The email campaigns section is used to communicate with your club members. It makes it easier to communicate with members or segments of members and to send regular email messages and updates.
BowlsLink uses a third-party product called Campaign Monitor to send emails from the system. Campaign Monitor is integrated into BowlsLink.
Note – When setting your From Address, please set it to noreply@bowlslink.com.au. If you don’t follow this delivery rates can be affected.
You can set your Reply To Address and From Name to your club name and email address.
- How to Create an Email Campaign – Video Demonstration
- Examples of Email Campaigns
- First Login to Emails
- Campaign Checklist
- Overview
- Campaigns
- Tags
- Adding Tags to Campaigns
- How to create a Campaign
- Personalizing the Message
- Email body Settings
- Preheader Text and Logo
- Colours and Fonts
- Previewing the Email
- Select the Recipients
- Campaign Monitor Assistant
- Lists & Subscribers
- Creating a List
- Member Group Email Lists
- Competition Emailing List
- Segments
- Creating Signup Forms
- Insights
- Guide to analytics
How to Create an Email Campaign – Video Demonstration #
Below is a step-by-step video demonstration for new users to follow, assisting their creation of Email Campaigns. This guide instructs users to create Campaigns from new and utilise the Templates that are available from Campaign Monitor
How to Create an Email Campaign – Video Demonstration
How to Create an Email Campaign Series #
For more information, read through our BowlsLink Support article, Email Campaign – User Manual
Examples of Email Campaigns #
Below are some examples of Email Campaigns created and sent by Clubs using BowlsLink email platform
First Login to Emails #
The first time you login to use the Emails from BowlsLink, you will need to setup an Administrator account with Campaign Monitor for your club. This is done automatically from with Bowlslink.
Campaign Checklist #
In some cases, the below screen may be presented to Administrators – this screen will prompt confirmation of contacts and subscriber data such as when subscribers were last email or, if ever, and how have subscribers be emailed previously.
Completing this information will allow users to continue to use Campaign Monitor.
Overview #
This will give admins a general outline of any Drafts, Sent and Subscriber Lists that have been created most recently by an Administrator. Each email and campaign can be viewed from this page by clicking the name of the campaign, or, click ‘See All’.
Draft items will show the name and date it was last edited
Sent items will show the name, date it was sent, total number of recipients, percentage of opened emails and click rate.
List items will show the name, date it was created or last sent and total number of Subscribers.
Tip: Hovering your mouse over each of these areas will display a copy option if you wish to make a copy of the specific Draft, Sent or List of Subscribers.
The Create button will give administrators the to create either a Campaign, List or Automation.
Campaigns #
Design an email and choose to send it immediately or schedule to send later.
The Campaigns page will display an Overview of recent Drafts and Sent campaigns, including
- Edit Dates/Sent Dates,
- Names and
- Recipients, Opens and Clicks, (specifically for Sent items).
Each of the Draft and Sent campaigns can be copied by hovering your mouse over the specific campaign.
Clicking the three dot/menu item on the right-hand side of the Drafts will give options to:
- Copy
- Rename
- Delete
Clicking the three dot/menu item on the right-hand side of the Sent items will give options to:
- Preview (view the email in a separate window to preview the content and formatting of the email)
- Copy
- Rename
- Delete
- Compare with (allows performance comparison between multiple emails including details such as Opens, Clicked, Click-To-Open Rate/CTOR, Bounced, Unsubscribed, Complained and averages). These can be visually graphed and broken down by percentage metrics and exported.
Tags #
Tags help you organize your campaigns by allowing you to attach meaningful names or labels to campaigns. Use Manage tags button on the left of the page for this.
Adding Tags to Campaigns #
To add a Tag to a campaign, hover your mouse over the specific campaign name. There, a ‘+ Add Tag’ option will display and clicking this will show the previously created tags. Click the corresponding tick boxes to apply the tags and then click ‘Apply’. Multiple Tags can be applied to a campaign.
How to create a Campaign #
When you create a new email campaign you will need to go through a few steps to get the email ready to be sent out.
1. You will see that page below. Select “Create Campaign” from the top right-hand corner to start a new campaign.
2. Create the name of your Campaign. This name will appear in your Archive, Reports and Analytical Tools
3. You will be taken to a screen to create the campaign (different to the Email, which we will create later). You will need to complete all of the fields, which are:
a. Campaign Name – This won’t appear on the email. Use a name that describes the type or content of the email.
b. Subject – This is the subject line of the email, which the recipients will see.
c. From – This should be set to Noreply@bowlslink.com.au. If it is not set to this, it may affect delivery rates.
d. Reply to address – the address that receives any replies from the email. This should be a valid email address.
e. To – This is who the campaign will be sent to
4. Design the Email – click the Green ‘Design Email’ button on the right-hand side.
Here, you can:
– Reuse a past email (perfect for saving time if this email is similar to a previous one)
– Use a template (browse your saved templates or get started with one provided by Campaign Monitor)
The above options are best and most deliverable practices for sending Campaigns.
Other options that will show include:
– Import HTML (upload a custom coded email, either from your computer of from the web) – this will not allow editing or use of the existing fields for a campaign. It is recommended not to use this template.
– Plain text email – Do NOT use this template. It will not allow any customisation and will limit the deliverable statistics of the campaign. You will not see any Open or Click rates and may appear as no recipients accessing the campaign.
In this guide, we will Use a template as an example – Select Template, the Themes
These template campaigns provide a great starting point and design for Clubs to use and can be managed with content as needed.
A template we recommend is Daily News.
When the template is selected, click Use this theme.
Next, the template will load and allow you to build the campaign content using the following tiles:
- Text -these can be added and edited to be Headers and text fields to type in content or paste from a Word document.
- Image – images can be uploaded and added in between the content of news, articles, results or, whatever details are being sent to members.
- Spacer (Clear) – a clear space between content blocks
- Divider (Line) – a solid line between content blocks
- Button – radio button that can be hyperlinked to websites, forms, documents, downloads, etc…
- Video – copy and paste a URL video that can be linked to your campaign
- Countdown – a time and date countdown that can be used for entries closing, start dates of competitions or events, surveys, etc…
- Social Links – select which social media channels are linked to the campaign and insert the relevant URLs per social media, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Website, Twitter, etc…
By clicking any of the elements, they will highlight and on the right side, allow you to add/move/remove as needed, change text size, colour, formatting, hyperlinking and more.
Trash can: deletes the element to the immediate left.
4 arrows: allows you to click hold and drag the element up or down the email to position it where you want.
Personalizing the Message #
When writing the email, you can personalise the greeting to the recipient’s First Name, Last Name or Full Name by using the Insert menu option of the text field.
When happy with the message you need to save the changes to proceed.
Email body Settings #
To access the campaign’s settings when editing, select the ‘cog’ icon in the Build side menu
Preheader Text and Logo #
A preheader text is a short sentence that’s displayed as an email preview in some inboxes and can be updated in Campaign and Sender details. Also, images can be added to these areas such as a Club logo.
The size of the logo can be edited using the available slider (moving left and right to make larger or smaller), aligned in the left, centre or to the right, linked to a URL (club website) and spaced as desired.
Colours and Fonts #
Customise the colours and fonts being used in the campaign by select the font type from the available dropdowns, along with sizes and colours of each font type (including Headers and text body).
Colours can also be select for Buttons and Links when being applied to the campaign.
Previewing the Email #
When done you can preview what the email will look like by clicking the preview button in the top right.
Select the Recipients #
The next step is to Select recipients, or who will receive the email.
- Click the Select recipients button in the bottom right.
2. Select the groups from the available click list. This list is taken from your clubs BowlsLink email channels. If the group has been setup as an email channel it will appear here and be updated daily.
a. You can also exclude groups. Which means if you select multiple groups and exclude a different group no one on that list will get the message even if they are on approved recipient lists. This is done on the right-hand side.
3. Once the selected recipients have been added, there are some options available before sending the final email:
a. Run Inbox test: a great way to quickly check how your email looks in both mobile and desktop clients, without having to install or manage multiple clients yourself.
b. Send Test: you can send your campaign to five email addresses or less
c. Preview: a loaded preview of how the email will look in both desktop and mobile devices
4. Prepare to Send – once the email has been reviewed and ready for publication, you can either schedule a time and date to send or send immediately
a. Schedule for late: This will allow you to set a specific time globally or send based on each recipient’s local time zone (Recipients in an unknown location will receive the campaign in the selected fallback time zone).
Date, Time and Time zone settings are available.
5. Review and Confirm – after having confirmed the immediate or scheduled release, you can review the email, including the Subject, From, To and email content. If there are any outstanding items stopping the release of the email, you will receive a notification to review before sending.
After any issues are addressed, you can confirm and send.
Campaign Monitor Assistant #
Campaign Monitor provides an ‘Assistant’ feature which automatically reviews each campaign that is created and prepared for distribution, providing some guidance and help to create an effective campaign.
On the bottom right-hand side of your browser, there is an Assistant button and will notify the user in Blue or Red to flag any potential improvements or errors with the current campaign.
RED (ISSUE) icons indicate an issue or permission that may be required before sending the campaign. For example, the red flag can display when sending the campaign to a larger number of recipients than approved to send to.
BLUE (SUGGESTION) icons indicate the assistant providing a suggestion to improve and make a more effective campaign
Lists & Subscribers #
Use lists and segments to organize subscribers based on information relevant to your Club, Region, District or Zone.
Creating a List #
Email lists can be created by Adding a Member Group and marking this as an Email Channel or, from within a Competition and enabling a Mailing List.
As Club level administrators, you will not be able to import lists into Campaign Monitor.
Member Group Email Lists #
In your Club Administrator account, via Membership menu item, Select Groups
In the Member Groups tab of your list, you will be able to see all member groups that have already been created. You will also be given an overview of some of the groups’ details.
On the top right-hand corner of the page, click ‘Add Member Group’ and complete the mandatory fields:
- Group Name
- Description
- Check box – Is Email Campaign Channel
Clicking this tick box will ensure any members added to this group will be included as part of the corresponding Email List. When viewing Member Groups, any Group assigned as an Email Channel will be indicated by a Green dot.
To view these Lists, go to Email Campaigns > Lists and Subscribers. Here, all lists can found, either via the Member Groups or Competition Emailing Lists –
Note: If the List does not appear immediately, use the ‘Synchronise’ function on the left-hand menu – this will update any new or existing members added to a list to ensure all latest recipients are captured.
To Add Members to the Group, you can do so via the Membership > Members page and multi-select the desired members.
- Tick either a single or multiple of the member tick boxes on the left-hand side of their last name – this will display a blue banner above the top row.
- Click ‘Add to Group’
- Select the Group from the available dropdown which you wish to add the members. The members that are being assigned to the Group will also be displayed for reference.
- Click ‘Assign’ – a Green tick will be displayed once they have been successfully assigned
These members can be viewed under –
- ‘Member Groups’ tab (and show how many members are included) or,
- b. Can be Filtered by Member Groups when viewing the overall Members of your Club .
Competition Emailing List #
To create an Emailing List via a Competition, this can be done so when creating an Event, under the second tab, Entry.
Here, there is a button to allow and manage the Sync of competitors with emails. Click to turn on and have the list created.
List subscribers can be Synced from here, or, via the Competition Dashboard on the right-hand side, there is a ‘Sync’ option to update the latest list members – Note, these are also automatically synced from Midnight each night.
To view these Lists, go to Email Campaigns > Lists and Subscribers.
Via the Lists and Subscribers, you have access to create –
- Segments
- Signup Forms
- Suppressions
When creating a List and managing Subscribers, they can be further defined by Segments.
Segments #
A segment is a collection of similar subscribers that are grouped based on subscriber data, in what we call custom fields. Using segments within your larger lists will enhance your insights about your subscribers, help you maintain high engagement rates, and protect your sender reputation.
- To Create a Segment, select your chosen List and click ‘Segments’ on the left-hand side.
- Next, click ‘Create a New Segment’
2. Create the Segment rule – set the segment to use either Subscriber details, i.e. email address, name date subscribed, and location, or, Custom Fields, every custom field you have set up for the list.
3. Select the segment parameter – these can include email address, name, date, location, gender,
4. Apply the condition – conditions are those details that may or may not include or match in the data list. Some conditions include –
- Contains
- Does not contain
- Matches exactly
- Does not match exactly
5. Key Term – input the final key term that the segment may or may not include
6. Save – Once the Segment is saved, it will sync and segment all the corresponding members who met the segment criteria. These specific members can be included or excluded as part of an Email Campaign when selecting the recipients as well as provide a data reference of those who meet the criteria.
Segments can also be Exported.
Creating Signup Forms #
Set up one or more signup forms for your subscriber lists so that people can subscribe to your newsletters.
- Select ‘Signup Forms’ on the left-hand side list and then click ‘Create a Signup form’
- Select from the available lists and ‘Create’
3. Signup Form Basics – here, you can customise the overall look and feel of your signup form
- Page: you can manage the layout, sections, padding and shape of the overall signup form
- Background: the form, text and page background can be set by either a colour or image (the images size can cover the entire area of the background or the image size only).
- Header image: the main image of your signup form. This can be made larger or smaller and aligned to the left, centre or right of the form.
- Heading: the headline text of your signup form. This can be customised by font size, style, colour and alignment
- Description: a brief description of the signup form and its purpose. Customisable by font size, style, colour and alignment
- Label: the titles of the signup form field, i.e. Name and Email. Customisable by font size, style, colour and corner and border of the type of the field.
- Field: the field which signups are used to input information. Customisable by font size, style, colour and corner and border of the type of the field.
- Button: customisable by text (i.e. ‘Subscribe’), font size, style, background and text colour
4. Signup Fields – Add your existing custom fields as field options
Examples of Form fields can include Name and Email.
These fields can be set as required or not by applying the ‘Required’ tick box
5. Signup Options – Additional controls for your signup form
You can manage any controls set for your signup form that include
- Email permission (agreeing to be emailed)
- Permission to track (agreeing to have email activity tracked)
- Privacy Policy (a link to a privacy policy in relation to the signup form and its purpose)
- Cookie Policy (a link to a cookie policy in relation to the signup form and its purpose)
6. Save Signup form – Once your signup form has been created, you can save and copy and past your link ready to send to those to join your list
Insights #
The Insights section of your account provides a powerful view into the health and performance of your email marketing.
Overall statistics can be viewed for a custom period, up to 15 months in the past. Campaign and journey data is updated hourly, while subscriber details are updated every 24 hours.
For any selected period, statistics are compared to the previous period of the same length. For example, if you select a 120-day period, performance is compared to the 120 days prior to that time period. This is useful for month on month, quarter on quarter, or year on year reporting.
Guide to analytics #
Campaigns – the performance of the campaigns sent and how they are received by your members
- Delivery rate: (Total emails sent – Total emails bounced) ÷ Total emails sent
- Open rate: Unique opens ÷ Total delivered
- Click rate: Unique clicks ÷ Total delivered
- Click to open rate (COTR): Unique clicks ÷ Unique opens
- Unsubscribe rate: Total unsubscribes ÷ Total delivered
- Bounce rate: Total bounced ÷ Total sent
- Emails delivered: The total number of emails sent, minus the total number of emails bounced
- Total sent: total number of emails sent per campaign
- Total opens: total number of opens per campaign
- Total clicks: total number of clicks per campaign
- Total bounces: total number of emails bounced per campaign
- Total unsubscribes: total number of unsubscribes per campaign