Email Specific Questions
How do I add an attachment to an email?
Increasingly when users send email attachments, ISP spam filters are identifying these innocent but potentially large attachments as spam. Consequently, these emails and attachments never make it to their intended recipient. Selecting the option to upload your attachment to a server will eliminate this frustrating problem. Once the file has been uploaded to the server and selected, a link is generated and automatically placed inside your email allowing the recipient to click to receive their attachment. Click here for more information.
Who is able to view the attachment that comes when I send a carbon copy to myself?
Only the person receiving the carbon copy will have this attachment. Email recipients do not receive this attachment with recipients’ names nor do they see each other’s names within the email. It appears to them that they are the only recipients
Why do some of my email messages not make it through to the recipient?
There may be a number of reasons that an email message does not make it to the intended recipient. Close inspection of the “bounced” email may lead you to discover which reason below may apply to your situation.
- Reason: The recipients' email message box may be full, the email address may be incorrect, or may not exist anymore.
Solution: Contacting the specific recipient to verify the email address would be appropriate in situations like this. - Reason: An ISP (Internet Service Provider) may block a sender. Due to increased spam, many ISPs have started to limit the number of emails coming from one sender that is allowed to flow through their email servers in a given time period.
Solution: One solution would be to contact the recipients' ISP and have them add you to their safe sender or white list. Another option would be for us to try to work with them to find out what their receiving requirements are and to set our outgoing mail server settings accordingly. However, the problem with this is they may change it unexpectedly and mail may get stopped again. Our preference is to have the ISP always allow email from your domain or from our mail server IP addresses. The addresses are 64.90.67.154-156. These IPs would need to be added to your member’s mail server to always allow mail from these addresses. - Reason: A recipient may require that all senders verify their validity before acceptance of their email. In this situation, the recipient actually received the email but will not open the email until it has been personally verified by the sender. This is another spam-fighting tactic that requires a personal email response from the sender.
Solution: The sender (you) should comply with the personal request to verify your validity by following the instructions included in the email. This procedure is something that only needs to be done one time and then future emails should be accepted without further intervention. An initial mass email may return a number of these requests but should subside after completing each request for verification. - Reason: An email server may temporarily experience communication difficulties that result in an inability to receive email messages.
Solution: Sending this particular email to this particular recipient another time would be appropriate. The email server may be ready to accept messages again and you may not experience any further troubles.
Check out Reasons Emails Don't Get to Members for more information.
Are there any systems in place to help ensure the delivery of my emails?
Yes. StrongMail Systems, Inc., already incorporated included in the software, provides you with a proven email delivery technology to ensure your emails reach their destination. Using domain throttling, StrongMail maximizes deliverability by tailoring email delivery to match the technical specification and policy of ISPs and corporate networks and easily controls sending speeds, the number of connections, time-outs, and other parameters on a per-domain level. Among other features, StrongMail also provides default settings for the most common ISPs to ensure optimal delivery and receiver compliance
How can we ensure that our members are not spammed through the Contact Us link on their member page?
Emails from a consumer sent using the Contact Us link on the member information page will be blocked if any of the following conditions are met:
- More than 4 emails were sent within 5 seconds
- More than 25 emails were sent within an hour
- More than 100 emails were sent within 24 hours
Why do the links inside my email not open for me or my members?
Typically, the solution to this problem is found with the recipient of the email and there are a few common reasons for these issues:
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The recipient may have their email program set to block email links from opening, which is the default for many email programs. To successfully open an embedded email link, the recipient needs to turn on the access to email links, either temporarily for a single email or globally for all emails. The recipient should refer to their email provider documentation for instructions on how to do this.
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Sometimes the ISP (Internet Service Provider) of the recipient may disable access to these links in an attempt to alleviate phishing threats from untrusted sources. If this is the case, the recipient of the email must contact their ISP and let them know that these emails, in fact, are from a trusted source and should be removed from their anti-phishing/spam filters. Contacting the ISP should only be required one time.
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In the case of an email that includes an embedded link to an attachment file, the sender of the email must ensure that the attachment is in a format that can be read by the recipient. For instance, an attachment file in Microsoft Word format is acceptable for anyone who has Microsoft Word installed on their computer. Those without Microsoft Word may have trouble opening and viewing this type of document. For best results, converting the desired attachment to a PDF file would put the file in a format that can be read by Adobe Reader, a free file viewer that is widely available. In addition to using Adobe Acrobat to create the PDF file, you may find several PDF creation tools available online for free.
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Phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and personal financial information.
General Communication Questions
How do I create a signature block to use when creating communication?
Saving your signature block as a template may save time when creating correspondence. Design your signature block with any included text and graphics. Save it as a template. When ready to create your correspondence, first retrieve the signature block using the Template selection, then type your email/letter content on top.
How can I easily provide referrals AND notify my members when I've given out information referring them to others?
There is a special selection called eReferral that will accomplish both of your requests PLUS record the referral in the Communication History of your member so it can be referenced at any time. This is especially useful to use as an incentive when membership renewals are being solicited. eReferral is found in multiple places in the software so that it can be accessed conveniently while working in the Members, Events, Communication, and Info Request modules.
How do I send a letter/email to my members with their login name and password included automatically?
Your members will need to know their login name and password in order to access the Member Information Center (MIC), where they can view and update their membership information and business directory web page, view and add Hot Deals, view and submit events, and view and add Job Postings.
Instead of manually creating the list of login names and passwords for each member in a letter, you can use the software to generate an email inviting reps to create their own credentials for the MIC. You can also send them an email allowing reps to reset their passwords for the MIC.
Why do my mailing labels get cut off or are not aligned correctly?
Labels are viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader before they are printed. Adobe Acrobat Reader provides many options to resize your printed output (i.e. shrink to the printable area) which may be desirable in certain cases. However, this setting, if left at any other selection besides None, will override the specific margins needed to successfully print labels in the correct location. When selecting to print your labels, always make sure that the Page Scaling drop-down selection is set to None.
Tip: Sometimes your browser will open the PDF in a “mini reader” instead of using the Adobe program which doesn’t allow you to change these settings. You’ll need to disable these mini-readers in order to allow the software to control the label output properly.
Chrome users: type in chrome://plugins and press Enter. Then disable the Chrome PDF Viewer and enable Adobe Reader.
Firefox users: Select Options from the Tools menu. Click the Applications tab and search for Adobe. Change each selection to Use Adobe Reader.
How do I manage my mailing lists?
Sending communication via email and letters may be simplified by creating a mailing list in the Groups module, which is referred to as a group. For instance, if you frequently send emails to your Budget Committee, instead of selecting the 12 members of that committee each time you send an email, you first create a group in the Groups module called the Budget Committee. Add each of the 12 members to that group, then when you go to send the email, you simply select the Budget Committee as the recipient of the email with one simple click.
Or if you send a monthly newsletter, the Groups module is where you will create and maintain this mailing list group. This group will then be selected at the appropriate time throughout the software when you desire to send them an email or print mailing labels and letters for them.
