Creating a Message, Step 1: Choosing Settings

Choosing settings is the first step of creating a message in EmailLabs. Settings include message format, name and subject, and sender information.

To choose message settings

Multi-part/HTML: Creates both an HTML and an alternate plain text versions. The recipient's email program determines which format to display.

Text only: Creates only a text version which cannot include any HTML. Tracking for an HTML message can include clickthrus but not times opened.

From Template: Creates a message based on an existing template in Multi-part/HTML format. This option does not appear if you have do not have any saved templates. For information about templates, see About Templates

Message Information section

In this section, you identify the message and, optionally, select a segment.

1. In the Message Name field, type a unique name for your message.

Your recipients will not see the message name.

2. In the Subject Line field, type the message subject.

Tip: The subject line should capture your recipients' attention and make them want to open the e-mail. You can personalize the message by using mail merge tags.

3. Optionally, insert mail merge tags into the subject:

3a. In the Insert Field drop down list, select the field you want to insert.

3b. Click INSERT INTO SUBJECT.

The field is inserted into the subject.

4. Optionally, in the Category section, do one of the following to help you classify and sort the campaign:

Your recipients will not see the category.

To select an existing category, select the Select existing radio button, then select the category you want from the drop down list.
To create a new category, select the Create new radio button then type the category name in the Create new field.

5. Optionally, to send the message to a specific segment, do one of the following:

To select an existing segment, in the Segment drop down list, select the segment you want
To create a new segment, click the New Segment and create a new segment.

Tip: Alternately, you can apply a segment later, before the message is sent.

Sender Information section

In this section, you specify the sender information that your recipients will see.

1. To specify the email address to receive all replies to the message, do one of the following:

To use the default address, select the Use default reply-to checkbox.

Tip: The default address is shown in parenthesis next to the checkbox.

To use a different address, enter an address in the Reply-to address field.

2. To add a field to the reply-to address:

2a. In the Insert Field drop down list, select the field you want to insert.

2b. Click INSERT INTO REPLY-TO.

The field is added to the reply-to address.

3. To specify a different sender name, type the name you want in the Sender Name field.

Note: By default, this is the sender name of the list.

4. To add a field to the reply name:

4a. In the Insert Field drop down list, select the field you want to insert.

4b. Click INSERT.

5. To add a mailing address to the message footer, select Add physical mailing address to message footer.

Note: A physical mailing address is required to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Tip: You can include your physical address in your HTML template so that it automatically appears in all messages.

6. To edit the mailing address in the message footer:

6a. Click Edit.

6b. On the page that opens, type the email address you want to use.

6c. Click Save.

Note: EmailLabs servers blacklist sending email addresses beginning with admin@ and Info@. For this reason, do not use addresses beginning with admin@ and Info@.

Advanced Options section

In this section, you can:

Enable tracking

Tracking gives you the ability to track the activity that your text and HTML messages generate.

For an HTML message, EmailLabs tracks when the message was opened, how many times, and all URL links embedded in the message. To track the number of times the message was opened, EmailLabs embeds a clear one-pixel image into the message. This image allows us to track when the message was opened, how many times, and who opened it. To track the URLs in a message, EmailLabs converts your URLs to trackable links so that we can provide complete reporting information on those URLs.

For a text message, EmailLabs only tracks links with complete URLs. For example, http://www.yahoo.com is a complete link, while www.yahoo.com is an incomplete link. EmailLabs automatically converts all complete links in the message to a clickable link that we can track.

Specify HTML encoding

HTML encoding handles the character recognition as your message is encoded and sent out.

Choose a character set

You can choose a character set to ensure that your message goes out in the language you intended. The default character set is US ASCII. In addition, EmailLabs supports the following character sets:

UTF-8
Traditional Chinese (Big5)
Simplified Chinese (gb2312)
Japanese (euc-jp)
Japanese (ISO-2022-JP)
Japanese (Shift-JIS)
Thai (Windows)
Korean (euc-kr)
Korean (ks_c_5601_1987)
Cyrillic (koi8-r)
Cyrillic (windows-1251)
Central European (windows-1250)
Western European (ISO
Western European (Windows)
Turkish (ISO)
Turkish (Windows)
Greek (ISO)
Greek (Windows)

If you need a character set that is not currently available, please contact EmailLabs Customer Support.

To enable tracking

Select Enable for HTML version and/or Enable for Text version.

To specify HTML encoding

In the Encoding section, select the encoding you want:

For US English text or HTML messages, select 7-bit.
For special characters or languages other than US English, select Quoted-Printable.

To choose a character set

In the Character Set drop down list, select the character set you want.

Next steps

After you choose the message settings, you can create your message. To start creating the message, click SAVE AND NEXT to add HTML.