Introduction

Email campaigns are a sequence of marketing emails. They are designed to market a business or a product and contain promotional offers and valuable content for the subscribers. 

Terms and conditions for sending an email campaign

When you land on the Email Campaigns page for the first time, you will see the terms shown below. You must accept the terms to use email campaigns for marketing purposes.

Types of Email Campaigns

Vtiger CRM allows you to create two types of email campaigns:

Regular email campaigns are promotional emails sent to your contacts. You can send them immediately or at a scheduled time.

For example, if you sell some of your products at a discount and want to inform your customers,  you can send them an email campaign. 

Autoresponder email campaigns are emails you send in response to the contacts’ reaction to your previous email campaign. They are sent automatically when triggered at the scheduled date and time. You must set up trigger conditions, the date, and the time at which they must be sent.

Feature Availability

Benefits

The benefits of Using Email Campaigns for Marketing are:

• Reach and Targeting: Email campaigns instantly allow you to reach a large audience. With a well-maintained email list, you have the potential to connect with a broad base of customers, prospects, or subscribers who have shown interest in your products or services.
• Cost-Effective: Email marketing is more cost-effective than traditional methods like direct mail or print advertising. 
• Targeted and Personalized Messaging: By sending personalized emails, you can create a more tailored and relevant experience for each recipient, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion. 
• Increased Engagement and Customer Relationships: Email campaigns allow you to engage with your audience regularly. 

Key Terminology

Prerequisites for Sending an Email Campaign

Data Protection Regulation or GDPR is a law that requires you to get affirmative and provable consent to send EU citizens marketing emails. You can do this by obtaining a double opt-in from them.

Email Settings

 Before you send an email campaign, you must set the email opt-in required for delivery. When a contact opts in, it means that you have their consent to send them marketing emails.

Follow these steps to set the required email opt-in:

1. Log in to your CRM.
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the page.

3. Type Email in the Search bar. Select Email Settings.

4. Look for the Configuration section.
5. Select Email Settings.
6. Click Edit.

7. Scroll down to the Required Opt-in for Email Delivery setting.
8. Choose the suitable opt-ins from the Email Opt-ins drop-down.
9. Click Save.

Which opt-in types allow you to send Email Campaigns

You cannot send marketing emails to contacts with the Email Opt-in field set to ‘None,’ ‘Opted out (user),’ or ‘Opted out (contact).’ 

Vtiger delivers email campaigns only to contacts with the opt-in set to: 

• Single opt-in (user)
• Single opt-in (webform)
• Double opt-in

Ensuring email delivery for opted-out contacts 

 You must configure some settings to ensure that your ad hoc, workflow, and other emails get delivered to your contacts who have opted out of marketing emails.

Follow these steps to ensure email delivery:

1. Log in to your CRM.
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the page.

3. Type Email in the Search bar. Select Email Settings.

4. Look for the Configuration section.
5. Select Email Settings.
6. Click Edit.

7. Go to the Required Opt-in for Email Delivery section.
8. Enable the following checkboxes:
   • Allow sending ad-hoc emails to contacts who have opted out
   • Allows sending workflow emails to contacts who have opted out
   • Automatically send a double opt-in email after webform submission

Creating a Regular Email Campaign

 Follow these steps to create a regular email campaign:

1. Log in to your CRM.
2. Click the Main Menu.

3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.

5. Click +New Email Campaign.

6. Enter the Campaign Name.
7. Select Regular. 
8. Click Next. The email campaign gets created in Draft mode.

9. Enter or select the following information:
   1. Recipient
      1. Select a marketing list from the drop-down or click Create New Marketing List to create a new one. To learn about creating a marketing list, click here.
      2. Enable Email will be sent to all subscribers to send the email campaign to all the subscribers on the marketing list.
         1. Enable Choose a segment to send the email campaign to a filtered list of subscribers on the marketing list. 
         2. Click Create a Segment to filter the list of subscribers by applying conditions. To learn about creating a segment, click here.
      3. Click Save. 
   2. Sender Information
      1. Enter From Name, From Email, and Reply-To email address. 
      2. Assign the email campaign to a user under the Assigned To field.
      3. Assign the email campaign to a user under the Assigned To field.
      4. Enable Real-Time Alerts to receive alerts when the recipients open the email. 
      5. Enable Google Analytics Tracking to allow Google Analytics to track the clicks on links in the email body.
      6. Click Save.
   3. Content
      1. ​​​​​Click Select Template to choose an email template for your emails. To learn about creating/editing email templates, click here. 
      2. Look for your desired template by using the search bar.
      3. Select a template.
      4. Click Done. An unsubscribe link is added to the bottom of the email.

Or

Designing a new template:

1. Click Design from scratch.

2. Click one of these tabs: Themes, Blueprints, My Templates, or Marketplace. You can create a template by choosing one of these options.

3. Enter or select the information for the following:
   1. Subject: Enter a subject for your email campaign.
   2. Preview Text: Enter the required preview text.
   3. HTML or Plain Text: Use either to add email content.
   4. Insert Links: Click to add links to other documents or websites.
   5. Merge Tags: Use merge tags to add HTML tags.
   6. Click Preview to preview your email.
   7. Click Done after designing the template. An unsubscribe link is added to the bottom of the email.

10. Click Send Now.

 You can pick a future date and time when you do not want to send an email campaign immediately. The email campaign will be sent to the subscribers at the chosen time. 

Follow these steps to schedule an email campaign:

1. Log in to your CRM.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.
5. Click +New Email Campaign.
6. Enter the Campaign Name and select Regular. 
7. Click Next. 

8. Fill out the recipient information, sender information, email content, etc.
9. Click the downward arrow beside Send Now in the top-right corner.
10. Click the Calendar icon to pick a date.

11. Click the Clock icon to pick a time. 
12. Click Schedule Later.

Canceling or Rescheduling a Scheduled Campaign

 You can cancel a scheduled email campaign if you no longer want to send it, or reschedule it if you want to change the time of a campaign.

1. Log in to your CRM.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.
5. Open a scheduled campaign.

 

6. Click: 
   1. The Cancel Campaign button to cancel it. 
      1. Click Confirm to confirm the cancellation.
   2. The Reschedule button to reschedule it.

1. Click the Calendar icon to pick a date.
2. Click the Clock icon to pick a time. 
3. Click Save.

Let us now look at creating and managing autoresponder email campaigns. 

Creating an Autoresponder Email Campaign

 Autoresponder email campaigns are sent automatically when triggered and scheduled. You must set up the trigger conditions and the date and time at which the autoresponder must be sent. 

Follow these steps to create an autoresponder email campaign:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Click Email Campaigns.
5. Click +New Email Campaign.

6. Enter the Campaign Name
7. Select Autoresponder. 
8. Click Next.

9. Enter the following details:
   • Recipients
   • Sender Information
     • Skip to this section to learn about Recipients and Sender Information.
   • Trigger
     • Select an event to trigger the autoresponder - Choose what must trigger the autoresponder. For example, when a recipient clicks a link in the previous campaign, opens the previous campaign, etc. 
     • Select a campaign list - Select the campaign in response to which the autoresponder must be sent.
     • When to send - Choose how many days, hours, weeks, minutes, etc., after the previous campaign, the autoresponder must be triggered. 
     • Select the day(s) on which the campaign has to be sent - Select all the days.
     • Click Save.
   • Content 
     1. ​​​​​Click Select Template to choose an email template for your emails. To learn about creating/editing email templates, click here. 
     2. Look for your desired template by using the search bar.
     3. Select a template.
     4. Edit the template if required. 
     5. Click Done. An unsubscribe link is added to the bottom of the email.
     6. Click Design from scratch.
     7. Click one of these tabs – Themes, Blueprints, My Templates, or By Coding. You can create a template by picking one of these options.
     8. Click Done after designing the template. An unsubscribe link is added to the bottom of the email.

10. Click Start Autoresponder. 
11. Click Ok to confirm.

Stopping an Autoresponder Email Campaign

 Follow these steps to stop an autoresponder:​​​​​

1. Log in to the CRM.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Click Email Campaigns.
5. Open the autoresponder that you want to stop.

6. Click the Stop Campaign on the top.

7. Click Ok to confirm.

When you stop an autoresponder, its status changes to Stopped. 

Duplicating an Email Campaign

 You can reuse the details of an email campaign by duplicating it. When you duplicate an email campaign, you must change the email campaign name. 

Follow these steps to duplicate an email campaign:​​​​

1. Log in to the CRM.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.
5. Open an email campaign.

6. Click the More icon in the top-right corner.
7. Click the Duplicate icon.

8. Enter the new email campaign name.
9. Click Save.

This creates a new campaign with the same details as the previous campaign. 
 

Different Statuses of an Email Campaign

Regular email campaigns

The Status field of a regular email campaign can take the following values:

• Draft - When the campaign is created (drafted) but not sent or scheduled
• Sending - When the campaign is sent but is yet to be delivered
• Queued - When the campaign is scheduled
• Completed - When the campaign is successfully sent

Autoresponder email campaigns

The Status field of an autoresponder email campaign can take the following values:

• Draft - When the campaign is created (drafted) but not sent
• Started - When the campaign is started or sent at the selected time
• Stopped - When the campaign is stopped 

Email Campaign Account Details

When you go to Main Menu > Marketing > Email Campaigns, you will see the above information. It contains details about your email campaign plan, credits, subscription status, and renewal date.

Plan

Vtiger CRM offers different plans for email campaign credits. If you send email campaigns every month and your free credits are insufficient, you can opt for another plan.
For example, one Vtiger plan is to pay $100 and purchase 50,000 credits.

What is the Free Plan 
The Free Plan for email credits provides 10,000 credits. However, if you have signed up for a free trial or are newly subscribed to Vtiger CRM, then you are allowed only ten email credits. You do not have to pay for these email credits. 
Note: Click the Change Plan button to choose a plan and pay accordingly.

Credits

Email campaign credits are the number of email addresses you can reach with a single email campaign. For example, if you have 100 credits, you can send an email campaign to 100 email addresses. Here are more details about email credits:

Available vs. Allowed credits

• Available credits are the total email campaign credits that you have.
• Allowed credits are the number of email campaign credits you are currently allowed.

Email Campaign Subscriptions

When your plan payment is complete, your email campaign subscription is Active. Otherwise, it becomes Inactive.
If you want to activate/deactivate your email campaign subscription, you can contact [email protected]. 
 

Canceling Email Campaign Subscriptions

Follow these steps to cancel or close your Vtiger email campaign subscription:

1. Log in to the CRM.
2. Click User Profile (on the top right).
3. Go to Billing. The Billing page opens.
4. Go to the Email Marketing Plan block.
5. Click Cancel Subscription.

Your email campaign subscription will be canceled.

Credits renewal date

This is the date when you must renew your email campaign credits. The subscription becomes Inactive if you do not renew your credits by this date. 

Viewing Campaign Metrics

 You can find an email campaign’s metrics in the campaign record.

Follow these steps to see the email campaign metrics:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.
5. Open an email campaign.

 

You can see the campaign metrics on the right hand side. They give you the following details:

• Sent - Number of emails sent through the campaign 
• Opens - Number of unique opens
• Clicks - Number of click actions (on any link) in the email 
• Bounces - Number of emails that have bounced
• Unsubscribes - Number of recipients who have unsubscribed from the email campaign
• Complaints - Number of emails that were reported as spam  
• Unopened -1 Number of unopened emails

Viewing Email Campaign Reports

 To view the details of the contacts to whom you have sent the campaign, contacts who have opened the campaign, etc., you can use Reports in Email Campaigns.

• Email Campaign reports will display module header fields, existing fields, and related data.
• You will now be able to:
  • Sort, rearrange, add, or delete fields, that are present in the Email Campaign metric reports.
  • Verify reports for email campaigns with these parameters - Click, Open, Sent, Bounce, Unopened, Unsubscribed, and Complaints.
  • You can now view the bounce reason for bounced emails in your email campaign reports.
  • Email campaign reports will display the Bounce Reason (for both Hard and Soft bounces) under the Bounce List.
  • Report downloads will also display the reason for the bounce.

Follow these steps to view and download email campaign reports:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Marketing.
4. Select Email Campaigns.
5. Open an email campaign.

6. Click a number under Campaign Metrics. For example, click the number under Sent. You will see the Reports page.

7. Click the downward arrow on the top-left of the report columns to view different reports.

 

8. Click Download to download the selected report. 

Disabling Download Report 

The download Report option is disabled as the data is accessible to all the users. This will cause security issues. This option is enabled by default to all users. The admins can enable or disable the option based on the users.

Viewing Customer Touchpoints

 When you send out an email campaign and enable email tracking, you can get updates about the recipients’ activities on the emails. These updates are available under the Activity section of a contact’s Summary View. 

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. Open a contact record.

6. Click Filters in the Activity section.
7. Tick the Email Campaigns checkbox under Customer Touchpoints.

You will see updates such as when the contact opened your email, clicked a link in your email, etc., in the Activity section. 

Viewing a Contact’s Email Campaign History

 Follow these steps to view the list of email campaigns sent to a contact:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. Open a contact record.

6. Look for the List and Campaigns tab on the right sidebar of the contact’s Summary View.

You will find the following information:

• Email List Subscription - Displays the marketing lists from which the contact has subscribed or unsubscribed.
• Campaign History - Displays the email campaigns sent to the contact and the date they were sent. 
  • Engagement Level is the overall engagement of the subscribers on the email campaign.  

Troubleshooting Tips

Microsoft Outlook does not correctly display images in emails when they are sent in HTML format for other email clients, such as Gmail, Windows Mail, Yahoo Mail, etc.

Syntax that works in other email clients:

Syntax that works in all email clients, including outlook:

The Style tag does not work in Microsoft Outlook. So, you must use the Align, Width, and Height attributes separately in your code.

Note: You can perform CRUD operations on email campaigns using web services.