Mass Email Campaign Studio Training Webinar

The Mass Email Campaign Studio is DonorSnap’s drag-and-drop email builder for sending newsletters, appeals, letters, and announcements to your supporters. It pulls recipients straight from your DataMiner Platinum reports, guides you through design, review, and sending, and reports back on opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes. See how easy it is to build great looking emails on any device or email client, even Outlook!

Each subscription can send emails up to 10X their contact limit. If your subscription is up to 1,000 contacts, then you can send 10,000 emails in a month.

In this webinar we cover:

• Opening the Campaign Studio from Processing > Mass Email Campaign
• Choosing a DataMiner Platinum recipient list and which email fields to send to
• Designing an email from a template or a blank canvas with drag-and-drop content and rows
• Using merge tags, the media library, and mobile view
• Running the built-in quality check and sending test emails
• Sending now or scheduling for later
• Reading campaign results and exporting them to Excel

Quick recap

The trainer introduced the Mass Email Campaign Studio, an add-on tool that lets nonprofits design and send polished emails without leaving DonorSnap. She opened it from Processing > Mass Email Campaign > Campaign Studio, which launches in a separate browser tab so users can switch back to DonorSnap as needed. She walked through the five steps of every campaign: Audience, Design, Review, Send, and Results. Recipients come from a DataMiner Platinum report, so the list must be built first. In the drag-and-drop editor she showed templates, rows, merge tags, the shared media library, mobile preview, automatic saving, and the quality check. She recommended sending test emails to Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook addresses before sending. Emails can go out ASAP (about 10 minutes) or be scheduled, and the Results tab breaks out opens, clicks, bounces, and dropped addresses, with an Excel export.

Summary

Opening the Campaign Studio
Go to Processing, click the arrow next to Mass Email Campaign, and choose Campaign Studio. It opens in a new browser tab. If your organization doesn’t have a subscription, the welcome screen explains how to get one; otherwise, click the button at the bottom to launch the studio.

The All Campaigns List
The opening screen lists every email you’ve created, with search and filters to show only sent or scheduled campaigns, for example. Use the menu beside any campaign to resume, delete, or duplicate it. Click New Campaign in the top right to choose one of five built-in templates (such as event invitation or letter) or a blank design.

Choosing Your Audience from DataMiner Platinum
On the Audience step, select a batch you’ve already built under Reports > DataMiner Platinum. Choose whether to send to Email 1, Email 2, or both on each record. The screen shows how many contacts and email addresses are in the list. If your report isn’t there yet, build it in the DonorSnap tab and refresh the list.

Subject Line, Preview Text, and From Address
On the Design step, enter the subject line, preview text (the snippet shown in the inbox; optional, but recommended at about 90 characters), and your name and email address. Emails send from [email protected], but display your From address, so replies come back to you.

Building Your Email with Drag-and-Drop Content
The editor works like the EventSnap editor: your email is on the left and tools are on the right. Drag in titles, paragraphs, lists, buttons, images, and dividers, or use Rows to create two- or three-column layouts. Click any element to change its settings, such as image width or rounded corners. Overall background color and image are under Settings at the top.

Merge Tags, Media Library, and Mobile View
Click into any text to insert merge tags from the fields in your DataMiner Platinum report, such as salutation or first name. Images and PDFs you upload to the media library stay available for every future email, and stock images are included. Switch between desktop and phone view to check the mobile layout. Your work saves automatically.

Quality Check and Review
The check mark in the bottom right runs a quality check with suggestions, such as improving color contrast, enlarging fonts, or adding text to images. They are recommendations, not requirements. Click Continue to Review to see your recipient count, preview the email, and send tests to Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook addresses.

Sending Now or Scheduling for Later
On the Send step, choose ASAP, which begins sending in about 10 minutes and can be canceled during that window, or schedule the email for a later date. Once scheduled, the campaign is locked and can’t be edited. To resume editing, you must first cancel the scheduled send and then return to the Design screen.

Reading Campaign Results
The Results tab shows open and click rates at the top and each recipient’s activity at the bottom. Click See Who next to bounced or dropped counts to filter the list, and export the details to Excel. Plain-language notes call out things like spam reports or a drop in opens, with suggestions for next time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Mass Email Campaign Studio included in my DonorSnap subscription? No. It’s a separate subscription, or a part of all Pro plans. If your account doesn’t include it, the Campaign Studio welcome screen will say so; email [email protected] to add it.

How many emails can I send in a month? You can send up to 10 times your subscription contact limit. So if your subscription allows for 1,000 contacts, you can send up to 10,000 emails in a month. If up to 5,000 contacts, you can send up to 50,000 emails in a month.

Do I need a DataMiner Platinum report before I can send an email? Yes. The Campaign Studio pulls its recipient list from DataMiner Platinum batches, so build your report under Reports > DataMiner Platinum first. If you forget, build it in your DonorSnap tab and refresh the Audience list.

Can I send to both email addresses on a contact record? Yes. On the Audience step, choose Email 1, Email 2, or both. Sending to both is useful for household records that include two people with separate email addresses.

Where do replies to my campaign email go? To the From email address you enter on the Design step. Emails technically send from [email protected], but they display your address, so any replies come back to you.

Will a video play inside my email? No. A video block shows a large thumbnail with a play button, and clicking it opens the video on YouTube in a new window.

Can I edit an email after I schedule it? Once a campaign is scheduled, it’s locked for editing. You must cancel the scheduled email in order to resume editing it. If you choose ASAP, you can cancel the send during the roughly 10 minutes before it begins.

What does “dropped” mean in my campaign results? Dropped addresses were skipped on purpose. Those contacts were in your DataMiner Platinum report, but an earlier email to them had bounced or they had unsubscribed, so DonorSnap didn’t email them again.

Can I reuse an email I’ve already sent as a template? Yes. From the All Campaigns list or the Results tab, duplicate any past campaign to start a new email with the same design and branding already in place.

Related Pages:

Using Email Templates
DataMiner Platinum with Mailing Lists Training Webinar
Text Messaging Campaigns
Instant, One-Off Email to a Contact