How Mailings Work

You can target and email different groups of your customers. When you create a mailing, you define the content of the message and the group of customers who will receive it.

You can include and exclude a total of fifty contact lists or segments of contacts from your mailing. You can also send test mailings and proofs before committing to a final email.

There are two types of mailings you can create, distinguished by delivery method.

Broadcast mailings are used to send a message to a specified audience at a time you choose.
Transactional mailings are event-triggered, so the email is sent when actions you define occur, such as a campaign action or a rule action.

This flowchart shows how the processes for creating and sending a broadcast mailing are different from a transactional mailing.

This image is a flowchart that shows the process of creating and sending a mailing. Using content from the Content Library, you can create two types of mailings: broadcast and transactional. To create a broadcast mailing, you first define an audience and then select one of three market testing modes: none, even split, or random sampling. For none and even split, you add content to the message or messages, proof the content and send the mailing or messages. For a random sampling mailing, you add content to the messages, proof the content, send test results, evaluate test results, and send the final message. The final step in all instances is to create the mailing. For a transactional mailing, you first select either no market testing mode or a audience sampling mode. With no mode selected, you add content to the message, proof the content, launch the mailing, add the mailing to a campaign, and launch the campaign. For audience sampling mode, you add content to test messages, proof the content, launch the mailing, add the mailing to a campaign, launch the campaign, and enable the final message. In both instances the final step is to create the mailing.

Note: The following procedure assumes that you access the Mailings explorer from the Mailings navigation list. However, this explorer may reside in a different navigation list.

Click Mailings on the navigation pane and double-click Mailings Explorer.
The Mailings explorer opens on the content pane.
Click New.
A new mailing opens on the content pane.
Tip: You can also create a mailing from an open mailing by clicking New. Additionally, if your navigation set is configured to add mailings from the file menu, click File > Mailing. See Overview of Navigation Sets.
To create a broadcast mailing (the mailing method selected by default), see Create a Broadcast Mailing.
To change to a transactional mailing, see Change the Mailing Method. Then, to create the transactional mailing, see Create a Transactional Mailing.