Creating an eNewsletter
Open eNewsletter
Blank eNewsletter
eNewsletter Background
Adding Content
Text
Image
Button
News Articles
Preview eNewsletter
Sending eNewsletter
Display eNewsletter
The Sporty platform lets you send great looking, professional eNewsletters that are easy for people to read on computers and phones. You can save multiple eNewsletter templates for different groups. Easily send an eNewsletter to any of your online databases or use your own email list. This powerful utility automatically deduplicates your recipient emails and also lets people unsubscribe automatically if they wish. Try it out by sending yourself an eNewsletter.
Creating an eNewsletter
To create an eNewsletter, login to Sporty and go to your Dashboard. Click the News & eNewsletter tile, then click the Create eNewsletter button.
If you have existing eNewsletters already saved, you can open one and update it by selecting the Open eNewsletter option. Alternatively, select Blank eNewsletter to start building a newsletter from scratch.
Open eNewsletter
Select this option to view and open saved eNewsletters. The system uses your Sporty Documents & Media folders for storing your eNewsletters. Select the folder your saved eNewsletter is saved in, then click on the eNewsletter to open it. If you wish to delete an eNewsletter, simply click the red trashcan button to the right of that eNewsletter.
Blank eNewsletter
Select this option to start building a new eNewsletter from a blank template.
The Subject field is automatically pre-filled with the organisation name set in your main Admin Settings area from your main Dashboard. You can change this within your eNewsletter manually if you wish. Ensure the From address is correct since this is where any replies will go to.
eNewsletter Background
You can change the background colour of the eNewsletter by clicking on Advanced Options.
Click on the colour field to display the colour picker. Here you can either choose the colour from the gradient fields or type in the hex code of the specific colour you want to use. When you have made your choice, click on Save.
How to add content
You can add content blocks to your newsletter, such as Text, Images, Buttons and News Articles. Click the +ADD CONTENT button.
Then simply select what type of content you want to display. These are explained in detail below.
Text
If you select Text, a text input area and editor tool bar will appear. Type (or copy & paste) your text and format it as you wish. You can choose from preset text formats by clicking on Paragraph.
Note: You can personalise your eNewsletter by automatically including each recipient's name (if known). To do this, select the merge field {} button from the right of the editor toolbar. This will automatically be replaced with each recipient's first name if each eNewsletter if you are sending the eNewsletter to a Sporty database.
You can also link a section of text to a website, email address or phone number. To do this, highlight the text that you would like to add a link to and click on the link icon as shown below:
A box will come up where you can then enter the link:
For email addresses, type in "mailto:" before the email address and for telephone numbers, type in "tel:".
You can also attach documents through the text widget by clicking on the paperclip icon.
A file explorer window will pop up where you can select the document that you would like to attach.
For more detailed instructions on how to send documents with your eNewsletter, please see this support article.
Image
If you select Image, you can select an existing image from a folder in your image library or upload a new image.
The selected image will automatically be inserted into your eNewsletter.
You can also add a hyperlink to the image by clicking on the Settings cog icon on the top right of the image, select the link type, and select or type in where you want the image linked to.
Button
You can include buttons in your eNewsletter that people can click and go to whatever website link you want. For example, you might include a button that you name 'Register here' that you link to an online registration form.
If you select Button, a settings window will appear that lets you set the appearance and link for your button. Note that the default appearance of your buttons here is automatically set from the default button settings of your website on the Sporty platform. Learn how to update your default button settings here.
You can change the button text (name), font, font colour, button colour, border colour and set whether you want your button to have square or rounded corners.
There are a number of options that make it easy for you to set the web address the button links to.
- Website URL - Type or copy & paste any web address you want the button to go to
- Page - Select a page from your Sporty website
- Document - Link directly to a document that exists in your Sporty Documents & Media area
- Online Form - Choose a form from your Sporty online registrations area
- Email address - Enter an email address
News Articles
If you click +ADD CONTENT and select News Articles, your eNewsletter will automatically use the news articles that already exist in your news area on the Sporty platform. This lets you avoid having to recreate content and makes it easy for you to include existing news articles that you may already be using elsewhere on your website.
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 for the position in your eNewsletter
If you have categorised 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. Then if you set the Categories in your News Article settings to 'Junior', your eNewsletter will automatically display the latest articles from your website that are relevant to juniors.
You can also set the number of articles you wish to include in your eNewsletter. Note that if you are using the Grid View, you should select an even number of articles since they appear side by side in two columns.
Editing, moving and deleting content
It's easy for you to edit, move or delete any content you have added to your eNewsletter. At the top right corner of each content block, there are three buttons/icons: Drag handles, Settings cog, Trashcan.
- Drag handles - Use these to drag & drop the content block to a different position in your eNewsletter
- Settings cog - Click this to open the settings window and edit your content settings
- Trash can - Click this to delete the content block
Preview your eNewsletter
You can see what your eNewsletter will look like when people receive it into their email inbox by clicking the Preview button at the top right of the eNewsletter builder.
When you're happy with how your eNewsletter looks, close the Preview window and click the green Save & Continue button at the bottom right. This will take you to the final step where you can send your eNewsletter if you wish.
Sending an eNewsletter
Once you have clicked Save & Continue from the step above, you can set who should receive your eNewsletter. There are a number of recipient options. You can select any one or more of these concurrently and if an email address exists in more than one recipient group, the system will automatically de-duplicate your list, so each email address will only receive your eNewsletter one time per emailing.
- 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 on your website on the Sporty platform
- Forms/Databases - People who reside in a database associated with your online registration form
- Custom list - Lets you type or copy & paste email addresses 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 own email address in the recipient group (based upon whatever email address is associated with your Sporty login)
Once you have selected the recipients for your eNewsletter, click the Review and Send button. A pop up will display to confirm the number of recipients and the email list that they are derived from. This is a very helpful visual reminder especially to those who are sending out bulk emails to large databases. If you are sure, click on Send.
A message will show that your newsletter is being sent. Click on OK to exit this view. This will not affect the sending of your eNewsletter.
Displaying eNewsletters on your Sporty website
A link can be added to your website for users to view eNewsletters in their web browser. After you have received your eNewsletter email, click on the link in the email to view it in your browser.
You can now copy the URL of your eNewsletter.
On your Sporty website add a Button Widget. Here you can style your button and paste the link of your eNewsletter into the Link section. Click Save.
Then when you view the page in public view mode and click on the button, your eNewsletter will be displayed.