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  • The left margin of the website is the navigation menu.
  • Hovering over any of the icons on the left margin will cause the menu to slide out.
  • Clicking the rectangle icon to the right of the monkey will lock the menu in place.

What's What

  • "Audience" are all of the GBA members.
    • Tags and Segments are ways of grouping members.
    • A member can have many tags, and a tag can be applied to many members.
    • Segments are typically ways to group members using tags and other attributes.
  • "Campaigns" are individual mailings.
    • "View by Status": Drafts are works in progress. "All" show all emails.
    • "View by Types": We are using only "Emails". I never use "View by Types".
    • "Folders": I always put emails (i.e. Campaigns) into a folder, just to make it easier to find emails of various types and purposes.
  • The above are all I use... I never use "Automations", "Website", etc.

Create a Mailing

The best, easiest, quickest way to create a mailing is to duplicate an existing mailing.

  • Clicking on a "Sent" Campaign will show the email contents.
  • Go to All Campaigns.
    • You will see all the previous Campaigns (i.e. mailings).
  • Find a Campaign that can be a good starting point. This is typically a recent email of a similar type... that is, if you're sending a General Meeting announcement, then you could pick the previous month's announcement. For an example, we will assume we are scheduling a Pajaro Work Day. We will use 2022.08.21 - Pajaro Work Day (copy 03).
  • Next to 2022.08.21 - Pajaro Work Day (copy 03), on the right-hand side of the screen, there is a grey rectangle View Report. Next to it is a down-arrow. Clicking that gives an option to Replicate. Click it.

You will now be creating a new email blast. It is a copy of the email you selected. There are a number things you need to check and/or update:

Title
  • Clicking the teal-colored Edit name under the title lets you change the name.
  • I always make the first part of the name the date, in YYYY.MM.DD format.
  • Update the name of the email - typically the purpose or event.
  • Email blasts are usually repeated. As this is a new email, it would be (copy 01).
  • Save the name.
To
  • Click Edit Recipients to update who will receive the email.
  • Find the appropriate Segment or Tag.
  • Personalize the To field if you'd like - you can pick First Name, Last Name, or Both.
From
  • Typically the Education Committee.
  • This MUST be a valid club email address.
Subject
  • Update the Subject.
  • Update the Preview Text.
Content
  • Click Edit Design to edit the content of the email.

 

The Mailchimp editor is very flexible. Take a look at the first screenshot, and the area bordered in yellow. You build your email using the various content types, i.e. "Blocks". I typically use Text, Divider, and occasionally Image. To insert a content block, simply drag and drop a Block from the right-hand Block list to the left-hand screen.

A Text Block has your typical text editing controls:

  • Bold, italic, underline.
  • Font size.
  • Styles.
  • Font type.
  • Font color and background color.
  • Tags and links.
  • Justification.
  • Etc.

When done editing the content block, press Save and Close.
When done editing the Email content, press Continue (highlighted in yellow).

Your new email is finished and ready to go. Before you send it to everyone, send a Test Email to yourself. Click Send a Test Email, circled in red, to send an email to yourself and anyone else you wish to receive it. Enter a comma-delimited list of emails to send it to.

Once you are sure the Email blast is ready to go, you have three options (framed in yellow at the top of the screen):

  • Finish later - the email blast will show as a "Draft", and can be resumed later.
  • Schedule - schedule the email to be delivered at a specific date and time.
  • Send - send now.