Encouragement Email Marketing


Introduction

Encouragement was specifically designed to send email campaigns to your Joomla site users easier than ever before. We've worked hard to make this extension a reality and to provide everything you'll need to be successful with our software (including excellent documentation as well as a support forum).

However, if you've purchased one of our extensions and can't find what you need here, then please contact support and we'll be happy to help you. Premium support is only for our paid users and it includes professional, hands-on help with solving any kind of issue imaginable relating to our software.


Installation

In order to enjoy the full benefits of Encouragement Email Marketing please make sure to follow the install instructions completely as they are laid out below. Many problems can be avoided by doing so.

Install each of the following extensions using standard Joomla! installation procedure (Extensions -> Extension Manager -> Install). After all extensions have been installed, make sure to enable the plugins from the plugin manager.

  • com_encouragement-v-2.7.zip - Encouragement Email Marketing Component v2.7 - the brains of the operation
  • plg_joomlasales_htmleditor-v-1.1.zip - Template HTML Editor v1.1 - powers the administrator template editor
  • plg_encouragementrunner-v-1.1.zip - Encouragement Runner Plugin v1.1 - run scheduling in lieu of server-side cron jobs
  • mod_encouragementsubscribe-v-1.1.zip - Encouragement Subscribe Form Module v1.1 - let users subscribe directly to one of your lists

Walkthrough

Campaigns

The campaigns area ties everything together. A campaign is made up of a Template (email content), a List (email list) and Scheduling (either recurring or one-time).

add campaign
Click the 'add campaign' button in the top right side of the page. Give the campaign a Name, Subject Line, select which Template you wish to use, select which List you want to use, and set the Scheduling for the campaign.
edit campaign
Click the campaign's name to edit the campaign. Make sure the campaign has a Name, Subject Line, Template, List and Scheduling.
remove
Click the grey 'x' icon on the right side of each campaign item row in the main campaign list and confirm that you wish to permanently remove the item.
publishing
Click the red or green icon in the published column to publish and unpublish a campaign item.
search
Use the search bar to search for campaigns by their Name.

Templates

The templates area is where you can easily create email content from one of 11 templates.

add template
Click the 'add template' button in the top right side of the page. Make sure the template has a Name and some content.
edit template
Click the template's name to edit the template. Make sure the template has a Name and some content.
remove
Click the grey 'x' icon on the right side of each template item row in the main template list and confirm that you wish to permanently remove the item.
publishing
Click the red or green icon in the published column to publish and unpublish a template item.
search
Use the search bar to search for templates by their Name.

Lists

The lists area is where you can create a list of email addresses which you want to send emails. Lists can be populated by Integration, Manual Entry, Subscribe Module, or CSV Import.

add list
Click the 'add campaign' button in the top right side of the page. Give the campaign a Name, Subject Line, select which Template you wish to use, select which List you want to use, and set the Scheduling for the campaign.
edit list
Click the lists name to edit the list. This will take you to not only edit list information but to manage list subscribers. From here you can subscribe/unsubscribe list subscribers, add, remove, import subscribers.
remove
Click the grey 'x' icon on the right side of each list item row in the main list list and confirm that you wish to permanently remove the item.
search
Use the search bar to search for lists by their Name.

Reports

The reports area shows a list of mailings that have been sent out. Each time a campaign is sent we record a mailing for that campaign so we can store email statistics (open, click, unsubscribe) for that particular mailing instance of the campaign.

view
Click the 'view' link from the right side of the reports list. This will take you to view crucial report data displayed in a stunning interface complete with key performance metrics and charts.
filter by date
Use the datepicker to select a date and the filter will show only mailings that were sent on that date.
filter by campaign
Select a campaign and the filter will show only mailings from that campaign.
filter by list
Select a list and the filter will show only mailings from that list.
filter by template
Select a template and the filter will show only mailings from that template.

Settings

toggle cron message
Turn the main cron message on or off.
from name
The email from name.
from email
The from email address.
reply to name
The name that will be replied to when user hits reply.
reply to email
The email address that will be replied to when user hits reply.
copyright string
The site copyright information which will be inserted into your templates at send time.
business address
The business address which will be inserted into your templates at send time. This is required to be in all promotional/commercial emails according to CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
batch size
The amount of emails per batch. Emails are batched for maximum deliverability.
batch wait time
The time between batch sending. Once we've reached the end of the batch we wait a specified amount of time before resuming sending.

Getting Started

The first thing to consider after getting Encouragement installed on your site is how you want to go about running the Scheduling/Recurring email feature. There are two ways to do this (1) via cron job or (2) via plg_encouragement_runner-v-1.1-j3.x.zip plugin. Not all hosting plans allow you to run cron jobs which is why we've provided two methods.

1st Method: Cron Scheduling

Encouragement uses a cron job to run scheduling. However if your hosting can't run cron jobs then there is also a plugin, plg_encouragement_runner-v-1.1-j3.x.zip which can run scheduling in place of traditional cron jobs. If this pertains to you then skip down to the next section titled '2nd Method: Plugin Scheduling'. If your hosting does support cron jobs, you can create a new cron job from within your hosting control panel. This is the preferred method to run the scheduling & recurring email feature. After you have set up the cron job you can turn off the cron message in the Encouragement component from the 'Settings' area.

Setup

1. Enter your hosting control panel and search for the icon titled 'Cron Jobs' it's usually located under the 'Advanced' setion.

2. Click into the 'Cron Jobs' and you should see an interface similar to the image below

3. Select the once per minute choice, this is what the * * * * * stands for. Each minute the cron checks to see if there are any campaigns that need be sent out. If not the cron is over. If there are campaigns that need to be sent then they are executed and sent out.

4. Paste the command into the bottom 'Command' field. The string is below for your convenience:

wget --post-data 'option=com_encouragement&task=Encouragement.runner' -O /dev/null http://yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_encouragement&task=Encouragement.runner
If you're copying the command from here, don't forget to change the yoursite.com to the domain of your website.

2nd Method: Plugin Scheduling

Make sure the plugin, plg_encouragement_runner-v-1.1-j3.x.zip has been installed and enabled as was described in the above Installation section. This is all you need to do for the 2nd method. If the plugin is installed and enabled you are done with getting started and you're ready to create your first campaign!


Your First Campaign

Before you can create and send a campaign you need to have some email content to send (Template) and some people to send the email to (List). Let's start by creating a Template.

1. Creating a Template

a) Click the 'add template' button in the top right corner of the screen.

b) Give the template a name and select a premade Layout. Even if you prefer to code your own email select the 'Code Your Own' layout because this selection will make sure that crucial email details are added to the footer of your email. Details such as why the recipient is on the list, business address, copyright string, and unsubscribe link are added to all Templates at send time.

c) Make any needed edits to your Template from this side-by-side editor view.

d) Tip: Click the expand icon at the top right of the editor to enable a full screen view.

e) After you're done editing your template click the green 'Save Template' button.

2. Creating a List

a) Click the 'add list' button in the top right corner of the screen.

b) Give the list a Name.

c) Enter a reminder for why the subscriber is on the list (this is placed in emails at send time).

c) Choose your method of list population. You can either 'Import list from CSV', 'Import list from Integration' or 'Import Later'.

List Population

CSV
Upload a CSV file with your subscriber's Names and Email Addresses.
Integration
Select one of the integration components () and an associated 'group' to automatically populate your list with users whose data is already in your database somewhere. Why export and format CSV's and go through that trouble if all the users are in your Registered users group of your Joomla User Manager? That's why we created import from Integration.
Import Later
Just create the list itself for now and we can worry about list population later. After you've created your list you can always add subscribers manually or via any of the above import methods. Multiple integrations can also be used within the same list allowing you to dynamically segment your users for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
Creating a new list
Edit list information and manage subscribers.

3. Creating a Campaign

a) Click the 'add campaign' button in the top right corner of the screen.

b) Give the campaign a name, select a list, template and set the scheduling.

Create your campaign and give the campaign a name, select a list, template and set the scheduling.

4. Testing the Campaign

Enter an email address to send a test email address before you send for real.

5. Sending the Campaign

a) When you're ready, you can send the campaign. If you have the campaign scheduled then there is nothing else you need to do but wait for the scheduled time to occur. If your campaign isn't published then it won't send once the scheduled send time occurs. If you want the mailing to send, then the campaign must be published.

b) If you want to send the campaign right now and bypass scheduling, then simply click the envelope icon from the campaign list next under the 'Send' column next to the campaign you wish to send out. Doing so will send your campaign.

The campaign was just successfully sent. Let's check my inbox.
The email in my inbox.
The email template contents in my inbox.

6. Viewing Email Report

a) Now that your campaign has been sent, a mailing has been recorded in the reports area. We store vital open, click and unsubscribe data for each mailing.

a) Click 'view' next to the mailing you wish to view. We're going to view the mailing we just sent out to see if anyone has opened it yet.

The mailing we just sent out. Click 'view' to view reporting.
The reporting interface. I was the only person to open the mailing.

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