Reference and Help Manual

Express Mode

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Reference and Help Manual

Express Mode

Introduction – Express Mode Checklist 3 Address Book Wizard 4 Subscription Form Wizard 7 Create a Newsletter 8 Send a Test Newsletter 10 Edit a Newsletter 11 Mailing Lists 11 Add Addresses 12 Add Extra Information 13 Manage your Address Book 17 Send to Mailing List 19 Reports and Statistics 20 Set up and Options

User Profile 21 General Settings 22 Header / Footer Settings 23 Advanced Settings 23 Subscription Form

Link Form 24 Embed Form 27 Auto-responders 27

SMS / Texting 28 Glossary 31 Importing from Outlook Express or Outlook 37 Disclaimer BestCairo endeavours to keep this Help Manual up to date at all times. However, due to the nature of software, ongoing maintenance, cross browser upgrades and other factors beyond our control, slight variations to options and operating procedures may occur. Please email us at support@bestcairo.com should you have any difficulties using this Help Manual.

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Introduction – Express Mode The first time you log into BestCairo, you will see a checklist (pictured below). Working through the items in the checklist will give you an understanding of the basics of BestCairo and enable you to send your first campaign. Firstly, this manual will walk you through the checklist items. Then it will look at the more advanced features offered by BestCairo.

Express Mode – Checklist

After completing each item on the checklist, you will see a added to the appropriate box.

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Setting up your Address Book Each BestCairo account comes with an Address Book that must be configured before you start sending. When setting up your Address Book, you decide what contact information to store in BestCairo. Your Address Book is separate from your mailing lists. A contact contained in your Address Book may be listed in more than one mailing list. The following diagram illustrates the relationship.

For example: robin@school.com subscribes to the Annual News mailing list. ben@home.com subscribes to both the Annual News and the Monthly News mailing lists. If robin@school.com updates his telephone number, then the new telephone number is changed and saved in the related record for robin@school.com in the Address Book. The email address is the unique link between the mailing list and the Address Book, since it appears in both tables. Likewise, when a personalised email is sent out to the Monthly News mailing list, the 'Dear first name' part is extracted from the Address Book and inserted into only the newsletter sent to ben@home.com. Please note: In Advanced Mode, you can have multiple datasets, one of which is your Address Book. Here, you could create one dataset called 'address book' and another dataset called 'balances due', so that you can personalise an email using two different datasets. It would be something like, 'Dear <address book / firstname> - your balance due, as of today, is <balances / amtdue>, which the recipient would then receive as Dear John Smith- your balance due, as of today, is 991.30.

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There is a simple step-by-step wizard that helps you set up your Address Book. Select the ‘Address Book Wizard’ menu or click on the ‘Set up your Address Book’ link in the checklist. You will see the following message:

Click on the ‘Set up Address Book’ icon and choose the format of your address book.

You can select either a predefined format or create a custom format. Select the format you prefer by clicking on the appropriate radio button. If you choose a predefined format and wish to collect address details, choose the address format – US, UK or International, related to your region.

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If you choose to define a custom format, you will see the following menu. Choose the fields you want to include in your Address Book by ticking the appropriate check boxes.

Please note: If you want a format that is even more specialised than allowed by the wizard, you can set it up in the ‘Datasets’ section in BestCairo's ‘Advanced Mode’ tab. Once you have configured your Address Book, click ‘Next’ and you will see a page confirming that it has been set up successfully.

If the format of your Address Book is correct, you can select one of the options provided, or you can navigate to another menu using the navigation on the left menu..

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Setting up your Subscription Form Each email sent by BestCairo contains a footer with a link to a default subscription form that is unique to your account. This form allows recipients of your emails to opt-out (unsubscribe) or opt-in (subscribe) or to update their information. The form can be set up to allow you to collect additional information about your clients, such as their name or telephone number, as well. This subscription form can also be embedded in the pages of your website, or you can link to it from your website or within your newsletters. This makes it an effective tool for building your mailing list. The Subscription Form Wizard walks you quickly through the process of personalising your subscription form with your organisation’s look and feel, and allows you to configure it easily with form fields, to collect additional information from your clients. Step 1 – Setting up the look and feel of the form The first step allows you to set the look and feel of your form by:

• Uploading your company logo to the header of the form

• Selecting a background colour (if any) and choosing the font type, size and colour.

When you’ve made the above selections you can preview the form. After previewing, you can make adjustments or proceed to the next step if you’re happy with the result. If you require a greater degree of customisation than is available via the wizard, go to ‘Subscription Form Set up’ under the ‘Advanced’ tab. Step 2 – Selecting the lists on your subscription form This step allows you to select the mailing lists you want to include on your subscription form. Every account comes with a list called ‘My Mailing List’, which is the default list on the subscription form. If you would like subscribers to be saved to a different mailing list, select that mailing list from the appropriate drop-down. You may need to create the mailing list(s) – when you’ve done this, click on the ‘Multiple mailing lists’ radio button.

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You can have more than one mailing list on your subscription form if you have newsletters on different subjects, that your clients can subscribe to. If this is the case, tick the ‘Multiple mailing list’ radio button. You can select more than one mailing list to appear on your subscription form, or enter the names of new lists, which you want to appear on your subscription form. For instance, you could create a Jazz music list and a Classical music list.

Step 3 – Selecting fields to display on your subscription form This step allows you to select the data fields you would like to include on your subscription form. You are limited to the fields that are available in your Address Book. So, if you want First Name and Telephone to appear as data collection fields on your subscription form, simply tick the buttons next to them.

When you have chosen the fields, you can preview the form and then go back and make changes, or click ‘Finish’ if you are happy with it. You can come back at any time to alter the form.

Creating a Newsletter With your Address Book and Subscription Form set up, you can get on with the business of creating your newsletter. To create a newsletter, click on the ‘Create Newsletter’ menu and then give your newsletter a name.

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You can start your newsletter on a blank page, or you can base it on one of the templates. Your account comes loaded with a couple of templates related to your industry. To preview these templates, select them from the drop-down menu, and they will display in the preview pane. When you find one you like, click ‘next’.

If you are not satisfied with the selection we have pre-loaded on your account, feel free to browse through our template library and copy any templates you like to your account. If you still do not find any that you like, contact us and we can design one for you. When you create your email newsletter, you need to decide if you want to create a text version too. We strongly recommend this, as it may help with delivery to some webmail clients and email clients such as Lotus Notes. Template library The first thing you will see in the template library is a list of categories. When you select a category, you will see thumbnails of templates for that category. Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge it in the preview pane. To add multiple templates, simply tick the box above each of the templates you want to add to your account. Click on ‘Add templates to my account’ and the templates will be added to the ‘Templates’ folder of your account.

After you have selected the template you want, click ‘next’ and the editor will load. This may take a few seconds. The editor uses similar logic to MS Word (please refer to the ‘Editor’ section of this manual for further instructions). While working on your newsletter in the editor, make sure you save frequently. When exiting the editor, again, make sure you save your newsletter. Text-only newsletters and emails If you have also created a text-only version of your newsletter, after the editor closes, a second editor will appear. This is the text editor. There is a button that will copy any text from your HTML newsletter into this editor. You can then format it as you wish. Please note: If no text version is saved in the text editor, BestCairo will send out a default text email that states, ‘If you cannot read this email, please click on the following link.’ The link will then direct the client to the HTML newsletter.

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To create a text-only version automatically for every newsletter, go to the ‘General Settings’ menu under ‘Set up and Options’. Tick the box next to ‘Create a text version of every newsletter I create’. Please note: An asterisk (*) appears next to newsletters with a text-only version. If there is no asterisk, there is no text version.

Send a Test Newsletter Now that you have completed your newsletter, it’s time to send a test to see what it looks like in your email client. This process is very important to ensure that the design and content of your email displays properly. We suggest that you look at your email in as many desktop email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) and webmail clients (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoomail, AOL) as possible, as they render emails slightly differently. To send a test, click on the ‘Send a Test’ menu. Enter the ‘To’ email address you want to send your email to. If there is more than one email address, simply put a semi-colon between them. You can change the ’To’ email address when you send a test, but it will default to your account username each time you send a new test. Enter the ‘From’ email address. This is the sender email address that will be seen by the recipient. Enter the ‘From’ name. This is the sender name that will appear in the email client. Enter the ‘Subject’. This is the subject line that the client will see. Finally, select the folder and newsletter you wish to send. Check the preview pane to confirm you have selected the correct one.

To send the test, simply click ‘send’. Then check your inbox. The email should arrive in a matter of minutes. This page also allows you to check the likelihood of the email getting caught in a spam filter. To do this, click on the ‘check spam score’ button. We then generate a report by sending a copy of the email through Spamassassin. Since we actually have to send the email to an inbox to get this score, it may take a few minutes to return the score. The score is rules based, with each rule worth a penalty point. Assessments below 3.0 are usually not classified as spam. If you get above this, try to refine your email, including the subject line, to get as low a spam score as possible. The report should only be used as a yardstick though a low score doesn’t guarantee that your email will get past all spam filters. Remember, you can never test too much. Once your final newsletter has been mailed, it is in the public domain and you cannot get it back. It makes sense to check and then check again.

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Editing a Newsletter After you have received your test, you will probably have to make some changes to your newsletter. To edit your newsletter, click on the ‘Edit Newsletter’ menu. Select the folder and the newsletter you want to edit from the drop-down lists. If the newsletter you see in the preview pane is correct, click ‘edit’ to open the editor. This may take a few seconds.

Remember to save frequently when working in the editor. And before exiting the editor, make sure you save your newsletter again. If you want to edit the text version as well as the HTML version, make sure both boxes are checked. If you have both boxes checked, the text editor will load automatically once you have finished editing the HTML version. If you want to edit only the HTML or the text version, make sure only the appropriate box is ticked. The text or HTML editor will load, depending on which box you have ticked.

Mailing Lists This menu is for setting up new mailing lists, adding addresses to new or existing lists and editing email addresses. After clicking on the ‘Mailing Lists’ menu, you need to select which of the above actions you want to undertake. Adding email addresses to a mailing list By default, the Mailing List menu is set to adding email addresses. If you are going to add addresses to an existing list, select the list from the drop-down menu. If you want to add them to a new mailing list, you must give the new list a name. After you have selected the existing mailing list or named a new mailing list, click ‘next’.

There are three ways to add addresses to a mailing list.

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1) Typing or copying and pasting from another program or pasting it from the clipboard. 2) Importing a file of email addresses from your computer. 3) Importing a file with email addresses and additional contact data. The additional contact data will be imported into your Address Book at the same time that the email addresses are imported into your selected mailing list. BestCairo accepts the following file formats: .txt, .csv, .xls and .xlsx Adding email addresses by typing or copying/pasting If you have chosen to type or copy and paste email addresses, you will see a window where you can either type in individual email addresses line by line, or paste email addresses you have copied from another application. When you have typed or pasted them all in the window, click ‘add’.

If ‘Preview enabled’ is ticked, you will be able to see the email addresses on the mailing list and you can scroll down to ensure the ones you have just added are there. If you want to edit one of the addresses, highlight it and click ‘edit’. If you want to delete one of the addresses, highlight it and click ‘delete’.

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Adding email addresses by importing from a file If the email addresses you want to add are in a file, you can import it directly into BestCairo to avoid copying and pasting. Importing is easy. Just browse your computer to find the file you wish to import and click ‘import‘. Before importing, you must certify that the email addresses have been obtained in a way that complies with our anti-spam and privacy policies. Don’t forget: BestCairo supports the following file formats: .txt, .csv, .xls and .xlsx When you click ‘import’, the files are put into an import queue to be processed. You will be informed of your place in the queue immediately. Please be patient, as the time it takes to import depends on the number of files in the queue and the size of those files. It may take up to two hours to process.

The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 500 kilobytes (kb). If your file is larger than this, you will need to break it into smaller files. While you are waiting for your file to be imported, you can work on creating or editing your newsletter and the import process will continue in the background. You can come back to the ‘add addresses’ menu at any time and click on the ‘import view details’ button in the upper right-hand corner of this page. Clicking on this button will take you to a page that shows you the status of your import. During the import process BestCairo will remove any duplicate emails from your list, as well as remove any blatantly incorrect email addresses (addresses that do not contain an @, for instance). Adding addresses and contact details by importing from a file If you want to add addresses and contact details to your Address Book at the same time as the import, make sure the type of file containing the data is .csv, .xls or .xlsx. Your Address Book must be configured properly, so that it has entries created for the type of data you are going to import. If you are going to import ‘zip code’, for instance, you need to have configured your Address Book to contain a ‘zip code’ field. In the file you are going to import, each email address must be followed by the additional information. For instance, in an Excel file, the row should contain: email address, telephone number and first name. To import the file, browse to find the file on your computer, make sure you have selected the mailing list and mobile phone list you want to import the email addresses and data to, and click ‘continue’.

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This is what you will see after you select ‘Import addresses from file with, additional data’. BestCairo will check the file you have chosen to import and then ask you to confirm the data columns. Select the correct data field from the drop-down list above the previewed examples and tick the box next to it. When you have assigned the data to the correct columns, click ‘continue’. BestCairo will then ask you to confirm the data column names and present a couple of sample records to verify the field mapping. If the data records correspond to the correct column sample headings, click ‘finish’. If it’s incorrect, click ‘change column mappings’. After you have clicked ‘finish’, an ‘import progress’ window will appear. You will be notified when your data has been imported successfully. It is possible to change your import settings. Click on the [+] next to ‘Import Settings’. You can do the following:

• Set the column names in your Excel sheet to be in the same order as they are on your dataset. This allows you to import your dataset quickly, without having to select the columns.

• Set mailing list, mobile list and dataset defaults at import. • Set import to add and update entries to your Address Book or to only update entries. • Set the sheet name of the Excel spreadsheet you will import. • Set the default import method.

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Editing, deleting or moving email addresses within or between mailing lists From the ‘Mailing Lists’ menu, select the radio button for ‘Manage (edit/ delete) email addresses in an existing mailing list’ and select the mailing list from the drop-down. Click ‘next’. A screen will appear, displaying the email addresses from the mailing list you selected in the left-hand preview pane. Select the email address you want to edit, delete or move. If you want to delete, move or copy more than one email address at a time, you can do so by selecting with Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on your keyboard, or email addresses in the left column.

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Managing a Mailing List in ExpressMode, Step 2. If you are moving or copying an email address from one list to another, make sure the list you want to move or copy the email address from is selected in the ‘From this list’ pane. After clicking on the ‘move’ or ‘copy’ button. The selected email address will appear in the ‘To this list’ pane. If you want to edit an email address, select the address and click on the ‘edit’ button. You can then edit the email address or change its status. Click ‘save’.

If the mailing list contains many email addresses and you don’t want to scroll through the entire list to find a particular address, there is a search function. Select the list you want to search, enter the email address you are looking for in the ‘search’ field and click ‘search mailing list’.

Your Address Book To set up your Address Book, please refer to the ‘Set up Address Book’ section. To import your contact details into your Address Book, please refer to the ‘Import mailing list’ section, where this is explained. Editing a contact in your Address Book

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The ‘Edit contact’ menu allows you to delete, edit or add new contacts to your address book. The contact details can be displayed horizontally or vertically – use the radio buttons to toggle between the views.

To delete a contact from your Address Book, click on the delete icon next to the record. To edit a

contact, click on the edit icon next to the record. Once you have edited the record, click on the

insert icon to commit the change. To back out and not make any changes, click on the cancel icon .

If you want to add a new contact to your Address Book, click on+ ‘add new record’. Adding a contact here does not subscribe them to any mailing list. Add a single contact As an alternative to the ‘Edit contact’ window, this menu allows you to add a contact to your Address Book and simultaneously subscribe them to one or more mailing lists. To add a contact to more than one mailing list, you can use Ctrl+Click. After you have input the contacts’ details, click ‘add’.

Import contacts into your Address Book You can import your contacts into your Address Book if you have them in a file format Bestcairo can accept, namely: .csv, .xls or .xlsx. Before beginning the import process, your Address Book must be configured properly. The fields you are going to import to must exist in your Address Book. For instance, if you are going to import zip codes, you must have configured your Address Book to contain a ‘zip code’ field. BestCairo uses the email address as the unique identifier for each Address Book contact, so the file you import must have an email address followed by the additional information you wish to import.

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For instance, in an Excel file, the row should contain: email address, telephone number and first name. To import the file, browse for it on your computer, make sure you have selected the mailing list and mobile list to which you want to import the email addresses and telephone numbers and click ‘continue’.

BestCairo will check the file you have imported and return with a screen asking you to confirm the data columns. Select the correct data type from the drop-down list above the previewed examples and then tick the box next to it. When you have assigned the data to the correct columns, click ‘continue’.

BestCairo will then present the data column names and a couple of sample records that will be stored in those columns. If the data corresponds to the column headings, click ‘finish’. If the settings are incorrect, click ‘change column mappings’.

Once you have clicked ‘finish’, an ‘import progress’ window will appear. You will be notified when your data has been imported successfully.

It is possible to change your import settings. Click on the [+] next to ‘Import Settings’. You can do the following:

• Set the column names in your Excel sheet to be in the same order as they are on your dataset. This allows you to import your dataset quickly, without having to select the columns.

• Set mailing list, mobile list and dataset defaults at import. • Set import to add and update entries to your Address Book or to only update entries. • Set the sheet name of the Excel spreadsheet you will import. • Set the default import method.

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Exporting Address Book contacts You can export all the contact details stored in your BestCairo Address Book. Click on the ‘export data menu’. You can export all the records in your Address Book, or you can export only the records that are related to a particular mailing list.

When you have selected the records you want to export, click ‘create export file’. When the export file has been created you can click the download file link, and you will be prompted on where you want to save the file. Sending to a Mailing List Sending is simple.

Select the ‘To’ mailing list to which you want to send your email. Enter the ‘From’ email address. This is the sender’s address that will be seen by the recipient. Enter the ‘From’ name. This is the sender name that will appear in the email client. Enter the ‘Subject’. This is the subject line that the recipient will see. Finally, select the folder and newsletter you wish to send. Make sure you check the preview pane to confirm you have selected the correct one. If you want to send a text-only version, tick the box next to ‘send text version only’. Please ensure that you have created a text-only version, before attempting to send one. Check spam score You can check the likelihood of your email getting caught in a spam filter. To do this, click on the ‘check spam score’ button. A report is then guaranteed by sending a copy of the email through Spamassassin. Since we actually have to send the email to an inbox to get this score, it may take a few minutes to return the score. The score is rules based, with each rule worth a penalty point. Assessments below 3.0 are usually not classified as spam. If you get above this, try to refine your email, including the subject line, to get as low a spam score as possible. The report should only be used as a yardstick though a low score doesn’t guarantee that your email will get past all spam filters.

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After clicking ‘send’, you will see a window which confirms the newsletter, subject and other details of your send. Please review all these details to make sure they correct. If you click ‘ok’ at this point, there is no turning back. If you see a mistake, click ‘cancel’ and make the corrections before returning to send. Within 10 minutes of clicking ‘send’ the first emails will be delivered. Be patient with large mailing lists it can take a few minutes to queue the emails for the send.

BestCairo has immediate send and delayed-send scheduling capabilities. These scheduling options are available in the Advanced mode under ‘Send Newsletter’.

Reports and Statistics Now, for the really interesting part. BestCairo will show you how many of your emails were delivered, how many were opened and what links were clicked on. Simply click on ‘Reports and Statistics’. You will see a list of your most recent sends and top-level overview statistics on each of them: the number sent, delivered, opened, the number of links clicked, the number of times an email was forwarded by a recipient and the recipients opting-out (unsubscribing).

To see graphs and more details, click on the magnifying glass icon.

You will see graphical representations of how many people received your email, how many people opened it, how many people took an action – that is, clicked on a link, forwarded it, unsubscribed or complained. There will also be a graph showing you the reasons why the emails that didn’t get delivered, didn’t get delivered. In the tables on the right-hand side of the page, some of the categories will be clickable links. If you click on them, they will take you to a list of the email addresses relating to that category. For example, by clicking on ‘Opened’, you will see the list of recipients who opened your email. Unsubscribed BestCairo automatically tags the addresses of individuals who have unsubscribed, so that they will not be sent to again. BestCairo also adds these addresses to your accounts block list to ensure that should you accidentally import one of the email addresses to another list, they will not receive an email from your company. The block list is a suppression list of email addresses that BestCairo will not send to – see the Advanced Manual for more information. Not delivered addresses Hard bounces Hard Bounces are emails that cannot be delivered because there is a problem with the email address itself. ‘User unknown’ or ‘Domain unknown’ are examples of hard bounces. A hard bounce is usually the result of a misspelling, but it can also be due to the recipient retiring that particular email address

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or domain. If BestCairo determines an email address to be a hard bounce, it is automatically tagged as such within the list and that email address will not be sent to in the future. Not delivered addresses Soft bounces Soft Bounces are emails that cannot be delivered temporarily. This may be because the recipient’s mailbox was full or the email was blocked by a server-level spam filter. These email addresses will remain on your list for future sends. Links clicked If you want to see which links were clicked and by whom, click on the ‘clicked’ link under ‘Of the total who opened’.

A page will show all the links in your email that were clicked and the number of times each of them was clicked. If you want to export a PDF of the graphs, click the ‘export (PDF)’ link. The reports for any given send will continue to update for up to a week after the send, but, depending on the day of the week, you can expect results within 24 hours and close to final results within 48 hours. You can always drill down to see the details of email addresses which opened, clicked, forwarded or unsubscribed from your mailing list. If the mailing is less than two weeks old, you can see this level of detail for delivered and non-delivered emails. After two weeks, the detail on delivered and non-delivered emails is removed. Exporting reports Detailed email send reports can be exported to an Excel document. Find the report you want to export and click on ‘export selected sends’. Targeting future sends based upon reports You can save the email addresses in a particular report view to a new mailing list. For instance, if you want to send a follow-up mailing to everyone who opened a newsletter, you can save all email addresses that opened the newsletter to a new list. Click on the report link (e.g. 'opened') to see a list of email addresses that opened the newsletter.

Underneath the list of addresses, you have the option to copy the addresses to a new or existing mailing list. Set up and Options Profile settings Please ensure that your contact details are up to date at all times in the ‘User Profile page’. US, European and Australian legislation requires that the footer on every outgoing email contain the physical address of the sender. Whatever address you have in your ‘Profile settings’ page will be the address that BestCairo appends to your outgoing mail. BestCairo will prompt you to fill this out before you make your first send.

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Login and Password If you want to change your password at any time, you can do it from the ‘User Profile’ page. If you want to change your username, you need to contact BestCairo Support at support@bestcairo.com and ask the staff to make the change for you. Email send credits – Buying more

Each BestCairo subscription allows you to send a certain number of emails each month. Credits that are not used from this allotment do not carry over to the next month. If you need to send more emails then you have credits for, you can purchase more email send credits by clicking on the various ‘buy now’ buttons in your account. These additional credits are non-expiring and will remain on your account until they are used. Expiring credits always get used up first. Invoices BestCairo automatically generates an invoice for each purchase you make. These invoices are stored in the ‘Invoices’ sub-menu under ‘Set up and Options’. You can view your invoices by clicking on them, and you can then download or print them. Upgrading or downgrading your subscription At any time, you can either upgrade or downgrade your subscription plan. Simply go to the ‘Change Account’ sub-menu in ‘Set up and Options’ and follow the instructions. Cancelling your account You can cancel your subscription at any time. Simply go to the ‘Cancel Account’ sub-menu in ‘Set up and Options’ and follow the instructions.

General Account Settings Visit ‘General Settings’ to change the time zone and other miscellaneous settings. Please note: It is important to set the correct time zone for your account to ensure that reports are accurate. If you want a text-only version to be created automatically for every newsletter, you can set this as a default. Older email programs (pre-1998) will see the text version by default. If you select this option, you need to create a text-only version of your emails when you create the HTML version. If this option is selected, the HTML and text-only newsletters are 'twinned'. This is represented by the asterisk symbol * that appears next to the newsletter’s name. When a twinned newsletter is edited, the graphical version is opened first. The text-only editor appears after you save the newsletter in the HTML editor. Enable password on subscribe form for users with additional data. If you collect profiles of your subscribers (that is, name, contact details and demographic information) you can enable this function, which will prompt each user (subscriber) to create a password-protected profile. If they return to ‘update details’ later, then they can only make the change with the correct password. Language settings If your newsletters are in a language other than BestCairo’s default language, make sure you set BestCairoto use the proper character set. Notifications If you would like to receive an email when a recipient subscribes or unsubscribes from your mailing list, you can enable that setting here. Default Editor BestCairo has several editors. Choose the one you would like to use here. The most recent editor is (and most powerful) is always set as the default; simpler older editors are still available though.

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Header / Footer Settings BestCairo automatically appends an unsubscribe footer to each outgoing email. The ‘Header / Footer settings’ menu allows you to customise this footer. Header settings You can have a header appended to all your outgoing newsletters. The header includes the ‘from’ email address and the email you have sent to, a ‘unsubscribe’ link and a link to view the newsletter as a webpage. To have the header appended, simply tick the box.

Footer settings The footer can be centred or right or left justified. Simply select your preference from the drop-down and click ‘save’.

You can add a ‘subscribe’ link to the footer. If an email is forwarded, then the recipient has a means of subscribing to your list. By default, this function is not enabled. You can also add a ‘Forward to friend’ link to the footer. If an email is forwarded using this link, we are able to track it. If an email is forwarded using the forward button on an email client, BestCairo cannot track it.

One-click unsubscribe is enabled by default. If you disable this, a confirmation pop-up will appear to confirm that the recipient really wants to unsubscribe. BestCairo can append a text or HTML footer. Select the version you would prefer to have appended to your email by clicking the appropriate radio button.

Advanced Settings These features are only relevant to programmers and advanced users and as such are dealt with in the Advanced manual.

Subscription Form Wizard Please see the explanation earlier in this document.

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Adding a link from your website to your customised subscription form Once you've used the wizard to customise your subscription form, you can link it to your website. Doing this will help you to grow your email list. The ‘Link Form’ sub-menu under ‘Subscription Form’ will provide you with the link code you need to add to your web pages. First you need to decide whether you want a text link, button, or an embedded form with a submit button. A text link from your website to your subscription form If you prefer a text link, click on [+] ‘Text link’. Enter the text you want, for example ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’, in the ‘Link text’ field. Then select the font, font size, font format and font colour.

Finally, click on ‘create link code’. You will see the code appear in the field. You can have this code emailed to you or you can copy and paste it into a document. If you’ve done some web page design, you’ll know what to do. If not, just give this code to your website designer and they most certainly will. A button link from your website to your subscription form First you need to decide whether you want to use one of our buttons, or one you’ve designed yourself. If you’re going to use one of our buttons, click on [+] ‘Select a subscribe button’. You’ll see all of the available and you’ll need to choose the one you want to use by selecting the radio button next to it. After you’ve selected it, click on the ‘create link code’ button. You will see the code appear in the field provided. You can have this code emailed to you or you can copy and paste it into a document. If you’ve done some web page design you’ll know what to do. If not, just give this code to your website designer and they most certainly will.

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If you are going to use one of your own buttons, click on [+] ‘Use your own subscribe button’. You will need to upload the buttons that you’ve created and then select them from the drop-down. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘create link code’ button. You will see the code appear in the field provided. You can have this code emailed to you or you can copy and paste it into a document. If you’ve done some web page design you’ll know what to do. If not, just give this code to your website designer and they most certainly will.

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Subscribing from my website using a Quick Subscribe Form If you don’t want a link to a subscription form and you just want ‘Subscribe to my newsletter’ and embed email address field on your webpage, with a ‘submit’ button. This will work if you have a single newsletter, as there is no facility for the client to select the newsletter they want to subscribe to. Click on [+] ‘Use the Quick Subscribe Form’. Select the mailing list you want the Quick Subscribe Form to subscribe email addresses to. Once you’ve done that, you will see the code appear in the field provided. You can have this code emailed to you or you can copy and paste it into a document. If you’ve done some web page design you’ll know what to do. If not, just give this code to your website designer and they most certainly will

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Embedding the Subscription Form If you want to embed your customised subscription form onto one of your web pages, BestCairo can give you the code to do that as well. Simply click on the ‘Embed Form’ sub-menu under ‘Subscription Form’. You will need to select either the JavaScript or non-JavaScript version. When you have made your selection, the code will appear in the window. If you’ve done some web page design you’ll know what to do. If not, just give this code to your website designer and they most certainly will.

You can specify the page to return to after submission by giving the Return URL a valid URL value. You can also prevent the subscription form from resizing by setting the Resize value to 0. Test it out and adjust it for your own continuity and branding.

Auto-responders An auto-responder is an automated email that is sent after a certain action. You can set auto-responders to be sent to an email address after it has subscribed to or unsubscribed from one of your mailings. These are often used to assure subscribers that they've been unsubscribed, or to suggest that they whitelist your address to ensure future delivery if they've just subscribed. (BestCairo also lets you set up more sophisticated auto-responders, called ‘triggers’. These are explained in the Advanced Manual.) Click on ‘Auto-responders’ under ‘Subscription Form’. The first type of auto-responder you can set up is a notification which is sent to your email address when someone has subscribed or unsubscribed from your lists. Set this up by clicking on [+] ‘Confirmation email details’. To set up a subscription confirmation auto-responder, click on [+] ‘Subscribe confirmation emails’.

To enable a ‘subscribed’ auto-responder, just tick the appropriate box. If you want it to be a text-only email (automated text emails have a higher delivery rate), then tick that box.

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You will also need to give your ‘subscribed’ auto-responder a subject. This is very important, as it will be the first thing that the client sees and should confirm that they have subscribed to your services. You then need to select the email that you want sent. You need to have created the email using the Editor, prior to enabling the auto-responder. But BestCairo also has a default subscription confirmation email available. To set up an ‘unsubscribed’ confirmation auto-responder click on [+] ‘Unsubscribe confirmation emails’.

To enable an unsubscribed auto-responder, just tick the appropriate box. If you want it to be a text-only email (automated text emails have a higher delivery rate), then tick that box. You will also need to give your unsubscribed auto-responder a subject. This is very important as it will be the first thing that the client sees and should confirm that they have unsubscribed. You then need to select the email that you want sent. You need to have created the email using the Editor, prior to enabling the auto-responder. But BestCairo also has a default unsubscribed confirmation email available.

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Glossary Application Program Interface (API) When a program (application) accesses another to manage it by remote control, it uses an API. Using the BestCairo API a website can for instance add a new subscribe to a particular list, or initiate a send. Above-the-fold or sill (preview pane in your email client) The part of a web page or email client that is visible without scrolling. If you have a 'Join our mailing list' or 'Subscribe now' tag on your website, place it 'above the fold/sill' - it makes it easy for visitors and clients to opt-in and opt-out. Absolute link All newsletter or graphic emails require an absolute link (as opposed to relative) for the images on the email be visible. For example: Relative link, img src="images/BestCairo_logo.gif " Absolute link; img src="http://www.BestCairo.com/images/BestCairo_logo.gif" The image must be parked (uploaded to the website address) in the appropriate folder designated by the URL address. Affirmative consent Indicates that permission has been given by the recipient for you to send them emails. The recipient has been clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of his/her email address and has consented prior to such collection and GM account use (subject to the privacy statement and terms and conditions, and the laws and regulations applying in the country of receipt). Affirmative consent is considered the world's best practice in this arena. It is therefore required by all reputable email marketing companies and ISP services. Attachment A text, video, graphic, PDF or any other file that accompanies an email message but is not included in the message itself. Attachments are not a good way to send email newsletters because many ISPs, email clients and individual email recipients block attachments, as hackers often use them to deliver viruses and other malicious code. Auto-responder A program, script, plugin or any other software solution that automatically sends a response/alert to a specified email contact when someone sends a message to its address. The most common uses of auto-responders are for subscribe (opt-in) and unsubscribe (opt-out) confirmations, welcome emails and customer support questions. Industry's best practice is to have a double opt-in; after you subscribe you receive an email alert requesting you to respond by clicking on a link to confirm your voluntary subscription. Australian Spam Act, 2004 The Australian Spam Act 2003 was brought into existence to alleviate and halt the unsolicited sending of email, or 'spam'. This was followed by the Spam (Consequential amendments) Act 2003 and Spam Regulations 2004. Block A refusal by an ISP or email server to forward your email message to the recipient. Many ISPs block emails from IP addresses or domains that have been reported to send spam or viruses, or have content that violates email policy or spam filters. Block list – see suppression list Bulk folder (also junk folder) Where many email clients send messages that appear to be from spammers, contain spam, or are from any sender who is not in the recipient's address book or contact list. Some clients allow the recipient to override the system's settings and direct that mail from a suspect sender be sent directly to the inbox. E.g., Yahoo!Mail gives recipients a button marked ‘Not Spam’ on every message in the bulk folder. Bounced email A bounced email is one in which the address was either wrongly typed, the delivery address is no longer active (intended recipient has changed email address) or the domain address (this is the address after the '@' in the email address) is no longer active. Campaign

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An email marketing message or a series of like-minded messages designed to accomplish an overall goal. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 The United States of America introduced this Federal anti-spam legislation. It was passed in 2003 and requires the following in each email: a legitimate header, a valid ‘From’ address and a straightforward ‘Subject’ line. Also required by the act is an unsubscribe/opt-out option and/or instructions and a physical address. It also requires that all unsubscribes are processed within ten days of receipt. Challenge request An automated message forwarded by the receipt of an email, specifically for the purpose of identifying the sender as a trusted source. The forwarded response requests the sender of the email to act on certain instructions in order to validate themselves. If the sender provides a valid response, his email address is added to the recipient's whitelist of trusted senders, and his message is passed along to the recipient. Click-through and click-through tracking When a link is included in an email, a click-through occurs when a recipient clicks on the link. Click-through tracking refers to the data collected about each click-through link, such as how many people clicked it, who clicked it, how many clicks resulted in desired actions such as sales, forwards or subscriptions. Confirmed opt-in (required by The European anti-spam Directive) A more controlled method of obtaining permission to send email campaigns. Confirmed opt-in adds an additional step to the opt-in process. It requires the subscriber to respond to a confirmation email, either by clicking on a confirmation link, or by hitting the reply button, thus confirming their subscription. Only subscribers who take this additional step are added to the list. CPM (or Cost Per Thousand) In email marketing terminology, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1000 names on a given rental list. For example, on a rental list priced at $250AUS, CPM would mean that the list owner charges $0.25AU per email address. Alternatively it can mean the cost of sending 1000 emails. CTR (or click-through rate) The number of unique clicks divided by the number of emails that were opened, expressed as a percentage. Conversion rate The percentage of emailed recipients who responded to your specific email marketing campaign or promotion. This is the measure of your email marketing campaign's success. Your conversions can be measured in all things related to the campaign, that is, sales, phone calls, appointments and so on. Double opt-in A process that requires new list joiners to take an action (such as clicking on an emailed link to a personal confirmation page) in order to confirm that they want to be on the list. Sometimes interpreted incorrectly by some email broadcast vendors to mean a new subscriber who does not opt-out of, or bounce, a welcome message. Email blocking Email blocking typically refers to blocking by ISPs. Emails that are blocked are not processed through the ISP and are essentially prevented from reaching their addressed destination. Most ISPs actively block email coming from suspected spammers or tag the subject line 'SUSPECTED SPAM'. Email newsletter ads or sponsorships Buying ad space (just like you do in a newspaper) in an email newsletter or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles that target the audience represented by the list that is used. Advertisers pay to have their ad (plain text, HTML or both depending on the publication) inserted into the body of the email. ESP Email Service Provider. Event triggered email Pre-programmed messages sent automatically, based on an event such as a date or anniversary. Ezine (also e-zine) Another name for an email newsletter, adapted from electronic zine or electronic magazine. An e-zine is an American term used to describe an electronic magazine or newsletter emailed to a list of subscribers. As described above, advertisers pay to have their ad (plain text, HTML or both, depending on the publication) inserted into the body of the email. Buying ad space in an e-zine or email newsletter, or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles, allow advertisers to reach a

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targeted audience, thus hoping to drive traffic to a specific website, store or office. This also instigates (hopefully) sign-ups to a newsletter or improves sales of a product or service. False positive Legitimately subscribed permission-based email that is blocked due to the limitations of current email blocking and filtering techniques utilised by the ISP. False positives are an industry-wide problem. It is estimated by some sources that around 20% of permission-based email is erroneously blocked by either anti-spam software or incorrectly installed server-based solutions. Flash A web language to animate design resulting in more dynamic content. From line or sender line The from line has two parts: part one is the ‘From’ name -- for example ‘Joe Blow. Part two is the ‘From’ address -- the electronic address including @, such as Sales@BestCairo.com Your recipients may see only the ‘from’ name, the ‘from’ address, or both, depending on the configuration of their email client and the email client software used. Hard bounce/Soft bounce A hard bounce (described in the Bounced email entry above) is the failed delivery of an email due to a permanent issue like a non-existent address. A soft bounce is the failed delivery of an email due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox, server down, congestion on the net or outage. House List (enterprise list) A permission-based (fully opted-in) list that you build yourself. Used to market, promote your product or service and build a relationship with your clients. Your house list is truly your most valuable asset. In the marketing world they say it is '7 times less expensive to market to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one'. HTML email An email that is formatted using HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, instead of plain text. HTML makes it possible to include unique fonts, graphics, background colours and other visuals. Flash visuals (high-quality animated visuals) and other high-end marketing techniques can be written into the email of story pages, but should not be sent in the main email. To view the HTML email, simply right-click and view the source code. HTML makes an email more engaging. When used properly and with style it can generate much higher response rates than plain text. Newsletter An expression that simply refers to HTML email, as described above. When most people think of email, they think of plain text. When you use the term ‘newsletter’ in marketing, it conjures up a whole range of new opportunities. ISP / Internet Service Provider. Typically ISPs provide mail and web hosting, as well as providing access (such as ADSL). Landing page A web page that is directly linked from an email for the purpose of providing additional information on products or services promoted in the email. Also called story pages. Links Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images that, when clicked sends the client to another online location (for example a landing page or other pages of a website). Links in emails are a source of action. Links need to be visible, appealing, clear and inviting. Microsite A Microsite, is a mini website used to archive your past newsletters. A unique URL link is given to you so the microsite can used as a portfolio of your past newsletter and templates, linked from your own website. Open rate The percentage of emails opened in any given email marketing campaign, or the percentage opened of the total number of emails sent. Opt-in (or Subscribe) To opt-in or subscribe to an email list is to choose to receive email communications by supplying your email address to a particular company, website or individual, thereby giving them permission to email you. The subscriber can often indicate areas of personal interest (for example, surfing, cars) or indicate what types of emails he/she wishes to receive from the sender (for example, newsletters, sales campaigns, offers too good to resist). If you are not sure, read the privacy statement; reputable email marketing companies usually have a direct link to their privacy statement and an explanation of how they will use your email address, for example, on opting in you may imply permission for the

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company to sell your address to like-minded businesses. Always check to see if you can opt-out with the click of a button. Opt-out (or Unsubscribe) To opt-out or unsubscribe from an email list is to choose not to receive communications from the sender by requesting the removal of your email address from their list. Industry best practice is to offer at least two ways to opt-out, one being an opt-out link in the email and the other being a link provided to your website with the opportunity to opt-out there. Outage (downtime) The interruption of automated processing systems, support services or essential business operations which may result in the organization's inability to provide service for some period of time. Permission-based email Email sent to recipients or subscribers who have opted-in or subscribed or have given inferred permission to be sent email communications from a particular company, website or individual. Whichever way you look at it, permission is an absolute prerequisite for legitimate email marketing. Personalisation A targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created only for a single recipient. Personalisation techniques include adding the recipient's name in the subject line or message body, or the message offer reflects a purchasing, link clicking, or transaction history. Phishing Phishing refers to email scams which have the purpose of identity theft. Identity thieves send fraudulent email messages with return addresses, links, and branding that appear to come from credit card companies, banks and some of the web's most well-known sites including eBay®, PayPal®, NINEMSN®, Yahoo® and COMMBANK, to name just a few. These messages are designed to ‘phish’ for personal and financial information (for example, passwords, usernames, social security numbers, credit card numbers, mother's maiden name, and so on) from the recipient. For examples, visit www.anti-phishing.org Pre-existing business relationship The recipient of your email has made a purchase, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, or had offline contact with you, in other words, has given inferred permission for you to email them. Privacy policy A clear description of a website or company's policy on the use of information collected from and about website visitors and subscribers. Your privacy policy is an opportunity for visitors and subscribers to assess your integrity and to establish an open and honest relationship with all who subscribe. It is wise to remember that most Western governments have established legislation to support and protect individuals' privacy. Know your boundaries. Queue Where an email message goes after you send it, before the list server gets around to sending it. Rental list (or Acquisition list) A list of prospective clients, or a targeted group of recipients who have opted-in to receive information about certain subjects. Using permission-based rental lists, marketing companies can send email messages to audiences targeted by interest category, profession, demographics and more. Be sure your rental list is a certified permission-based, opt-in list. Permission-based lists are rented or leased, seldom sold. Relative URL All newsletter or graphic emails require absolute addressing (as opposed to relative) for the images on the email to generate correctly and be visible, for example: Relative link; img src="images/BestCairo_logo.gif", this will work within a root system on a website situated on a server and on your own computer, but not in a newsletter. Emails require absolute URLs. For example, Absolute link; img src="http://www.BestCairo.com/images/BestCairo_logo.gif" The image must be parked (uploaded to the BestCairo users account or site address) in the appropriate folder designated by the URL and can be called from anywhere on the net. ROI Return on Investment. From an email marketing perspective, understanding this number helps you determine where to put your advertising dollars, which campaigns are performing best, what percentage of your investments are turning directly into income, and how much it costs you to find and retain clients. RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

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A format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed, to whoever wants it. Segmentation Dividing or separating your email list based on interest categories, purchasing behaviour, demographics and more for the purpose of targeting email marketing campaigns to the audience most likely to respond. Signature/Footer A tagline or short block of text at the end of an email message that identifies the sender and provides additional information such as company name and contact information. US law requires that you have your name and company address in the signature. A good footer also invites a marketing opportunity. Single opt-in Once the most widely accepted and routinely used method of obtaining email addresses and permission. A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your email list. When you use a sign-up form on your website, a message immediately goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription (a good example of an auto-responder). This message should reiterate what the subscriber has signed up for and provide an immediate way for the subscriber to edit her interests or opt-out. Industry best practice now dictates a double opt-in. Spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) Email sent to someone who has not opted-in or given inferred permission to the sender to send any mail to them. Our definition of SPAM is: "It's spam if it is both unsolicited and has no inferred connection to the receiver or receivers". Our technical interpretation is: "the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; and the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate and explicit permission for it to be sent, that is, opted-in or subscribed to receive the received email; and the transmission and reception of the message appears to the recipient to give a disproportionate benefit to the sender.” Spoofing The falsification of an email header so that the email appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Subject line The short line of text in an email that indicates what the message is about. Your subject line should be short and it should include a specific benefit that accurately reflects your offer in order to be effective. The subject line's importance cannot be overstated. Most international Spam Acts and Directives prohibit the use of misleading subject lines. Subscribe The process of joining a mailing list, by filling out a web form, or offline by filling out a form or requesting to be added verbally (if you accept verbal subscriptions, you should safeguard yourself by recording them and storing recordings along with time and date, in a retrievable format).

Subscriber The person who has specifically requested to join a mailing list. A list has both subscribers who receive the message from the sender (forward to a friend subscribes).

Suppression list (also block list) A list of email addresses whose owners have asked to be removed from future mailings. If you use multiple email products, or have multiple databases from which you send emails, you should use a suppression list or blocklist filters to process unsubscribe requests across all lists. Targeting Selecting a target audience or group of individuals likely to be interested in a certain product or service. To get the best out of a campaign, analyse your list and target accordingly. Targeted campaigns yield a higher response rate and result in fewer unsubscribes. Text-only newsletter Plain newsletter with words only, no colours, graphics, fonts or pictures; can be received by anyone who has email. Triggers Triggers send automated follow-up emails based on the recipient's reaction to an email you've sent to them. Triggers can be set up to send a time-delayed email when the recipient clicks on the link or opens an email. They're great for sending thank-you emails or for sending coupons to people who've clicked on a product. Unsubscribe

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To remove oneself from an email list, either filling in a web form – clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer. URL (or Universal Resource Locator) Put simply, a URL indicates a website, web page or any other document address or location on the internet. URLs indicate the location of every file on every computer accessible through the internet. USP (Unique Selling Proposition) Your USP is the unique attribute of your business that makes your company, product or service the best solution to a problem, the best way to fulfil a need or desire or the best way to achieve a goal. Your USP answers the prospective recipient’s question: "Why should I do business with you instead of someone else?" Viral Marketing A type of marketing that is carried out voluntarily by the targeted company's customers. The electronic equivalent of 'word-of-mouth advertising'. Email has made this type of marketing both relevant and prevalent. Tools such as ‘send this page or ‘email to a friend’ encourage people to refer or recommend your company’s product, service or a specific offer to others.

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Importing from Outlook Express or Outlook

Screen Shot: Export address from Outlook Express or Outlook

1. On the ‘File’ menu of Outlook Express, choose Export > Address Book (as indicated in image

above). (font type?) 2. Click to highlight the line ‘Text File’ (.CSV -- Comma Separated Values). 3. Click on the ‘Export’ button. 4. Click on ‘Browse’, give the file a name and choose a location to save it. Make sure you remember

where you save the document, so you can browse to it when importing it into the BestCairo system.

5. Click ‘Next’. 6. Now un-tick all except the ‘E-mail Address’ field (as shown below). 7. Click ‘Finish’. 8. The file of addresses is now ready to be imported into a newsletter mailing list. Go back to the

‘Newsletter’ console in BestCairo and follow the directions.

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OUTLOOK 97/2000/2002 [MICROSOFT OFFICE]

1. Select ‘Contacts’ on the Outlook shortcuts sidebar at left. 2. From the ‘File’ menu, choose ‘Import and Export’. 3. Highlight ‘Export to a File’ and click ‘Next’ (as per image above). You'll see two more windows.

Click ‘Next’ and ‘Next’. 4. Click ‘Browse’, give the file a name and choose a location to save it. Make sure you remember

where you save it, so you can import it into the BestCairo system later. Click ‘Next’. 5. Now click ‘Map Custom Fields’ and click ‘Clear Map’. 6. Scroll down to ‘E-Mail’ in the left column and drag it across to the (now empty) right column. It

should look like the image below. 7. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Finish’. The file of addresses can now be imported into a newsletter mailing list. Go back to the ‘Newsletter’ console in BestCairo and follow the directions.