Getting Started

Yey! Congratulations on a very smart email marketing choice by creating an account with 18amail!

Don't panic, you don't need to read the whole of this guide, but it does provide a few useful pointers, so it's worth casting your eye over the topics at least. You can always read up in more details in our FAQs section at a later date.

Your Account

The first thing we'd advise you to do, is update your account preferences. To do this, click on the grey 'account' tab along the top of the web page, and then click on the blue 'prefs.' button.

If you would like your company logo to go out at the top of each email you send, click on the grey 'account' tab along the top of the web page, and then click on the blue 'prefs.' button. You can then upload your logo here. If you're going to be sending emails on behalf of various clients or various businesses you might decide not to do this.

Select Open Rate Tracking

If you want to know how many people open the emails you send, you'll need to turn on open rate tracking. The reason it's off by default, is it can increase - ever so slightly - the chances of your email being marked as spam (this is the case with all email systems - the more you try to put in an email, the more your chances of being marked as spam increase).

To turn on Open Rate tracking, click on the grey 'account' tab along the top of the web page, and then click on the blue 'prefs.' button. Then tick the Open Rate tracking box.

Logout

Each time you finish using 18amail, be sure to logout of your account by clicking on the grey 'logout' tab, top right.

Credits

Check your credit balance and history

To check how many credits you've got left, click on the grey 'account' tab along the top of the web page, and then click on the blue 'credits' button. To buy credits from this page, click on the big grey 'buy credits' button. You'll then be shown a list of the credit bundles available, with blue 'buy now' buttons next to each one. Clicking on 'buy now' will take you to Paypal so you can pay by credit or debit card, or using your Paypal account.

Buy credits

Click on the grey 'top up' tab along the top of the web page. You'll then be shown a list of the credit bundles available, with blue 'buy now' buttons next to each one. Clicking on 'buy now' will take you to Paypal so you can pay by credit or debit card, or using your Paypal account.

Contacts

To send an email, you must first have some contacts to send it to! Contacts in 18amail are arranged in 'Groups'. This is so you can have as many 'Groups' or mailing lists as you like. You might want a mailing list of your trade customers, and a mailing list of your domestic customers, for example.

Create a Group

To create a Group or mailing list, from the dashboard when you first log in, click on the big grey button that says'add group'. Alternatively, if you're not on the dashboard, click on the orange bubble that says'contacts' (it'll be blue if you're already in that section) and then on the blue button that says'add group'.

Then, on the screen that appears, give your Group a name. Eg. Trade Customers. Then click on the big grey button that says 'add group' to save your group.

On the screen that follows, you'll see a table listing all the contacts for this group - if you've just created it, there won't be any just yet!

Change the name of your Group

Don't want to call your mailing list 'Trade Customers' anymore? No problem :) Simply click on the orange 'contacts' bubble (it'll be blue if you're already in that section), find the Group you want to change in the list of groups there, and click on the orange 'edit' link to the right.

Make your changes and click the big grey 'save changes' button.

Add Contacts to a group one by one

If you've only got a few contacts to add to your group, click on the big grey button that says 'add contact'. On the screen that follows you'll see your group name with a tick box next to it. This is so that if you've got more than one group, they'll all show here and you can add this contact to more than 1 group.

Fill in your contacts Title, First Name, and Surname if you've got the information. The one box you MUST fill in accurately is the email address.

Then click on the big grey button 'add contact' to save this contact.

The page will refresh with a thank you message - then you can repeat the process again and again, adding a new contact each time.

Bulk upload Contacts to a group

If you've got an existing mailing list and so you've got lots of contacts in a CSV file, you can upload them all at once! If you've got an Excel spreadsheet, you can save this as a CSV file in Excel - open the file, and save it as a CSV file using 'save as' (under 'File' in Microsoft Excell, or under the big left windows button on the top left in Microsoft Excel 2007 for Vista).

Click on the big orange 'contacts' bubble (it'll be blue if you're already in that section), find the group you want to add contacts to, and click on the orange 'view' link to the right. Then click on the big grey 'bulk add contacts' button at the bottom of that page.

Upload a CSV file that's saved on your computer by clicking on 'Choose File' and finding it on your computer like how you'd add an attachment to an email; a window will pop up showing you you computer files - find the file and click 'open' on the bottom right of the window (on a PC - Macs will vary slightly, but the same principles apply). Then click the big grey 'upload file' button.

Now here's the clever bit - 18amail will find all the columns in your CSV spreadsheet document, and let you pick where to put them! So if you've got column headings in your documents of 'Title', 'First Name', 'Last Name' and 'Email Address', you can select them from drop down lists that the site will show you, and assign them to the right fields in your mailing list. And if you've got columns in your doc that you don't need in the site - you just don't select them! And if you've not got 'Title' or 'Surname' - just the person's first name and email address, then you just match them and select 'Don't Include' for the other options.

Then click on 'upload contacts' to save your changes.

Edit Contacts

To edit the contact details for someone on your mailing list, click on the orange 'contacts' bubble (it'll be blue if you're in that section already), and click on the orange 'view' link to the right of the group your contact is in.

You'll then see all the contacts displayed and you can just click on the orange 'edit' link to the right of the contact you need to edit. On the screen that's displayed, update the details and click on the big grey 'save changes' button. If you change your mind about making any changes after you've typed something - just click on onto another page in the menu without clicking 'save changes'.

Unsubscribe Contacts

To unsubscribe someone from your mailing list, click on the orange 'contacts' bubble (it'll be blue if you're in that section already), and click on the orange 'view' link to the right of the group your contact is in.

You'll then see all the contacts displayed and you can just click on the orange 'unsubscribe' link to the right of the contact.

Delete Contacts

To delete someone from your mailing list, click on the orange 'contacts' bubble (it'll be blue if you're in that section already), and click on the orange 'view' link to the right of the group your contact is in.

You'll then see all the contacts displayed. Tick the box to the left of the contact(s) you want to remove, and go to the drop down box at the bottom of the list that says 'with selected' and pick remove.

What's 'Unsubscribe'?

It's a legal requirement that you allow people to unsubscribe from your mailing lists - this just means they can opt out of receiving your emails any more. Each email you send with 18amail gives recipients the option to unsubscribe via a little link at the bottom. But you've got the option (detailed above) to unsubscribe people too. This is different to deleting a contact, as if you add them again, or you accidentally re-upload them, the 18amail will know that they requested to be unsubscribed, and so won't send them any more emails so as to stay within legal legislation.

Emails

Create an email

To create a new email, click on the orange 'emails' bubble (it'll be blue if you're already in that section) and then click on the blue 'create' button - or if you're viewing your dashboard, click on the big grey 'create email' button.

If you have no groups set up, you will be prompted to create one - follow the directions above for this.

On the 'Create new email' page, firstly read the note at the top about how to achieve the best delivery results with your email.

Then select the target group for your email - which mailing list you'd like to send the email to.

Next, fill in the subject line of your email.

In the 'Message' box, type your email contents. This is where the formation of your email occurs! Below are some explanations of the most popular icons to help you make your emails. You can find out what any icon does by hovering over it whilst making your email.

Clear your email This icon clears your email so you can start again with a blank page.

Bold Make text in your email bold by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

italic Make text in your email italic by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

underline Underline text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

score Put a line through text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.
left aline text Align text in your email to the left by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

centre aline text Centre align text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

right aline text Align text in your email to the right by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

justify text Justify text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon.

font family Select a font for the text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this drop down menu.

font family Select a size for the text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this drop down menu.

font colour Select a colour for the text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon, which displays colour options.

font high light Select a colour to highlight the text in your email by selecting it with your mouse, and then clicking on this icon, which displays colour options.

preview Preview how your email's looking by clicking on this icon. You can then close the preview window to carry on with your email.

preview Preview how your email's looking by clicking on this icon. You can then close the preview window to carry on with your email.

template Select a template you've previously made for your email.

paste from word Click on this icon if you've copied text from Microsoft Word that you then want to paste into your email. It's VERY important you don't just paste text from Word in normally - as Word will bring formatting with it that will break your email.

If you would like to send any attachments with your email, you can add them next. Select the files in the same way as you would a normal attachment.

If you are preparing your email now but would like it to send at a specific date in the future, you can schedule the send date here. Click in the rectangular box and a calendar will appear - select your date on the calendar. Otherwise, tick the box on the right to send your email right away once you're happy with it.

If you would like to save this email as template - because you've, for example, arranged the header and footer and will want to come back to it in the future to change the text in the middle and send it out again, tick this box.

If you have created multiple sender profiles in your account, you can select the one you'd like to send this email as here. This is if you have various websites/email addresses that you're sending emails from.

Then, when you're done, either click on the big 'save as draft' grey button to send your email, or enter your email address in the test box and click 'send test email'. The next screen will ask you if you're happy with your email - check your inbox and see if you like it. If you do, click on the big grey 'schedule newsletter' button on the screen. If you don't, click on the orange link to go back to your email and make changes to it. If you've decided to save your email for another day, click the orange link to go back to it and select the big 'save to drafts' button.

Adding and working with images.

Firstly, with your cursor in the place where you'd like your image to appear, click on the image icon. insert an image

insert an image

A window will appear that looks like this. If you are using an image that is already on the web, then copy and paste the link to it in here. If you wish to upload one from your computer, click on the square pointed to here by the red arrow.

REMEMBER: You should only use images you have the copyright to.

insert an image

The following window that appears will show you your own personal library of images - all the ones you've uploaded to 18amail in the past. This makes it very quick and easy to use an image often. If you want to upload a new one to your library, click on 'upload', highlighted here with a red arrow. Next click on 'choose files' and select the file from your computer in the same way you'd add an attachment to a normal email. Once your image is listed on the screen, click 'Upload to server'. Or you can click 'add more' if you want to upload more than one at a time.

insert an image

You will then be shown your gallery again - double click on the image you want to use to select it for insertion. On the window that follows (left) you can give your image a description and title (just a few words each) if you wish. This is so that if the image doesn't appear due to a recipients email settings blocking pictures, they can read these words instead.

insert an image

Click on the 'Appearance' tab to alter how the image sits on the page. You will probably only need the top drop down menu - probably just to select the Left or Right options so the image sits on one side of the email or the other, with text flowing around it. Each time you select a different option from the drop down menu the small preview example updates to show you what this means.

You should keep the 'Contrain Proportions' box ticked, so that your image does not stretch/get distorted if you resize it.

Create an email Template

If you would like to create an email template - so that, for example, you can use the same header and footer in the future and you'll just change the text in the middle, create an email and tick the 'save as template' box.

Use an email Template

To select and use an email template you've already created, simply go to create an email, and click on the template icon. template You'll then be prompted to choose your template.

Sending Options

Send emails as different senders/email addresses.

Once logged in, click on the grey 'account tab' on the top right. Then select the 'advanced' blue button. Here you will see a form you can fill in to create a new profile. You will need to fill in your SMTP settings which you can get from your email provider. As a rough guide, the host name is often mail.yourwebsite.com or pop3.yourwebsite.com; the port is often 25; and the username and password are whatever you use to log in to your email. DO NOT touch these settings if you do not know what to put there.

One you've entered your settings, click on the orange 'send test email' link and 18amail will check if you entered the settings correctly.

Troubleshooting

My email had a 0% Open Rate!

Do you have Open Rate tracking turned on in your account preferances? Read the beginning of this guide for how to check this. If you do, and you still had a 0% open rate it could be that your email seemed too much like spam. Avoid using 'spammy' words like 'FREE!', and don't send emails with lots of pictures, or that are just one big picture.

I can't create different profiles - test emails fail.

Check your SMTP settings with your email provider. They should be able to to give you the correct settings to make this work.

Support

Still having problems?

Please use our contact form to email us the exact problem you're having - please be as specific as possible. We won't be able to help if we don't know what you're trying to do and what you're having difficulty with.