Email Blaster can be used to contact all patients, or subsets of patients based on preset audiences, e.g. All patients, Workshop registrations, Course enrolments, appointment dates. More audiences will be added over time. 


Important Information before you start: 

  • Email Blaster has a max limit of 500 contacts per campaign, for high volume senders it is not a replacement for dedicated Email Service Providers (ESPs). Email Blaster is a tool to send low volume campaigns based on meeting certain criteria in your patient group.  Big clinics with large patient numbers doing monthly newsletters will want to keep their ESP, e.g. MailChimp, MailerLite or ActiveCampaign.
  • Email Blaster cannot be used if you are also connected to ActiveCampaign or the legacy Mailerlite.
  • Email Blaster, as with many ESPs, sends campaigns in batches for optimum performance. This means that sending a campaign to 100 people will take ~ 20 minutes to process the entire campaign. 
  • Some email providers will throttle delivery. This means once your campaign has been sent, the recipients email provider may decide to delay the delivery of emails, which is outside of our control. 
  • Email Blaster is not able to send a series of emails. 
  • Remember to send a test email and check any links before sending the campaign. Merge tags and unsubscribe links do not work in test emails. 



On this page: 

  • Manage Blast List 
  • Start an Email Blast
  • Examples of Audience selections
  • Build Email 
  • Save Email
  • Send Test Email
  • Confirm & Send Email
  • Clone a Blast
  • View & Export Blast Recipients
  • Examples of Emails


You can also click on this link to view a quick video demo. 


Manage Blast List


Select Blaster from the left hand main menu -> in the list of blasts, the following is important to note: 


Manage:  

  • Clone -> select the document icon 
  • Delete -> select trash can icon
  • Edit -> select magnifying glass icon 


Statuses: 

  • Draft -> can delete 
  • Sending -> cannot delete
  • Sent -> cannot delete




Start an Email Blast


Step 1. To start your email blast -> select Blaster from the left hand main menu -> select Create -> complete the following the details:

  • Name: this name is only for your reference 
  • Subject: this is the subject field of the email (merge tags do not work in the subject field) 
  • Audience: select an option, e.g. All Clients, Workshops etc 


Please note: The Total Patients number on the right hand side will update based on your Audience selection, this is the total maximum number of patients this email blast campaign can go to. This number may be reduced if some patients are unsubscribed. 


Next are examples of each type of Audience selection, then see further down for how to create an email blast campaign. 




Examples of Audience Selections


Workshop Audience


If you select Workshop from the Audience menu, you will be able to select one of your Workshops from the drop down list - as below. See this article for how to create workshops.



Course Audience


If you select Course from the Audience menu, you will be able to select one of your Courses from the drop down list - as below. See this article for how to create Courses.



Appointment Audience


If you select Appointment from the Audience menu, you will be able to select a date range for patients appointments as below. 


Please note currently only one month can be sent at a time. You can clone a blast and resend for a different month if needed. 




Build Email


Step 2: To Save Campaign & Build Email -> select the button from the bottom right hand corner (as per image below) -> you will then see the email builder screen (see step 3).

 



Step 3: To build the email -> drag the icons from the left hand side menu into the email builder on the right hand side to build your email -> elements will automatically come to the end, move them up or down as needed. This image shows the blank email you will start with, the next image shows how to edit and move each section, see further down for some examples. 

Hover over each section to:

  • move it up or down -> select the arrows on the left hand side of each section
  • edit or delete -> select the pencil icon to edit and the trash can button to delete, both from the right hand side of each section. 




Step 4: To Edit the Email Settings -> click on any section of the email builder on the right: 

  • Email Background Colour: this is the colour of the background of the email, seen as blue below (blue will not show opt out link well) 
  • Content Background Colour: this is the colour for the content block in the middle of the email, seen as white below 




Step 5: To Add or edit images -> drag the image element into the email builder -> hover over the image section to add, edit or delete an image -> select the pencil icon to add or edit an image (600px x 200px is optimal) -> from the sidebar drag the image into the field or click on the link to upload from your computer -> add alternative text for the image (if desired) -> select the alignment. (see next 2 images below)





Step 6: To edit the Title -> drag the Title element into the email builder -> hover over the Title section and select the pencil icon to edit the Title -> from the sidebar select the size of the title -> select the colour -> select the alignment. 


You can use the following merge tags in the Title field: 

  • {{client.first_name}}
  • {{client.last_name}}




Step 7: To add a divider -> drag the divider element into the email builder -> hover over the divider section to delete or move it up or down if needed. No editing is required for the divider. 



Step 8: To add a paragraph -> drag the paragraph element into the email builder -> hover over the paragraph section and select the pencil icon to edit content -> from the sidebar add content (use the drag button at the bottom right of the content window to expand the field) -> select the colour -> select the alignment. 


You can use the following merge tags in the Paragraph field: 

  • {{client.first_name}}
  • {{client.last_name}}



Step 9: To add a button -> drag the button element into the email builder -> hover over the button section and select the pencil icon to edit -> from the sidebar add button text -> remove the # -> add the link -> select the colour (text colour) -> select the background colour -> select the alignment. 


PLEASE MAKE SURE TO REMOVE THE # BEFORE ADDING YOUR LINK




Step 10: To add a spacer -> drag the spacer element into the email builder -> hover over the spacer section to delete or move it up or down if needed. No editing is required for the spacer. 


Step 11: To add social links -> drag the social links element into the email builder -> hover over the social links section and select the pencil icon to edit -> add links or leave empty as needed. 



PLEASE MAKE SURE TO REMOVE THE # BEFORE ADDING YOUR LINK



Save Email


Step 12: Save Email -> select the button -> select the back button to go back to the list of email blasts -> select the magnifying glass to open the email blast to continue editing. 






Send Test Email


Step 13: Test Email -> from the email editor you can select to send a test email using the Test Email button (as per image below). Please note this test email will go to the email address under Business Setup --> Your Clinic --> Email. 


Please check the layout and test all links in your test email before sending your campaign. Merge tags and unsubscribe links do not work in test emails. 



Confirm & Send Email


Remember to send a test email and check any links before sending the campaign. 


Step 14: Confirm & Send Email -> select the Confirm & Send Email button at the bottom right -> a new confirmation window will open (see next image) -> select Send Email button at bottom right -> select OK to confirm you are sure you are ready to send -> blast will now be queued for sending. See images below. 

  • the blast will sit with a status of draft while it is queued
  • the blast will change to a status of sending while it is sending, this will take longer depending on how many patients are in the audience list 
  • the blast will change to a status of sent once all emails have been sent to all the members of the audience 







Clone a Blast


Step 15: To clone a blast -> select the document button (as below) -> this will open a copy of the same blast for you to edit and send. 


Edit the cloned blast as needed and send. 




View and Export Blast Recipients


Step 16: View & Export Blast Recipients -> once a blast has been sent -> click the view icon to view the recipients in a report -> click the CSV Export button to export this list. 




Examples of Emails