The application includes a powerful email tool complete with mail merge, email history logging for each contact and email bounce management. The ability to send bulk email will not be active until it has been enabled by Super-Admin.
Email message templates can be used for Lead Nurturing Tracks, sending individual emails and sending emails to groups of people. Email templates are useful for sending newsletters through the system. Email message templates are also available from Automation and Workflow Management. Using the Automation and Workflow Management tools email templates can be used as the email for an AutoResponder.
Creating an email template for merging with data in the system is as easy as writing an email and selecting the fields you wish to insert. After writing your email in the email editor select an insertion point in the email and select a merge field from the Insert Merge Field dropdown and then click Insert. In the image below you can see the first name inserted after the word ‘Dear’ in the newsletter example below.
You can also insert custom forms into your email. Select the insertion point, select the form you wish to insert from the Insert Custom Form dropdown and click Insert.
The email message template editor is a complete HTML editor. You can add graphics, video, links etc. to create professional looking email messages.
You can also create merge templates with Microsoft Word. This following section explains the security parameters associated with the functionality as well as detailed instructions for creating mail merge templates for your users.
Authorization is Required to Send Email
To provide users with the capability to send email, relevant privileges in their Logon Profile need to be activated.
In Administration > Logon Management, placing a checkbox next to ‘Send Email Messages’ will provide the user with the ability to send emails from the Profile or Sales Update pages. Remember to click Submit to make the change take effect. Users with the Send Email permission will also have an Email Signature box displayed on their User Settings page.
In order to merge documents from Library when sending email, in addition to the parameters discussed above, users must have View Library permission (listed in the Library section of the Privileges page) turned on in order to have access to the Add Merge Documents area of the Send Email interface.
The ability to add, move and delete template folders and documents is controlled by the Library privileges section. Users with permission to create Private Folders may also designate a template folder as Private, in which case only those users given access to that folder in the Internal page of the Logon Profile will see that template folder displayed.
To create a template folder
To use Mail Merge Templates in the Send Email function, the templates must be stored in specially defined Template Folders in the online Library. To create a template folder, go the Library and click on New Folder. Click Yes for the “Is template folder?” setting. You can also designate the template folder as Private if you wish; however, note that you will need to add access to this folder in the Logon Profile for all users whom you wish to grant access to the merge documents in that Private folder.
The small document icon to the right of the folder name identifies folders as template folders. Note that template folders can only be defined at the root level. Template folders can be renamed and deleted just like any other Library folder.
Creating mail merge templates
To provide users with templates for mail merges, you need to first create a Mail Merge Template Document in Microsoft Word and then upload it to a template folder in the Library (see preceding section). Begin by downloading the file of available merge fields by going to any contact, clicking on the Send Email icon and then clicking on the View Merge Fields tab.
This window displays a list of Standard Fields, which are the merge codes that must be used in the Word template. For easy translation into the terms in use in the WorkGroup you are working in, it also displays the Custom Equivalent for each field, which is the Custom Field tag that corresponds to that standard field.
Click on the Download Merge Fields tab to save a copy of the merge fields to your local computer. The file must be saved in comma separated (.csv) file format. Be sure to make a note of where you have saved the file.
Create the Word document
Next, open a new Microsoft Word document and add the standard text you wish to include in the merge template. Alternately, you can open an existing Word document you wish to use as the basis for the Merge template and edit the text.
Insert merge fields
In Word, go to Tools>Letters and Mailings>Show Mail Merge Toolbar. In the merge toolbar (see Figure 5), click on the Open Data Source icon and browse for the .csv document you saved in the earlier step. Click OK when the file is displayed in a pop-up.
Place your cursor in the location in the Word document where you wish to insert data from the online database and then click on the Insert Merge Fields icon in the Merge Toolbar. This displays the names for all available merge fields using the Standard Field names. Highlight the field you wish to use and click Insert. Repeat for as many fields as you wish to add and then click Close. Repeat in other places throughout the document as needed.
Upload new template to Library
Save the document to your local computer. In the online system, go to the Library, open the Template Folder you created in the earlier steps of the process and then use the Upload File button to Browse for the Microsoft Word template document you created on your local system and upload it to the template folder. Your users with Send Email and View Library privileges will now have the template available for use in the Send Email interface.
