Create e-mail templates

You must create an e-mail template before you can create and send an e-mail activity.

  1. Open the Marketing tool.

  2. From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of

    New; then select E-Mail Template. The New E-Mail Template page displays.

  3. Enter the e-mail template properties as follows:

    Option Description
    Name Enter a meaningful name. This name displays in the E-mail Template list page, and identifies the e-mail template.
    Description Enter a meaningful description. This description should explain what the e-mail template is intended to do.
    Record number of e-mails opened If you are interested in collecting statistics on the number of target customers who open the e-mail, select this option.

    If you opt to collect this information, when customers open the e-mail, it sends a request to your WebSphere Commerce Server. While individually negligible, the aggregate impact of these requests could amount to something measurable depending on the number of e-mails sent.

    E-mail subject Enter the subject of the e-mail. This displays to customers as the subject in their e-mail client software.
    Content format Select the format of the content. This can be either HTML or Plain Text. While HTML is more visually appealing, keep in mind that it may not display properly for all customers, depending on the application they use to read their e-mail. Also, e-mails that contain HTML may take longer to render and deliver. However, this is only significant when being delivered to a large number of customers.

    If you choose plain text format, any formatting displayed in the editor will be stripped out when the template is saved.

    E-mail content Enter the e-mail content. This field acts similar to a simple text editor. You can enter text directly, and format it using the buttons found in at the top of the field. Furthermore, you can add content spots, and e-Marketing Spots to your e-mail. This allows you to take advantage of the previously created content, and presents a consistent brand image to customers. To add content that changes according to the customer, select the content placeholder from the Insert Content list, and click Insert. The content placeholders include the following choices:

    First name

    This option inserts a placeholder which is replaced with the e-mail recipient's first name when the e-mail is created.

    Last name

    This option inserts a placeholder which is replaced with the e-mail recipient's last name when the e-mail is created.

    Link

    This option inserts a link that becomes active when the e-mail is sent to customers. Selecting this option displays the Click action for link list.

    Select a predefined click action

    Select among the following options:

    Display product

    This option redirects the customer's browser to a product display page when the link is clicked. Selecting this option displays a field in which specify the target product. You can either enter the part number of the product and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate product to display.

    Display category

    This option redirects the customer's browser to a category display page when the link is clicked. Selecting this option displays a field in which specify the target category. You can either enter the name of the category and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate category to display.

    Add to shopping cart

    This option adds a catalog entry to the customer's shopping cart when the link is clicked. Selecting this option displays a field in which specify the SKU of the catalog entry that you want to add to the customer's shopping cart. You can either enter the SKU and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate SKU to add to the shopping cart.

    Add to wish list

    This option adds a product to the customer's wish list when the link is clicked. Selecting this option displays a field in which specify the SKU of the catalog entry that you want to add to the customer's wish list. You can either enter the SKU and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate SKU to add to the wish list.

    Unsubscribe

    This option updates the customer's status for receiving e-mail when the link is clicked. If they click this link, they will no longer receive e-mail activities.

    Specify URL as click action

    If you select this option, enter the URL that the browser redirects to when a customer clicks the text specified in the Text field.

    If this URL directs a customer to a site outside of your store, WebSphere Commerce must be configured to allow redirects to the site before the redirect will work properly.

    All of the click options except unsubscribe display a Record the number of clicks check box which you can select to record the number of times customers click on the link. This information can be used in reports to determine a link's effectiveness.

    Content Spot

    This option inserts a placeholder which is replaced with the content matching the criteria specified for the selected content spot.

    e-Marketing Spot

    This option inserts a placeholder which is replaced with the content matching the criteria specified for the selected e-Marketing Spot.

  4. Click

    Save .

ResultsThe e-mail template is displayed in the E-mail Templates - List.