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Manage Email Deliveries Overview
Email Deliverability Rates and How Fast Does PDI Send Emails
What Happens When Someone Unsubscribes From my Email
Understanding Email Opt-In Status
Introduction
The Send Emails page is where you can schedule your Email Messages for delivery. Emails can be delivered immediately, or scheduled for a later date and time. Emails that have been scheduled for a later date and time can be canceled at any time before the delivery time, while emails that have been scheduled to deliver immediately cannot. This section features instructions on sending a singular email, along with A/B testing. Click here for tips on improving your email.
- To access the Send Emails page, hover the mouse over the Outreach section of the Navigation Menu, click on Emailing, then click on Send Emails.
Manage Email Deliveries Overview
The Email Deliveries page provides a number of options you can use to review your email delivery.
The first option is reviewing the Email Message itself. This is done by clicking on the name of the email in the Distribution column.
The second is reviewing a list of recipients. This is done by clicking on the number in the recipients column.
The third is reviewing the statistics for how well your email fared. This is done by clicking on the View Stats link in the Actions column.
The statistics include:
- Messages Sent – Total number of emails sent.
- Transient Bounces – These include temporary errors but the email is still good.
- Consumption Candidates – Email which could have reached their recipient but cannot be confirmed.
- Mobile Reads – Read from mobile device or confirmed forwards.
- Verified Reads – Indicates we know they read the email.
- Automatic Trackbacks – Tracks the total number of opens.
- Messages Received At Least One Click – Confirmed click on email links.
- Spam Complaints – Email forwarded to SPAM compliance.
- Forwards to a Friend – Forwarded to a Friend.
- Unsubscribes – Requested to Unsubscribe.
My Email Message Statistics Seem Skewed
There are many potential reasons why your universe/list count and email statistics do not match exactly. Sometimes, emails can take a while to send and be received by all the ISPs and incoming servers. Are the majority of the email message recipients in the list/universe at the same domain? If so, it’s possible the domain admin may be quarantining the message in their incoming spam filter. Also, it’s good to read our email best practices guide to ensure the email message is designed with a great subject line and content to encourage opens. There are also certain domains we do not send emails to, for example, .gov email domains.
Email Deliveries Overview
The Standard Email Delivery is for sending out a basic email featuring a singular subject line and email profile to your recipients. To setup an email delivery, click on the Schedule a Delivery button. A dialog box will appear with the following options.
- Delivery Name – The name of the email delivery. This is the way you will reference the delivery of the email throughout the program.
- Use Email Profile – The email profile that will be used as the sender of the email message.
- Use Email Message – The email message that you will send to your recipients.
- Email Subject – This field will autofill when you select your email message. You cannot change this field in the Manage Email Deliveries page. If you want to change the email subject line, you will need to resave your universe.
- Send to Voter Saved Universe – Select a saved Voter Universe for identifying Voters who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to People Universe and Send to Merged List options.
- Send to People Saved Universe – Select a saved Person Universe for identifying People who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to Voter Universe and Send to Merged List options.
- Send to Merged List – Select a saved Specialty List identifying Contacts who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to Voter Universe and Send to People Universe options.
- Add My Seed List – Select a saved Specialty List identifying Seed Lists Contacts who should receive the email.
- Make Exclusions - Displays 3 additional drop-down menus allowing you to exclude individuals in Voter universes, People universe, and merged list from receiving your email
- Exclude People From Voter Saved Universe – Select a saved Voter Universe for identifying Voters who should NOT receive the email.
- Exclude People From People Saved Universe – Select a saved Contact Universe for identifying People who should NOT receive the email.
- Exclude People From Merged List – Select a saved Merged List identifying People who should NOT receive the email.
- Send Now - Schedule the email for delivery immediately after pressing the Save button.
- Schedule to Send Later - Allows you to schedule the email delivery for a later date and time.
- Date – If you selected Later, you will need to enter a Date when this email should be distributed.
- Time – If you selected Later, you will need to enter a Time when this email should be distributed.
Sending and Scheduling a Standard Email
- Click the Schedule a Delivery button.
- Use the Delivery Name textbox to assign a name to the email. This is the way you will reference your email delivery throughout the program.
- Use the Use Email Profile drop-down menu to select the email profile that will be used to send the email.
- Use the Use Email Message drop-down menu to select the email message that you would like to send.
- Use at least one of the three Send To drop-down menus (Voter Saved Universe, People Saved Universe, or Merged List) to select who should receive your email.
- (Optional) Use the Add My Seed List drop-down menu to select a seed list of individuals that will receive a copy of the email.
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(Optional) Activate the Make Exclusions checkbox if there are people from your Send To selections that you would like to remove from receiving the email.
- (Optional) Use one of the three drop-down menus in the Exclude People From section to select (Voter Saved Universe, People Saved Universe, or Merged List) to select who you would like to exclude from receiving your email.
- If you would like to send the email at a later date or time, activate the Schedule to Send Later radio button.
- Use the Date text box to select a date for the email delivery.
- Use the Time text box to set the time the email will be sent.
- Click the Save button.
A/B Testing Overview
If you are a sophisticated email sender, you may be familiar with the A/B testing process. A/B testing allows you to send several test batches of emails using multiple Profiles, Messages, and Subjects to identify the most successful version based on Read or Click rate. This may sound complicated, but, in PDI, the program does most of the work.
To use A/B testing, click on the Schedule a Delivery button and activate the Send with A/B Testing. This process is similar to the regular sending process, except the A/B Deliveries options allows you enter up to three options for Profiles, Messages, and Subjects. You will also need to select your Delivery Sample Size and your Test Metric. Once the testing process has identified the winner based on the Test Metric field selection, the rest of your email universe will be sent an email with the winning combination of Profile, Message, and Subject.
For example, the above parameters would take a 10% sample of the total email universe and run the following variations:
- Candidate (Profile) + Message with Endorsements (Message) + We can do better (Subject)
- Candidate (Profile) + Message with Endorsements (Message) + The right time for change (Subject)
- Candidate (Profile) + Message with Endorsements (Message) + Change for the better (Subject)
- Candidate (Profile) + Message without Endorsements (Message) + We can do better (Subject)
- Candidate (Profile) + Message without Endorsements (Message) + The right time for change (Subject)
- Candidate (Profile) + Message without Endorsements (Message) + Change for the better (Subject)
The program will determine the best combination base on the Read Rate and send that version to the remaining 90% of the email universe.
Below are a list of the fields in the A/B Testing pop-up:
- Delivery Name – The name of the email delivery. This is the way you will reference the delivery of the email throughout the program.
- Test Profiles – Allows you to select the multiple email profiles that you will use for your A/B testing.
- Test Messages – Allows you to select the multiple email messages you will send for your A/B testing.
- Test Subjects – This field will autofill when you select your email message. You can remove an autofilled subject by clicking the X button, or add your own custom subject lines by typing in the box and pressing the enter key once you are finished.
- Delivery Sample Size (%) - Determines the sample size that will be used to run the test. The remaining individuals will receive the winning combination.
- Test Metric - Determines the metric that will be used to determine the winning email. Note: Manual selection will allow you to select the winning email.
- Send to Voter Saved Universe – Select a saved Voter Universe for identifying Voters who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to People Universe and Send to Merged List options.
- Send to People Saved Universe – Select a saved Person Universe for identifying People who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to Voter Universe and Send to Merged List options.
- Send to Merged List – Select a saved Specialty List identifying Contacts who should receive the email. You may use this field in combination with the Send to Voter Universe and Send to People Universe options.
- Add My Seed List – Select a saved Specialty List identifying Seed Lists Contacts who should receive the email.
- Make Exclusions - Displays 3 additional drop-down menus allowing you to exclude individuals in Voter universes, People universe, and merged list from receiving your email
- Exclude People From Voter Saved Universe – Select a saved Voter Universe for identifying Voters who should NOT receive the email.
- Exclude People From People Saved Universe – Select a saved Contact Universe for identifying People who should NOT receive the email.
- Exclude People From Merged List – Select a saved Merged List identifying People who should NOT receive the email.
- Send Now - Schedule the email for delivery immediately after pressing the Save button.
- Schedule to Send Later - Allows you to schedule the email delivery for a later date and time.
- Date – If you selected Later, you will need to enter a Date when this email should be distributed.
- Time – If you selected Later, you will need to enter a Time when this email should be distributed.
Setting up an A/B Testing Email
- Click the Schedule a Delivery button.
- Activate the Send with A/B Testing checkbox.
- Use the Delivery Name textbox to assign a name to the email. This is the way you will reference your email delivery throughout the program.
- Use the Test Profiles textbox to enter in the profile/s that will send the test emails.
- Use the Test Messages textbox to enter in the email/s that will be sent.
- Use the Test Subjects textbox to enter in the subject lines that will be sent out with your emails.
- Use the Delivery Sample Size (%) drop-down menu to select the percentage of individuals in your universe/s and or list who should receive the test emails.
- Use the Test Metric drop-down menu to select the metric that will be used to determine the winning combination.
- Use the 3 drop down menus in the Send To (Select at least one) section to select the universe/s and/or list that will receive the email.
- (Optional) Use the Add My Seed List drop-down menu to select a seed list of individuals that will receive a copy of the email.
- (Optional) Use the 3 drop down menus in the Exclude People From section to select the universe/s and/or list that should be removed from receiving the email.
- If you would like to send the email at a later date or time, activate the Schedule to Send Later radio button.
- Use the Date text box to select a date for the email delivery.
- Use the Time text box to set the time the email will be sent.
- Click the Save button.
Email Deliverability Rates and How Fast Does PDI Send Emails
The time it takes to deliver your email message to your entire list depends on the size of your list/universe. Additionally, deliverability rates can vary from day to day and hour to hour, depending on the current mail queue at PDI as well as each of your recipient’s system.
What Happens When Someone Unsubscribes From my Email
When a recipient on your list declines to receive further communications, it’s called an unsubscribe. CAN-SPAM and anti-spam laws require email service providers (ESPs) like PDI to have an unsubscribe process in place.
All the emails sent through the PDI come with a unsubscribe link the lower left hand corner of the email. We require this in all the email templates and the unsubscribe link is included automatically. If you accidentally delete the unsubscribe link, one will be added automatically to the email upon sending.
If someone does unsubscribe from the email list, they will be brought to the page below.
Understanding Email Opt-In Status
Like most email sending programs, the PDI Email Module has very specific guidelines regarding the type of emails that are acceptable to use in our program. By accepting the Terms of Use for using the PDI Email Module, you are agreeing to only send emails under the following conditions:
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People with an “Opt-In” or “Confirmed Opt-In” email status – An opt-in email address (or “single opt-in”) is where the person owning the email address has an existing relationship with your organization and has given their consent to receive future email communications. This could be through web based or in-person sign-up forms, previous support activity (such as donations, event attendance, membership, or volunteering), or other personal relationships.
Confirmed opt-in (or “double opt-in”) is a more specific method of obtaining permission to send emails. It is also a preferred method of many internet service providers (ISPs). Confirmed opt-in requires the owner of an email address to respond to an email confirmation request. - People with a Voter File Email address for the purpose of voter advocacy on behalf of a political campaign or issue advocacy organization. If you are not sure if your organization qualifies under this condition, please review your PDI account subscription agreement.
PDI does not allow the use of rented lists, lists obtained from third parties or associations, or lists that have been appended. We reserve the right to terminate your email delivery services if these conditions are not fulfilled.
Companies that provide software to manage personal or business email accounts, such as Google, Outlook, and AOL, work hard to identify and remove emails that may be unwanted or even harmful to their users. Sending emails from a rented list where you have no prior relationship with the target recipients will have negative consequences for you as the sender and the email sending platform from which you are using.
If your contact data is clean and accurate, you will experience a higher delivery rate (avoiding SPAM filters) and better communications with your target recipients.
Effectively communicating by email is an art form that can be a little tricky. The key to success is simple:
- Keep your email list clean and accurate – This will help the deliverability of your entire list.
- Target your lists effectively – Email communications allow you to be very specific with your message. If your messages resonate with readers, they will continue to read them. If they don’t resonate, they may not read the next message.
- Less is more – Keep the message simple. This makes it easier to read and helps avoid spam filters.
- Send smaller lists if possible – Emails are cheap and simple to create. Send more targeted messages to smaller audiences. Again, this will help your delivery and read rates.
- Use A/B testing – Use the A/B testing feature to experiment with different message and subject. You may be surprised with the results.
- Acknowledge feedback – Whether an email recipient communicates favorably or unfavorably to your email, you should always acknowledge the communication by sending appropriate follow messages. If a recipient wants to be removed from your list, you must honor their request immediately.