arpReach Team

Adding Email Campaign Messages

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Each autoresponder you create can have any number of follow-up messages. arpReach will send them out over a period of time you define.

To manage an autoresponder’s messages, choose Messages from the Choose action… drop-down or click the number under the Messages column on the Autoresponders list screen.

This shows the messages list for the autoresponder. The columns of information in the messages table are:

  • Subject – the subject of the message. (Note the exclamation to the left of the headline. This indicates that you have not approved your message to be sent. Once you have tested your message, you can approve the message by clicking Approve to send on the Choose action… drop-down menu.)
  • Status – the status of the message.
  • Schedule – when this message will be sent in relation to the previous message.
  • Spam score – a guideline spam score for the plain text (T) and HTML (H) content of the message. The threshold for a message to be classed as spam is five (5), but other factors such as your IP address will also be a factor. Treat this as a guide and not a definitive answer.
  • Variants – the number of split-test variants the message has. Click the number to view the variant list. You can test an unlimited number of variants.
  • Sent – the number of unique contacts who have been sent the message. Click the number to view those contacts.
  • Opened – the number of unique contacts who have opened the message. Click the number to view those contacts.
  • Bounced – the number of unique contacts who have bounced this message at least once. Click the number to view those contacts.
  • Position – the position of the message in the sequence. This option is grayed out unless Unlock message positions is selected from the I want to… drop-down menu. When message positions are unlocked, you can drag messages up and down the list to set their order. When done, select Lock message positions from the I want to… drop-down menu.

“You can change the order of follow-up messages by dragging them into place on the message list”

Under the Actions column, you have the Choose action… drop-down menu for each message in your sequence.

Using the Choose action… menu, you can:

  • Preview – preview the message in a popup window. Your browser needs to allow pop-ups for this to work. The preview window has tabs for the plain text and HTML versions of the message.
  • Test – send yourself a test version of the message and its split-test variants.
  • Reports – graphical reports on the open and bounce rates for the message and its split-test variants.
  • Edit – edit the message settings and content.
  • Variants – add and manage the split-test variants for the message.
  • Copy/Copy then edit – create a new message by copying the message’s settings and content.
  • Delete – delete a message from the follow-up sequence.

On the With selected… menu:

… you can approve or disapprove, change the status, and delete the messages selected.

On the I want to… drop-down menu, you can:

  • Refresh the page to update send, open, and bounce counts.
  • Unlock the message positions to change their order using the Position column or dragging.
  • View the autoresponder list.
  • Add a new message to the follow-up sequence.
  • Import messages from another autoresponder in your system.
  • Edit the autoresponder’s settings.
  • Delete all the messages in the autoresponder’s follow-up sequence.
Tip! To maximize your return on investment, you can and should split test every message you send.

Add your first message into an autoresponder

Using the I want to… menu, select Add a message to this autoresponder.

When adding or editing a follow-up message, the settings are the same.

The Add Follow-Up Message screen is split up into three tabs for easy management, which are:

  1. Settings
  2. Message
  3. RSS Feed

The Settings Tab

The Settings tab has three sections: When to send, Day, time and duplicate restrictions, and Tracking and reporting.

When to send Section

  • Status – the status of the message. The options are:
    — Live – the message is live and being sent as required. You will need to make your messages live when you are ready to send them.
    — Inactive and skip (default) – the message is not live and subscribers reaching this point will jump over it and continue.
    — Inactive and block – the message is not live and subscribers reaching this point will stop and not receive any more messages.
  • When to send – this is where you set when this message should be sent. The options are:
    — Immediate/next run – the message will be sent as soon as possible. For form, email, and admin system subscriptions, this means immediately. For imported data, it means when the scheduled task next runs.
    — Interval in hours/days – the number of hours/days since the previous message before this one may be sent. The message will be sent as soon as possible after the interval by the scheduled task.
    For new subscriptions where no previous messages have been sent, this interval is calculated from the date and time of subscription to the autoresponder.
    — Monday to Sunday – the message will be sent on the next occurrence of the day of the week specified, assuming the scheduled task is running on that day.
  • Approved for sending – check this box to approve this message for sending. Only administrators and users with the correct permissions can approve messages. See Permission Profiles for more information.
Day, time and duplicate restrictions Section

This section allows you to control the days and times that the message may be sent. For example, you may wish to prevent sending the message during the night or at weekends.

“You can avoid sending messages at weekends and during the night”

  • Can only send on these days – check the days that the message may be sent. Use this to avoid certain days such as weekends.
  • Earliest time to send – choose the earliest time that this message may be sent. Use this to avoid sending too early in the morning.
  • Latest time to send – choose the latest time that this message may be sent. Use this to avoid sending too late at night.
  • Never allow to be resent – check this box to ensure that a contact is never sent this follow-up message more than once, even if the order of messages in the autoresponder is changed.
Tracking and reporting Section

  • Track open rate for HTML and multi-part messages – check this box to track the open rate for HTML and multi-part messages. Email technology does not allow tracking to work for plain text messages.
  • CC recipients – enter a list of email addresses (one per line) that will be CC’d on this message every time it is sent to a contact. Note that all recipients, including the contact, will see the CC’d list.
  • BCC recipients – enter a list of email addresses (one per line) that will be BCC’d on this message every time it is sent to a contact. Recipients, including the contact, will not see the BCC’d list.

The Message Tab

The Message tab is split into three sections for easy management:

  1. Content
  2. Layout
  3. Attachments

Content Section

  • Subject – enter the message subject line.
  • Format – choose the format of the message to be sent. Your options are:
    — Plain text – Send only the plain text version of the follow-up message. You need to enter plain text copy in the Plain text content box.
    — HTML – Send only the HTML version of the follow-up message. You need to enter HTML copy in the HTML content box.
    — Multi-part (Plain text + HTML) *Recommended* – Send both the plain text and HTML versions of the follow-up message, combined into a single multi-part message. You need to enter both plain text and HTML copies.
  • Template to load into editors – choose a template to load into the plain text and HTML editors from your library of pre-created templates (as defined in Content / Templates). Note: You must select the template you want to use before adding in content. If you add content and select a template afterward your content will be lost as the new template will overwrite everything in the content boxes.
  • Plain text content – enter the plain text copy of the follow-up message.
  • HTML content – enter the HTML copy of the follow-up message. Click the Toggle Editor link for a full HTML editor.
  • Add personalisation content tags (link) – clicking this will open a new window that contains all of the available standard shortcode tags that you can copy and paste into your content boxes to personalize your messages.

“Click the Toggle Editor link to use the full HTML editor. It has a full-screen button for easier editing”

Tip! Write your message out in a text app (e.g., Notepad) before adding it into the content boxes. For security reasons, some servers will automatically log you out of arpReach after a specific session length and if you have not saved your writing you will lose all of your work. This is a PHP server setting and not something that can be changed or controlled by arpReach.

Layout Section

  • Add autoresponder’s header – check this box to add the autoresponder’s header before the start of the message contained in the content boxes.
  • Add autoresponder’s footer – check this box to add the autoresponder’s footer after the end of the message contained in the content boxes.
Attachments Section

RSS Feed Tab

  • Include in autoresponder’s RSS feed – check this box to include this message in the RSS feed for this autoresponder. Using this facility, you can control which of the autoresponder’s messages appear in the RSS feed and which are sent by email only.

Once you have added your first message, you will be taken back to the Follow-Up Messages list screen.

Autoresponders and Campaigns

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In this section, we discover how to set up your autoresponders in arpReach. Only once we have set up the autoresponder can we add our campaign messages and sequences, which we cover in the next section.

“Use autoresponders to create email campaigns to follow up with your prospects and contacts on auto-pilot”

Taking the time to look at and understand your options (and some of the available automation options) will help you increase your contact retention and build trust with your subscribers.

You have many basic and customization options available to you. Why just “do” when with a little extra effort you can do to impress 😉

Autoresponders list screen

Choose Autoresponders / Show List from the menu bar to show your list of autoresponders.

The columns in the table are:

  • Name – the unique name you have given this autoresponder.
  • Group – the group (if any) to which this autoresponder belongs.
  • Address – the incoming email address (if any) for this autoresponder which can be used to subscribe or unsubscribe by email.
  • Status – the status of this autoresponder.
    — Live – accepting new subscriptions and sending messages.
    — Disabled – not accepting new subscriptions and not sending messages.
    — Sending paused – accepting new subscriptions but not sending messages.
    — Prevent new subscriptions – not accepting subscriptions but sending messages to existing subscribers.
  • Messages – the number of messages in the autoresponder’s follow-up sequence. Click on this number to view the messages list.
  • Forms – the number of subscription forms you have created for this autoresponder. Click on this number to view the forms list.
  • Contacts – the number of unique contacts who are subscribed to this autoresponder, regardless of their subscription status. Multiple subscriptions by individual contacts are not counted. Click this number to view the contacts who are subscribed to this autoresponder.
  • Unsubs – the numbers of contacts who unsubscribed to this autoresponder. Click this number to view the contacts who unsubscribed to this autoresponder.

On the Choose action… menu for each autoresponder, you can:

  • Reports – view subscription reports.
  • Test – send yourself test follow-up messages.
  • Settings – edit its settings.
  • Messages – view and manage its follow-up messages.
  • Subscription forms – view and manage its subscription forms.
  • Widgets – get HTML code to display a small image on your website showing how many subscribers an autoresponder has.
  • Copy/Copy then Edit – copy this autoresponder and all its follow-up messages.
  • Delete – delete this autoresponder and all its follow-up messages.

You can sort your autoresponder list by name and contact count using the Order by drop-down menu.

On the Autoresponders list screen, the With Selected… drop-down menu allows you to:

  • Change the group of the selected autoresponders
  • Change the status of the selected autoresponders
  • Delete the selected autoresponders

The Filter drop-down menu allows you to filter the list by:

  • Autoresponder group
  • Status
  • Persona
  • Email system

The I Want To… menu has options to create a new autoresponder and to delete all autoresponders.

Setting up an autoresponder

To create a new autoresponder campaign, go to Autoresponders / Create New:

When creating a new autoresponder or editing an existing one, the settings screens are the same.

To edit an existing autoresponder, go to the Autoresponders / Show List, locate the autoresponder, and choose Settings from the Choose action… drop-down menu.

The settings are spread across five (5) tabs and each tab will have one or more sections/panels. Each section has input fields that you will need to fill in or make choices about. While it may look daunting, it is simple, and you only need to complete the workflow when you create a new autoresponder campaign.

The tabs are:

  • Settings
  • Sender
  • Opt-In Confirmation
  • Custom Pages
  • Layout
  • RSS Feed

Settings Tab

General Section
  • Name – the unique name of the autoresponder.
  • Private description – your private description of the autoresponder. This is not published.
  • Public description – the published description of the autoresponder. This description may be displayed to contacts on their manage subscriptions page. Make sure you identify your autoresponder so that your contacts remember what they signed up for.
  • Group – the autoresponder group (if any) to which the autoresponder belongs. None is the default.
  • Status – the current status of the autoresponder. The available options are:
    — Live – new subscriptions will be accepted and due follow-up messages will be sent.
    — Disabled – no new subscriptions will be accepted and no due follow-up messages will be sent.
    — Sending paused – new subscriptions will be accepted but no due follow-up messages will be sent.
    — Prevent new subscriptions – no new subscriptions will be accepted but due follow-up messages will be sent.
Options Section
  • Allow retries of soft bounces – check this to resend follow-up messages that soft-bounce and set the number of soft bounces allowed before the subscription is flagged as failed. Three (3) is the default.
  • Allow form subscriptions – check this box to allow contacts to subscribe through a subscription form on a website. Most people will want this option available.
  • Allow email subscriptions – check this box to allow contacts to subscribe by sending a blank email to the subscription address. Contacts can also unsubscribe by entering “unsubscribe”, “remove”, “leave”, “stop” or “delete” in the subject line of the email.
    For example, if you want info@example.com to trigger a subscription, enter info as the First part of the subscription address. Subscriptions can be accepted using the To: or CC: fields, but not the BCC: field. You can use forwarders from other domains to trigger subscriptions. Only the first part of the email address needs to match. Accepting subscriptions by email requires that the scheduled task is correctly set up to monitor the email address where emailed subscriptions arrive.
  • Allow duplicate subscriptions – check this box to allow one contact to subscribe to this autoresponder multiple times. An email address can only appear once in the contact list but each contact may have multiple subscriptions to each autoresponder.
  • Action when all messages sent – choose the action to happen when the contact reaches the end of the autoresponder’s follow-up sequence. The available options are:
    — Set to finished – the status of the subscription will be changed to Finished. If new messages are added to the sequence, they will not be sent to the contact.
    — Remain active – the status of the subscription will remain as Active. If new messages are added to the sequence, the contact will be sent the new messages (this is recommended in most cases).
    — Change autoresponder – move the contact’s subscription to a new autoresponder. Choose the autoresponder the contact will be moved to, the starting message number, and the delay before the move happens. With this option, the original subscription no longer exists, so the contact will no longer receive any new messages added to the original autoresponder.
Drop rules Section
  • On subscribe, drop (unsubscribe) existing subscriptions to this autoresponder – ensures that a contact’s existing subscription to the autoresponder is cancelled when a new one is created. You would use this option to stop a subscriber from receiving multiple emails from the same autoresponder (e.g., messages 1 and 5 and 7 in potentially the same week or day). (See also Allow duplicate subscriptions above)
  • On subscribe, drop from these autoresponders – choose which subscriptions to other autoresponders will be cancelled when a new subscription to this autoresponder is created.
Notification Section
  • Notify on subscribe – choose this option to send a notification email when someone subscribes to the autoresponder.
    — Subject – the subject of the subscribe notification email.
    — Message – the content of the subscribe notification email.
    — Recipients – email addresses of people that will be sent the subscribe notification emails, entered one email address per line.
    — Reply-To: subscriber [[email_address]] (#V2-exclusive) – check this box to add a Reply-To: header with the subscriber’s email address to subscribe notification emails.
  • Notify on unsubscribe – choose this option to send a notification email when someone unsubscribes from the autoresponder.
    — Subject – the subject of the unsubscribe notification email.
    — Message – the content of the unsubscribe notification email.
    — Recipients – email addresses of people that will be sent the unsubscribe notification emails, entered one email address per line.

The following tags are available for you to use in your notification emails:

%AUTORESPONDER_NAME% - to include the name of the autoresponder.
%EMAIL_ADDRESS% - to include the email address of the contact
%FULL_NAME% - to include the full name of the contact if the full name has been captured

#V2-exclusive: Custom fields in the subject line and recipients list

With #V2, you can use custom fields in the notification email subject line and recipients list.

For example, you may want to send a copy of the subscribe notification emails to your partners or referrers. In the Recipients list, you can enter:

admin@example.com
[[custom_referrer_email]]

… given that you have a custom field for referrer_email set in Content / Custom Fields / Show List.

#V2-exclusive: Persona as recipients

You can also add the following persona email address tag formats in the notification recipients list:

[[persona_email_address_1]]
[[persona_email_address_2]]
[[persona_email_address_3]]
[[persona_email_address_4]]
[[persona_email_address_5]]

This allows you to send the notification emails to the email addresses related to the persona you’ve set in the autoresponder’s Sender / Persona settings.

Sender Tab

Email System Section
  • Send messages with this email system – from the drop-down choose an email system that will be used to send all messages from this autoresponder, including follow-ups and confirmation requests. Email systems are set-up and managed in Setup / Email Systems.
From and Reply-To Section
  • Sender name – enter the “from” name of the sender of emails from this autoresponder.
  • Sender email address – enter the “from” email address of the sender of emails from this autoresponder.
  • Reply-to email address – enter the “reply-to” email address of the sender of emails from this autoresponder.
Persona Section
  • Send with this persona – choose a persona to be used to personalize the messages sent by this autoresponder. This allows you to automatically populate your templates or emails with content such as name and company name, providing it has been added to the person record.
    Personas are managed in Setup / Personas. Persona tags that you can insert to include information from the selected persona are listed on the Persona Tags page.

Opt-In Confirmation Tab

  • Confirmation type – choose the type of subscription confirmation to be used for this autoresponder. This determines whether or not new subscribers will be required to confirm their subscription when they subscribe.The options you have are:
    – No confirmation required – New subscribers are not required to confirm their subscription and will therefore start to receive the autoresponder’s follow-up messages.
    – Use system confirmation email – New subscribers will be sent the system confirmation email as defined in Setup / System Settings / Opt-In Confirmation . The contact will need to click the “confirm” link in their confirmation email before they will receive any follow-up messages. (Also known as double opt-in.)
    – Use custom confirmation email – New subscribers will be sent the custom confirmation email defined on this screen. Ensure that the email contains the tag {CONFIRM_LINK} as this will generate the link that the contact must click to confirm their subscription. No follow-up messages will be sent until the contact has confirmed their subscription. (Also known as double opt-in.)
    For the custom confirmation type, you need to set the format to be sent, the subject and the plain text and HTML messages as appropriate. For HTML messages, click the Toggle editor link to view the HTML editor or enter raw HTML produced in an offline editor.

“Many screens use the HTML editor – click the toggle editor link to switch the editor on and off”

Custom Pages Tab

Custom pages are the web pages your contacts will be taken to and see when they perform one of eight actions:

  1. Subscribe successfully
  2. Fail to subscribe successfully
  3. Unsubscribe successfully
  4. Fail to unsubscribe successfully
  5. Confirm a subscription successfully
  6. Fail to confirm a subscription successfully
  7. Successfully request the next message in sequence
  8. Fail to successfully request the next message in sequence

“The precedence order for custom pages is tracking tag then subscription form then autoresponder”

Important: The following items in arpReach have custom page settings and the software will use them in the following precedence order:

  1. Tracking tag custom pages
  2. Subscription form custom pages
  3. Autoresponder custom pages
  4. Default system pages

Example 1
A contact subscribes via a subscription form that has a tracking tag in its settings and that tracking tag has custom pages defined in its settings, then the tracking tag’s custom pages will be used for that contact.

Example 2
A contact subscribes via a subscription form that has no tracking tag assigned to it but the subscription form has custom pages defined in its settings – the form’s custom pages will be used for that contact.

Example 3
A contact subscribes by email to an autoresponder that has custom pages defined in its settings. Those custom pages will be used for that contact.

Example 4
A contact subscribes by email to an autoresponder that has no custom pages defined in its settings. The system default pages will be used for that contact.

Each of the four sections has two options for you to add a URL into. Use is optional, but highly recommended.

  • Success page – Enter the URL of the page to be displayed when a contact successfully completes the action required.
  • Failure page – Enter the URL of the page to be displayed when an error results from a contact attempting to complete an action.

Layout Tab

The options in the layout tab define some general layout settings that will be applied to all follow-up messages in the autoresponder.

Links To Include Section
  • Unsubscribe link – this will append an unsubscribe link to all messages in the autoresponder. The unsubscribe link applies only to this autoresponder and no other subscriptions are affected.
  • Manage subscriptions link – append a link that allows the contact to manage all their subscriptions on one screen.
  • Affiliate link – This will automatically append your arpReach affiliate link to all follow-up messages in the autoresponder. This can be managed from Setup / System Settings / Affiliate Program.
Header and Footer Section

Here you can enter plain text and HTML versions of a header and footer to be used in conjunction with the templates you create within arpReach.

When defining each follow-up message in the autoresponder, you have the option of including the autoresponder’s header and/or footer. The software will automatically use the plain text or HTML version of the header or footer depending on the type of message being sent to the contact.

Headers and footers from autoresponders can also be added to broadcasts. In a broadcast’s settings, there is a drop-down where you can choose which autoresponder’s header and/or footer to use.

Tip!

  1. Create an autoresponder group called “Templates” to specifically use with your broadcast templates.
  2. Create an autoresponder called “My Template” (or whatever you think is appropriate).
  3. Set the autoresponder status (Autoresponder / Settings / General) to Disabled.
  4. Ignore all other tabs and settings except for Layout / Header and footer.
  5. Add your custom header and footer for each of your broadcast templates. This puts all of your template headers and footers in one, easy to edit place. This also ensures that if you change a live autoresponder’s header and/or footer, your broadcast template will still look the same. Yes, it’s a bit more work, but it will save you time and effort in the long run!

RSS Feed Tab

You can allow your contact to receive their follow-up messages into an RSS feed, as well as by email. To allow this, check the RSS feed enabled box and enter the RSS channel settings for the autoresponder. To disable this feature, uncheck the box.

  • Channel title – enter the title for the RSS feed channel. If left blank, the autoresponder’s public description is used.
  • Channel web page – enter the URL of the web page for the RSS feed channel.
  • URL of channel logo – enter the URL of your RSS feed channel’s logo.
    Max size is 144 px wide x 400 px high.
    Default size is 88 px wide x 31 px high.
  • Channel description – enter the description for the RSS feed channel. This can contain HTML. If left blank, the autoresponder’s public description is used.

You can inform your subscriber of the URL of their RSS feed by including the tag {RSS_FEED_LINK} in follow-up messages. Note that this tag does not work in broadcasts because broadcasts are not specific to individual autoresponders.

Autoresponder Groups

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Use autoresponder groups to keep related autoresponders together.

Let’s say your business sells pet foods. You can create autoresponder groups for “Cats” and “Dogs”. Over time, as your product range grows, you can create autoresponders (or campaigns) for each product and assign each autoresponder to the appropriate group (i.e., Cat product campaigns would be grouped in “Cats” so you can easily find and work on them).

Other examples could be the following groups:

  • Product training
  • Sales sequences
  • Affiliate training
  • Prospect warm-up

When you have autoresponders in a group, you can easily manage those autoresponders by filtering your autoresponder list to show only the autoresponders in that group.

Managing your autoresponder groups

To add a new autoresponder group, go to Autoresponders / Autoresponder Groups / Create New.

Autoresponder groups are very easy to manage because they only have two settings — Name and Description. For any autoresponder group, both of these settings can be changed at any time without affecting the autoresponders in the group.

  • Name – the name for the autoresponder group. Every autoresponder group has its own unique name for easy management.
  • Description – the description for the autoresponder group. This description is never displayed to contacts.

To view your list of autoresponder groups, go to Autoresponders / Autoresponder Groups / Show List.

The number of autoresponders in each group is shown in the Autoresponders column of the table. You can click the number to jump to your autoresponders list with only the autoresponders in that group showing.

You can sort this list by name, description, and autoresponder count using the Order by drop-down menu.

The I want to… menu has options to create a new group and to delete all groups. Deleting all groups does not delete the autoresponders in those groups.

The With selected… menu allows you to choose multiple groups and delete them all at the same time.

The Choose action… drop-down menu for each group has options to:

  • Edit – to edit the autoresponder group.
  • Copy – to copy the autoresponder group. Copying a group only copies its name and description but not the autoresponders in the original group.
  • Copy then edit – to copy the autoresponder group and the switch to the edit screen so its properties can be changed. Copying a group only copies its name and description but not the autoresponders in the original group.
  • Delete – to delete the autoresponder group. Deleting a group does not delete the autoresponders in that group.

“Use autoresponder groups to keep related autoresponders together for easy management”

Autoresponders Overview

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What is an autoresponder?

Historically, in 2004, The Internet Society laid out the Official Protocol Standards, Recommendations for Automatic Responses to Electronic Mail (RFC 3834). These are a set of rules for software that automatically responded to incoming electronic mail messages with a prewritten email response. These included single “out of the office” or “on vacation” type response generators and mail filtering software. Since then, the scope of what we now call or think of as an autoresponder has grown to encompass a much wider range of capabilities related to an email marketing tool.

These days, when people talk about autoresponders, at a basic level, we think about the capability to send pre-written sequences of personalized follow-up email messages. The messages can be sent to one or more contacts on auto-pilot over a specified timeframe. Autoresponders are, therefore, a core component of your email marketing campaigns. arpReach makes it easy to set up and run multiple campaigns.

arpReach allows you to create any number of autoresponders (or campaigns) and each of those autoresponders can have any number of follow-up messages in its sequence.

Each contact who is subscribed to an autoresponder can be at any point in its message sequence. arpReach manages the sending of your follow-up messages, ensuring that each contact receives the sequence of emails over the time period you have specified.

For ease of management, arpReach allows you to keep related autoresponders (or campaigns) together in Autoresponder Groups.

In this section, you will discover how to set up your autoresponder campaign message sequences.

Important Note: Autoresponders are not used for sending one-off messages. While a one-off promotional email can be sent to the *contacts* of an autoresponder, you should send your one-off promotional emails using arpReach’s broadcast capability.

To view the autoresponders action map, click Autoresponders on the menu bar.

The following sections will help you learn how to get the best from arpReach:

Bulk Update of Contacts

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From arpReach 1.8.001 and #V2.0.8, contacts can be updated in bulk using the Trigger Action For Matching Contacts feature.

To access the feature, choose Trigger Action for matching contacts from the I want to… drop-down menu on the Contacts list screen.

Using this feature, you are able to do the following to multiple/all contacts at the same time:

  • Add/remove a tag/category
  • Add to/remove from the suppression list
  • Add a new subscription to specific autoresponders
  • Drop/delete a subscription or all subscriptions
  • Setup custom field values
  • Send the contacts data via HTTP post to a specified URL (this would allow you to export bulk contacts into a third party software)
  • Run a user function (#V2-exclusive feature)

Reminder: When your contacts list has no filter/segment in place (i.e., the Filter drop-down menu is set to [No filter]), the “triggered action” will affect ALL your contacts. Be very mindful of the filter settings before proceeding, as you cannot remove a “triggered action” that’s been scheduled or undo a “triggered action” once it’s been processed.

Creating the action to trigger

If you want to add a category, work with the suppression list, add an autoresponder subscription (and so on) in bulk, you need to have the appropriate action for it.

To avoid confusion, you can create actions that will be used specifically for this feature and label it strategically. The Event setting doesn’t matter, but it is recommended to select an option that you do not normally use (e.g., Remote call) so it doesn’t get triggered unintentionally. For example:

See Actions and Events for instructions on how to create an action.

If you want to send contacts data via an HTTP request, you have to create an action with the desired URL and POST/GET method.

Setting the target contacts

A triggered action will be applied to all contacts that match the filter in place when it was scheduled.

You can apply any of your segments or use any of the predefined filters on the Filter drop-down menu on the Contacts list screen.

To apply an action to an existing segment, use the In segment filter. See Segmenting Contacts for instructions on how to create a segment.

Reminder: Again, when your contacts list has no filter/segment in place (i.e., the Filter drop-down menu is set to [No filter]), the “triggered action” will affect ALL your contacts. Be very mindful of the filter settings before proceeding, as you cannot remove a “triggered action” that’s been scheduled or undo a “triggered action” once it’s been processed.

Once your desired filter is in place, you may now choose Trigger Action for matching contacts from the I want to… drop-down menu.

Scheduling the action to trigger

On the Trigger Actions For Matching Contacts page, you can see the filter applied and the number of matching contacts.

This feature doesn’t create new actions but rather schedules existing ones, which will be applied to the matching contacts at the time it was triggered/scheduled.

The Choose actions to apply checklist contains your existing, enabled actions.

Select the action/s to apply to the current matching contacts by clicking in the appropriate checkbox/es.

Once selected, click the Trigger Action button.

The scheduled actions on the queue will be processed during the next run of the arpReach script.

Important note: You can choose to trigger multiple actions in just one schedule (i.e. selecting multiple actions from the Choose actions to apply checklist), but the order of the actions that will be applied is not guaranteed.

If the order of the actions does matter, schedule the actions separately — one at a time. In this case, the actions will be applied in the order they were scheduled (i.e., the first action scheduled will be applied first, then the second action scheduled, then the third action scheduled, etc.).

Segmenting Contacts

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What is customer segmentation?

Customer segmentation is a process of dividing and sub-dividing a list of contacts into smaller groups based on similar or common characteristics. This allows you to target and contact each group more efficiently and effectively leading to higher profitability and ROI.

Why segment your contact list?

Taking a one size fits all approach to your marketing does not address the specific needs of all of your customers or prospects. In some cases, you can annoy and upset your contacts by sending irrelevant messages which could lead to them not reading further messages or even unsubscribing. This in turn, specifically with email marketing, can harm your delivery rating to the point where active contacts do not receive your emails.

It is generally accepted that if you have a list of 30,000 contacts, it is better to target and send 500 emails to the 500 people most likely to be interested in a specific offer than to send a message to the whole list.

How does segmenting with arpReach work?

arpReach has one of the most powerful and flexible segmenting engines available in any autoresponder software. You can create an unlimited number of segments that filter contacts into or out of a segment based on one or more of the available data elements you have for each contact.

These include (but are not limited to):

… and much more.

A segment is simply a list of criteria that determine whether or not a contact will be a member of that segment.

You can create as many segments as you need and save them for ongoing use.

Creating / Editing a Segment

To create a new segment, go to Contacts / Segments / Create New:

… or choose Create a segment from the I want to… menu on the Segments list screen:

The options are the same for both defining a new segment and editing an existing segment definition.

  • Name – enter a name for the segment.
  • Description – enter a description for the segment.

To manage existing segments, go to Contacts / Segments / Show list:

Each segment has one or more criteria. Hovering over the Choose action… drop-down gives access to each segment’s options.

You can edit an existing segment by choosing Edit from the actions column on the Segments list screen.

Defining Segment Criteria

When you have saved the name and description, choose Set Criteria from the actions column on the Segments list screen or click on the number under the Criteria column to define the criteria for the segment.

This will display the criteria list for the segment.

To add a criterion to a segment, select Add a criterion from the I want to… menu located at the top right of the screen.

  • Match type – choose the type of match for the criterion. The choices are:
    — Standard field match (various options)
    — Added today
    — Added yesterday
    — Added this week
    — Added this month
    — Added last month
    — Added this year
    — Added last year
    — Date added (before / on / after)
    — Date added (between)
    — Autoresponder (is / is not subscribed)
    — Follow-up (sent / opened / bounced)
    — Subscription (various options)
    — Broadcast (sent / opened / bounced)
    — Tracking tag (has / does not have it)
    — Category (is / is not a member)
    — Clicked link (clicked / did not click)
    — Custom field match (various options)
    — Unsubscribed (to an autoresponder)
    — Imported subscribe date/time (on or after / on or before)
    — Tag (has / does not have tag)
    When you have chosen the match type, choose the Condition (e.g., equals, contains, etc.) and enter or choose the data to search for. Note that the available conditions will vary depending on the Match type you select. In the example image above, the Value to match is an option where you will type in the criteria you require.
  • All contacts must match – if this box is checked, every contact in the entire segment must match this criterion no matter the other criteria that are defined in the segment. Adding more criteria to a segment will include more contacts. But if the All contacts must match option is set for a criterion, then any contacts who match other criteria in the segment but not that one will be excluded from the list of matching contacts.

Viewing Matching Contacts

From the Segments list screen, choose Apply from the Actions column. You will be taken to the Contacts list screen with the segment applied.

Another way to apply a segment to your contact list is to choose In Segment from the Filter drop-down menu on the Contacts list screen, then choose the segment to be applied.

If the result of the segment is not what you expect, you can quickly get back to adjusting the criteria by clicking the ‘people icon’ to the right of the Filter below the I want to drop-down.

quick edit segmenting criteria

Actions and Events

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Actions and events provide some of the most powerful, unique, and flexible capabilities of arpReach as they are at the heart of your email marketing automation capabilities.

They allow you to create an unlimited number of triggers that automate one or many actions or events when activated.

Example: When a contact clicks a single trackable link within an email that you send, arpReach can automatically add a contact tag, remove a different contact tag, change the contact category, update a custom field value, drop one subscription, and add a different subscription.

As you can imagine, this gives you virtually unlimited options to manage your contacts list to build trust and maximize your profitability.

In this section, we provide a basic overview of how to create triggered actions and events and the options available to you. You are encouraged to read this section thoroughly to understand your basic options and then experiment with actions and events.

Creating / Editing an Action

Actions are simple to manage but do require some thought about what you want to do/achieve when they are triggered.

For any action, the name and description can be changed at any time without affecting anything else. However, once an action is created and in production, we do not advise you to change the Event type or triggered Action as this could lead to unpredictable results.

When creating and editing an action, the settings are the same.

To create a new action, go to Contacts / Actions / Create New:

… or choose Create an action from the I want to… drop-down menu on the Actions list screen:

To edit an existing action, choose Edit from the Actions column on the Actions list screen:

Settings

  • Name – the name for the action. Every action has its own unique name for easy management.
  • Description – a description for the action. This is never displayed to contacts.
  • Enabled – check this to enable the action.
  • Event – choose the type of event that will trigger this action.
    — Link click – when selected, all of the available links will appear. Check the box for one or more of the trackable links that when clicked should trigger the action.
    — Broadcast open – when selected, the subject line of all of your broadcasts will appear. Check the box for one or more that when opened should trigger the action. Note: This does not work with text only messages.
    — Follow-up message open – when selected, the subject line of all of your autoresponder sequence messages will appear. Check the box for one or more that when opened should trigger the action. Note: This does not work with text only messages.
    — Single email open – when selected, the subject line of all of your single email messages will appear. Check the box for one or more that when opened should trigger the action. Note: This does not work with text only messages.
    — Subscription form submit – when selected, the name of all of your forms for all of your autoresponders will appear. Check the box for one or more forms that when used should trigger the action.
    — Remote call – this is an advanced function triggered by a custom code or webhook.
    — Subscription created (#V2-exclusive) – when selected, the name of all your autoresponders will appear. Check the box for one or more of the autoresponders that when cancelled should trigger the action.
    — Subscription cancelled (#V2-exclusive) – when selected, the name of all your autoresponders will appear. Check the box for one or more of the autoresponders that when cancelled should trigger the action.
    — ‘Cancel All subscriptions’ requested (#V2-exclusive) – a ‘Cancel All subscriptions’ request should trigger the action.
    — ‘Do not mail’ requested (#V2-exclusive) – a ‘Do not mail’ request should trigger the action.
    — Soft bounce received (#V2-exclusive) – a soft bounce should trigger the action.
    — Hard bounce received (#V2-exclusive) – a hard bounce should trigger the action.
    — Spam complain received (#V2-exclusive) – a spam complain should trigger the action.
  • Action – choose the type of action that will be triggered when the event occurs.
    — Add/remove tags
    — Add/remove contact categories
    — Add subscription
    — Drop subscriptions
    — Drop all subscriptions
    — Delete subscriptions
    — Delete all subscriptions
    — Send email
    — Send HTTP post
    — Add to suppression list
    — Remove from suppression list
    — Add to ban list
    — Remove from ban list
    — Delete contact
    — Change standard field value
    — Change custom field value
    — Run user function (#V2-exclusive) – call your own PHP functions by putting them in the user_functions.php file in your installation’s /user_functions directory.

Important Note: Prior to using an action in your production environment, always test it to ensure that what you expect to happen does.

Use Case Example

Let’s suggest that, as part of a campaign targeting prospects who like shoes, your contact makes a purchase and clicks a link to confirm a purchase order.

When your contact performs the event Link click – “Offer – N#02 M#03”, the automated action will then remove the contact tag “Likes Shoes” and add the tag “Bought Shoes”.

Because you can stack multiple actions to events, you can create a second event that is actioned when the same link is clicked. For this example, you can also change your contact’s category from “Prospect” to “Customer”.

Tags and Categories

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Contact tags and categories are the backbone of your contact segmenting capabilities. The better you understand the needs of your contacts, the better your results will be.

By associating your contacts with tags and categories, it will be easier for you to create highly targeted segments which will allow you to send focused messages to the right people at the right time.

In this section, we look at and detail the three main segmentation options available to you within arpReach.

Contact Tags

A contact tag is a function that allows you to collect and store a piece of information or data about your contact. It is totally up to you what that information is. Using tags allows you to filter your whole contacts list down to one or more contacts that have one or more specific tags so that you can send specific messages to contacts with a specific interest.

Examples: You can create contact tags to identify things such as:

  • Product purchases
  • Contact interests
  • Contact likes or dislikes

You can create and use unlimited contact tags.

Tip! When deciding the names for your tags, keep them simple and always follow the same naming convention so you can easily locate and use them in other functions (e.g. likesCats, likesDogs, interestSocialMedia, interestSEO, interestEmailMarketing, etc.).

To create a new contact tag, go to Contacts / Tags / Create New:

Contact tags are very easy to manage because they only have two settings — name and description. For any contact tag, both of these settings can be changed at any time without affecting which contacts the tag is assigned to.

To manage your existing contact tags, go to Contacts / Tags / Show List:

The Tags list screen shows the number of contacts with the tag and you can click the number to view those contacts.

Contact Categories

Contact categories are essentially the same as contact tags, but arpReach has both to give you greater flexibility.

By having both, you could chose tags to store the interests of your contacts and categories to store types of contacts such as Customers and Prospects. Again, the choice is up to you.

You can also create and use unlimited categories.

Examples: You can create contact categories to identify things such as:

  • Customers
  • Prospects
  • Gender
  • Location

To create a new contact category, go to Contacts / Categories / Create New:

Categories are very easy to manage because they only have two settings — name and description. For any category, both of these settings can be changed at any time without affecting which contacts the category is assigned to.

To manage your existing contact categories, go to Contacts / Categories / Show List:

The Categories list screen shows the number of contacts in the category and you can click the number to view those contacts.

Tracking Tags

“Use tracking tags to monitor the success of your subscription forms and websites”

Tracking tags are used with the subscription forms that you place on your websites. They allow you to track which forms and/or websites generate subscriptions. Using this facility, you can see which of your forms and/or websites are performing best because you can segment your list by tracking tag on success criteria such as the open rate of your messages.

Another important function of tracking tags is to allow you to display custom pages to your contacts when they perform actions such as subscribing, unsubscribing, or confirming a subscription. You can set the URLs of the pages you wish to be displayed to your contacts for each action under the Custom Pages tab when creating or editing a tracking tag.

To create a new tracking tag, go to Contacts / Tracking Tags / Create New:

Settings Tab

  • Name – the name of the tracking tag. Every tracking tag has its own unique name for easy management.
  • Description – a description for the tracking tag. This is never displayed to contacts.

Custom Pages Tab

Subscribe Section
  • Subscribe success page – the page to be displayed when the contact successfully subscribes.
  • Subscribe failure page – the page to be displayed if there is an error when the contact submits the subscription form. For example, if the email address is not valid or the subscription is a duplicate.
Unsubscribe Section
  • Unsubscribe success page – the page to be displayed when the contact successfully unsubscribes by clicking an unsubscribe link in a message.
  • Unsubscribe failure page – the page to be displayed when there is an error when the contact clicks an unsubscribe link in a message. For example, if the contact has already unsubscribed.
Confirm Section
  • Confirm success page – the page to be displayed when the contact successfully confirms their subscription by clicking a confirm link in a message.
  • Confirm failure page – the page to be displayed when there is an error when the contact clicks a confirm link in a message. For example, if their subscription is already confirmed or if the autoresponder no longer exists.
Next Section
  • Next success page – the page to be displayed when the contact successfully requests to be sent the next message in a subscription by clicking the next message link in a message.
  • Next failure page – the page to be displayed when there is an error when the contact clicks the next message link in a message. For example, if there are no more messages in the sequence or if the autoresponder no longer exists.

To manage your existing tracking tags, go to Contacts / Tracking Tags / Show List:

The Tracking Tags list screen shows the number of contacts who have each tracking tag assigned to one or more of their subscriptions. Clicking the number shows those contacts.

Importing Contacts

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One of the powerful and very useful features of arpReach is that it allows you to import your existing contacts.

You can import your existing contacts from either a CSV file or a tab delimited text file.

The Import Process

To access the import facility, choose Contacts / Import Contacts from the menu bar:

Upload the file

Choose the correct file type (Comma or Tab) from the Field delimiter dropdown menu.

Click the Choose file button to open a file dialog on your device.

Navigate to the file you want to import, select it, and click Open. The name of your file will now appear beside the Choose File button as seen below.

Click on the Upload Import File button.

Map the file data

A new screen will appear once the file has uploaded. This will allow you to “map” the columns in your file into arpReach and indicate which autoresponder subscriptions and contact tags/categories to assign to your contacts.

Fields Section

The field information on the left of the screen will show the data gathered from the first row of your file (Important Note: Always remove the header row). This will allow you to easily map each field accordingly.

Use the dropdown menu for each field to select the correct and corresponding field within arpReach (e.g., Subscriber = First name field).

If you do not want to import a column from your file into arpReach, choose the [Do not import] option.

Tip! The email address column will automatically be recognized and mapped as the Email address field. If the system is unable to do so, then there is a problem with the format of your file (e.g., has extra/unnecessary spaces before and/or after each field) that will cause issues with the import process and you need to re-do your CSV/TSV file.

Once you have mapped the contact information you wish to import, you can move on to the other options you have available.

  • Format Preference – choose what format your contacts should receive their emails in. In virtually all cases, No Preference will be suitable as you can choose the format each email you send is sent in.
  • File entry for confirmed – enter the value from your file that indicates confirmed status. Importing the confirmation status is not mandatory and you can just opt to use the built-in Confirmation setting field under the Autoresponder subscription section below.
Segmentation Section

Providing that you have created Contact Tags and Contact Categories prior to attempting to import your contacts, you will be able to choose which tags and/or categories are assigned to every batch of contacts you import.

To do this, simply click on the appropriate check boxes.

Autoresponder Subscription Section

When importing contacts into arpReach, you should always choose an autoresponder to add those contacts to.

While it is possible to import contacts into arpReach without associating them to an autoresponder, it is not recommended as your contacts cannot remove themselves from your list and this may be considered a breach of anti-spam legislation.

From the dropdown, select the primary autoresponder you will be adding your contacts to.

This will expand your screen to give you additional options.

  • Starting message – choose the message number of the autoresponder sequence that they will be starting their subscription from.
  • Status – choose the status of the autoresponder subscription.
    — Active
    — Paused
    — Cancelled
    — Dropped
    — Finished
    — Failed
  • Tracking tag – choose the tracking tag to assign to the autoresponder subscription, providing you have previously set up tracking tags.
  • Confirmation – choose the confirmation status of the autoresponder subscription. This is only applicable to autoresponders that require subscriptions to be confirmed.
Additional Autoresponder Subscriptions Section

The settings when assigning additional autoresponder subscriptions to the contacts you will be importing are the same as the settings when assigning the primary autoresponder subscription.

If you do not wish to assign them to additional autoresponders, you may just disregard this section.

Start the import process

After mapping your file data and assigning the autoresponder subscriptions and contact tags/categories accordingly, click the Continue button at the top left of the page.

On the next screen, click the Start Import button and wait for the system to complete your import. This acts as a final stop-check for you to make sure you are importing contacts with the correct settings.

The duration of the import process would depend on the amount of data the system will be importing from your file. You will see the panel updating as the import progresses. (Important Note: Do not close your browser or move to another page while import is running.)

Import Complete

Once the import process is complete, you will be redirected to the Contacts list screen with this temporary notification message at the top:

Congratulations! You have successfully imported your contacts into your arpReach system.

Managing Your Contacts

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“Create categories and tracking tags before adding contacts so they are available when you are ready to add contacts and subscriptions”

All of the options for managing your contacts are available from the Contacts option on the menu bar.

The Contacts List

Click Show List in the Contacts menu to display your list of contacts.

The total number of contacts and the number of contacts matching the current filter appear at the top left of the list screen.

  • Total – the total number of contacts in your system.
  • Matching – the number of contacts that match the current filter in place. Filters allow you to find a smaller group of contacts that meet a specific criteria.

The list may be sorted using the options available on the Order by dropdown menu at the top left of the list table.

Contact Filter

You can quickly filter your contacts list using over 20 predefined criteria by selecting a filter from the Filter dropdown menu at the top right of the list table.

You can remove the filter and return to a list containing all your contacts by choosing [No filter] from this menu.

List Paging

If your list contains more items than can be shown on one screen, the page selector appears at the top right. Use this to navigate through the pages of your list.

You can set the number of items that appears per page in your personal preferences by going to Setup / Personal Settings / Preferences.

On the Contacts list screen…

… for each contact, you can see:

  • Email address – the contact’s email address.
  • Name – the contact’s name.
  • Company – the contact’s company name, if provided.
  • Date/time added – the date/time the contact was added to the system.
  • Subscriptions – the number of subscriptions the contact has.
  • Emails sent – the number of emails sent to the contact.

Clicking on the number of subscriptions or the number of emails sent takes you to the Subscriptions or Send Log screens for the contact.

Choose action… Menu

Every contact has an action menu where you can view or change information for the contact.

  • View detail – to view detailed information about the contact.
  • View send log – to view detailed information about every email sent to the contact.
  • Edit – to edit the contact’s information.
  • Subscriptions – to manage the contact’s autoresponder subscriptions.
  • Clear logs – to clear the send logs for the contact.
  • Delete – to delete the contact and all related information. Use this with caution, there is no undo!

“List items such as subscriptions and emails sent are clickable and drill down into the contact’s information”

I want to… Menu

The I want to… menu for the contacts list has options for adding and deleting contacts and working with contacts that match the filter currently selected from the Filter dropdown menu.

“Check the I Want To… menu to see what else you can do on the current screen”

  • Refresh this page – to update the number of subscriptions and the number of emails sent.
  • Find a contact – to find a contact by partial name or email address. This is the same as choosing Contacts / Quick Find from the menu bar.
  • Add a contact – to add one contact. This is the same as choosing Contacts / Add a Contact from the menu bar.
  • Edit matching contacts – to make changes to all the contacts currently selected by the filter you chose from the Filter dropdown menu.
  • Export matching contacts – to export in text format all the contacts currently selected by the filter you chose from the Filter dropdown menu.
  • Delete matching contacts – to delete all the contacts currently selected by the filter you chose from the Filter dropdown menu.
  • Clear logs for matching contacts – to clear the email send logs for all the contacts currently selected by the filter you chose from the Filter dropdown menu.
  • View segment list – to jump to the segments list where you can manage your segment definitions. This is the same as choosing Contacts / Segments / Show List from the menu bar.

Add/Edit a Contact

The screens for adding or editing a contact are the same. The options available are split across five tabs, some with multiple sections. Click on the blue section to expand and see your options.

  • Details – basic info of the contact.
    — Email address and name
    — Preferences
  • Contact info – more detailed info of the contact.
    — Company
    — Address
    — Alternative email address
    — Phone numbers
    — Mobile phone numbers
    — Fax numbers
  • Segmentation – categories and/or tags to assign to the contact.
  • Custom fields – covered in the Custom fields section.
  • Notes – freeform text with notes on the contact.

Important Note: When you make any changes, always remember to click the Save Contact button. You can switch between tabs and open and close sections within those tabs, but you must click the Save Contact button before you leave the page.

Clicking the Cancel button returns you to the list screen without saving any of your changes.

“Create/add and edit screens are laid out the same for easy management”

Quick Add

From the menu bar, choose Contacts / Quick Add:

Here you can paste a list of email addresses to be added to the contact list. There should be one email address per line.

Email addresses that already exist in the contacts list or those that are on your list of banned email addresses or domains (see Setup / Ban Lists) will be ignored.

Providing you have created Contact Tags and/or Categories prior to attempting to add contacts, you can also select how to segment the contacts you are adding by checking the appropriate boxes for contact tags and/or categories. As an example in the image above, you could add one batch of “Customers” who “Bought Jackets“. You could also add a different batch of “Prospects” who “Like Shoes” or “Like Jackets” or both.

Remember to click the Save Contacts button to save the process.

Quick Remove

By pasting a list of email addresses, you can quickly remove contacts from your contacts list. This facility is available from the menu bar by choosing Contacts / Quick Remove:

Paste the list of email addresses that you want to remove in the Email addresses box and choose the desired Remove action from the dropdown menu. There should be one email address per line.

  • Unsubscribe – the contacts remain in the contact list but all their autoresponder subscriptions are cancelled.
  • Delete permanently – the contacts and all related information are removed entirely from your arpReach system.

“Choose Quick Find from the Contacts menu when you need to find a contact quickly”

Quick Find

You can quickly find one or more contacts if you have a full or partial name or email address. To use the facility, from the menu bar, choose Contacts / Quick Find:

As you start to type into the email address or name box, arpReach will offer possible suggestions in a dropdown box. If the contact you are looking for appears in the dropdown box, select it and click the Find Contact button to go to the Contacts list screen with only that specific contact on the list. Note that the Filter dropdown menu has changed to Quick find result.

However, as you are typing, if the contact you are looking for does not appear in the list of suggestions, enter as much of the name or email address as you know. Ignore the suggestions dropdown box and click the Find Contact button. You will be taken to the contact list screen and all contacts matching the partial name or email address you entered will be shown. You can then manually look for the contact you seek in the list displayed.

Contacts Reports

To view your contacts reports, from the menu, choose Contacts / Reports:

Available data type are:

  • New contacts today
  • New contacts yesterday
  • New contacts this week
  • New contacts last week
  • New contacts this month
  • New contacts last month
  • New contacts this year
  • New contacts last year

Available graph types are line chart and bar chart.