Create a Campaign: Email

Create and send visually appealing and personalized email messages for one-time or ongoing communication campaigns.

Eric Range avatar
Written by Eric Range
Updated over a week ago

Overview

Campaigns in Element451 are designed with multi-channel flexibility, giving you the option to communicate with your audience through email, SMS, or both. This guide concentrates on setting up email Campaigns and includes the next steps for configuring the SMS channel, should you choose to use it. For guidance on creating an SMS-only campaign, please refer to this article.

💡 Pro Tip: Before you build an email, it’s helpful first to customize a template. Templates are the design that you’ll enter your content into. We have a library of template layouts to get you started within the campaign builder. You can also install several pre-built email templates from the Packs Library. Additionally, you can create a template as you build your email.

To access your campaigns, navigate to Engagement > Campaigns and select One-Time Communications or Ongoing Communications.


One-Time vs. Ongoing

One-time communications are sent once. You can send your message immediately or schedule it for a specific time in the future. For information on how to send bulk messages to all profile types (ex, all students), please watch this video.

Ongoing communications are sent according to a Workflow. You do not need to indicate when to send your message. The Workflow’s setup will determine the sending day and time. See our Workflows Collection to learn more.


Step 1: Create a New Campaign

  1. Navigate to Engagement > Campaigns.

  2. Click on One-Time Communications or Ongoing Communications, depending on how you wish to send your campaign.

  3. Select + New Communication or use Copilot for Campaigns to get started.

  4. Name your campaign at the top by replacing "Untitled Communication."

  5. Click on the tag icon (to the right of the campaign name) to add any relevant tags to this campaign. Tags help filter and quickly find a campaign later. Tags also allow administrators to control access/visibility of campaigns by permission group.


Step 2: Communication Settings

Complete the communication settings section.

Communication Type

Change between one-time and ongoing

Communication Priority
(Ongoing Communication Only)

Marketing: promotional or marketing content

Transactional: informational or functional purpose - such as application updates, appointment reminders, etc.

Channels

Select the channel(s) you wish to use for this campaign. You can use one or both channels.

When you select a channel, an additional section will appear for you to configure that channel's specific settings. More on that to come.

Audience

(One-Time Communication Only)

Select which Segment will receive this communication.

Personalization

Add version conditions to your campaign. With Version Conditions, you can automatically create personalized versions of your message for different groups of recipients. Tailor everything from subject lines to email content.

To add versions, see the next section:

Step 2a: Add Version

  1. Click Add Conditions.

  2. Under Version Conditions, click Add Condition.

  3. Name your version at the top by replacing "Untitled Version Condition." This will be referenced throughout your campaign configurations, so name it in a way that helps you identify the version.

  4. Choose a condition type:

    • Date Condition

      • If using a date condition, add a date filter(s).

    • User Segment

      • If using a user segment, add a segment filter(s).

    • User Segment Reference

      • If using a segment reference, click load segment to select a segment.

  5. If you need to add additional conditions to this version, click Add Condition.

  6. When finished with this version, click Save in the top right corner.

  7. Once you click Save, you'll be returned to your Campaign, where you can disable, edit, duplicate, or delete the version you just created. Additionally, you can add another version by clicking Add Conditions.


Step 3: Configure Email

If you selected email as a channel under communication settings, your next step will be to complete the configure email section.

💡 Tip: If you are using the personalization feature with version conditions, you can customize various aspects of your email, including the subject line, preview text, send to, sender name, sender email address, reply address, cc, and bcc for each version. Just select the version you want to modify from the version drop-down on the respective field. This allows you to tailor your email depending on the specific version you are sending, ensuring that your recipients receive the most relevant and personalized message possible.

  1. Subject Line: Add your subject line (emojis and tokens can be added), or let Copilot generate your email subject. Learn more here.

  2. Preview Text: Add your preview text (emojis and tokens can be added), or let Copilot generate your preview text. Learn more here.

  3. Choose Template: Choose a template for your email. The default tab includes templates you can customize. The custom tab contains templates you or team members have already customized for your campaigns. Learn more about creating templates.

Step 3a: Add Content Blocks

Add Content Blocks: Once you've selected a template, you can add your content. We recommend using the two arrow icon to expand the editor into fullscreen.

  1. Click the + sign in the top left corner to open the list of Content Blocks available to add. This allows you to select any of our prebuilt blocks to add and customize.

    The following Blocks are available for you to add: Row, Separator, Dividers, Alerts, Header, Bodies, CTA, Lists, Quotes, Signatures, and Footer.

  2. Add Elements: If you prefer to edit your content block versus using one of the prebuilt ones, you can insert a row/column and then add individual elements. Double-click on a column and then click Add Element. The following elements will populate in the left menu for you to select:

Types of Elements

Text Block

Use the text element to insert text content into your Campaign. Highlight the text to enable formatting, insert tokens, utilize Copilot, and more.

Image Block

Use the image element to insert an image into your Campaign. Once added, click the gear to open the image settings side sheet. Click + Add a file to upload an image from your Media Manager.

Button Block

You can use the button element to drive the reader to a URL. Once added, click the gear to open the button settings side sheet. Configure the button using the settings. Advanced Settings allows you even more control over the look and feel of your button.

Pro tip: Use the Add Token button on the Link field to add a Magic Link to your Application Portal or Microsite. For more information, please read our article on Magic Links.

HTML Block

The HTML block allows you to insert your own code for more creative control. Once added, click the gear to open the HTML settings side sheet. Paste your HTML code in the box.

Note: Please be aware that adding any custom HTML could break your template. We recommend previewing and testing your email after adding your custom HTML code.

Video Block

Embed a video into your Campaign email using the video element. Once added, click the gear to open the video settings side sheet. Configure the video using the settings.

The embedded video must have a public URL. Confirm public privacy settings on YouTube or Vimeo before adding your URL to the block.


Ruler

A ruler is a divider you can use to separate your content. Once added, click the gear to open the ruler settings side sheet. Configure the ruler using the settings.

Social

Use the social element to place social media icons/links in your email. This will help ensure icons display as expected across various email clients.


Step 4: Advanced Settings

Configure the email send settings.

🚀 Pro Tip: Use tokens in this section to add more personalization to your email.

Send To*

Select the email of the recipient you wish to use for this campaign.

  • Primary Email

  • Secondary Email

  • School Email

  • Send from a Token

    • Guardian Emails

    • High School Counselor Emails

    • Identity Emails

    • Relationship Emails

    • School Email

Important Note: The Send To field supports only a single email address. As a result, if you use Send from a Token and the Token (such as the Guardian Emails) has multiple email values, only the first family member listed in the student record will receive the Campaign. For more information on sending Campaigns to parents/guardians, check out the help article, Sending Campaigns to Parents/Guardians.

Sender Name

The name that is displayed in the inboxes of your recipients.

Sender Email Address

The email address that is used to send this email.

Reply Address

The email address that the reply message is sent when you want the reply to go to an email address different from the sender's.

CC

Send a copy of this email to this email address. This email address will be visible to your recipients in the email header.


Note: Unlike the Send To field, if you are using an email Token, the CC field supports multiple email addresses.

BCC

Send a copy of this email to this email address, but it will be hidden from your recipients.

Note: Unlike the Send To field, if you are using an email Token, the BCC field supports multiple email addresses.


Step 5: Preview Your Email

To preview your email, click the Preview tab in the top right corner. You can also use the Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop icons at the top center to preview how your email will look on different devices.


Step 6: Configure SMS

If you selected SMS as a channel under communication settings, your next step will be to complete the Configure SMS section. Visit the Create a Campaign: SMS article for a step-by-step guide on the configuration of this section.


Step 7: Test Your Campaign + Preview Versions

Once you're finished creating your Campaign, we suggest testing your message and previewing your versions (if you opted to use personalized versions).


Step 8: Send/Save Your Campaign

One-time Campaigns

  • Option 1 - Send Immediately: click Send

  • Option 2 - Schedule to Send Later: click Schedule the Send

  • Option 3 - Exit and Return Later: click Save

Ongoing Campaigns

  • Ongoing campaigns do not have the option to send or schedule because they must be sent using a Workflow or Rule. Your only option is to click Save.


Step 9: View Campaign Analytics

You can use the in-app analytics to see how your email messages perform.

To view analytics, navigate to Engagement > Campaigns > Analytics. You’ll see a list of communications and all their analytics on this screen.


Pro Tips

  1. Editing your email's content is much easier in full screen. Just click the two arrow icon in the top left corner to enter (and exit) full-screen mode.

  2. You can click on any communication block and quickly duplicate it, set variable audience versions, and adjust specific settings.

  3. Use tokens to send your email from the student's assignee.


Troubleshooting

Sending Campaigns to Parents/Guardians/Counselors

Want to send a Campaign to a parent, guardian, or counselor? There are a couple of options on how to achieve this, depending on your goal:

Email Renderings in Outlook

Element451's Campaigns module is designed to work best with modern web and mobile-based email clients. Outlook uses an older rendering engine that does not support modern HTML and CSS features commonly used in email design, like those used in Element451. As a result, emails may not display correctly in Outlook, even though they may look fine in other email clients (including the Element451 preview mode).

Tokens are not Populating or Message isn't Sending

If you find that your tokens are't populating correctly or you see messages are not sending you may have hidden HTML code embedded in one or more of your tokens.


Video Guide on Sending Bulk Messages to All Profile Types

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