Processing a user through Connect involves running each user through all the filters you have setup for each campaign, once this is done, Connect sends the message to users who passed the filters. If a campaign has multiple variants setup, Connect will send a specific variant to each user depending on the variant's allocation. A campaign can also have percentage of users allocated to the control group. Users in the control group will receive no messages. The number of users who do not pass filters will be shown on the reporting page.
When setting up email campaigns, it's important to have your own provider set up so that your emails are delivered reliably and on time.
We currently support Mandrill, Mailgun, and SendGrid for delivering emails.
This article discusses the following topics:
Email campaign limitations
When you first create an account with Connect, you are given a limited amount of email and SMS credits to send using Connect. This is to prevent spam. You can add your own provider for each channel and send as many messages as needed. Connect does not charge per message or for adding providers.
Because of these limitations, we recommend only using the Connect-provided email for small tests. Customers should add their own email provider before launching any live, customer-facing campaigns.
Using variables in email messages
When creating a new email variant, you can use variables to customize user messages. The variables can be used in the Subject and Body of the message. You can test email messages by clicking the link below the body.
When creating campaigns, Connect allows creating up to 3 variants. Each variant can be of any channel. If you'd like to create all three variants as email, go for it!
For information on using variables in email messages, see Using the email editor.
Composing the email
Connect has two options for composing emails:
The "Use Editor Tool" option allows you to build an email through our WYSIWYG tool:
The "Use Source Code" option allows you to copy/paste HTML & CSS directly into editor.
For more information, see Using the email editor.
You can also drag and drop Connect variables into the html and write new HTML to modify the original design.
Adding other options
You can add a BCC and a reply-to email address by clicking More Options. You can also have a customized from name by clicking Customize sender name. If you've added service accounts, you can also choose one as a from email address using the From drop-down. Service accounts can be added from the Team page, at Settings > Account > Team.
Unsubscribe footer
By default, Connect will supply its own copy for the unsubscribe footer. This footer will contain links to unsubscribe for the specific campaign, or for all campaigns. If you choose the Custom option, you will be able to supply your own footer in emails. This option enables the following variables in both the template and individual campaigns:
- {{ allow_unsubscribes }}: Boolean value to indicate if unsubscribes are allowed or not. This is typically used for conditional statements to determine whether or not to show specific text.
- {{ unsubscribe_campaign_url }}: URL to unsubscribe from the campaign
- {{ unsubscribe_all_campaigns_url }}: URL to unsubscribe from all campaigns
- {{ campaign_id }}: The ID of the specific campaign being sent.
Using templates
All emails send with a default template which is saved and can be customized on the Email Settings page, by clicking Settings > Channel Settings > Email. By default, when an email variant is created, the template is applied. You can disable this by simply unchecking the Apply Template checkbox. If you would like to use a one-time custom template for an email, you can uncheck the Apply Template checkbox and click Source to paste in your custom template.
For information on creating a new template, see Building an email template.
Tracking email opens and clicks
By default, Connect will automatically track email opens and clicks on URLs. Opens and clicks are automatic events that can be configured on the Email Settings page.
Opens and clicks can also be used as filters in the campaign editor and user search. The following is a breakdown of each event and their properties:
Using inline CSS
<style> ... </style>tags and your provider will take these styles and apply them to all applicable elements in the HTML. Some providers allow the option to auto inline CSS and some don't provide this option. You can find the option to enable or disable this on the Email Settings page.
Connect uses the MailChimp API to inline CSS, you can read more about it here.
Connect reporting
All messages sent using Connect provide tremendous amount of insight into how users behave on your site or in your app. Emails take this one step further by providing opens and clicks which help narrow down how many users actually get affected by your campaign. Each email variant includes its opens and clicks on the reporting page.
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