We are excited to announce that we will soon introduce a new layout for sending email blasts to all NationBuilder customers. While nothing is changing to the actual flow in email blast creation, this HOWTO will help you become familiar with the layout changes we've made before you need to send your next blast.
Please reach out to our team at [email protected] with any questions or feedback.
Creating a new email blast
You will define the same settings after clicking New email blast, but the form will now appear in a modal. When you click Create blast, the new focus state layout will take over the page.
Selecting a theme
The focus state layout maximizes screen real estate by expanding to your full browser width so you have more room to work. Anything unrelated to sending an email blast, such as the primary nav, your user menu, breadcrumbs, etc., is now hidden so you can focus on the task at hand.
Simply click on the theme you want to use, and then click Save and continue in the upper-right corner of your screen. Both the Save and continue button and Settings links will always appear in the upper-right corner throughout this process.
Compose the content
The content view has the most significant improvements:
You now manage files for your email blast within the content step. Clicking the
Manage filesbutton will launch a modal where you can upload photos and attachments.The email preview now sits much higher in your browser.
Click the
Save and update previewbutton underneath the WYSIWYG editor to see your changes in preview. ClickSave and continuein the upper right corner when you are done composing content.You can now change the fonts of your email content in the editor’s toolbar
Select recipients
You will select recipients just as you did previously, but the interface for doing so is now in the right column and the preview of recipients is in the left column. The supporters and prospect selection is now a toggle instead of a radio button.
📌 Note: the Save and continue button will be disabled until you select recipients. Click Update recipients to see the preview of recipients in the left column. Click Save and continue when you're done.
Review and send
Similar to the content step, the preview of your email now sits much higher in your browser. When you're ready to send, click the Send email now button in the upper-right corner.
After sending
After sending you will land on the dashboard for the email, where you can view stats about your email blast as they come in. Click the X in the upper-left corner to exit the focus state and return to your Broadcaster.
Coming Soon!
A/B testing
If you are on a plan which includes A/B testing, these are the changes you will see:
Creating variants
You will now configure your subject line or from variants in the right column.
Configure A/B test
Instead of configuring your A/B test on the Review and Send step, clicking Configure A/B test in the upper-right corner of this page will direct you to a new view where you'll configure your settings.
The settings to configure your A/B test are the same as before, though we've deprecated the ability to add hours to the minimum test duration. Once you're ready, click the Send A/B test now button.
Completing your A/B test
Once you start the A/B test, you will land on a dashboard where you can see the results of the test in progress. If you selected to automatically send the winning variant on the previous step, there is nothing else you need to do.
If you didn't, you must manually send to the remaining recipients. By default the Send button will default to the winning variant. Use the down arrow if you wish to send the other variant. Be sure to wait an adequate amount of time (we suggest 24-48 hours) to determine the winner.
Please reach out to our team at [email protected] with any questions or comments. We look forward to adding more functionality in the future to bring you a continually improving email experience.