The structure of BACKCLICK stipulates every subscriber belonging to at least one (or multiple) mailing list(s). By means of this belonging it is possible to send a newsletter or campaign to specified lists. Only after at least one mailing list is available, subscribers will be able to use the web-interface to subscribe, unsubscribe and change their profile. You as a user will also only be able to create or import subscribers after a mailing list was configured.

If your administrator has already created the list(s) neccessary, you will be able to see it/those under Campaign - Management --> Create new Campaign and you may use it/those to compose a newsletter.

You do not have to create a new mailing list in this case and you may switch to the chapter Create the first subscribers.

Fig. 6.2.1 - Create new Campaign (example with mailing lists already created)

If there is no list available, you will have to create a mailing list first. In order to do so, go to Mailing list - Management --> Create Mailing list.

Your first mailing will receive the ID "1", the second will receive ID "2", and so on. Amongst others, those IDs will be important for import and creation of HTML templates for subscription and unsubscription.

After clicking on Create Mailing list you will see the following screen:

Fig. 6.2.1.1 - Create Mailing list (empty fields)

Before you can get started, you will need the following information: 

• Email address to be shown as sender
• Alternative sender to be shown instead of the sending address
• Administrator's email address who will receive any returned emails that BACKCLICK was not able to sort automatically
• Optional: email address of the assistant administrator who will receive that BACKCLICK was not able to sort automatically as well
• POP3 login credentials for the sending email address (username, password, host, port)
• SMTP server that is in charge of sending emails (host, port, if applicable user and password as well)

All possible entries will be described in detail below:

Abb. 6.2.1.2 - Verteilerliste anlegen (Beispieleingaben, Abschnitt 1)

Mailing list - ID

You may enter an ID (number) yourself, if this is useful for sorting purposes. Leaving this field blank leads to BACKCLICK generating IDs in ascending order automatically for each mailing list. In this case, the ID is based on the time the mailing list is saved. 

Name

This is the name shown in the administrative interface. You may change it at any point.

Description (optional)

You may enter a short description for your mailing list. It will only show when editing the list though.

Administrator's E-mail

Enter the mailing list administrator's email address here. The administrator will receive any emails returned from subscribers, that BACKCLICK was not able to sort automatically.

CC - E-mail (optional)

You may define an additional email address receiving a copy of emails sent to the administrator.

Mailing list E-Mail account (From)

Define the sending email address to be used as sender for this mailing list here, for example "newsletter@domain.com". This will show as sender for subscribers of this mailing list. PLEASE NOTE: This address cannot be identical to the administrator's.

Activate (optional) advanced sender options

If advanced sender options are activated, you may define an additional mailing list E-mail account address (Reply To).

• Reply-To is the email address receiving answers to your newsletters.

Displayed E-Mail address

You may enter an alternative senders name for this mailing list. This will be displayed for your recipients (subscribers) instead of the sending email address (Mailing list E-Mail account (From)).

Mailing list user name

You must choose a user name for the POP3 e-mail newsletter account of the sender's e-mail address. User name and user password are important for the automatic filter, and for the request function for the “Reply To” e-mails. 

Password for mailing list

You must choose a password to go with the chosen user name (for the POP3 account). 

POP3-server for the e-mail account of the mailing list 

Please enter the serverhost for your POP3 newsletter account of the sender's e-mail address here. If you do not define a serverhost here, BACKCLICK will try to build up an access to your “localhost” for receiving e-mails. 

POP3 - server timeout

Please define a timeout period for the access to your POP3 server here. If this server has a problem while checking the e-mails, BACKCLICK will stop processing the access. The timeout period can be anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds. 

SMTP server #01 - #20

Enter one (or more) dedicated SMTP server for this mailing list. If you do not specify a server, BACKCLICK will try to use the local computer (“localhost”) to send newsletters. Additionally, enter the login credentials for the SMTP server(s) here, if applicable. BACKCLICK supports AMTP, used by web.de amongst others.

SMTP-Server timeout

Define a timeout period for access to your SMTP server. If a problem occurs while connecting, BACKCLICK will stop trying after this period of time. Possible values are between 1 and 30 seconds.

Priority

You may define this mailing list's newsletter priority. This will not affect rate of sending, but the display in mail clients.

Personalization

Activating personalization creates an individual email for every subscriber using subscriber data from the database. Possible variables are: $$TITLE$$, $$LASTNAME$$, etc.. You may create your own placeholders in BACKCLICK, for example $$SIZEOFSHOE$$. Sending rate of a personalized newsletter is between 100,000 and 1,500,000 emails per hour. This is just an approximate value and depends on hardware used, your connection, number of dedicated SMTP servers and size of your newsletter.

Link - Redirect

This feature enables you to analyze responses. By activating this feature, all hyperlinks in your newsletter will automatically be replaced and redirected to the server BACKCLICK is installed on, in order to record openings and clicks in the statistics database. If you do not want your links to be changed, simply deactivate Link-Redirect. PLEASE NOTE: You will NOT be able to see any response statistics without this feature.

If “Personalization” is deactivated, “Link redirect” and “mailto - Redirect” are disabled and grayed out.

Individualization

Define whether each subscriber is supposed to receive individual newsletter content. By activating this feature, content of a newsletter is calculated by means of predefined logic. PLEASE NOTE: Do not activate this feature, if you do not intend to use it. Computing time while sending a newsletter will increase massively. Sending rate of an individualized newsletter is between 50,000 and 100,000 newsletters per hour.

Inline-Images

This feature allows to create so called offline HTML emails. When linking images in your newsletter (like http://www.domain.com/images/image.jpg), BACKCLICK will automatically download these images an embed them in your email. The advantage lies in email clients like AOL 9.0 and Outlook displaying the newsletter formatted correctly without further action of a subscriber. You may use gif or jpg files for this inline procedure (meaning within the newsletter itself). Please bare in mind that your newsletter will grow in size massively. You may deactivate this feature individually for each newsletter you send, even with an active Inline images feature.

Default format/custom format

The following default formats are available:

If your desired format is not available, you may add a custom format yourself. Syntax to be used can be found by clicking the -symbol.

Activate IVW evaluation

In order to receive an IVW-conformable count of HTML newsletters opened, activate this feature. You will need a so called SZM link, which you may obtain from IVW. IVW charges a fee for this service (at the time this documentation was written). Please refer to the descriptions on their website. 

Activate BACKCLICK-internal evaluation

As an alternative to IVW evaluation, BACKCLICK offers a similar evaluation free of charge. Activate this feature in order to use it. Please note, evaluation is only possible for HTML newsletters. Percentages may be influenced by factors like automatic preview, HTML proxy server or deactivation of loading external content.

Activate responsetracking and personalized analyzation for market research

Using BACKCLICK, you are able to connect response data of your subscribers with their profile in order to analyze it individual-related. This data may be exported as well.

Send last Newsletter

When activating this feature, a new subscriber will automatically receive the last newsletter you sent.

Available Mailing-Lists

Other mailing lists, if already configured, may be allocated to this mailing list.

Welcome message/Goodbye message

Activating this feature triggers an email confirmation when subscribing to or unsubscribing from this mailing list. These procedures are calle "confirmed-opt-in" and "confirmed-opt-out" respectively. When using the "double-opt-in" procedure, activating this feature is NOT neccessary.

Welcome subject

This is the subject of your welcome mails.

Welcome message

The subscriber will receive this message as a welcome mail after subscribing.

Goodbye-subject

This is the subject of your goodbye mails.

Goodbye message

The subscriber will receive this message as a goodbye mail after unsubscribing.

Subject

This is your default subject for each newsletter. You may stil change it for each newsletter individually.

E-Mail On Demand

This function makes it possible to send a reply e-mail to the sender of a returned e-mail that had not been sorted by BACKCLICK. To learn how to write this message, please see chapter “E-mail on Demand.” 

Template

The template “Autoremove” gives subscribers the option of unsubscribing easily from your newsletter. You will find some of these templates when BACKCLICK is delivered, and you may edit them as you like. In addition, you will be able to create your own template for unsubscribing. 

Please read chapter “WebInterface Template.” for more information. You will find all the existing templates in this “Select” box. 

External databases 

If an external database is configured, you may choose it out of this “Select” box. Any newsletters sent with this mailing list will be stored there. Please read Chapter “System Settings -> External Databases,” for more information. 

Charset/Language 

This is where you must choose the Charset/Language in which you want to create you newsletter, so that the characters are displayed correctly. If all settings are complete and you want to save them, please click the button . If all your entries are correct, and the server is available, you will see the following confirmation: 

Abb. 6.2.1.9 - Verteilerliste angelegt (Beispieleingaben) 

If an error message is shown here, please follow the instructions to correct the issue. 

If all settings are correct, you may now create the first subscriber in your system, and relate the subscriber to this mailing list.