Overview

Welcome to the Campaign 5 Getting Started Guide. This demonstration will show you, step by step, how to send a simple mass emailing with Campaign 5. Please have Campaign 5 up and running before proceeding. This walk-through assumes that you have experience using databases. If you have no experience working with a database, you should probably familiarize yourself with your database software and/or server prior to continuing. This walk-through purposefully bypasses many of Campaign 5's more advanced and useful features. This walk-through is intended to demonstrate nothing but the basics. If you are interested in Campaign 5's more advanced features, click here.

The Projects Window

1. Launch Campaign 5. The latest version is 5.3.2. If you have an earlier version of Campaign 5 you can download the latest version and plug in your old Serial Number.

NOTE: You may encounter a registration page. Whether or not you are using an evaluation version or the full version of Campaign 5 will not make a difference during this tutorial. If you wish to register, please do so now. If you aren't yet sure, bypass the registration process by entering your name and email address, then click Continue.

2. The project window will appear in the center of the screen. This is where you create and run projects. Using the buttons on the right, you can create an unlimited number of new projects, edit existing projects, and rename or delete projects. The Run button executes the selected project.

What is a project? A project is a definition of several tasks strung together to create and send customized email. You choose and coordinate these tasks yourself while using Campaign 5. You will be able to create as many projects as you need. Campaign 5 helps you complete the three minimum tasks that constitute a project: specifying an information source, composing the message, and sending.

3. Create a new project by clicking the New button. Campaign 5 will ask you what you would like to name the new project. For this demo, type "Customer Mailing #1", then click OK. Note: you cannot have multiple projects with the same name.

The Project Detail Window

You will be brought to the Project Detail window. Here, you will define, create, and coordinate your message. Near the top of the window are four tabs:

• Step 1 - Information Source is where you will specify the database from where you will gather your information.

• Step 2 - The Message is where you will compose the actual message and specify which items you want to merge from the database.

• Step 3 - Sending Information is where you will enter your ISP server and return email address to properly send your messages.

• Step 4 - Project Completion - This step is an advanced feature and is not necessary to test the basic set up and use of Campaign.

Step #1 - Information Source

5. First, we're going to create a database connection, which is simply a "view" into your existing database. This connection will tell Campaign 5 where to find your customer email addresses, names, and so on. The first step in creating a database connection is to choose Step #1- Information Source tab.

6. You must define your database file location. Click the Browse button to locate your database. The information you enter here tells Campaign 5 where to find your customer data. You must choose a database.

7. Once you have highlighted the proper database, click OK. The database location will appear in the Database File Location box. For Microsoft Access databases, you will also need to choose a table/query name. To do so, simply press the drop-down arrow and choose the field you would like to use.

8. Preview this database by clicking Preview. If everything looks good, continue to step 9.

9. Open the drop-down box in the email address from field. Choose the field name that contains the email addresses to which you wish to send your message.

10. If you would like to select specific groups of customers within your database, you can use the Basic Filter option. Click one of the database field drop-down boxes, select the field, then select the appropriate logic. In this way, you can precisely select and/or filter out specific subsets of customers in your database. Note: Depending on the size of your database and the number of checks, using a filter may affect Campaign's performance.

You have now entered all of the necessary information into the Information Source tab. There are a variety of features on the Information Source tab that we haven't touch upon in this walk-through. For an overview of these features, click here.

Step #2 - The Message

11. Choose Step #2 - The Message tab. Here, you will enter the message subject, the message text, and the message attachment. You will also be able to insert fields from the database.

12. Choose a subject for your email message and enter it in the Subject box. This is the text that will appear in the subject line of your outgoing emails.

13. In the Text/HTML Message box, enter the text of your message. For the sake of this walk-through, enter: "Dear {FirstName}" as the first line of your message. {FirstName} is a merge field.

NOTE: Campaign 5 will replace {FirstName} with the person's actual first name, assuming the field name in the database is also 'FirstName'. You can insert any data you want by simply typing a field name here, surrounded by braces. For example, if you want to insert a person's address, and your database has a field called "address", you can simply type {address} into the message.

You have now entered all of the necessary information into the Message tab. There are a variety of features on the Message tab that we haven't touch upon in this walk-through. For an overview of these features, click here.

Step #3 - Sending Information

14. Select Step#3 - Sending Information tab. Sending involves specifying your email connection, your email address, and your other email information.

15. Choose the Mail Method by entering your SMTP Host Type in the box provided. If you don't know your SMTP Host Type, contact your network administrator.

16. Enter the qualified name of your SMTP server (or its IP address) into the SMTP Host Name or IP Address field. Example: 10.10.10.1 or (server.host.network). If you don't know the host name or IP address, check with your network administrator. You might also check to see which SMTP server is already entered in your existing email program. Remember, the SMTP server name is the outbound email server, rather than the POP server, which is the inbound email server.

17. In the From Address box, enter the email address you wish to be displayed in the From line seen by your customers. You can enter any email address you want. It does not have to be your own email address. It could be a designated person in your company whose job is to view replies to outgoing email.

18. The Return-Path address is different than the From address. This is the email address that the receiving server will attempt to contact if there is a server error in an email. In many cases, this address will be the same as the From address, but it does not have to be. For now, enter your own email address here.

NOTE: For some email servers, you must enter fully qualified email addresses that include a name prefix. For example, instead of just using sales@somewhere.com, you might have to type "Sales" <sales@somewhere.com>.

19. Save your work by clicking the Close button in the upper right corner of the window. The Project Detail window will save and close the detail screen, returning you to the Main Projects window.

You have now entered and saved the minimum amount of information necessary to execute a mass emailing with Campaign 5. To see further information on the more advanced features found on the Sending tab, click here.

20. All of your information has now been saved. Your project is ready to run. Click the Run button to send your email.

The Campaign 5 walk-through demonstration is complete. Your email has been sent.

Click Here to View Advanced Features