Configure an Email Load and Send Campaign: Proofing

Overview

The Proofing sub-section is used to configure the proofs for your email message. A proof is a sample message that gets sent to a select individual, or group of individuals, in order to verify that the content, format, and appearance of the message is accurate.

Note: For tips and suggestions on how to run your Proofs as efficiently as possible, see Proofing Groups.

To access the Proofing sub-section, select "Proofing" from the Functional Menu on the left. 

Features

The features and options available from the Proofing section are described below. 

 Send Proofs to a Proofing Group

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To send Proofs to a Proofing Group for a Load and Send Campaign:

  1. In the "Subject Prefix" field, enter a text string. This value will be inserted in front of the subject line of the proofing email message, in order to help the recipient identify the message as being a test proof. The default value in this field is "PROOF."

  2. If necessary, click the "Proofing Group" toggle (this button is selected by default).

  3. In the "Proofing Group" field:

  • To select an existing Proofing Group, begin typing in the name of the desired Group. The system displays a pop-up menu of Proofing Groups with this text string in the Group name; select a Group from this menu. Or, click the browse button (magnifying glass icon). A "Browse Proofing Group" dialog box is displayed, showing all Proofing Groups with the same channel as the current campaign. Click on a Group name.

  • To create a new Proofing Group, click the new button (plus-sign icon). A "New Proofing Group" dialog box is displayed. Enter a name for this Group, select a data source, and select a type (Random Records or Specific Records). The channel for this Group is automatically selected for you based on the channel of the current Campaign. Click save new item. To add recipients to the new Proofing Group, click the "jump to" button (green up-arrow icon). The system displays the Proofing Group detail screen where you can add recipients to the Group. When finished click Edit > Action > Save. To return to your Campaign, click the Campaign's tab in the Top Navigation Pane.

  1. In the "Proofing Limit" text field, optionally enter the maximum number of proofing messages that you want to generate.

  2. By default, the platform will use the main Campaign Audience to select and populate proofing records. However, you can optionally designate an alternate Audience from which to select the records that should be used for generating proofs. This alternate Audience is defined through the use of a Filter. To designate an alternate Campaign Audience for your proof, in the Tool Ribbon, click Proof > Add Alternate Data Set. Within the "Proofing Options" section of the Campaign screen, the system adds a new "Proofing Filter" field. In the "Proofing Filter" field:

  • To select an existing Proofing Filter, begin typing in the name of the desired Filter. The system displays a pop-up menu of Filters with this text string in the name; select a Filter from this menu. Or, click the browse button (magnifying glass icon). A "Browse Filter" dialog box is displayed, showing all Filter with the same source table as the current Campaign. Click on a Filter name.

  • To create a new Proofing Filter, click the new button (plus-sign icon). A "New Item" dialog box is displayed. Select a location, enter a name for this Filter, and select a data source. Click save new item. To define the Filter logic, click the "jump to" button (green up-arrow icon). The system displays the Filter detail screen where you can define the Filter logic. When finished click Edit > Save. To return to your Campaign, click the Campaign's tab in the Top Navigation Pane.

  1. In the Tool Ribbon, click Proof > Send Proofs. Optionally, you can also send Proofs as part of the Auditing step. A "Choose File Import for Calculation" dialog box is displayed.

  2. In the "Choose File Import for Calculation" dialog box, select which specific import file you want to use to generate the proofs:

  • Most Recent: To use the most recent import file, place a check mark next to "most recent." This is the default option.

  • Most Recent from a Folder: To use the most recent import file from a specific folder, place a check mark next to "most recent from a folder. The system displays your folder hierarchy. Select the desired folder.

  • Specific Import: To use a specific import file, place a check mark next to "specific import from a folder." The system displays your folder hierarchy. Select a folder to see a list of all the import files within that folder. Select the desired import file.

  1. Click calculate.

The "Proofs" status area shows the progress of the proofs as they are created and sent. See "Review Proof Results" for more details.

 

 Send Quick Proofs

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For a Load and Send Campaign, the Quick Proof function provides a simpler method to test the different content versions of an email Campaign than a Proofing Group. Quick Proof offers the following advantages over Proofing Groups:

  • Send one-off proofs to email addresses that may not be in the database or in a Proofing Group.

  • Quickly select only the Dynamic Content that you want to test, and test every iteration of that Dynamic Content.

  • Test Dynamic Content without having to find sample records that match the desired criteria.

  • If the Campaign contains cells and splits, send proofs to only one or more selected cells.

Please note the following restrictions in regards to the Quick Proof function:

  • The Quick Proof feature is available only to marketing Campaigns in the Email Channel.

  • Quick Proofs are not available if the Campaign content contains Looping Blocks.

  • The eDesign Optimizer and Add Alternate Data Set options will not be available when using Quick Proof.

  • Any Personalization within the Campaign content will display the default values.

To run a Quick Proof for a Load and Send Campaign:

  1. In the "Subject Prefix" field, enter a text string. This value will be inserted in front of the subject line of the proofing email message, in order to help the recipient identify the message as being a test proof. The default value in this field is "PROOF."

  2. Click the "Quick Proof" toggle.

  3. Select the email format – either "HTML" or "Text."

  4. The "Send Proof to" field allows you to enter the email addresses to which you want to send the proof. You can either:

  • Manually type in one or more email addresses. If entering multiple addresses, they must be separated by commas or semi-colons.

  • Send the proof to an existing Proofing Group by clicking the "Browse" icon to the right of the "Send Proof to" field. A pop-up window is displayed, listing all of the existing Proofing Groups. Select the desired group. The pop-up window is closed, and the field is populated with a comma-separated list of all the email addresses in the Proofing Group. Optionally you can then edit this list by removing or adding email addresses.

  1. If your Campaign uses cells, the "Cells" tab is displayed and populated with a tree diagram showing your Campaign's cell hierarchy (this tab is not displayed if your Campaign doesn't use cells). Place a check mark next to each cell for which you want to generate Proofs. The "Cell Count" field in the top-right corner of the "Cells" tab indicates how many cells you've selected.

Note: If your Campaigns contains cells and Dynamic Content, you must first select at least one cell before you can select the Dynamic Content you want to test. The "Dynamic Content" tab is disabled until you check at least one cell within the "Cells" tab.

  1. If your Campaign contains Dynamic Content, the "Dynamic Content" tab is populated with a tree diagram, showing all of the Dynamic Blocks, along with the rules within each Dynamic Block. Place a check mark next to a Dynamic Block and rule that you want to test. By default, the first rule is selected for each Dynamic Block. You can optionally select multiple rules within a Dynamic Block, and / or select multiple Dynamic Blocks. For Dynamic Block that use the IF > IF structure, all selections will be contained in a single proof version.

Note: If your campaign includes static Content Blocks, they will appear in the "Dynamic Content" tab as well. Static blocks will automatically be selected and uneditable, as they will always be included in your proofs.

  1. Based on the number of rules that you select, the "Proof Count" in the top-right corner of the "Dynamic Content" tab indicates how many proofs will be sent to each recipient. The system imposes a hard limit of 250 proofs to each recipient. If you surpass this threshold, an error message is displayed. You must then reduce the number of selected rules in order to decrease the Proof Count.

  2. When finished, click Proof > Proofing Options > Send Proofs in the Tool Ribbon. A "Choose File Import for Calculation" dialog box is displayed.

  3. In the "Choose File Import for Calculation" dialog box, select which specific import file you want to use to generate the proofs:

  • Most Recent: To use the most recent import file, place a check mark next to "most recent." This is the default option.

  • Most Recent from a Folder: To use the most recent import file from a specific folder, place a check mark next to "most recent from a folder. The system displays your folder hierarchy. Select the desired folder.

  • Specific Import: To use a specific import file, place a check mark next to "specific import from a folder." The system displays your folder hierarchy. Select a folder to see a list of all the import files within that folder. Select the desired import file.

  1. Click calculate.

The "Proofs" status area shows the progress of the proofs as they are created and sent. See "Review Proof Results" for more details.

 

 Review Proofing Results

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Each time you run Proofs on your Campaign, the system adds a new row to the grid in the "Proofs" section of the screen. To review the status and results of your proofs:

  1. Click the down-arrow icon next to the desired row to see the results from that execution.

  2. The row is expanded to show the start and end times of the proofing execution, the number of messages sent, and a link to the Preview window. Additional detail is provided for each step in the deployment process, along with the recipients of the proofing message (i.e., the Proofing Group, or the individual email addresses if the Quick Proof feature was utilized).

 

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