Creating Scheduled Emails

This feature available on All Plans (except where noted)

Contents

Getting There
Setting Up a Scheduled Email
Edit a Scheduled Email
CAN-SPAM Act Compliance
Adding/Editing the SPF Record
Updating DMARC To Prevent Emails From Going to Spam

Overview

Our emails feature is a powerful tool for connecting with people who submit entries to your lists via forms on your ShortStack campaign. You can send emails to your list, schedule those emails to send now or in the future, set up autoresponder emails that send immediately after someone submits an entry to a ShortStack form, and create follow-up emails that are sent automatically a certain number of days after someone subscribes to your list.

This article covers setting up emails to send to your list, sending those emails immediately, and scheduling emails to send on a specific date/time. If you are looking to create an autoresponder email to send to entrants after form submission, check out our Autoresponder doc. If you are interested in creating follow-up emails that are sent automatically a certain number of days after someone subscribes to your list, learn more in our Follow-Up Email doc.

 

Getting There

There are three ways to access the Email Builder - using the button on the Dashboard, via the Emails Manager, or via the Campaign Builder. 

Via the Dashboard:

1. Log in to ShortStack.
   
   
2. Click the Email button in the Create section in the top right.
   
   
   
   
3. Choose the Scheduled Email option.
   
   

 

Via the Emails Manager:

1. Log in to ShortStack.
   
   
2. Click Emails in the main menu at the top.
   
   
   
   
3. Click New Email within the Emails Manager.
   
   
   
   
4. Choose the Scheduled Email option.
   
   

 

Via the Campaign Builder:

1. Find the campaign to which you'd like to attach a scheduled email, and open it in the Campaign Builder.
   
   
2. Click the envelope icon in the upper right corner of the Campaign Builder.
   
   
3. Click the New Email link to the right of the list for which you wish to create a scheduled email.
   
   Note: If you have added multiple Form or Entry Widgets to your campaign, there may be more than one list displayed.
   
   
   
   
4. Choose the Scheduled Email option.
   
   
   
   

Setting Up A Scheduled Email

There are several, easy-to-follow steps in the scheduled email setup process. Follow the process below, and you'll set up your first email in no time!

Choose a Company Profile

A Company Profile is necessary for CAN-SPAM Act compliance (learn more here). A Company Profile consists of the business name, the business address, and the business industry. 



Note: On the Free Trial and Business Plan, you will be limited to a single Company Profile. On the Pro Plan or higher, you'll be able to create as many Company Profiles as needed.

To set up your first Company Profile:

1. Click the Create a Company Profile button.
   
   
2. Enter the Company Profile details.
   
   
3. Click the Save & Select button.
   
   
4. Click the Continue button.
   
   

To use the current Company Profile:

1. Verify that the profile name on display is accurate.
   
   
2. Click the Continue button.
   
   

To update the current Company Profile:

1. Click the profile name.
   
   
2. Update the Company Profile details.
   
   
3. Click the Select button to save your changes and use this Company Profile.
   
   
4. Click the Continue button.
   
   

To choose a different, existing Company Profile:

1. Click the profile name.
   
   
2. Click the All Profiles button at the bottom.
   
   
3. Click to select the profile you'd like to use - it'll highlight it.
   
   
4. Click the Select button to use this Company Profile.
   
   
5. Click the Continue button.
   
   

To add a new Company Profile:

1. Click the profile name button.
   
   
2. Click the All Profiles button at the bottom.
   
   
3. Click the Add New Profile button at the bottom.
   
   
4. Add the new company details, then click the Select button.
   
   
5. Click the blue Continue button.
   
   

Select a List

Next, you will choose the entry list to send your email to. You can combine entries from multiple ShortStack lists collected through different forms, or you can choose to send to one list. 

To select a list:

1. Click the box(es) to add a checkmark beside the list(s) you wish to select. The total number of recipients your email will send to is displayed in the bottom-left.
   
   

To deselect a list:

1. Click the box(es) to remove the checkmark from the list(s) you wish to remove.

To select/deselect all of the lists:

1. Click the box beside Select All Lists.
   
   

To proceed, click the blue Continue button when you have finished choosing your list(s).

Note: If you choose more than one list, only the fields that all of the selected lists have in common will display as merge fields when creating your email.

Add Codes

If you are attaching a single code or code list to your email, this is where you'll do so. For a more thorough walkthrough of using codes in emails, check out our Adding Codes to Emails help doc.

Once you've got your code settings where you want them, click the blue Continue button.

Choose Email Template

Email templates help to reduce the amount of time you spend setting up your email. We offer several types of templates for a variety of email uses. You are not required to use a template. If you do not wish to use a template, click Continue to move forward without one.

To create an email from a template:

1. Find the template you wish to use, and hover your mouse over it.
   
   
2. Click the blue Use This Template button that appears on the template's thumbnail.
   
   
   
   

Customize Email in Designer

You can customize your emails as much or as little as you would like. Our templates include sample text, images, and merge fields based on best practices for the type of email you wish to send. You can use the WYSIWYG editor and the merge fields we provide to update your email. The WYSIWYG editor also includes a Source Code option for people who are comfortable using HTML.

To add text:

1. Click on the box where the email preview is displayed.
   
   
2. Start typing.
   
   

To add an image:

1. Click the Insert/edit image icon on the right side of the toolbar.
   
   
   
   
2. If you have the image stored elsewhere online, you can paste the image's URL in the Source field. If you'd like to upload the image, click the Find Image icon . This will open your Media Manager.
   
   
   
   
3. Locate the image you wish to use within your Media Manager, or upload a new one, and click it so it is highlighted.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the blue Use Selected button. The Source field will now include the image URL.
   
   
   
   
5. Optional: Add a description to the Image Description field.
   
   
6. Optional: Adjust the size of the image by changing the dimensions in the Dimensions field.
   
   
7. Click the blue Ok button.
   
   

To add merge fields:

Merge fields are a neat tool you can use to include details the recipient included when they submitted their entry. They are a great way to add a personal touch to the email. Only fields you included in your form will display in the Available Merge Fields section of the Email Designer. If you are sending emails to recipients gathered by more than one form, only the fields the forms have in common will display as merge field options.

1. Find the merge field you wish to add within the Available Merge Fields section.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the merge field button.
   
   

To add custom HTML code:

1. Click on the Source code icon in the toolbar.
   
   
   
   
2. Type (or paste in) your custom code into the text field.
   
   

When you're finished building and designing your email, click Continue.

Add Email Details

The Add Email Details step is one of the most important parts of your email setup process. In this step, you will name your email, add an email subject, set the sender name for the email, and choose a from address.

By default, the from address will be set to no-reply@campaign-mail.com - feel free to use that if you don't have a more specific email address to use.

To add email details:

1. Click on the box you wish to add information to.
   
   
2. Click the blue Continue button when you are finished filling out the boxes.

Note: Due to DMARC restrictions, you will not be able to set the From Email Address to a @yahoo.com, @ymail.com, @rocketmail.com, or @gmail.com address. You can read more about this here and here.

Schedule Email

There are two options for scheduling your email. One option is to send the email now, and the other is to send the email at some point in the future.

To send the email now:

1. Choose the Send now option below When would you like to send this email?
   
   
   
   
2. Click the blue Continue button.
   
   

To schedule the email for some time in the future:

1. Choose the Schedule option below When would you like to send this email?
   
   
   
   
2. Enter a date and time in the Schedule at box - you can use the calendar and clock icons to help.
   
   
3. Update the time zone -- it is (+00:00) UTC by default.
   
   
4. Click the blue Continue button.
   
   

Review Email

The last step in the email setup process is to review your email. The Review page allows you to do just that--review the email. Here, you can review the settings you have applied to the email, along with the email itself; make changes to the email; send a test email, and save and send/schedule the email.

 

To edit the email:

1. Locate the email content you wish to update.
   
   
2. Click the content you wish to update, and you will be sent to that part of the email wizard.
   
   
3. Make your changes.
   
   
4. Click the blue Continue button to return to the Review page.
   
   

To send a test email:

1. Click the Send Test Email button.
   
   
2. Enter the email address you wish to send the test to in the box below Send test email - the email address associated with your account will display by default.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the blue Send Email button.

Once you are satisfied with your email, click the blue Save & Send/Schedule button. After you click Save & Send/Schedule, you're all set! Your email has either been sent or will send at its scheduled time.

Filter List (Optional)

Filtering your recipient list is optional, but it can be helpful if you wish to target your emails to specific entrants within your list. You can filter recipients by the date their entry was received, whether or not the entry has been approved, and the presence of an image in the entry. You can choose more than one filter to apply to the list.

To filter a list, click on "none" beside the FILTER option on the email review screen. From there, you will see three options: 

To filter by the entry received date:

1. Click the Enable box beside Filter entries by date received.
   
   
2. Enter the starting date in your date range in the From box.
   
   
3. Enter the end date in your date range in the To box.
   
   
4. Optional: By default, your date received filter will include only the entries submitted within the date range you select in your list. Click the word Include, and it will change to Exclude, which will exclude the entries submitted during the date range you select from your email list.

 

To filter by approval status:

1. Click the Enable box beside Filter entries by approved status.
   
   
2. Optional: By default, your approval status filter will include only the approved entries in your list that have been approved. Click the word Include, and it will change to Exclude, which will exclude approved entries from your email list.
   
   

To filter by presence of an image in the entry:

1. Click the Enable box beside Filter entries by image presence.
   
   
2. Optional: By default, your image presence filter will include only the entries in your list that include an image. Click the word Include, and it will change to Exclude, which will exclude the entries with an image from your email list.

Once you have finished setting up a filter, or if you do not wish to add a filter, click the blue Continue button.

Edit a Scheduled Email

You can only edit scheduled emails that have not been sent. This means you would not be able to edit an email that you set to Send Now, or an email that you had previously set to send in the future, but the date/time for the email to send has already passed.

You can tell if an email has been sent by looking in the status column of the Emails Manager. Unsent emails will show the text Scheduled in this column.

To edit a scheduled email: 

1. Click the name of the email you wish to edit.
   
   
2. Find the email content you wish to update.
   
   
3. Click the content you wish to update, and you will be sent to that part of the email wizard.
   
   
4. Make your changes.
   
   
5. Click the blue Continue button to return to the Review page.
   
   
6. Click the blue Save & Schedule button.
   
   

CAN-SPAM Act Compliance

The United States CAN-SPAM Act created a set of rules for entities sending commercial emails. One part of the CAN-SPAM Act requires companies sending commercial emails to tell users where they are located, which is why we ask you to choose a Company Profile for your email. The name and address from the Company Profile you choose will appear at the bottom of your email. To comply with the portion of the CAN-SPAM Act where users must be given the ability to opt out of emails, we also include an opt-out link at the bottom of the email.

Adding/Updating the SPF Record

If you are having deliverability problems ("Unverified Sender" error, the email goes to junk, etc.) when you try to test your email for the first time, it's likely because your email domain has not given our servers permission to send emails on its behalf. To fix this issue, you need to add or modify an SPF record on your domain. You will need to go into your settings and add the following domain:

 email.campaign-mail-1.com

For more information on how to add an SPF record, here are the help docs on how to do so for some common domain providers:

GoDaddy
Bluehost
HostGator
1and1

SPF is currently the only email protocol we support, as no changes are needed on ShortStack's end. We don't support changing DKIM or DMARC natively, as it would require configurations to our email servers - though this may be added in the future.

 

Updating DMARC To Prevent Emails From Going to Spam

If you're using your own email domain but running into an issue where all the sent emails are going to the recipients' spam/junk folders, the culprit is likely the domain's DMARC settings - what's called the "domain alignment" is likely failing. In short, the from email address domain (your company's domain) does not match the domain from which the emails are being sent (email.campaign-mail-1.com, our domain). Because of this failure, the email provider checks the policy specified in the DMARC settings to determine what to do - if the value is p=quarantine - that means that when DMARC fails, the email will be put in the user's spam/junk folder.

Currently, the only real workaround to fix this would be to change the DMARC policy on your domain's side to p=none - this will prevent the sent emails from going to spam. Once your campaign is over, you could safely switch it back to p=quarantine.

Note: If you do update your DMARC policy, you will have to wait for the change to propagate across the Internet before testing new emails. Most changes go into effect within an hour or two, but can take as long as 24 hours.