

Date Sent
This displays the date and time the email message was sent to the recipient.

Recipient Name & Email
The name and email address of the email's recipient. Click the customer's name to view their Customer Details page. Note: Any "test emails" ## an option available when manually sending out an email instance ## in the History do not have a name associated with them, so they will list the email address only.

Series & Series Step
The System ID (SID) number of the Email Series associated with this email. (If any.) Click on the Series SID to open it in the Series Editor. Also displayed is the specific step of the Email Series for this email.

Email Template
Displays the name of the template used to generate this email. Click the template name to open it in the Email Template Editor.

Date Opened
If the "Track Message Opens/Reads" option has been selected for this Email Template, and the recipient's email program allows it, then this field will display the date and time the HTML version of the email message was most recently viewed by the recipient.

Clicks
If the "Track Links/Clicks" option has been selected for this Email Template then this field will display the number of times any links in the HTML version of the email message have been clicked on by the recipient.

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