This chapter will provide you with the detailed descriptions and information you will need in order to make an informed decision before entering or modifying your list’s default settings. You will also find instructions on creating and deleting distribution and suppression lists, setting up folders for list organization, and using LBGIE’s™ Code Support feature to create forms that can be pasted right into your website.
Figure 4‑1
You can rename your list at any time. Using a descriptive title for your list will allow you to keep track of the purpose of the list and the nature of messages that will be sent. The list title will appear in the left frame when you are logged into LBGIE™.
This is the address that will appear by default in the "From Address" field when you author a new message. For more information, see Authoring And Sending Email: Author New Message.
This is the text that will appear by default in the "From Name" field when you author a new message. For more information, see Authoring And Sending Email: Author New Message.
If you have a LBGIE Enterprise Level account you might have access to one or more dedicated IP addresses. You can use this drop down box to define the specific IP address or IP pool for the selected list.
By selecting this option LBGIE will automatically ad an alternate browser link to the top of all of your campaigns for this list. The link will allow anyone who can not view the campaign to click through to a landing page hosted by LBGIE that will feature the campaign. Note: if you are using a Domain Alias the landing page will be hosted using your Domain Alias.
By choosing "yes" for this option, a "Click Here to be removed from this list" link will be added to each message that you send. Subscribers can then remove themselves with one click on the link. A new browser window will open and inform the subscriber that their email address has been removed from the mailing list.
If you would like to control the text or layout of the removal link, select "no" for this setting. You will then need to include your removal link in the body of each message that you send. For more information on creating removal links, see Code Support later in this chapter.
Note: LBGIE™ strongly advises that you include a removal link in every message that you send. Allowing subscribers to remove themselves from your list will distinguish your mailings from unsolicited "spam" and help you avoid being reported for sending unwanted email.
Because using either personalization or dynamic content may affect your message composition and or spam score it may be important to test your campaign using the Review and Spam Score facilities. By enabling this feature a pop-up window will open containing a sampling of recipient email addresses (Figure 2-13) when clicking either Preview or Spam Score buttons with the Author & Send Email page.
When this feature is enabled the To Name field will be visible within the Message Settings pane within the Author & Send Email page. The purpose of “To Name Personalization” is to insert the recipient’s name in quotes in the “To” field of their email program. Should you utilize this feature, the recipient will see something like this in the To: line of their email program, TO: “Bob Smith” <bsmith@company.com>. When “To Name Personalization” is not used the line would look like this:
TO: bsmith@company.com
When sending an email to a large list of recipients, it is not uncommon for the message to "bounce back" from one or more addresses. This means that the mail server is unable to deliver the message to the intended recipient, and therefore returns it. This can happen for several reasons, such as the recipient's mailbox is too full, a server is down, or the email address is no longer in use.
By default, this option is set to "Standard" so that you can take advantage of LBGIE's ability to manage "bounced" emails for you, while maintaining the "From Address". Due to the numerous mail configurations found on the internet, this setting will result in approximately 3 - 5% of the bad email addresses bouncing to the "From Address." If you do not want to see any bounce notifications and you do not mind that the "From Address" is converted to a LBGIE email address, then set the value to "Aggressive." No matter which setting you choose, a person can always reply to the email address set in the "From Address" at time of send. LBGIE will count the number of times a message is returned from an individual email address. Once mail has been returned five times, the address will be automatically removed from your list. Message bounces can be monitored by selecting "Reports - Message Delivery" from the drop-down menu.
If you prefer, you can have all undelivered messages returned to the list's" From Address "by changing this option to "Do not Handle." Keep in mind that if you haven't sent a message to your list for a while, this could generate a lot of email in your inbox. Also, bad addresses will need to be removed manually through LBGIE. If you are unsure of how to do this, see Managing Subscribers: Delete Subscribers.
Note: If managing bad addresses yourself, all undelivered messages will be returned to the "From Address" specified when that message was created and sent.
(Profiling Level and Higher Only)
Reduce bounce backs and reach a greater percentage of your list as LBGIE’s List Hygiene feature actually turns “undeliverable” email address into valid addresses.
Because domain names are constantly changing due to company mergers and acquisitions, and because people simply misspell addresses, LBGIE has created the List Hygiene system. This new feature converts undeliverable addresses into deliverable addresses by matching invalid domain names with our internal list of misspellings, mergers, acquisitions, etc. [For example, an undeliverable address: yahoo.cm, will be corrected and sent as: yahoo.com.]
To implement List Hygiene into your next campaign (and all following campaigns), set enable List Hygiene to YES. Please remember, List Hygiene currently runs within our Bounce Message Processing System, which means an address must bounce and your manage bad addresses settings must be set to standard or aggressive handling for it to be processed by the List Hygiene sub-system.
Select “Yes” for this option if you would like to require that new subscribers confirm their subscription before being added to your list. This two-step sign-up process is known as “double opt-in” because the subscriber must opt to join the list twice.
When a person enters their email address into your subscription form, an email will be sent asking him/her to click on a link to confirm that he/she is still interested in joining the list. Once this link is clicked, a browser window will open. If you have a profiling-enabled account, the new subscriber will be asked to fill in any header data that you have set up for this list before their subscription is confirmed. If your account is not profiling-enable, or if the list has no profile headers, the new subscriber will see the subscription confirmation message immediately.
This process allows you to verify that the email address entered initially was a valid address. If it is not valid, the subscriber will not receive the opt-in request and will, therefore, not be added to the list. This will minimize future message bounces.
The double opt-in method is also useful in ensuring that email addresses are not added without the recipient’s explicit authorization. This keeps people from accidentally or intentionally providing you with email addresses that do not belong to them.
NOTE: Double opt-in messages will only be sent when subscribers add themselves to the list, and not when subscribers are added by the administrator, regardless of the list’s default setting.
If you require that those who sign up for your list confirm their subscription before receiving messages, then you will need to enter text in this box. This will be the message each new subscriber receives asking that he/she click a link in order to activate his/her list subscription. For more information on setting the double opt-in option, see Enable Double Opt-In Subscription earlier in this chapter.
If you plan to send a welcome message to new subscribers, enter the body of that message here. Once your welcome message has been saved, you can then decide whether or not to send it each time you add new members to your list. For more information on welcome messages, see Managing Subscribers: Add Subscribers.
If you plan to send a goodbye message to unsubscribers, enter the body of that message here. Once your goodbye message has been saved, you can then decide whether or not to send it each time you remove members from your list. For more information, see Managing Subscribers: Remove Subscribers.
The URL Branding feature is used to hide any LBGIE tracking links and show you're URL in the links instead. This is especially the case in the text version of the e-mail where the link could not be disguised by HTML. Without the URL Branding, the links will appear as l.lt0.net.
Once you have downloaded the web file from our code support site and it has been placed on your website server/web root directory. Copy and paste the URL it resides at into the settings pages. See URL Branding under the Code Support area for more information.
You can specify up to eighteen email addresses of people to serve as proofreaders for your messages. Before you send a message to your entire list, you may want to have your review group look over the message and offer feedback. When authoring a new message, you will be able to send a copy to each of these people through the click of a single button. For more information, see Authoring And Sending Email: Author New Message.
Keep your company informed, regarding the status of your email campaigns, with LBGIE™’s new Admin Group feature.
A LBGIE™ user can now specify up to six (6) people, per list, to receive LBGIE™ Status emails. Any email address specified in the Admin Group will automatically receive List Import Status emails as well as Send Status emails, concerning each campaign you create and send.
To create a new list, select “Manage Lists – Create A New List” from the drop-down menu, or click on the button in the left frame labeled "Create List." You will now see the form shown in Figure 4-2:
Figure 4‑2
Enter the name of your new list in the text box. This should be something descriptive that will indicate to both you and your subscribers the nature of future mailings.
Don't worry that you will be permanently locked into the name you choose. You will be able to modify the List Name at any time. For more information on modifying a list name, see List Settings earlier in this chapter.
Figure 4‑3
To delete a list, select “Manage Lists – Delete A List” from the drop-down menu, or click on the button in the left frame labeled "Delete A List." You will now see a page containing all of your lists. To delete one of them, click the trash can icon to its left. You will be asked to confirm your decision before the list is actually deleted.
Figure 4‑4
Note: Once a list has been deleted, there is no way for you to restore it. Deleting a list will permanently erase all message history, tracking, and profiling associated with it.
If you have many lists, you may want to create one or more folders in order to keep the left frame more organized. By creating folders, you can group lists into categories and display only those with which you are currently interested in working.
Below, you can see how your lists will appear once you have created a folder:
Figure 4‑5
Click on the folder icon to expand the folder and view the contained lists:
Figure 4‑6
You can access this feature by clicking the "Manage Folders" button in the left frame or by selecting "Manage Lists – Manage List Folders" from the drop-down menu.
Figure 4‑7
You have the option of adding lists to a brand new folder, or adding them to one that you created previously. To create a new folder, type a name for it into the first text box. To use an existing folder, select it from the drop-down.
Note: If you would like to use an existing folder, make sure the New Folder text box is empty.
To highlight the lists you would like to add, hold the Ctrl button (or Open Apple button for MAC users) on your keyboard while clicking on the list names. To remove a list from a folder, highlight it and choose "[No Folder]" from the drop-down list.
To add a list to a folder that already contains lists, you DO NOT need to highlight every list again. Just select the new list to be added. To move a list from one folder to another, you can select the list and the destination folder, then click the "Add Lists To Folder" button.
Note: Empty folders will be automatically deleted. In order to use deleted folders again, you will need to recreate and add lists to them.
For your convenience, LBGIE™ will automatically generate HTML code for you to copy and paste into your web pages to allow you to perform various LBGIE™ functions directly from your web site.
Note: You are free to modify the layout or color of the generated forms to match the appearance of your web site, but be careful not to change any of the form field names or values.
If you would like to add a form to your site that would allow new subscribers to join your list, choose "Manage Lists – Code Support – Add Subscribers" from the drop-down menu. You will see the form shown in Figure 4-8:
Figure 4‑8
To personalize the HTML code that will be generated, fill in the "Double Opt-In" and "Redirect To" information as desired.
By selecting "Enable Double Opt-In,” subscribers will need to confirm their subscription before receiving any messages from the list. The confirmation message they receive can be set on the List Settings page.
By selecting "Send Welcome Email,” subscribers will receive your default welcome message to there subscribed email address upon clicking submit. The welcome message they receive can be set on the List Settings page.
If you would like new subscribers to be sent to a particular page on your site after signing up, a "Thank You" page for instance, enter the name of that page here. Be sure to enter the complete path and name of the page, beginning with "HTTP" and ending with the page extension.
Once you have finished your personalization, click the "Show Code" button to get the HTML code for copying and pasting into your site.
Figure 4‑9
You can click the "Modify Features" button to go back and change the code to be created.
If you would like to add your own link to a message that would allow subscribers to remove themselves from your list, choose "Manage Lists – Code Support – Remove Subscribers" from the drop-down menu. You will see the form shown in Figure 4-10:
Figure 4‑10
If you would like unsubscribers to be sent to a particular page on your site after removing themselves, a "Thank You" page for instance, enter the name of that page here. Be sure to enter the complete path and name of the page, beginning with "HTTP" and ending with the page extension.
Once you have finished your personalization, click the "Show Code" button to get the HTML code for copying and pasting into your site.
Figure 4‑11
You can click the "Modify Features" button to go back and change the code to be created.
To add the code to a message that will allow recipients to utilize the Pass-Along feature, select "Manage Lists – Code Support – Pass-Along Code" from the drop-down menu. You will see the form shown in Figure 4-12:
Figure 4‑12
Here you can select either HTML or Plain Text code, depending on which type of message body you are creating. For more information on the Pass-Along feature or on HTML and Plain Text message bodies, see Authoring And Sending Email: Author New Message.
Once you have made your selection, click the "Show Code" button to get the HTML code for copying and pasting into your site.
Figure 4‑13
This page provides useful code that allows you to modify the look and placement of a message's removal link. Simply select the HTML or Plain Text Version, click "Show Code", copy the code into your message body, and modify the text however you like. If you use this code, you probably would want to turn the removal link off in your list settings so that you don’t add it twice.
The URL Branding feature is used to hide any LBGIE tracking links and show you're URL in the links instead. This is especially the case in the text version of the e-mail where the link could not be disguised by HTML. Without the URL Branding, the links will appear as l.lt0.net.
Download the appropriate URL Branding file and save this file to any location on your web server. The domain of the address to where you saved this file will mask the LBGIE domain. Make sure you enter the path where you put the file in the list settings page under"URL Branding".
EXAMPLE:
If you own www.stuff.com and you're coding in ASP, then you'll download the remote.asp file and save it to any directory of www.stuff.com.
In this example we will save the file to the root directory of www.stuff.com.
Under list settings, type in the path to where you saved the URL branding file.
For this example the path is: http://www.stuff.com/remote.asp
The next time you author a new message; the new link domain will mask the LBGIE domain.
Note: You can rename the file to whatever you would like as long as you enter this same name in the List Settings area.
If you would like to add a form to your site that would allow subscribers to join your list and provide profiling information, choose "Manage Lists – Code Support – List Signup With Profile" from the drop-down menu. You will see the form shown in Figure 4-14:
Figure 4‑14
You may choose one or more profiling headers to be included in the code that LBGIE™ will generate. To highlight the headers you would like to include, hold the Ctrl button (or Open Apple button for MAC users) on your keyboard while clicking on the header titles.
By selecting "Double Opt-In,” subscribers will need to confirm their subscription before receiving any messages from the list. The confirmation message they receive can be set on the List Settings page.
If you would like new subscribers to be sent to a particular page on your site after signing up, a "Thank You" page for instance, enter the name of that page here. Be sure to enter the complete path and name of the page, beginning with "HTTP" and ending with the page extension.
Once you have finished your personalization, click the "Show Code" button to get the HTML code for copying and pasting into your site.
Figure 4‑15
You can click the "Modify Features" button to go back and change the code to be created.