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How To Use Your Email Marketing System

Overview

Video Tutorial

Logging In

Editing the Emailed Newsletter

Editing the "Welcome Email To Our Firm's Website"

Adding Addresses to Newsletter Subscribers

Removing Addresses from Newsletter Subscribers

Creating And Sending A Custom Message To Your List

Creating Advanced Email Marketing Campaigns

Overview

Your monthly emailed newsletter and the tax due date reminder system are both functions of the email marketing system. The Email Marketing System is a powerful and flexible system that helps you keep in touch with your clients, converts web visitors into long-term clients, and automates many of your firm's unbillable tasks. Features of the Email Marketing System are:

1. Automatically welcome your clients and prospective clients to your website.

2. Automatically send your clients your monthly email newsletter.

3. Manage your contact list of clients.

4. Send custom email messages to your contact list.

5. Create campaigns of sequential e-mail messages to send to your contacts.

Video Tutorial

Below is a video tutorial of how to use the Email Marketing System. Please watch through the video as it provides useful visual aids on how to access the various areas and tools we offer.

Logging In

The first step will be logging in to Firm Portal. For instructions on how to do this please click here.

Once you are logged into the Portal, click the Email Marketing System button as pictured below:

This will bring you to the Email Marketing System main menu.

Editing the Emailed Newsletter

Your monthly email newsletter will be posted to your email marketing system on the second of every month, and will be sent to your contact list on the evening of the 10th. This gap in time allows you to customize the newsletter to fit your needs.

To edit the monthly email Newsletter, click on the Messages link in the upper-right hand corner.

From the list of messages, select the month of the Newsletter you want to edit, and click on its name

Here you are presented with the message editor. You can use this screen to edit the content of your newsletter like a Word document. You can use the toolbar at top to format your text. To view how it will look in text-only click the Text tab in the upper-right. To view how it will look in HTML, click the HTML tab.

Note that any text that appears between two tildes (~) is a variable. So, ~mycompany~ will appear as the name of your company when it is sent out. Be sure to leave the tildes intact so as to assure proper formatting of the newsletter.

When you are finished making your edits, click the Save button at the bottom to update the message.

Editing The "Welcome Email To Our Firm's Website"

You can automatically send each of your clients and prospective clients an email when visiting your site.

To edit your welcome email, begin by clicking the Messages link in the upper-right hand corner of the Email Marketing System.

Next, click on "Newsletter Welcome Message."

Here you are presented with the message editor. You can use this screen to edit the content of your newsletter like a Word document. You can use the toolbar at top to format your text. To view how it will look in text-only click the "Text" tab in the upper-right. To view how it will look in HTML, click the "HTML" tab.

Note that any text that appears between two tildes (~) is a variable. So, ~mycompany~ will appear as the name of your company when it is sent out. Be sure to leave the tildes intact so as to assure proper formatting of the newsletter.

When you are finished making your edits, click the Save button at the bottom to update the message.

Adding Contacts to Newsletter Subscribers

To begin adding contacts to your Newsletter, click on Contacts in the blue bar at the top of the Email Marketing System.

Next, click the Add button on the far right.

Here you can add information about the contact. The only required field is E-Mail. When you are done adding information about the contact, make a checkmark next to "Newsletter" under the "Add contact to the following campaigns:" section, and then click Add Contact.

To add contacts to a campaign, click the Contacts link in the blue menu bar. Next, place a checkmark in the box next to each contact you wish to add to the newsletter.

Finally, from the drop-down menus at the bottom select Action: Subscribe to Campaign, Campaign: Newsletter, and click Go.

Removing Contacts From Newsletter Subscribers

To remove contacts from the newsletter, click Contacts in the blue menu bar at top.

Here you are presented with your list of contacts. Put a checkmark in the box next to each user you want to remove from the newsletter campaign.

Next, from the drop-down menus at the bottom, select Action: Delete Selected, Campaign: Newsletter, and click Go.

Creating And Sending A Custom Message To Your List

To send a custom message to your Newsletter subscribers, the first step is creating that message. To do so click the Messages link in the blue menu bar at top.

Next, click the New button on the right-hand side.

Here you can enter your custom message and format it using the toolbar at top. To preview how it will look as text click the "Text" tab in the upper-right hand corner.

Title: The title of the message displayed within the e-mail marketing system. Contacts who receive this message will not see this title.

Subject: The message subject that clients will see in their e-mail program.

Text: The plain-text version of the message. If only a plain-text version is supplied (or if a contact's e-mail program cannot display HTML), contacts will only see a text message.

HTML: The html-encoded version of the message. If only a html message is supplied, contacts will see only HTML. Please note that some e-mail programs are incapable of displaying HTML-encoded messages.

Test Message: Checking this box when the message is saved will prompt you for an e-mail address to send a test version of the message to. If you enter your e-mail address, you will receive the message and can ensure that the format is the way you would like it.

When you are done creating your message, click Save.

Next, click Campaigns in the blue menu bar at top, and click Newsletter in the list of campaigns.

This will bring you to the campaign information screen. Click Add Message to go to the Add Message screen.

From the Add Message screen you have two options:

Select Message and Day to Send:

Select Message: Select the title of the message you would like to add to the campaign.

Day to Send: Here you can either add a single number (ie - send this message to a subscriber of this campaign after they have been subscribed for X days) or click on the icon to the right of the box to select a date from a calendar. If a date is specified, all subscribers of this campaign will receive this message on the specified date.

Once both fields have been filled, click Add Message to save the message to the campaign.

Creating Advanced Email Marketing Campaign

Adding A Campaign

A campaign is a list of messages with specific send dates and a set order of messages to send. To add a new campaign, click on the Campaigns link on the top menu bar:

Then the New button in the upper right-hand corner:

Now you should have a screen as pictured below, with a form to fill out about the new Campaign:

Title: (Required) The title of the campaign displayed only within the e-mail marketing system.

Display Name: The name that messages from this campaign will appear to be sent from.

Reply-To Address: The e-mail address that messages from this campaign will appear to be sent from. Replies to any campaign messages will also be sent to this address. If this field is left blank, the messages will default to the e-mail address specified under "Firm Information".

Subscription Redirect URL: If a contact subscribes using a form from your website, they will be redirected to the website specified here.

Unsubscribe Redirect URL: If a contact clicks the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of an e-mail message, they will be unsubscribed from this campaign and then redirected to the website specified here.

Once you have filled out the desired information, click "Save" to save the campaign. After clicking "Save" you will be forwarded to a page that allows you add messages to a campaign or modify the campaign information. See below(link here) about adding Messages to a campaign.

Editing a Campaign

To edit an existing campaign, click Campaigns in the menu bar at the top:

This will take you to a listing of all the campaigns for your firm. To edit a campaign, simply click on its name in the Title column:

This will display the current setup information about the campaign, including the messages that are attached to this campaign. When you are finished click Save and the information regarding the campaign will be updated.

Deleting a Campaign

To delete a campaign, click Campaigns in the menu bar at the top, and it will display a list of the campaigns for your firm. To delete a campaign, click the graphical "x" in the delete column:

You will be asked for deletion confirmation. Select Yes to continue on and delete the campaign. After deleting the campaign you will be brought back to the main Campaigns screen.

Creating Messages

Messages are stock emails that can be attached to campaigns and sent out at varying intervals. If you want to create a new message to attach to a campaign, click the Messages link on the top menu bar:

This will result in a list of your currently saved messages. From here, click the New icon at the top to create a new message.

After clicking the New button you should be presented with a window as pictured below:

Attaching Messages

Once a message has been created, you need to attach it to a campaign. If you click on the Campaigns link at the top of the page:

You will see a listing of all your saved campaigns. Clicking on a campaign's name will take you to its information and attached messages list. To attach a message click the Add Message button.

Select Message: Select the title of the message you would like to add to the campaign.

Day to Send: Here you can either add a single number (ie - send this message to a subscriber of this campaign after they have been subscribed for X days) or click on the icon to the right of the box to select a date from a calendar. If a date is specified, all subscribers of this campaign will receive this message on the specified date.

Once both fields have been filled, click Add Message to save the message to the campaign.

Contacts

Contacts are email addresses that are attached to each campaign; they receive the emails that are sent out when specified. To begin adding contacts, click the Contacts link on the top menu bar as pictured below:

To add a single new contact, click the Add button pictured below.

You will be presented with a form to fill out information about the contacts. In the lower portion of the form you can check off the campaigns you would like to have this user be added to. When you are finished filling out information about this contact, click the Add Contact button at the bottom of the page.

If you wish you add an already existing contact to a campaign click the Campaigns link in the menu bar which will present you with the list of current contacts. Select a contact (or multiple), as pictured below:

Next, from the Action dropdown menu select Subscribe to Campaign and from the Campaign dropdown menu select the campaign you want the contact added to, and click "Go." This should add the selected users to the campaign you chose.

To delete a contact, click the Contacts link in the top menu bar to get the list of contacts. Select the users you wish to be deleted with checkboxes, and from the Action: dropdown menu at bottom right select the option Delete selected. Finally, click Go to delete the selected user(s).

Firm Information

To access the Firm Information form click Firm Information in the top menu bar.

From there you can enter information about your firm. When you are finished, click the Save button.

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