HOG[SCAN] Mailer - Update an Existing Template

General notes, terminology and policies

Raleigh HOG uses the mailer to periodically send campaigns to our members. Generally the campaigns we send are; Newsletter announce - sent once a month when the newsletter is published Monthly meeting reminder - sent once a month on the Monday before the Thursday meeting LoH Monthly meeting reminder - sent once a month on the Monday before the Thursday meeting Weekly ride reminder, aka Upcoming events - sent each Wednesday for the upcoming weekend ride(s) and/or events

• Please note, although certain steps may be specific to the Raleigh NC Chapter website, the overall steps should be generic enough that other chapters using HOG[SCAN] can follow along with only slight modifications.
• This environment is different than the website. There is only one, shared, account that is used for logging in. Do NOT change the Email or the Password.
• For the purposes of this tutorial, a campaign is what was previously called an 'email blast'.
• In this tutorial the Navagational Bar is referred to as the navbar.
  • Every website has a navbar. It normally appears at the top of the page or on the left side of the page. As a user clicks links in the navbar to go to different pages within the website, the navbar retains its position making it easy for the user to navigate to other pages within the website.

1. The Monthly Chapter Meeting template contains sensitive information, the link to join the Zoom meeting as well as the Meeting ID and Passcode
   • This information should never be posted in the event calendar where it can be accessed by anyone in the world. It is only shared with current chapter members through the campaign.
2. There are currently four groups that Raleigh HOG sends a campaign to. They are;
   • Current Members - all current members of Raleigh HOG. This group is used to send a campaign to all members. E.g., monthly meeting announcement, newsletter announcement, weekly upcoming events
     • Note - The Current Members group contains the LoH, Road Captains and Chapter Officers groups. It is all encompassing.
   • LoH - current members of Ladies of Harley. This group is used to send a campaign that is only meant for the Ladies of Harley. E.g., LoH monthly meeting announcement, LoH party or activity such as their Christmas party or Myrtle Beach weekend
   • Road Captains - current Road Captains. This group is used to send a campaign that is meant only for Road Captains. E.g. A pre-ride that is on the Road Captain's calendar if we ever take advantage of it.
   • Chapter Officers - the six (6) elected chapter officers. This group is used to send a campaign that is meant only for the elected officers.

• This tutorial covers updating an existing template and sending a campaign. You can click the respective link to jump to a specific section;
  • Update an Existing Template
  • Send a Campaign

Update an Existing Template

1. Login to the shared account for HOG[SCAN] Mailer. As this is shared do NOT change the Email or Password. Reference image below
2. After a successful login you will see the navbar on the left listing all that can be done with the HOG[SCAN] Mailer. This tutorial is only concerned with Campaigns and Templates. Everything else is out of scope for this tutorial. Referencing the image below, click Campaigns in the navbar to expand the dropdown to choose either All Campaigns or Email Templates.
3. Prior to sending a campaign it is necessary to prepare the template we want to send.Referencing the image below, click Campaigns from the navbar to expand the dropdown, then click Email Templates. The following screen appears. Note on the page that the 'My templates' tab is selected as shown by it being underlined.
4. Note, the templates may not display in the same order as shown in the previous image. We mainly use only four (4) of the templates. Those are;
   1. Upcoming Chapter Events - Sent once a week, on Wednesday's, to remind/inform members of upcoming rides for the weekend.
   2. Monthly Newsletter - Sent once a month to inform members that the monthly newsletter has been posted to the website.
   3. Monthly Chapter Meeting - Sent once a month, on Monday's, to remind/inform members of the upcoming monthly chapter meeting.
   4. Upcoming LoH Events - Sent once a month, on Monday's, to remind/inform LoH members of their upcoming monthly meeting.
      1. This same template is used for any special meetings or parties that are unique to, and for, LoH.
   5. The other templates were have, in no particular order, are;
      1. Monthly Newsletter & Chapter Mtg - Occasionally the Newsletter announcement coincides with the reminder for the upcoming monthly meeting. This lets us send one campaign instead of two.
      2. Upcoming Road Capt'n Events - Has not been used yet. Road Captain meetings are few and the ones we've had are open to members that want to be RC's.
      3. Christmas Party - This was created to remind members that there is a cut-off date for RSVPing to the Annual Christmas party. Can be used for the Valentine's party if the need arises.
      4. Dealership News - Created to as a favor to the dealership to let members know there were openings for Riding Academy coaches.
      5. Raleigh HOG Board Mtg - Has never been used. It was an exercise in creating a template when we first started with the mailer.
5. Do NOT change the template names. The names are used in the campaigns and we have a precedent/standard that has been in place for a couple of years.
6. Editing a template. Reference image below Note, all of our templates are laid out in the same format Upcoming Chapter Events is shown as an example for this tutorial
   1. The section outlined in red is the only part of the template that will be changed
      1. Please, do not edit the top section. This has been set up to duplicate/mimic the website's navbar area
      2. The "unsubscribe" link and account address footer is a required component. It is a violation of the Terms of Service of the email service provider to send emails without an address and unsubscribe link. Please do not remove them.
      3. Please, do not edit the "Powered by..." button or add anything to this section
   2. The title of the event is centered and set to 18px. The day and date are set to 14px. The color is yellow (#ffff00).
   3. The body of the event is a brief synopsis copy/pasted from the calendar, is left justified and set to 16px.
   4. IMPORTANT! Ensure that all changes have been saved before leaving.
   
7. The template has been saved and you are ready to send the campaign. Follow the instructions in the next section to Send a Campaign.

Send a Campaign

1. This section assumes that you have logged in and modified a template and are now ready to send a campaign.
   1. If you have not logged in and modified a template, follow the instructions in the Update a Template section above.
2. After updating a template, click the All Campaigns link in the navbar to prepare for sending the campaign. Reference image below
3. The following steps will go through the steps to prepare sending an Upcoming Chapter Events campaign to all chapter members. Steps to mail a different campaign, such as LoH Upcoming Events, will be similar. The exceptions being the mail group in step 3.2 and the template selected in step 3.5 will each be different.
   1. Click the Create campaign button found in the upper right corner of the page. Reference image below
   2. In the page that opens, click the Create button for Regular campaign. Reference image below
      1. For the purpose of this tutorial, the campaign is being sent to all chapter members. Click the down carat to expand the list of groups. Reference image below
      2. Select currentMembers_YYYYMMDD Reference image below Note₁, the numbers after a list name is a date in the format YYYYMMDD, where YYYY is the year, MM is the month, and DD is the day. If there are ever two lists with the same name, use the one that has the most current date. Note₂, the 'Chapter Officers', 'RoadCaptains_YYYYMMDD' and 'LoH_YYYYMMDD' lists are subsets of the currentMembers list. Do not select any of these, or the 'All Contacts' list, otherwise members will receive duplicate emails and that is considered spam. Note₃, for example, if a campaign is being sent to LoH only, then you would select only 'LoH_YYYYMMDD'
   3. Next is the Subject & Content section. Reference image below
      1. From name is Raleigh NC Chapter #4356 From email is secretary@raleighhog.com Subject is Upcoming Chapter Events other Subject lines, depending on the campaign being sent are; 'LOH Monthly Meeting', 'HOGWash Newsletter' or 'Monthly Chapter Meeting' Reference image below
   4. In the Content section, click Templates. Reference image below
      1. In the page that opens, hover over 'Upcoming Chapter Events' then click Select. Reference image below
   5. In the Settings & trackingsection, give a brief campaign name. For example, for the upcoming events I give a name like 'upcoming week xx' where xx is the week number for the year. Reference image below
   6. Scroll down and click the Send now button to send the campaign. Reference image below
   7. Click the Send button in the ensuing pop-up
   8. The Success page showing the campaign is being sent to the mail group.
4. To logout;
   1. Click the S in the blue circle found at the bottom of the navbar
   2. In the pop-up, click Log out