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Tutorial: Creating an Email Series and attaching it to a Product

Often, it can be useful to stay in contact with a customer after they have purchased a specific product. But who has the time to send a follow-up email to every customer that purchases a specific product? Not to mention remembering to send a follow-up email a certain number of days after the sale? And definitely not to mention sending a series of follow-up emails once a week starting a certain number of days after the sale?

Fortunately, Modular Mailer automates this entire process for you. By creating an Email Series and attaching it to a product, a scheduled ongoing series of personalized follow-up emails will be delivered to the customer automatically.

This tutorial walks through each step in the process of creating a series of email messages that will automatically be delivered to a customer over the course of several days after they purchase a certain product.

Step 1: Create the group of Email Templates that will comprise the series

The Series will automatically send email messages to the customer at future dates. Each of these emails will be built using an Email Template. Thus, the first step is to create a different Email Template for every message in the Series. Refer to the Email Template Editor and Tutorial: Sending Your First Email... sections of this manual for instructions on creating Email Templates.

Step 2: Create an Email Series

Next, create the Email Series that will generate the email messages. Use the Email Series Editor in the Modular Mailer module, located in the store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Modules > Modular Mailer].

In the Email Series Editor section of the module's home page, select Create a NEW Email Series from the menu, and click the Go to Series Editor button. This will load the Series Editor screen.

On the Email Series Editor screen, enter a name for the Series in the Series Name field. This name will only be displayed in your store's administration area. It will never be displayed to customers. Use a descriptive and unique name for the Series.

The next step is to start attaching Email Templates to the Series. Email Templates are attached one at a time in the Series Steps section of the editor.

When attaching the first Email Template to the Series, the Series Step will be displayed as "New". This will change to the number of the Series Step after it is saved.

Select the desired Email Template from the Select Template menu.

Use the Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes menus to select the date this email will be delivered to the customer. The delivery date is based on the date the customer is subscribed to the Email Series. In this case, the customer will be subscribed to this Email Series when they purchase the product this Series will be attached to. Thus, if "15 Minutes" is selected as the delivery date and the customer purchased the product at 1:00pm, then this email would be delivered to them at 1:15pm.

Click the Save Changes to this Series button to save add the new Series Step to the Series. The page will reload, with this Step being listed as "Step 1". Another blank "New" Step will be listed at the bottom of the page. Repeat this procedure to continue adding Steps to the Email Series.

When all of the Steps have been added to the Series and saved, it is time to attach the Email Series to a product.

Step 3: Attach the Email Series to a Product

The Email Series will be attached to the selected product in the Product Editor screen. The product editor can be accessed at: [Navigation Menu > Products > Search Products]. On the Search Products page, select a product and click the "e" Edit button. This will open the Product Editor. There are several brown tabs along the top of the Product Editor. Click the tab titled Autoresponders.

The Autoresponders section of the Product Editor will include several options:

In the Subscribe to Email Series section of the page, select the checkbox for each Email Series the customer will become subscribed to when they purchase this product. The date the customer subscribes to the Series will be the day and time of their purchase of the product. The customer will start at Step 1 of the Email Series, and any additional Email Steps in the Series will be delivered according to their individual schedules.

In the Unsubscribe to Email Series section of the page, select the checkbox for each Email Series the customer become unsubscribed to when they purchase this product. (If the customer is not already subscribed to the selected Series, then they will remain without a subscription to it.) Modular Mailer will process the unsubscribe rules after the subscribe rules. Therefore, if the same Series is selected in both the subscribe and unsubscribe sections, then the result to will that the customer will be unsubscribed from the Series.

After the changes to the product have been saved, it is now ready to start generating automated follow-up emails according to the Email Series schedule. Let the electronic correspondence begin!

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