How do I

Send Personalized HTML Messages using Bit Faster?

You can send both HTML and Text messages using Bit Faster. This Guide teaches you how to send HTML formatted messages to your contacts in 3 simple steps.

Before we start, we would like to assume the following:

• You have already installed Bit Faster Small Business Edition 3.0 on your system

• You have created at least one Group and imported or added your Contacts

• You have either configured a third party SMTP Server or you would be using Bit Faster (your own PC/Laptop) as the SMTP Server

• You have created your HTML template file (if not click here to download the sample template)

Step 1 - Create a Campaign/Message

A Campaign is an email message that you wish to send to a group of people (Customers, Friends etc). To create a new Campaign/Message, click on the Campaign button in the toolbar. This brings up the New Campaign window as shown below.

You can give your Campaign any Name you want (it's for identification purposes only). In this case, we call it "Bit Faster Guide".

The Message Subject field is the actual subject of your email message. This is what your Customer or Friend will see in their Inbox even before they open and read your email (in most cases).

Now choose the HTML radio button (in the Message Type frame) and click on the File Open button/icon. You can choose your HTML file in the File Open dialog box. In this case, we are choosing a file called "GuideTemplate.HTM" under a specific path. Bit Faster displays the selected file name along with the path for your reference.

Groups:

You can choose the Groups that you wish to include for this Campaign. Groups have Contacts under them. Bit Faster displays the total number of active recipients for all the Groups selected who are likely to receive this message (the actual number can vary depending on the other filters applied).

Other Filters:

Under the Others Filters tab, you can apply as many as 8 additional filters to target your message:

• Rating/Classification (you can classify your Contacts in any way you want)

• Designation/Job Title (say to IT Managers only)

• Department (say to only those who work in the Finance department)

• Country of Origin (say to US Citizens only)

• Personal Country (picked up from the Personal tab in the New/Edit Contact window)

• Business Country (picked up from the Business tab in the New/Edit Contact window)

• Gender

• Photograph attached (sent to only those whose photograph is assigned under the New/Edit Contact window)

Of course for the above filters to work, you should have captured this information for each of your Contacts. You can ignore the filters by choosing "<Any>".

File Attachments:

If you wish to attach and send out any additional files along with message, you can use this tab.

Please Note: You don't have to attach any image files that are part of the HTML file. They are automatically picked up by Bit Faster. But make sure they are in the same folder as that of the HTML File.

SMTP Settings:

An SMTP Server is a mail server which is used to send emails. Use this tab to tell Bit Faster which SMTP Server to use for sending your message.

You can choose "Use Bit Faster as my SMTP Server" if you want Bit Faster to be your SMTP Server. But we would recommend that you use a third party SMTP Server because your emails may be treated as Spam and blocked by mail servers if they are unable to perform a DNS Lookup on your system.

In the From Name field, you could probably enter your Name or your Company Name. This is the information that appears in the "From" column in the recipients' Inbox. The From Address indicates the email address from where the message originated.

If you wish to request a Read Receipt from each of your recipients, then make sure you enter an email address in the Reply-to Address text box and check/tick the box Request Read Receipt.

Click on the Add button to add the new Campaign/Message.

Step 2 - Preview the Campaign/Message

Once you have created a Campaign, it is important to Preview it so as to make sure your intended recipients view the message the way you visualized it.

Click on the Preview button in the toolbar to bring up the Preview Campaign dialog box as shown below.

Now from the Select Campaign drop down list box, choose the newly created Campaign "Bit Faster Guide". You have two options here when it comes to Personalization. Personalization simply means that your message is mail merged and then displayed with the actual data.

To begin with, let's say we Ignore it. Here is what you see when you click on the Preview button.

However, if you opted to view the message with Personalization (meaning you chose Use Test Record) in the Preview Campaign window, this is how you should see the message.

Before we look into the differences in the two pictures above, you might want to know a bit more about "Test Record". A Test Record is nothing but a Contact which can be used for Previewing a Campaign with live data. You can mark any Contact as a Test Record in Bit Faster. For more information on how to mark a Contact as a Test Record, please refer to Bit Faster Help.

Now, if you were to observe the two pictures above, you will notice a couple of differences at least. The first image displays text like [CurrentSystemDateX] and [FullNameX], whereas the second image displays actual information.

Text such as [FullNameX] are predefined System Variables in Bit Faster. All System Variables in Bit Faster are enclosed in square brackets like [VariableName]. Bit Faster supports 42 variables. For a complete list of System Variables and their usage, you can click on the Variables button in the toolbar.

Step 3 - Starting the Campaign (or Emailing the Message)

Once you are satisfied with the Preview, you can Start the Campaign. Starting a Campaign simply means that you are sending emails to each one of your intended recipients. The number of recipients depends on the Groups you have selected, the filter conditions you have applied and the active Contacts under those Groups which meet the filter conditions.

To Start a Campaign, you can click on the Start button in the toolbar to bring up the Start Campaign dialog box.

To begin emailing, just click on the Start button.

Bit Faster will automatically pick up all the recipients (after applying all the filter conditions), mail merge and then start sending emails. The time it takes to send all the emails is dependent on the following factors:

• No. of recipients

• Message size

• Attachments (if any)

• No. of threads

• Internet connectivity speed etc.

We sincerely hope the above Step-by-Step guide is of valuable help to you. Click here to download the sample template. The Zip contains the HTML file and a single image that is required.

You are free to modify the template to suit your requirements. You can use a web development tool like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver to modify the template layout.

Make sure the images you use in the template are in the same folder as the HTML file.