We continue the series of educational articles for beginners about popular mailing platforms. We will tell you about SendPulse.
To show how to use SendPulse and how easy it will be for a non-professional, we entrusted this to our author and absolute humanitarian Lera.
Spoiler alert: she did it and wrote instructions in simple words for the benefit of her novice colleagues and Russian email marketing.
Find out more about each step in SendPulse.
How to create a newsletter in SendPulse
Step 1. Register on the platform
To create a profile, you need to enter your name, email, phone number and confirm your registration by email.
The platform asks three questions:
Welcome to SendPulse
Have you used SendPulse newsletters before?
What is the size of the SendPulse customer base?
You cannot select two or more answers to one question. Immediately after clicking on one of the positions, the service issues the next question, but the survey did not affect the available tools in any way. So do not be afraid: if you selected email newsletters in the answers to the first question, you will then be able to send SMS newsletters and create a chat bot.
Read also
Lead generation: what is it, channels, mistakes, examples
Step 2. Create an address book
The next step the platform suggested to me was to create an address book, that is, to create a list of contacts.
Add SendPulse address book
There are three ways to download addresses:
manually: one by one or the whole list at once;Upload addresses to SendPulse one by oneUpload addresses to SendPulse as a list
import contacts from an online store or CRM;Importing contacts into SendPulse
upload file.Uploading contacts to SendPulse using a file
But the free plan has a limitation – only the first 50,000 contacts from the file will be downloaded automatically. To remove this limitation, you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
I uploaded contacts manually one by one – I added three colleagues from Email Soldiers.
Step 3. Preparing the mailing list
You can create a letter from your address book, from the My Mailings tab, or from the start page. The process is the same in all cases.
Starting to create a mailing list in SendPulse
First we provide information about the mailing.
To do this:
select the address book with the required contacts, mark the contacts;
indicate the address and name of the sender;
we enter the subject of the letter.
Next, we visualize the future mailing in one of the following ways:
select a ready-made template in the platform;
we assemble our own in a block editor;
we import our ready-made;
create a template in a simplified html editor.
Methods for investor database creating a mailing list in SendPulse
I’ll tell you more about each option.
Ready-made templates
SendPulse templates have all the blocks that will help you assemble a letter for the desired task: banner, text, pictures, video, external linking – mark advertising and be buttons, dividers, social network icons, payment. The blocks are pre-assembled in a convenient order with or without a ready-made design. This is important for those who find it betting email list difficult to imagine and correctly assemble the structure of a letter for the desired type of mailing.
Email Newsletter Design: A Complete Guide
For example, templates of a promotional letter for an online store. The blocks are assembled in such a way as to maximally motivate sales. There is a banner with a special offer, a large grid of products and several buttons with a call to buy.
SendPulse Template for Online Store
In automatic, triggered and transactional emails, the emphasis is on the actions that the user has taken, and nothing more.
For example, an abandoned cart is a short letter with a simple banner, a card of the abandoned product and a button to complete the order in a couple of clicks.
SendPulse Abandoned Cart Template
A subscription confirmation letter is a call to action and a button so as not to distract from the target action.
SendPulse Subscription Confirmation Template
Templates are a lifesaver if you don’t have a designer or layout designer on staff. The service has 61 free templates on seven topics: online store, holidays, business, tourism, restaurants, education, and general. Among them are options for trigger, transactional, promotional, and content mailings. If you’re just starting email marketing, this will definitely be enough for you.
They can be edited: change the blocks, change the parameters. The first time you use them, hints pop up.
SendPulse Template Set
Your template
You can also create your own template in the block editor. The platform has basic structures for each type of letter, which can be modified to suit your needs.
SendPulse Block Editor
We focus on the essence of the mailing we plan to send. If it is a promo, we choose “shop” or “three columns”, if it is a news digest, we choose “news”.
To add fields, drag the required blocks from the left panel with the mouse, and to edit them, set the values on the right.
Working in the SendPulse block editor
Import template
You can upload the finished layout in three ways:
a file in one of the permitted formats: html, htm, zip, rar or 7z;
download from link;
insert code.
This is an option for companies with an experienced designer and layout designer, or if you understand HTML yourself. I took a ready-made code for our internal newsletter for new employees from my colleagues.
Importing your template into SendPulse
We paste it, click “Continue”, and the code opens in the HTML editor, but not as code, but as a beautiful layout.
View of a letter with imported templates in SendPulse
Read also
HTML layout of letters – full instructions
Simplified html editor
The guys weren’t lying when they called the editor “simplified”. It works on the principle of a text editor.
You type the text, format it.
Simplified HTML-editor SendPulse
Save and receive such a letter.
The letter view in the simplified HTML editor SendPulse
For a serious mailing, of course, it’s weak. But for a simple informational letter it will do.
Step 4. Sending the newsletter
Once we have filled the letter with content, the platform will offer to enter a preheader and go to the mailing settings.
Email preheader in SendPulse
SendPulse sets the default settings. This will be enough for a test mailing, so I leave everything as is.
SendPulse mailing settings
Now you need to check the mailing information and fill in additional fields about time and resending.
The final step is a test send to make sure the email is error-free and displays correctly on devices.
And finally, sending a letter to your contacts.
Sending a letter SendPulse
Done. My first letter is in the inbox. 🙂
SendPulse letters in mail
Statistics on the mailing will be automatically collected in the platform.
What else does SendPulse have for email marketing?
Briefly about the features that will help make your mailings via SendPulse more effective.
Automation 360
You can set up multi-channel email, push , sms chains depending on user actions, variables or events.
Personalization of letters
SendPulse can personalize any part of the mailing text. The number of fields for substitutions of different types is unlimited.
A/B testing
This is one of the options for improving mailings.
You can test:
sender’s name;
topic;
content of the letter.
Transactional letters
A letter confirming a subscription, order or reservation, about the availability of an order or successful delivery – in SendPulse you can set up any of these automatic letters.
Trigger mailings
Types of trigger emails that can be configured in SendPulse:
reviews;
abandoned cart;
purchase;
registration;
confirmation;
reactivation;
own customized event.
Read also
Your Triggered Emails Are Terrible. Here’s How to Fix Them
Analytics
SendPulse offers advanced analytics to improve your email strategies.
SendPulse Analytics
The service integrates with Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics and is available in the SendPulse mobile application.
Integrations
For projects with professional developers, SendPulse offers an API interface for implementing the service’s capabilities into the client’s project.
SendPulse also integrates with the following platforms: WordPress, AmoCRM, LeadGenic, 1C-Bitrix, Bitrix24, Tilda, retailCRM, Zapier, CreateForm, FormDesigner.
Tariffs in SendPulse
The cost of each service is individual. There are three tariff options for email marketing:
Monthly subscription based on the size of the database.SendPulse Monthly Subscription
Payment for sent letters.SendPulse tariff for sent letters
VIP tariff with a personal manager – for those who plan to send newsletters to 100,000 subscribers or more. The price is individual.
Advantages of SendPulse
For those who are choosing between several platforms, I will highlight several advantages of SendPulse.
Simple interface: all steps appear one after another, it is impossible to get confused.
There are pop-up tips at each step, although the service is understandable even for a beginner.
There is all the minimum functionality. In the marketing strategy to the email channel, you can connect push notifications or increase the number of sent letters, the subscriber base. You don’t have to look for another platform for this.
Free trial period of the paid tariff with additional features for 7 days.
Knowledge base with a clear description of the service functions.
Technical support 24/7 via online chat or email.
SendPulse is a beginner-friendly platform with the basic tools needed for email marketing.
Add email templates
It seems that there are quite a lot of options, but they are in different categories, so not all of them will be suitable for a specific task. If you scale your business over time and develop an email channel, you cannot do without the help of a designer.
Add invited users to the free plan
This will help evaluate the capabilities of teamwork. This function is available in the weekly free access of the paid plan, but this time will most likely be too little.
More automated capabilities
For example, add a tracker for subscriber actions on the site. For now, data on abandoned carts and purchases is collected manually. If you want to automate the work as much as possible, the platform’s capabilities will not be enough.
Now you know how to work with SendPulse, and you can create your first mailing, even if you have never done anything like this before.
