Sending Mass Emails

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Admin-tutorial for basic functions of the system admin, like manually register users.
Country Admin for more advanced options to manage sessions

Email-tab

There is also the email tab. It gives you several options to select emails from:

Mailinglists, select one or more, as available in our system
Filter sessions, set the dates and click on filter sessions
Select Sessions, you can hold the CTRL key and select sessions with the mouse to select multiple sessions
Export address CSV, instead of sending an email through the system, you can also export the data to a CSV spreadsheet.
Enter emails separated by comma. Copy / paste from an existing list, there should be no new lines in the list. Make sure all emails are valid, as mistakes will not properly indicated and may stop the process.

NEW:

When you want to send out to your mailing-list, we recommend you click on all locations as described at 1.) and the export the list as CSV as described on 4.) above. Now open the CSV list in your computer and copy all email addresses into the recipient field, just like this.

The reason is, that if you just click on the mailing-list as under 1.) and send directly, certain emails will be filtered out. (probably all that did not explicitly click on agree, when asked, if they want to get newsletter. This may include many older subscribers!!)

Of course, you can choose any of the above options, or combine several, but generally speaking you are likely to use only one of the options. For example, you maybe on location, and anything regarding the Darshans changes, so you want to inform the people of a given session, in this case select only the sessions (3) and best filter them by date (2), so you can find them more easily.

For the unsubscribe link, we have this code: unsubscribeURL so this should be in the link, without http:// !! (Word always adds this, so always check this before sending out!) In case you forget to do this, our system will automatically add an unsubcribe link in 3 languages (English, German, French) by default. Here you have a chance to determine the look and feel for thisn option yourself. It might be usefull, before sending a mass-email, to send out a single mail to yourself first, so enter your own email, before selecting sessions or mailing-lists for a test. When you are satisfied, send out all.

NEW:

After determening the number per hour (usually 1000 is safe), and you click on send, it will send 1000 per hour spread out equally during that time!

You will be automatically directed to a page showing you the progress report. There are also buttons to stop or pause the sending. You can always access this page if you click on email and then on mailing. From this page you can access the email tab by clicking on email. After the system has switched to the progress tab, there is no need to keep this tab / window open.

For example, if you have 10.000 emails to send, you can enter all the 10.000 email addresses into the recipient field, line separated or comma separated, press send, and the system will send the 10.000 emails at a rate of 1000 per hour. You can close your computer, and open it after 10 hours, click on email and the mailing, to see the progress.

If you want to first send a test mail to yourself, in order to get back to the email tab, go back the history two times, and you will have to re-format it, and maybe add again, the subject line and reply-to.

Sender Address

You can chose a sender address. Regarding choosing a sender, here comes the issue:

We have been white-labeling our domain from where we send emails, which is @mmdarshan.de. We can make any number of emails or aliases under this domain, like any-location@mmdarshan.de , and then redirect it to the email you want, for example MMTeam.mylocation@gmail.com , or info@mydomain.com .

This white labeling is very important, so that emails arrive properly, and we have only recently succeeded in doing it, so this works well. The email compose window makes HTML emails, and you can prepare in word or take it from a website, so you can also use images, and you should remote link images.

The protocols that are important in this context are called SPF and DKIM . While DKIM is taken care of by Sendgrid itself, the email address, or a whole domain for email addresses have been first given authorization that Sendgrid is a valid sender for the email address. This has been done by us for the domain mmdarshan.de. If you do not enter the correct values and authorization from sendgrid into your email domain SPF, you will be blocked by many email providers and downgraded or regarded as SPAM by others. Test your configuration by sending an email here . Make sure you achieve a high value. For example using a non authorized Reply-to will also downgrade your email. Using only HTML and not also text will also lower your score.

User Import

We do not recommend this function, it is complicated, and not in alignment with the GDPR rules which are now in-build into our system. It is mentioned here for completeness

There is still a function to import old mailing lists, and make everybody automatically a user, which is not in any menu or link, it is here http://registration.mothermeera.com/admin/userimport and expects a comma separated list, you have to paste into the field.

We initially used this as a way to send out mass-emails, following the process described above, selecting then the mailing-list in the email tab. But we do not recommend this process any more for three reasons:

You end up sending the double amount of emails, as you first send an import confirmation, and then send out the invitation.
People receive two emails, which is confusing.
People are being send a password to login. In other words, we do not give them the option to choose a password right from the beginning. Passwords sent out this way are usually cryptic, and some letters can be confused, so people may have trouble to login. They will also not remember such a password easily. Even though, anybody can change their password under profile, many do not know or do not do this. It just adds an extra layer of complication.

Therefore, we do not recommend the user-import function, if you start anew with our system, and are migrating from an older system. It is still worth considering using this function in one particular case:

After following the process below, I invite people directly to sign-up as users, without importing them, the people will become users, and by making reservations, will also be added to the mailing-list automatically. But some may not have done so. If you want not to lose these people, you could import them with their names, the email, and the location for which you want to add them. Make sure that an appropriate confirmation letter is installed on our system - it requires a system build for the whole system, which is a complicated process! So check back with us, before doing so.

Conclusion:

The following is just a suggestion. You may find this to be too complicated, and of course you are free to do it your own way.

Send out two separate email versions: one for USERS, one for NON-USERS. Compare our lists in our system, with your old lists. Determine those who are already users in our list, and those who aren’t. Create two separate CSV files one for users and one for non-users. If you start out the list of non-users will be much larger than the users. Send a slightly separate email to each group. We have a common ’landing page’ giving all details and also a tutorial. The tutorial part starts here: Reservation-Guide

“Darshan are free, but reservations are required. To book darshan use the new reservation system. All the necessary information can be found here .” (this part is the same, for user and non-user)

For NON-USERS you continue:

“For a direct link to register, click here >”

(make this bold, the link given is this: http://registration.mothermeera.com/booking/register) . People who are NO-USERS will DIRECTLY land on the new user registration page, WITHOUT having to click one more time at the login page!! So the possibility for confusion is less. After submitting, they can directly choose Darshan sessions and register!

For USERS, you give a different link. First you tell them that they are Users, you know it:

“If you have received this email directly from us, you are already a registered user. You just have to log-in here >”

(this is the link, the login page: http://registration.mothermeera.com/booking )

Now you add a text for password-retrieval:

“If you have forgotten your password, click here> and enter your email address.”

(It is this link: http://registration.mothermeera.com/booking/reset _password)

This is the main thing, that the people are directed to the section, without having to think what to do. Of course, we give the general overview tutorial first as a link.