You are here: Email > Messages > Design and send an email message
Design and send an email message
When you create and design an email in Messages, it is sent only once. You can edit the email before you send it, but not after.
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From Email, click Messages. Messages appears. |
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Click New message. The Select Template screen appears. |
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In the Template field, select a template. To decide on a template, consider the type of email you will write. For information about email templates, see Templates. |
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In the Site to select template from field, select a site to narrow the list of templates you can use for the message. You can select a template from another site even though the message is for the site you are currently on. If you do not host multiple websites, your single site defaults in the field. |
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Click OK. The New message page appears. |
Note: To see the scroll bar on an email message, use a screen resolution greater than 800 x 600.
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In the Recipient lists field, select the lists of recipients to include on the message. |
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If the message uses a template with a data source other than "Appeal," click the binoculars. The Select Target Lists screen appears. The grid displays the saved email lists that you have security rights for and that match the data source type selected on the template. |
Tip: For more information about data sources, see Template Data Sources.
You create and store email lists in Lists. Lists include individuals from offline constituent queries and imported lists. When the message uses a list with "Constituents" as the data source, individuals must have a preferred email address type that matches the selected Preferred email address on the Settings tab in Sites & settings. If the type does not match, the individual does not receive the message. When an individual’s record is marked Requests no email, the individual is excluded from the list and does not receive the email message. For more information about Lists, see Lists.
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Enter criteria to narrow the list and click Filter. The grid displays the lists that meet the criteria. |
Note: When the template’s data source is “Chapter,” you can filter chapters by the Chapter Manager part name. In the Filter by Name field, enter the name of the Chapter Manager part. The grid displays the available chapters in a “Chapter Manager part name — Chapter name List” format. For example, “Alumni Chapter Manager — San Diego List” contains the members of the “San Diego” chapter created by the Chapter Manager part named “Alumni Chapter Manager.” To send the message to the members of a chapter, add it to the Selected Lists box.
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To add a list, select it and click Add. The list appears in the Selected Lists box. You can include multiple email lists. |
Depending on your website environment and configuration, sending to a large list of recipients may cause performance issues. If you experience this, we recommend you include smaller queries or fewer queries in the list. For more information, see Create an email list.
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To remove a list from the Selected Lists box, select it and click Remove. |
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Click OK. You return to the New message page. |
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To send the message to a test group, such as people in your organization that need to approve the message, in the Test lists and Test emails fields, specify recipients for a test version of the message. |
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In the Test lists field, click the binoculars to select the lists of recipients for the test version. The Select Test Lists screen that appears has the same options as the Select Target Lists screen. |
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In the Test emails field, enter email addresses if you do not use email lists or if you want to include recipients who are not in your lists. |
Note: We recommend that you send the email message to test recipients before the final recipients. The test recipients can review the message and verify its design in multiple email client readers. You can create lists of test recipients in Lists. For information about lists, see Test Lists.
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In the email identifier fields, enter a name for the email message, a subject to include in its Subject field, and an email address and name to include in the From field. |
Note: If the template includes a subject, it automatically appears in the Subject field. You can edit the subject as necessary.
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In the Send after date field, enter when to send the email message. By default, the current date and time appear. However, you can schedule the email for a future date or time. For example, you may be out of the office for the next month but need to send your regular weekly email during that time. Or you may design an event marketing campaign and schedule email messages to send as reminders one week, three days, and the day before the event. |
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To send the email at a future date or time, enter the date and time. The website does not process the email until the date and time you enter when you click Send final. |
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If you delete the email before the date you enter in the Send after date field, the program does not process the email and it is not sent to recipients. |
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To immediately send the email when you click Send final, leave the current date and time. |
Note: Use the Send after date field to schedule one-time, pre-planned messages. However, if you have the Scheduled emails feature on the Email page, we recommend using that method instead because it provides more flexibility. For more information, see Scheduled Emails.
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To receive responses from recipients at a different email address than the one you use to send the message, click More Options and enter the address in the Reply Address field. |
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Under Notifications are to be sent to the following addresses, select Failures to receive failure messages when email messages are not delivered. In the field beside the checkbox, enter an email address to receive failure messages. |
Note: Failures are email addresses that do not receive messages. Failure can also be called non-delivery receipts, bouncebacks, UnDeliverables, or Delivery Status Notifications (DSN). For information about how the program handles failures, see Bounced Email Management.
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The bottom pane displays the email's default content. To format the message’s appearance and layout, use the HTML editor. For information about the HTML editor, see HTML Editor. |
Warning: Blackbaud recommends that you use inline styles, such as <div style=”background-color:Blue;”>Welcome color</div>, when you create and design the email content. Do not define classes or use external references because email vendors, such as Gmail or Outlook, are not guaranteed to render the styles correctly when the recipient reads the email.
Tip: When you design an email message, you must include hyperlinks to the Privacy Page specified on the Settings tab in Sites & settings and a User Email Preferences Form on your website. For more information, see Page settings.
To personalize the message with information about the constituent, add merge fields.
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To display the list of available merge fields, click Merge fields on the Insert tab in the toolbar. |
Constituent merge fields map to the same fields in The Raiser's Edge as the Profile Form part. For information about Profile Form part field mapping, see Profile Form.
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To add a merge field to the message, double-click or drag and drop the field in the content area. |
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In the body of the email, put fields where you want them to appear. For example, enter “Hello, First Name.” In the email, the recipient reads “Hello, [the recipient’s first name].” To move a field, click and drag it to the new location. |
Note: When you add a link in your message to a Blackbaud NetCommunity web page, the URL contains valuable information to track data and to automatically populate biographical information on your web page. Use this example to identify each piece of data the URL includes: http://www.yourdomain.org/DonationForm&srcid=[source ID]&srctid=[source type ID]&erid=[email recipient ID]&trid=[tracking ID].
To add conditional content to the message to customize it for different types of recipients, click Conditional content on the Insert tab in the toolbar. For more information about conditional content, see Add Conditional Content.
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To send the message to the test recipients, click Send test. The message may take a few minutes to send if you use a large list. When the program sends the email message, you return to Messages. |
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After the test recipients verify the email message and its components look and work correctly, send the email to its final recipients. From Messages, click Click here to edit this email message. When the email message opens, click Send final. |
Note: Test messages do not display merge field data. Instead, the program includes placeholders where the merge data will appear in the final message. To test merge fields, select the test list in the To field and then select Send final. Also, the program disregards the value in the Send after date field when you click Send test and immediately sends the test message.
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To send the message to its final target recipients now or at the scheduled date and time, click Send final. Depending on the size of the selected email list, the message may take a few minutes to send. You return to Messages. |
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To send the message to the test or final recipients at a later time, click Return. You return to Messages. The new email appears at the top of the list. To send the email, click Click here to edit this email message. When the email message opens, click Send test or Send final. |
Note: Each email is sent with a text version in addition to its HTML-formatted version. Email client readers that display text only either display this text version or generate a text version fro the HTML. You cannot alter the text version of the email.