How FeedBlitz builds emails to subscribers and how to control it
How Emails are Built and Sent
There are several steps to building the finished email delivered to your subscribers.
1. Reading the raw article content.
The raw content for your mailing is read from your blog, your RSS feed, or from the FeedBlitz database in the case of newsflashes or traditional email contact newsletters. FeedBlitz checks for new content on the schedule you specify and, if it finds something, starts the process of preparing the content for mailing to your subscribers.
2. Content shaping.
The raw content is then adjusted according to the rules defined in Newsletters | Settings | Content Settings. If there are limits, the text is intelligently truncated. Links are converted to enable click through tracking, tracking images added to enable open tracking, and various options added to the end of each article, such as email to a friend, comment tracking links and more. If you have recaps specificed, FeedBlitz also builds the recap entries and customizes them in the same way.
3. Formatting and layout.
The shaped text is then formatted into your current email template (if defined), or the FeedBlitz default is used if not. You can define basic templates at Newsletters | Settings | Easy Email Design Editor or more advanced ones at Newsletters | Settings | Advanced email template editor. The template defines styles, images and other layout options that determine the final look and feel of the outbound message.
4. Personalization and segmentation
Finally, links specific to each subscriber are added as each mail is sent. Unubscribe links, forwarding information, custom fields and conditional expressions are evaluated separately for each subscriber eligible to receive the email. Finally, the envelope is built (using Newsletters | Settings | Envelope Settings) and the completed email sent for transmission.
Managing your Mailings
All aspects of email production are controlled by settings in the Newsletters tab. Defiining the look and feel of an email is always done underNewsletters | Settings.
- When an email is sent is controlled by the schedule, at Newsletters | Mailings | Schedule.
- What is used to build the content with is at Newsletters | Settings | Content Settings | The Basics | Article source.
- How the content is modified for mailing is controlled by Newsletters | Settings | Content Settings.
- Where content appears – layout and formatting – is controlled by the template under Newsletter | Settings
- Who the email is from and its subject line is defined by Newsletters | Settings | Envelope Settings
- Segmentation and personalization are controlled by custom fields (under Newsletters | Settings | Custom Fields) and how they are used in the template and segmentation criteria.