sending an email with action network

Please get in touch with the Chapter Secretary or Communications Committee co-chair to arrange for a full Action Network tutorial (can be anywhere from 30-60 minutes)

Action Network is best used from a computer and not a mobile device. All screen-shots and directions are from a computer web-browser.

Some useful pages to have open along with Action Network: the SCDSA Shortened Links doc (bit.ly/SCDSA-ShortenedLinks) and the SCDSA Signature doc (bit.ly/SCDSA-ActionNetworkEmailSignatures)

____

Once in Action Network, click the PEOPLE tab in the Top Toolbar (as shown in the photo) and click Emails.

1 | WRITE

You are in the WRITE portion of making your email (circled in blue). Make sure before you do anything that the switch for Drag & Drop is OFF and it is ON for Visual/HTML (circled in red). This will allow you to write your email as you normally would in any other email client.

Next put in the Administrative Title and Subject of your email (while it says Optional for the admin title, please try to use them so we can more easily find emails.)

If you are writing for a specific SCDSA Committee or Working Group, put that specific email in the REPLY TO area. Otherwise the default reply to will be the main chapter email.

____

As you scroll down make sure the MAIN SCDSA Wrapper is selected (this will be the default, but if it is somehow not selected when you are writing your email, make sure you select it from the drop-down menu in that field.)

Write your email as you normally would.

Adding a Signature

Image 1

Make sure you copy/paste and edit as needed an email signature from the Email Signature Doc at the bottom of your email. After you add the signature make sure your cursor is at the end of the signature (after the rose) and click LINE.

(Image 1)

Image 2

After you've clicked LINE this is what your signature should look like.

(Image 2)

Adding a Link

Highlight the text you want to make into a link, and click the LINK button in the email toolbar and then the INSERT LINK in the drop-down. Now you can put the URL in the box as you normally would.

*If you are trying to make an email address clickable in your email; you will need to add mailto: before the email address (and no space).*

Once you have finished composing your email and keep scrolling down you will see more buttons appear above the blue SAVE AND TARGET YOUR EMAIL button.

If at any point you need to save your email's progress to come back to later, click the SAVE & REFRESH button; you can close out of Action Network and come back to this email draft later.

If you are satisfied with your email and ready to continue, press SAVE AND TARGET YOUR EMAIL button.

2 | target

You are now in the TARGET area of writing/sending an email out. (circled in blue)

If you are sending an email to the general list, make sure that QUERY MODE is OFF. (circled in black)

Wait for the targeting to load (at this time we do not select anything in either the Include or Exclude columns; so you need not even scroll down the page) and for the SAVE, PREVIEW, & SEND button to become clickable (may take a few minutes after you've switched off query mode).

3 | Preview & Send

____

You're now in the PREVIEW & SEND area! You can look over your email for any errors one last time and click into the WRITE button if you spot anything needing correction. Follow the steps 1 and 2 to again get back to this step, 3.

If you are now fully ready to send or schedule your email to send out scroll down until you see the buttons to do so.

You can hit the SEND EMAIL button, but we tend to schedule emails to send out; chapter meeting reminder emails we send out usually 1 week before the chapter meeting (usually scheduled to send at the same time of the meeting) .

Other stand-alone emails from Committees or Working Groups can be scheduled to send out at any time but most engagement (ie. opening emails) tends to be from 12-2pm or in the evening (usually after 5pm).

When you click the SCHEDULE EMAIL button your will then have two buttons, click SEND AT A SPECIFIC TIME and pick your date and time from the drop-down menu that appears. After you've scheduled your email hit the CONFIRM & SCHEDULE button and you've now scheduled your email to go out!

(At anytime in this process you can also hit the SAVE & REFRESH button or you may also see a SAVE DRAFT button at/near the bottom where other buttons are).

Duplicating emails

Sometimes you can just "duplicate" a previously sent email instead of making one from scratch. The screen shots below show our previous "weekly email" campaign but the steps are the same for duplicating any email!

If you are duplicating an email please make sure to update the Administrative Title and the body of the email. (Duplicating emails is really handy for Chapter Meeting Reminder emails)

____

From anywhere in Action Network access the Bottom Toolbar and click Emails.

____

As your scroll down you will see emails that have been sent, emails scheduled to be sent, and emails in draft.

The actions for emails (scheduled and in draft) are the Edit button (for emails that have been sent you will see Manage), the duplicate button, and the stats button (the fourth button is to hide the email, but only the Chapter Secretary or the Comms Co-chair should use this button).

If you had previously saved an email to come back to editing it, you will find it in this list and you can continue editing it by clicking the edit button (similarly if you need to update an email you have scheduled to send out with a last minute additions you can also edit it).

If you are duplicating an email find the specific email and duplicate it. This will open a new tab/window in your browser.

The steps now are the same as writing an email only everything will be filled in already! All you have to do is edit the Administrative Title and change anything that needs to be updated in the body of the email.

Follow steps 1-3 from above and schedule your email to go out!

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse