How to send an email blast

Communications

Access the Communications tab from the side navigation in the backend.

Click on New Email Blast to start a new email.

Fill out all the information for the new email.

Name, slug and descriptions fields are for internal use only, meaning that the end-user won't be able to see these fields.

On the bottom dropdown “Clone from previous blast”, choose the Template blast to make sure you are using the correct theme. At some point there will be many blasts, so keep in mind that you can search for this template from the dropdown.

Hit the button “Create blast” on the top right corner of the screen to get access to the Content Input page.

Once you create the blast, you’ll land on the theme tab, here we are to select which theme will be used for this email. Since we cloned it from the template, the theme should be ALBA Basic by Tectonica on the Custom themes tab.

Click on the Content tab to access the content fields.

Once on the Content tab, manage the content from the WYSIWYG box on the right and see how it looks on the left. Mind the buttons on the top left corner of the preview section, use them to see how the information will be displayed in different situations. The Top right buttons of the preview section are used to upload files to the blast and to send a test email. Always test before you send.

In order to add media to the email, click on the +add button in the WYSIWYG and select what you want to add.

The three most important are Image, Button, and Smartfield.

Images:

You can upload in bulk to the Files manager all images that you’ll be needing for this email. Then click +Add > Image to place the image on the body.

Select the image from the Image list (or upload it from the Upload tab). Add an image description to give universal access to the image.

Select the dimensions. Remember that you can only go smaller to preserve the quality of the image.

Mind the size of the images as heavier files will take longer to load.

Buttons:

Create buttons to direct users to a specific page.

Add the button text and the URL to their respective fields and then decide the alignment of the button. You could edit the properties of the buttons here, but for consistency reasons, we suggest sticking to a style.

Smart Fields:

Smart fields are special liquid tags that personalise your email.

You can add/edit fields as necessary. All text on the body that has a grey background is a Smart Field.

Learn more about this fields with NationBuilder’s documentation: https://support.nationbuilder.com/en/articles/2490315-smart-fields-in-email

Recipients:

After you have created and tested your email, then you’ll select who will receive it. Access the Recipients tab and select the recipients.

When choosing recipients, we suggest using previously created filters for each region, or subject.

Read the NationBuilder’s documentation on filters here to understand how they work.

https://support.nationbuilder.com/en/articles/2306492-how-to-target-people

This article explains the use of filters in your nation. There are also tutorials that can help.

One important step to keep in mind is to only include people that have consented to receive communications.

After you have selected your list of recipients, you will be able to review your email one last time. This last step allows you to send another test email before completing the process of creating a new email blast.