Send a Single Promotional Email
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the three parts of a campaign.
- Name two CAN-SPAM requirements.
The example marketing effort described in this unit can be accomplished in Salesforce Starter and Marketing Cloud Growth.
One-Time Email Promotion
As the Alternative Energies Expo approaches, the sales and merchandising teams at Ursa Major Solar, a supplier of solar components and systems, are thinking about how to engage the attendees. In addition to staffing their booth in the marketplace, they’re hosting a mixer event on the first evening. To spread the word, they plan to send a one-time email invitation.
Luckily, Ursa Major Solar has just the right digital marketing tools for success. In this module, you see how the team uses Salesforce email marketing, marketing analytics, and marketing automation to achieve its goals.
Plan an Email
Merchandiser Taylor Givens and sales reps Erin Donaghue and Lance Park come together to think about the message they want to send. Here’s what they need.
- Information about the mixer and a draft of the email text.
- Pictures and descriptions of the night’s door prizes.
- Criteria to segment the recipient list.
- Some target KPIs.
Erin wants to reach new leads and current contacts. The team decides to target new leads from the past 90 days and contacts created during the past 3 years. They’ll personalize the message and include a link to a landing page with more information. The team wants to see strong opens and click-throughs.
Review Prerequisites
Before starting, Taylor makes sure they’re all set up. Here’s what to consider before you set up your own email.
- To send promotional emails, you need consent from every recipient. Include a consent column that contains OptIn and OptOut values in your import file, or edit consent on individual records. If the Consent Status field for anyone in your segment is blank, they can’t receive your email.
- To use Einstein Send Time Optimization, someone with the System Administrator profile must enable it on the Einstein for Marketing page in Advanced Setup.
Build and Send an Email
Taylor logs in to Salesforce to create the marketing email. On the Campaigns page, he clicks New, names the marketing campaign AEE Event Invitation, and chooses the Single Email campaign option. The campaign record outlines Taylor’s tasks, which comprise the three parts of his marketing campaign. He’ll target an audience, add content, and set the schedule for the email.
Set Up Email and Schedule Send
The necessary setup is complete and Taylor’s team is ready to start working on their invitation email to people who have opted in. Let’s dig into how it works.
- From the campaign, click Select Audience, and then click New Segment.
- Name the segment Recent Leads and Contacts.
- On the segment canvas, drag two attributes from the Related Attributes section and set the AND/OR selector.
- Lead | Created Date: Last Number of Days = 90
- Account Contact | IsAfter: January 1, 2020
- Selector: OR (1)
- Save the segment, and then return to the campaign record.
- Click Edit Email.
- On the Settings tab, enter information about the email. Use the Add Merge Field button to add the recipient’s First Name to the subject line.
- Title: AEE Event Invitation
- Description: Invitation email for AEE mixer event
- Message Purpose: Promotional
- Subject Line: Mix it up with us, {$unifiedIndividual.ssot__FirstName__c}
- Preheader: Kick off AEE right with tapas, drinks, and door prizes from Ursa Major Solar.
- In the draft email, click a component to edit text or replace images or add components as needed. (Watch examples in this video playlist)
💡 Tips:
- To personalize content in a paragraph or heading, click the merge field button { }, select Unified Individual, and then choose the value to include, such as First Name.
- Add a paragraph block to the footer of your email, and make sure it includes the Physical Address and Unsubscribe Link merge fields, which are required to meet CAN-SPAM regulations.
- Customize the default styles for the entire email or in specific components.
- In the Style panel, switch the Color Scheme to Custom, and try setting the background to another color. The colors update for all of the components in the email. To revert, go to Color Scheme and select Inherited Color Scheme.
- To review the design or send yourself a test email, click Preview.
- To save the message and add it to the campaign, click Publish.
Don’t worry, publishing the email doesn’t send it yet!
- Back on the campaign record, click Schedule.
- Enter 12:30 AM on July 10, 2023, in US Pacific Time.
- Turn on Einstein Send Time Optimization, and then enter 72 hours in the timeframe field.
- Click Save Schedule.
- Back on the campaign record, check your work and then click Activate.
The invitation segment is refreshed overnight on July 9, and emails begin queuing for send at 12:30 AM. Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO) identifies an ideal time for each recipient to receive the email, and sends it at that time. Over the next 3 days, Ursa Major’s targeted leads and contacts receive invitations at a time that works best for them.
Invitation Outcome
Leading up to the event, Taylor monitors engagement on the AEE Event Invitation marketing campaign by checking the Performance tab on the campaign record. Personalizing the subject line and using STO seems to have boosted open rates, and the click-throughs are looking good.
During the event, a handful of guests tell Erin and Lance that they had more than one event that night, but chose Ursa Major’s mixer because of the door prizes that were promoted! Taylor meets some walk-ins who aren’t in their database, and asks them to sign up for future promotional emails.
Resources
- Salesforce Help: Promote Your Business with Salesforce Starter
- Salesforce Help: Marketing Cloud Growth
- Video: Tour Starter Marketing
- Video Playlist: Customizing Emails