eNewsletters - Create and Send

eNewsletters are an easy and effective way to keep your members informed. You can create multiple eNewsletters with a professional, eye-catching design that’s simple to read on both computers and mobile devices. Send your eNewsletter to a specific group, a custom list, or save it to edit and send later.

Recipient email addresses are automatically deduplicated, and anyone can unsubscribe at any time. 

This article includes:

• Create a Blank eNewsletter
• Send an eNewsletter

Notes:

• Note: Recipient Options
• Note: Displaying eNewsletters on your Sporty Website
• Note: Sharing a link to the eNewsletter on other platforms, such as Facebook.

Create a Blank eNewsletter

From the SuperCRM - including sending

Select Blank eNewsletter.

The Subject field is automatically pre-filled with your organisation name. Click into the space to edit the Subject.

The From email field is automatically pre-filled with the email address of the user logged in. Click into the field to enter an alternative email address.

This is the email which the eNewsletter will be sent from that recipients can reply to.

eNewsletter Background

Change the background colour of the eNewsletter by clicking on Advanced Options.

Select the colour you want the background to be, or type in the hex code number of the colour you want to use. Click Save.

Adding Content

Content available to add to your eNewsletter is text, images, buttons, news articles, and column splitters.

To get started, click +ADD CONTENT.

Select what type of content you want to display. These are explained in detail below.

• Text
• Image
• Button
• News Articles
• Column Splitter

1. Text

Click + ADD CONTENT and click Text. Type your text in the textbox. 

Tip: Personalise your eNewsletter by including each recipient's name (if known) to their individually received eNewsletter once sent.

To do this, select the merge field {} icon. This will automatically be replaced with each recipient's first name if you are sending the eNewsletter to a Sporty database. 

IMPORTANT: If you are sending this eNewsletter to people who are not a part of your database, this field will not populate. Only use this field if you are sending to your database.

To add a link to the text, highlight the word or the words then click the link icon. 

A Link URL field will appear. Paste or type in the URL you want to link to.

Text links will automatically appear for email addresses when they are entered. Clicking on the link will display what link the text is linked to.

To add a link to a phone number, highlight the phone number and click the link icon. In the Link URL field, type tel: followed by the number.

To attach a downloadable attachment to the eNewsletter, click the paperclip icon and select a file to attach. The attachment will appear at the bottom of the given text box.

For more detailed instructions on how to send documents with your eNewsletter, please see this support article.

2. Images

Click + ADD CONTENT and click Image.

There are three ways you can add an image.

1. Click on the image from your image library displayed
2. Upload a new image from your computer
3. Select an image from stock images

Click Save once you have identified the image you want to insert into your newsletter.

To link the image, select the image, click the dropdown and select where you would like to link the image to. 

There are the following options:

• None: The image does not link anywhere.
• Website URL: Enter the external website URL you want to link to.
• Page: Select the page on your Sporty site you want to link to.
• Document: Choose the document on your Sporty site you want to link to.
• Online Form: Select a pre-existing form from your Sporty site Online Registrations you want to link to.

Once Save is clicked, your image will appear in the section where you chose to add it.

If you decide that you want the image to be linked elsewhere or you wish to change the image after you have inserted it, click the settings cog on the top right corner of the image to open the image settings.

3. Button

Click + ADD CONTENT and click Button.

Add a button to your eNewsletter for people to click and be directed to wherever you have linked the button to. 

For example, you might want to create a Register Here button that links to a specific registration form set up in your Online Registrations area.

You can change the appearance of the button you are adding. Select the font, font colour, button colour and border colour. You can also choose whether your button has square or rounded corners.

Note: The default appearance of your buttons is automatically set from the default button settings of your website on the Sporty platform. Learn how to update your default button settings here.

There are a number of options that make it easy for you to set where the button links to.

• Website URL - Enter a web address
• Page - Select a page from your Sporty website
• Document - Select a document that exists in your Sporty Documents & Media area
• Online Form - Select a form that exists in your Sporty Online Registrations area
• Email address - Enter an email address

4. News Articles

Click +ADD CONTENT and click News Articles.

Your eNewsletter will automatically include the news articles that already exist in the News area on your Sporty site and will be configured as per your set up.

This lets you avoid having to recreate content and makes it easy for you to include your existing news articles.

You can set how your news articles will appear here. Options include List view, Grid view and Single article.

• List view - Displays your articles in a vertical list with a thumbnail image alongside each article
• Grid view - Displays your articles in a grid that is two columns wide
• Single article - Lets you select a single article

If you have sorted your news articles into Categories, you can set which categories of articles will appear in your eNewsletter. This is useful if you have an eNewsletter that you regularly reuse for a particular audience, for example to Junior members.

When you create news articles for your website relevant to juniors, you would set a Category tag of 'Junior' for each one. Now if you set the Categories field in your News Article settings to 'Junior', your eNewsletter will automatically display only these articles.

You can also set the number of articles you want to display.

Tip: If using the Grid View, select an even number of articles as they appear side by side in two columns.

5. Column Splitter

The Column Splitter allows you to create up to four columns to add content into on your eNewsletter.

The image below shows selecting three columns. 

6. Editing, Moving and Deleting Content

All content blocks have three tools found at the top right corner of each block. 

1. Drag-handles: Click and hold to drag & drop the content block to a different area
2. Settings cog: Open the content settings window and make changes
3. Trash can: Delete the content block (cannot be undone)

Send an eNewsletter

SuperCRM

Sending an eNewsletter directly from the SuperCRM will record the eNewsletter against the recipients person record.

1. From the Dashboard, click the SuperCRM tile.
   
2. Identify the group of members that you want to send the eNewsletter to - creating a filter can assist with this.
3. Click Contact.
   
4. Select Send eNewsletter.
   
5. Select Blank eNewsletter (if a new eNewsletter is to be created), or Open eNewsletter (if there is an existing eNewsletter).
6. (If a new eNewsletter, once created) Scroll to the bottom of the eNewsletter and select Save & Continue. 
7. Select the folder that you want to have the eNewsletter saved to. Click Save. 
8. Select Review and Send. Note: If you'd like to receive a copy, click CC me. For more information on recipient options, click here.
9. Review the pop-up that confirms the number of people that the eNewsletter will be sent to. Click Send.

eNewsletter facility

1. From the Dashboard, click the News & eNewsletter tile.
   
2. Select Create eNewsletter.
   
3. Select Blank eNewsletter (if a new eNewsletter is to be created), or Open eNewsletter (if there is an existing eNewsletter).
4. (If a new eNewsletter, once created) Scroll to the bottom of the eNewsletter and select Save & Continue. Note: The number of identified people will display across the top of the eNewsletter modal.
5. Select the folder that you want to have the eNewsletter saved to. Click Save.
6. Select Review and Send.
7. Select which database/s, subscribers or website admins you'd like to send the eNewsletter to. Or add your own custom list of recipients email addresses (be sure to tick the Use custom list checkbox if so). Note: If you'd like to receive a copy, click CC me. For more information on recipient options, click here.
8. Review the pop-up that confirms the number of people that the eNewsletter will be sent to. Click Send.

Notes

Note: Recipient Options

Select one or multiple recipient groups from the options listed.

• Website admins - People who have Sporty login access for your website
• Subscribers - People who have opted in through the Subscribe widget or the Notices widget on your website
• Forms/Databases - People who reside in a database associated with your online registration form
• Custom list - Email addresses submitted directly into the input box. If you use this option, don't forget to tick the Use custom list checkbox. Note: When Use custom list is ticked, you will then able to tick on the Delete custom list after sending if you do not intend to keep the list of emails.
• CC me - This will include your login email address in the recipient group

Note: Displaying eNewsletters on your Sporty Website

Add a button to your Sporty site that links directly to your selected eNewsletter. When creating the button, select eNewsletter from the options available to link to. Select which eNewsletter you'd like to link and click Save.

Note: Sharing a link to the eNewsletter on other platforms, such as Facebook.

To get a link to your eNewsletter, either set up a button on your Sporty site, or email yourself the eNewsletter.

BUTTON

Once the button is created as per notes here, click the button to open the eNewsletter in your browser. Copy the URL - this is the link to your eNewsletter. 

EMAIL

After you have received your eNewsletter email, click the link at the top of the eNewsletter in the email to view it in your browser. 

Copy the URL - this is the link to your eNewsletter.