SimpleMail Help


  1. How to Create a New Mailing List
     
  2. How to Manage your Mailing Lists
  3. How to Compose Messages
  4. How to Send Messages
  5. How to Use Search

  6. How to View the logs

  7. Need Help?

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HOW TO CREATE A NEW MAILING LIST

To create a new mailing list profile, choose Manage Lists from the dropdown and click the Select button.

In the next screen, choose Add New List from the dropdown and click the Choose button.

This will preload a set of default messages creating a framework for the new list profile. The steps to follow now are:

  1. In the Add New List Name box, enter a name for your list.
     
  2. In the Name box, enter the name of whoever the e-mail messages will be from.
  3. In the From box, enter the return e-mail address you wish to use.
    Please note: SimpleMail may not function properly if anything other than an email address is placed in this field.
  4. SimpleMail provides you with Subscribe and Unsubscribe messages. You may accept these as they are or create your own messages. For information on personalizing your messages, read about using the special tags feature under Editing List Profiles.
  5. You will notice a text box marked Footer. SimpleMail automatically adds the footer and an unsubscribe link to every outgoing mail. Read more about the Footer under Editing List Profiles.
  6. When you have completed steps 1-5, click the Save Config button to create your mailing list

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HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MAILING LISTS

To manage (make changes) to your mailing lists, you will always begin from the main (front) panel and do the following:

1. Highlight Manage Lists in the dropdown menu and click the Select button.

2. On the next screen, highlight the list you wish to manage in the dropdown menu and click Choose.

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EDITING LIST PROFILES

You can now make any changes you wish to the basic profile for the list you selected. For information on the various fields, refer to Creating a New List above.

If you wish to change the Name, From, Subscribe, Unsubscribe or Footer messages, there are Special Tags that can be used to personalize these messages for your reader.

Name
This is where you can place your name or the name of your organization.

From
This is where the reply-to email address for this list would be placed.
Please note: SimpleMail may not function properly if anything other than an email address is placed in this field.

Subscribe Confirm Message
This is the message that is sent to the person letting them know they have one more step to go before they are subscribed to your list. There are 6 special tags that can be placed in this message to aid in describing this message to your subscriber.

They are as follows:

    • Subject:  Some message would be placed on this line.
    • %%name%% = the subscribers name.
    • %%newsletter%%  = the newsletter they are subscribing to.
    • %%email%% = the email address they are subscribing under.
    • %%confirm%%  = the link to confirm would be displayed here.
    • %%date%%  = the date they subscribed

Subscribe Message
This is the message that is sent to the person acknowledging their subscription to your list. There are 6 special tags that can be placed in this message to aid in describing this message to your subscriber.

They are as follows:

    • Subject:  Some message would be placed on this line.
    • %%name%% = the subscribers name.
    • %%newsletter%%  = the newsletter they are subscribing to.
    • %%email%% = the email address they are subscribing under.
    • %%unsub%%  = the link to unsubscribe would be displayed here.
    • %%date%%  = the date they subscribed.

Unsubscribe Message
This message is sent to anayone who unsubscribes and confirms that they have successfully unsubscribed from your list. There are 5 special tags that can be used to personalize and clarify the unsubscribe message.

They are:

    • Subject:  Some message would be placed on this line.
    • %%name%%  = the unsubscribers name.
    • %%newsletter%%  = the newsletter they are unsubscribing from.
    • %%email%%  = the email address they are unsubscribing under.
    • %%date%%  = the date they unsubscribed.

Footer Message
This message is placed at the bottom of every message sent out during your mailing.  An unsubscribe link will automatically be placed below this message. If you desire not to have a footer message, then just delete the contents in this box and the footer unsubscribe feature will be turned off.

Once you are done making changes to the profile for a list, click the Save Config button.

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ADD ADDRESSES

If you have an existing list of e-mail addresses, you can add it to your SimpleMail lists very easily.

Select the mailing list you wish to use and then click on Import List then simply copy and paste your list into the Insert List Here box (one e-mail address per line). Then click the Import Now button. If you would like to send a welcome message to your new list of subscribers, then check the checkbox and compose some greeting and then click on Import Now. If you already have e-mail addresses in the list, these new addresses will be added to them and the duplicates will be removed. The entire list will be alphabetized.

 

FORMATTING

SimpleMail will also support including Names with the e-mail address. When entering an e-mail address with a Name, just make sure that the name is before the e-mail address and separated with a ( , ) comma.

Please note: the formatting is very important, there should only be one comma ( , ) per subscriber and the name should always appear first and then the email address.
Example: Mike Jones, mike@somedomain.com

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DELETE ADDRESSES

Select the e-mail list you wish to use. In the Search box, type the e-mail address or part of it and press Search. When the e-mail address appears in the Search Results box, delete it from the box and then click Save.

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REJECT CERTAIN SUBSCRIBERS

SimpleMail allows you to prevent certain e-mail addresses from subscribing to your lists. To prevent an e-mail address or domain name from subscribing, enter it into the E-mail / Domains Reject List text box area and click the Save Rejects List button.  Anyone trying to subscribe to your list with an e-mail address or domain name that is contained in your rejects list will be denied a subscription.

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RESTORE YOUR LIST FROM AN ARCHIVE

If you make a mistake while managing your list, you can use the Restore function to roll back your list to a previously saved version. To use it, just click on the Restore button and SimpleMail will allow you to choose which archive to restore from.  Select the archive of your choice and click the Restore List >From Selected button.  

Every time you click the Save button on the front screen of your SimpleMail control panel, an archive file for potential future rollback is created.  You can also export your list by clicking your mouse button on the link "Export List" directly to the right of the list you want to export, a new browser window will open displaying the list.

 

MANAGING BOUNCED MESSAGES

If your SimpleMail is configured to capture bounced email addresses, you can click on the Bounces button which will take you to the bounce manager panel. You can click on Show Bounces to view the whole list or you can type something to search for and then click Show Bounces to just display your search results. If you have bounces listed, you can simply click on the Clean Lists button and all email addresses listed in your bounce manager will be removed from your lists. You can also select which bounces you may want to keep by choosing from the list and by unchecking one or more of the checkboxes to the left of each email address.

Tips & Tricks: Before removing bounces, it is always a good idea to archive your current lists first. To do this, return to the main window of SimpleMail if not already there, select the list name from the dropdown and click Select and then click Save, Repeat this step for each list.

If you are encountering a large list of bounces (500 or more) then use the search function to display a smaller number of bounced messages in your list. You can search for anything regarding the bounced message, sometimes it is easier to start out by searching just the domain name (aol.com, yahoo.com, etc...). If your lists is still showing a greater number that mentioned above, try breaking your search down even further by searching (a@aol.com, b@aol.com, etc...).

 

MANAGING UNCONFIRMED OPTIN APPLICANTS

If you have this feature enabled, then SimpleMail will report any unconfirmed applicants. The email addresses in this list are NOT subscribed, as they are not confirmed applicants. To view, click on 'Double Optin Manager' and then to view all entries, click on 'Show Entries'. If you would like to search for a specific entry, then enter the word or phrase in the search box and click 'Show Entries'.

You can manually add a subscriber by clicking on the applicants name. The applicant will receive a welcome message letting them know that they are now subscribed.

Note: Only use this manual subscribe process if the subscriber is having difficulties confirming there subscription.

 

MANAGING YOUR OPTOUT LIST

The optout list is a list of subscribers that have chosen to unsubscribe from one ot more of your lists, term used (optout). SimpleMail will use this list to compare against any list you may wish to import and prevent you from resubscribing someone that already had been removed. Under normal circumstances, the only way an email address would be removed from the optout list is if the user chose to re subscribe through the normal process, however sometimes you may want to edit this list or even search to see if a subscriber has opted out. To view the full list contents, simply click on Show Entries or if you wish to narrow your list to a more defined search, just enter a key word such as an email address, list name or date. To remove one or more entries, select the check box next to the email address and then click on Remove Selected. If you would like to reset the entire log, click on Reset Optout Log.

Note: Only remove an entry from this list if you know for sure that the user will not mind being re subscribed by someone other than themself.

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HOW TO COMPOSE MESSAGES

You can compose your message in SimpleMail or in another editor and copy and paste it into SimpleMail. You can create Text or HTML messages.

From the front panel, highlight the list you wish to use from the dropdown menu and click the Select button.

Enter the Subject in the appropriate space and then compose or paste your message in the large Message box.

SimpleMail supports three keys that can allow you to personalize the messages sent to your subscribers. The following keys can be placed in your text. Name Key = <-name-> e-mail Address Key = <-email-> and newslist Key = <-news_list->. These keys will be replaced with the subscribers info when the SimpleMail program runs.

Example Message:
Hello <-name->,
I am sending this message to all of my members from my <-news_list-> newsletter, I see your subscribed with the following e-mail address <-email-> etc...

Of course, to use the <-name-> tag, you must be collecting the individuals name when they subscribe.

SAVING YOUR MESSAGE FOR FUTURE USE

Saving your message to use again at a future date. After your done composing your message, click on Save Message.

If you would like to send a message that you had previously saved in your archive, select from the use selected message dropdown, the subject of your message and then click Load.

To remove a message from the message archive, select the subject from the use selected message dropdown and then click Delete.

Some other important information to remember when composing your message.

  • If your message is in HTML format, be sure to check Message In HTML.
     
  • You can check the Request Receipt box to make sure that your e-mails are being received.
     
  • You can change any of the default fields (Name, From) for a single mailing. If you wish to change them on a permanent basis, do so through the Manage Lists feature.

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HOW TO SEND MESSAGES

TEST YOUR MESSAGE
You should test send every message before doing a general mailing. After composing your message, click the Test Message button. SimpleMail will send a copy of the message to the FROM e-mail address.

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SEND YOUR MESSAGE
If everything in the test message looks good, you now have the choice of sending your message immediately or scheduling it to be sent later.

Send NOW:
Select Send Now from the dropdown list and click the Que Message button.

Schedule For LATER:
Select Use Schedule from the dropdown menu, choose the Hour, Day, Month and Year for the mailing to take place and click the Que Message button.

Some things to keep in mind when scheduling your mailings;

  1. Don't schedule two mailings too close together as they may overlap from the time that it takes for the first mailing to complete to when the next starts.  

  2. If you have two mailings scheduled to go out before midnight, make sure there is enough time for the first one to complete before midnight. If it extends beyond midnight (taking you into the next day), the second mailing will be skipped, as the day it was scheduled for has passed.
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NEW MESSAGE
After completing one message, SimpleMail will allow you to immediately create and send (or schedule) another one. Simply click on New Message and SimpleMail will clear out the Subject and Message fields for you so you can create your next message.

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MANAGE QUE LIST
Each time you que a message to be delivered, it will be added to the Que List. To check your list of que'd messages, just click on Manage Que List and you will be able to see what message(s) are in your que list.

While viewing the que list, you can prevent one or more message(s) from being sent out by deleting it (them).  To remove a message from the que, check the box beside it and click the Delete Selected button. SimpleMail will remove the selected message(s) from the que list.

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STOP CURRENT MAILING
If you send a message and then realize that you have made a error, click Stop Current Mailing to end the mailing process. It may take a moment to bring SimpleMail to a complete halt, but it will stop the process and flush that message from the message Que.

Naturally, any messages that have been processed will still be sent out.

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HOW TO USE SEARCH

You can search for individual e-mail addresses or for the entire list (1400 max. results) at one time.

For individual addresses, type in any part of the e-mail address into the Search box and press Search. All addresses containing what you typed in will be displayed. For example, if you search for "AOL", the results will display all e-mail addresses that contain the word "AOL" in them.

To view your entire list at one time (up to 1400 results), leave the Search box empty and click the Search button.You can view your complete list of e-mail addresses (up to 1400 at a time).

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HOW TO VIEW THE LOGS

You can view the activity logs by clicking on the View Logs located at the bottom of the main screen.

By default all logs are displayed, however you can search for a specific log entry by entering a word or phrase into the search box and then click Find. If you interested in seeing only SUCCESS logs or ERROR logs, select from the dropdown one of those choices.

The logs are displayed from the newest entry on top to the oldest entry on the bottom. The logs will report when someone subscribes or unsubscribes and various reports while managing your newslists.

You can also reset the logs by clicking on the Reset Log button located on the view logs screen.

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