https://send.canvas.email/
2. Your Contact List(s)
Canvas.Email permits multiple contact lists. On the main navigation bar, look to the far left and click on “Contact Lists” -> “View Contact Lists” to see your current list(s). You can create and edit list members here.
3. Setting up a Subscription Form
You can set up subscription forms with Canvas.Email. This is found in the upper right-hand corner, labeled “Forms” -> “Create A Website Form”.
We have created a basic subscription form for you. You can edit this by going to “Forms” -> “View Website Forms”. On this page, to obtain the HTML code for the signup form that you will want to use, look at “Sign up for (the form we created)” and click on “Get HTML” to the right.
To edit the confirmation screens and emails — including how to include the links so users can access unpublished content or links of your website, you will instead want to click on “Edit” to the right, and edit the appropriate templates.
4. Sending out Newsletters
This is where the fun happens! In the primary navigation bar, click on “Email Campaigns” -> “Create an Email Campaign”, and give it a name.
Any time you send out a newsletter, it will be treated as a brand new campaign. You can go back and copy a previous campaign, so you don’t have to start all over the next time you want to send one out.
On the create screen, you can choose a prebuilt template, or choose “No Template” from the Email Template field.
On the following screen, you can then start creating your message. Note that you can set up custom fields, variables and placeholders such as %%Name%% to automatically include a subscriber’s name in your campaigns.
Once you are ready to send, go to Email Campaigns -> “Send an Email Campaign” and click Send next to the available one. On the following screen, you will want to click on the contact list, so this email campaign is sent to that list.
You can even send yourself sample/test emails to make sure they look good.
Once you have set it to send out, it is automatically processed and you can be notified when it starts and finishes. Full metrics on who clicked/opened/read the messages are available following sendouts.
5. Advanced Use
5a. When asked to get a “file” from my computer that is not written as a HTML or text document, how can I can I change it? Do I have to save a document (column) as a text doc. in the first place?
When using Canvas.Email and composing your Campaign (message), you will be prompted to create a new message from a pre-built template, or a blank template, or by uploading a file you created on your computer.If you have created a file on your computer and want to use that for your campaign, you will first need to convert it to a .HTML file or a plain-text .TXT file. Either of these can be accomplished within Microsoft Word (or Open Office, the opensource equivalent of Microsoft Office). Once you’re done editing your message in that program, under File -> Save As…, save as either .HTML or .TXT and the appropriate formatting should then be preserved.
5b. What is meant by “X points per month” (that keep reducing while I am on the home page of canvas.email) in the upper right corner of the page?
Your canvas.email plan is set up to permit a certain a number of email sendouts per month. That quota (X) mean you can send that many more, before the end of the month. The quota resets at the start of the next month.If you run out before then, please let our Sales team know and we can upgrade you to the next tier plan. Or, you can wait until the start of the next calendar month to send your next Campaign.
5c. How do I edit a template or create one for myself to go out with each document/column? How do I get a standard header and footer for each time I send a column?
When creating a campaign, you are first prompted to select one of the pre-made templates, or upload one of your own (see question 5a., above). After a campaign has been sent out, you can effectively turn that into a template, by copying it prior to sending out a future campaign, then making desired edits. You can also directly create a template from the upper righthand corner link, “Templates”, then selecting or creating/uploading the file of your choice, for future use as a template.
5d. How do I set canvas.email to forward responses and bounced messages to a different address than the one used to send out the campaigns?
This is done individually in each Contact List you manage. Go to Contact List (“Contact Lists” -> View Contact Lists -> Edit), then modify the “List Reply-To Email” and “List Bounce Email” To route those to different addresses as desired.
5e. How can other people not currently on the list subscribe to it without going through me?
While logged into Canvas.Email, click on the link in the top righthand corner of the browser window, labeled “Forms” -> Create Website Form -> (Type: Subscription), then follow the on-screen interface instructions and options, select what list you want it for.It will then create a web form that you can either get the HTML for (to embed on your website), or you can click the “View” link to see the online form (this is where you’d just send subscribers as a direct link to sign up).
5f. How do I create the “subscribing/unsubscribing information on all addresses on the list?
Place the following code in the body of your email template/message:
http://%%unsubscribelink%%/
Once emailed out, that custom field will be replaced with a clickable link for your recipients to use to unsubscribe. When editing a message, you can also just click on the Custom Fields icon, then select which link/field you wish to insert in the message, and it will drop the entire code, including HTML, into the message body.5g. Can I use my @aol.com or @yahoo.com email address as the default send-from?
No. Many third-party email providers, including AOL and Yahoo, do not permit you use their domain space as your send-from email address. Most emails sent this way, when received by your recipients’ mail hosts, will be cross-checked against those third-party providers, who will respond that Canvas.Email is not affiliated with AOL or Yahoo and so will be immediately rejected. This is not an issue with Canvas.Email; It is a proper enforcement of email verification rules that are there to protect against mail spoofing.
Our best advice is to use an email account you host with Canvas Host as the send-from address, as we will not reject such use.
For additional information on this, please see this blog post from AOL:
http://postmaster-blog.aol.com/2014/04/22/aol-mail-updates-dmarc-policy-to-reject/
5h. How can I tell who receives, opens, and interacts with my Campaigns?
When sending out a campaign, you are given the option to track various recipient activities.
Please note, you cannot track email opens for plain text Campaigns. However, you can track opens for HTML messages.
You can also track who clicks on emails.
Finally, if you send out surveys in the campaign, you can independently derive survey results.
6. I still have other questions…
For additional help, a detailed help guide is included in Canvas.Email. Once logged in, click on the “Help” link in the upper righthand corner of your browser. This will open a popup menu with hundreds of helpful articles.