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
- 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.
- 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 tutorial covers creating your first template and copying an existing template. You can click the respective link to jump to a specific section;
Initial Template Creation
This tutorial assumes you are new and need to create your first template.
If you have a template in place and need to copy it to make another, click the link to go to the Copy an Existing Template section.
If you have templates in place and need to update them, go to the Update an Existing Template tutorial.
- Click the link to login to the HOG[SCAN] Mailer see image below
- Referencing the image below, 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 the down carat next to Campaigns to expand it, then select Templates.
On the Templates page, click the Gallery tab to see two default templates.
- Click to choose the default template, Dark or Light, that matches your website.
- Important note; When editing any template ensure that all changes are saved prior to leaving the page. This is shown at the top of the template when editing.
Ensure that this;
Has changed to this;
prior to clicking any other link and leaving the page.
- For the purpose of this tutorial, the Dark template was chosen.
The top section mimics your website's navbar. We will edit it to match. see image below
- Referencing the image below, click where it says 'Your Chapter Name #1234' and put in your chapter's name and number as it appears on your website. Do the same for 'Your City, State'
- We need to provide links in this navbar section that will take the member to the appropriate page.
When 'Home' is clicked a ribbon opens. Click on the link icon in the ribbon to edit. see image below
- You will see the following pop-up. Edit only the 'Link' by filling in your website's address. Note, change 'http' to 'https' as all HOGScan sites use the secure protocol.
Referencing the image below, click the Insert link button to save.
- Referencing the image below, the pop-up for the 'About' link (and each of the other links in the navbar) will be edited the same. However, note that you only edit "yourdomain.com" and change the protocol from http to https. Leave the forward slash (/) and whatever appears after it.
- You can then follow the instructions in the remaining sections to edit the template for your needs.
- It is difficult to anticipate how different chapters will want to use the mailer. If you have any questions please, do not hesitate to contact me. I can set up a Zoom meeting where screens can be shared to help you set up templates to meet your needs.