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Add a new mailing list.
On the top menu of the Automation Station, place your mouse over "Followup" and click the "Add list" sub-menu. Once you do, you'll be taken to a new screen that has two boxes asking for information about your new list. Let's go over them:
Important. Read this now:
All mailing lists should be kept to under 5,000 subscribers among all lists combined.The automation station is more of an ecommerce tool than it is a mailing list manager. If your list grows, you need to move it out to a list manager script. |
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1) List name: Use this field to enter a one or two word name for your list. The name you enter here will be used by you only to identify your list.
2) From name: This is the name that your subscribers will see in the "From" field when they receive a mail from this list (broadcast and autoresponder). Enter your name or the name of your company on this field.
3) From e-mail: This is the e-mail address that your subscribers will see in the "From" field when they receive an e-mail from this list. Enter your e-mail address or the e-mail address you use for 'customer service' on your website.
Important. Read this now:
E-mail messages sent out to your list will be seen by your subscribers as coming from the address entered in the "From e-mail" field. If any of your subscribers replies to your message or if one of the messages you send out bounces back, it will go directly to this address... be sure to enter a valid e-mail address that you check frequently. |
4) Enable double opt-in mechanism: After a visitor fills a form on your site to subscribe to your mailing list, she will be sent an e-mail asking to confirm her subscription by clicking a link. If she doesn't confirm, then she will not be added to the list... this is an excellent security measure against mass-subscriptions by spammers to shut down your website or render your mailing lists useless.
Extremely Important:
Any new lists that will gather subscriptions from your website are REQUIRED to have this new double opt-in mechanism enabled. The only lists that you may keep without the double opt-in are those where you move prospects from one list to another automatically after payment for one of your products. |
5) When someone un-subscribes from this list, send them to this URL: In this field you should enter a page that matches your website's look and lets the subscriber know that he has been unsubscribed from your mailing list.
Subscription confirmation message (Optional).
Fill out these fields only if you enabled the "Double Opt-In Mechanism". The fields in the "Subscription confirmation message" box control the wording of the e-mail that will be sent to your subscribers to confirm their subscription.
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6) Subject Line: This is teh subject of your e-mail. It may be customized for each subscriber by mail-merging her first name and last name... to do that, simply click the "First Name" or the "Last Name" buttons where you want the information to appear.
7) E-mail body: This is the body of your e-mail message. You can also customize this message by mail-merging information with the buttons above the text area. Including the confirmation link is mandatory. This is done with the "Confirm link" button so that the "$confirmlink" variable will be added to the body of your e-mail.
8) Pre-subscription confirmation URL: Right after filling the form in your site, your new subscriber will be taken to any page you wish (this page can be on your site or on any other site you desire). It is a good idea to create a special page on your site for this and use it to explain to your subscriber that she must click the confirmation link in the e-mail before she is fully subscribed to your list.
Unsubscribe/Modify information page.
This next box lets you control the look and feel of a dynamically generated page in our system. This page will offer your subscribers the possibility of unsubscribing or modifying their subscription information. Your subscribers will only see this page after they have clicked the "Unsubscribe" link at the end of each of your mailings.
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9) Page header: This field allows you to upload a header graphic that matches the one you use on your website. If you decid to use one, remember to keep make it 550 pixels wide to keep the formatting of this page.
10) Background image: This field allows you to upload a background graphic.
11) Border color: This field lets you set the border color of the main table of the page. You can use regular names like "black" or you can enter HEX codes.
12) Background color: If you don't upload a background graphic, you can select the background color for your page using this field
13) Custom HTML: Use this field to enter any custom text or HTML that you'd like to display on the page (it will appear right below your header graphic).
14) Add List: Click this button to create your new mailing list. You can come back and edit all these settings later.
The Zero-Day Autoresponder message.
After you click the "Add list" button, you'll be taken to a new page where you will see a second box that asks you for the details of the autoresponse that will go out instantly after someone subscribes to your list. This is also called the 'Day 0' response because it is set to go out with a delay of zero days.
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15) Text or HTML: Select if you want to send out your zero-day message to go out as text or as HTML. If you click the HTML link, you'll be taken to a new page where you can enter both text and HTML (multi-mime mailing).
16) Delay: This is the number of days the system will wait before sending out this message. We recommend that you leave it at "0" for now.
17) Subject: This field asks you for the subject of the e-mail message that will go out instantly after someone subscribes to your list. As you can see, you can click on the two tabs above to insert personalization tags into the subject of your e-mail.
18) Message: This is the body of the e-mail message. You can click on any of the tabs above to personalize your message to each of your customers (these fields will depend on the information you gather about each subscriber -- we'll go over this a bit later down the road). This field allows you to mail-merge some information by clicking the buttons above it. One important piece of information you should mail-merge into every message is the "Edit link" which allows your subscribers to modify their subscription information.
19) Preview message: Once you've filled in the information in all the fields, click this button to preview and create your new message. Remember that you can always go back and modify the details of your list from the "View lists" menu of the Automation Station.
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