Management Center: Creating an email activity

Create an email activity

We can create email activities to deliver brand and promotional messages to customers through email.

Before starting
Before we can create an email activity, you need:

A customer segment that defines the customers to whom you send the email message. We can use any customer segment that exists in the Management Center Marketing tool. For a general email, the customer segment might be Registered Customers. For a targeted email, the customer segment might be Female Customers, or Customers Who Buy Golf Products. We must specify the customer segment when creating the email activity. For more information about creating customer segments, see Manage customer segments.
An email template that defines the content of the email to send. We must specify the email template when creating the email activity. See Manage email templates.

In addition, a Site Administrator must configure the email accounts that the email activity system uses. Email configuration defines the required information about the mail servers, the time that email activities should be sent, the policy for resending undelivered emails, and more. See Configure email activity accounts.

Procedure

Open the Marketing tool.
From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of Create New; then select E-mail Activity. The email Activities properties page displays.
Enter the email template properties as follows:

Property Description
Name Name for the email activity. This name displays in the Activity list.
Description Type a description for the email activity.
Customer Segment Select a customer segment for sending the email activity. We can either enter the customer segment name and click Find and Add. We can also click the
Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate customer segment. (Enterprise)
If we are using using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select a customer segment from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if a customer segment belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the customer segment icon
, or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the customer segment can only come from the asset store.
Email Template Select an email template to send using the email activity. We can either enter the email template name and click Find and Add. We can also click the
Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate email template. (Enterprise)
Note: If we are using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select an e-mail template from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if an e-mail template belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the e-mail template icon
, or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the e-mail template can only come from the asset store.
Reply-to email address Specify the reply to email address for the activity. By specifying different email addresses for replies to different activities or campaigns, we can track interest in those specific activities.
Send date Specify the date on which to send the email activity.
Send time This time is the time when the email activity is sent. The site administrator configures this value. If it is missing, email activities might not be configured.
Campaign Select the campaign to which this activity belongs. We can either enter the campaign name and click Find and Add. We can also click the
Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate campaign. (Enterprise)
If we are using using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select a campaign from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if a campaign belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the campaign icon
, or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the campaign can only come from the asset store.

Click Save to save the email activity.

Results
The email activity is created in the Inactive state.

What to do next
We must activate the activity.
Consider testing your email activity by using different email clients to ensure that the content displays correctly. For example, some email clients might not support certain attachment formats used to display marketing content in an e-Marketing Spot.

Related concepts
Email activities

Property	Description
Name	Name for the email activity. This name displays in the Activity list.
Description	Type a description for the email activity.
Customer Segment	Select a customer segment for sending the email activity. We can either enter the customer segment name and click Find and Add. We can also click the Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate customer segment. (Enterprise) If we are using using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select a customer segment from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if a customer segment belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the customer segment icon , or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the customer segment can only come from the asset store.
Email Template	Select an email template to send using the email activity. We can either enter the email template name and click Find and Add. We can also click the Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate email template. (Enterprise) Note: If we are using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select an e-mail template from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if an e-mail template belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the e-mail template icon , or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the e-mail template can only come from the asset store.
Reply-to email address	Specify the reply to email address for the activity. By specifying different email addresses for replies to different activities or campaigns, we can track interest in those specific activities.
Send date	Specify the date on which to send the email activity.
Send time	This time is the time when the email activity is sent. The site administrator configures this value. If it is missing, email activities might not be configured.
Campaign	Select the campaign to which this activity belongs. We can either enter the campaign name and click Find and Add. We can also click the Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate campaign. (Enterprise) If we are using using the extended sites model, and are currently in the extended site store, we can select a campaign from either the asset store or the extended site store. We can see if a campaign belongs to the asset store by the small square added to the campaign icon , or by looking at the Store column in the list view. If we are logged in to an asset store, the campaign can only come from the asset store.