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Introduction to Email Series
  Last Edited - 04/10/2017 10:04am PDT
  Category Path - Shopping Cart Software Components > Administration Area > Modules > Modular Mailer > FAQs & Tutorials
 
An Email Series is a sequence of emails, referred to as steps, that will be delivered in chronological order. Email series are a feature of Modular Mailer, and as such, are only available to stores with a Modular Merchant Silver account plan or higher.

Email series are extremely flexible. Customization options include the following:
  • Each email series starts out with just one step, but unlimited steps may be added to each series.
  • The content and appearance of each step of an email series may be customized by editing the assigned email template.
  • An unlimited number of email templates may be created, and each email template may be assigned to multiple different email batches, email series, and even multiple different steps within an email series.
  • The delivery date for each step may be specified, down to 15 minute increments. 
  • A store admin may manually subscribe customers to the email series, either individually or in bulk.
  • One or more events may be created to automatically subscribe customers to the email series in response to specified triggers.
  • Product settings may be used to automatically subscribe customers to the email series when they purchase specified products.
  • One or more customized registration or mailing list sign up forms may be created, so that successful submission of the form automatically subscribes the customer to the specified email series.
recommended reading
In this introductory article, we'll cover the basics of creating an email series and subscribing customers to it.

The following Knowledge Base articles provide more detailed information about several relevant admin area pages and shopping cart features:
Email Template Editor
Search Email Templates
Email Series Editor
Email Delivery Queue
How often does Modular Mailer deliver queued emails?
 
Email Series Subscription Processing

Modular Mailer processes each step of an email series subscription sequentially.

When a customer subscribes to an email series, Modular Mailer immediately prepares the first email in the series, and adds the email to the store's Email Delivery Queue, with a send date determined by the delivery date assigned to the first step of the email series.

The email will be held in the email queue until its assigned send date. Once the send date arrives, the email will be sent.

email queue processing times
For performance reasons, the email queue is only processed four times each hour, once during each quarter hour. As a result, an email may be sent out from the queue up to 15 minutes after its send date.

For example, if an email has a send date of 8:34 am on July 11th, 2014, the email will actually be sent out during the next available queue processing time.

If the email queue's third quarter processing time is the 31st minute of every hour, then this example email would not be able to be sent during the third quarter, and would instead be sent during the fourth quarter. So if the fourth quarter processing time is the 53rd minute, then the example email with the send date of 8:34 am on July 11th, 2014 would actually be sent out from the email queue at 8:53am on July 11th, 2014.

On the other hand, if the email queue's third quarter processing time is the 38th minute of every hour, then the example email would be able to be send during the third quarter. In this case,  the example email with the send date of 8:34 am on July 11th, 2014 would actually be sent out from the email queue at 8:538m on July 11th, 2014.

After sending the queued email for the current email series step, Modular Mailer will then advance the customer's email series subscription to the next step, prepare the email for the step, and add the email to the email queue with the appropriate send date.

The process will repeat until the final step of the email series has been sent, at which point the customer's subscription to the email series will end.
 
example of modular mailer processing a customer's email series subscription
In this example, a store admin has created an email series that includes four steps, with the following delivery times:
  • 1 hour
  • 10 days
  • 12 days
  • 3 weeks
A customer subscribes to the email series at 10:30am on July 9th, 2014. Modular Mailer immediately prepares the email for the first step and adds it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 11:30am on July 9th, 2014, which is one hour after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 11:30am on July 9th, 2014, the first step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template assigned to step 2, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 19th, 2014, which is 10 days after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 19th, 2014, the second step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template assigned to step 3, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 21st, 2014, which is 12 days after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 21st, 2014, the third step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template assigned to step 4, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 30th, 2014, which is 3 weeks after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 30th, 2014, the fourth step of the email series is sent to the customer. There are no more steps for this email series, so Modular Mailer ends the customer's subscription to the series.
 
Email Series Setup Process

Creating an email series and subscribing customers to it involves three major parts:
  1. Create one or more email templates
  2. Assign the email template(s) as the step(s) of the email series
  3. Subscribe customers to the email series
 
Email Series Setup Part 1: Create the Email Template(s)

An email series consists of one or more steps. Each step of an email series consists of an email template and a delivery date. Consequently, it is necessary to create at least one email template before creating an email series.

To create a new email template, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Templates > + ].

To view the list of existing email templates, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Templates].

To edit an existing email template, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Templates], then click the SID number link or edit button of the particular email template to edit.

When creating or editing an email template, the Subject, From Name, and From E-mail fields are not strictly required. However, leaving these fields blank could potentially result in email delivery problems. As a result, it is highly recommended that appropriate values be entered for the Subject, From Name, and From E-mail fields.

Additionally, if an email template's Active toggle is set to NO, Modular Mailer will not generate any emails using that template. It is still possible to assign an inactive email template to a step in an email series, but that step will be skipped as long as the email template remains inactive.
 
After creating one or more email templates, the next part of the process is to create the email series itself.
 
Email Series Setup Part 2: Create the Email Series

Once at least one email template has been created, the email series itself may be created.

If multiple steps are planned, it may be more efficient to create an email template for each planned step before creating the email series itself. However, it is entirely possible to create the email series using just one email template, then later create more email templates and assign them to additional steps in the series.

To create an email series, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Series > + ].

To view the list of existing email series, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Series].

To edit an existing email series, in the store's admin area, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Series], then click the SID number link or edit button of the particular email series to edit.

When first creating a new email series, follow the steps below:
  1. Enter a name for the series in the Series Name field in the Email Series Editor section of the Email Series Editor page.
  2. Select an email template for the first step, using the Select template dropdown menu in the Series Steps section of the Email Series Editor page.
  3. Specify the delivery date of the first step, using the Delivery Date dropdown menus in the Series Steps section of the Email Series Editor page.
  4. Save the new email series by clicking the blue Save Changes And/Or Add More Steps button.
It is only possible to add one new step to an email series at a time. An unlimited number of steps may be added by clicking the blue Save Changes And/Or Add More Steps button after adding each step. 

Each time the blue Save Changes And/Or Add More Steps button is clicked, whether to create a new emails series or to save changes to an existing series, the Email Series Editor page will reload. When the page reloads, all of the steps will be ordered by delivery date, with step numbers displayed in the Series Step column of the Series Steps section. Below the current steps, a New section contains the options for adding another new step to the series. 
 
example of step order when adding more steps
An email series already includes two steps, the first step with a delivery date of 10 days from the time a customer is subscribed to the series, and the second step with a delivery date of 3 weeks from the time a customer is subscribed to the series.

Two new steps are added to the email series, one with a delivery date of 1 hour from the time a customer is subscribed to the series, and the other with a delivery date of 12 days from the time a customer is subscribed to the series.

The shopping cart automatically reorders all four steps. The new step with a delivery date of 1 hour from subscription is now the first step. The old step with a delivery date of 10 days from subscription is now the second step. The new step with a delivery date of 12 days from subscription is now the third step. And the old step with a delivery date of 3 weeks from subscription is now the fourth step.


avoid assigning the exact same delivery date to more than one step
It is possible to assign the exact same delivery date to multiple steps. However, due to the sequential processing of email series subscriptions, if multiple steps have the exact same delivery date, down to the minute, only the first step with that delivery date will be processed.

Modular Mailer only adds one step at a time to the email queue, and only adds the next step after the current step has been sent. This means that if multiple steps have the same delivery date, the first of those steps will be added to the email queue. When the delivery date arrives, that step will be sent out from the email queue, and Modular Mailer will advance to the next step. However, the next step in this situation would have the same delivery date as the previous step, and that delivery date would have already passed. As a result, Modular Mailer will skip ahead until it reaches a step with a delivery date that has not already passed.

example of an email series with the exact same delivery date for multiple steps
For example, an email series might include the following steps:
Step 1: Template SID 12, Delivery Date 15 minutes
Step 2: Template SID 34, Delivery Date 1 day and 0 minutes
Step 3: Template SID 56, Delivery Date 1 day and 0 minutes
Step 4: Template SID 78, Delivery Date 1 day and 15 minutes

If a customer subscribes to the email series at 10:30am on July 9th, 2014, Modular Mailer will immediately generate the Step 1 email from template SID 12, and add it to the email queue with a send date of 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, which is 15 minutes after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, the first step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template SID 34, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, which is 1 day and 0 minutes after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, the second step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step. However, step 3 was also due on 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, and that date and time is now passed. So Modular Mailer will skip step 3 and proceed to step 4, preparing the email from template SID 78, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:45am on July 10th, 2014, which is 1 day and 15 minutes after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:45am on July 10th, 2014, the fourth step of the email series is sent to the customer. There are no more steps for this email series, so Modular Mailer ends the customer's subscription to the series.

After creating the email series, the next part of the process is to subscribe customers to the email series.
 
Email Series Setup Part 3: Subscribe Customers

Once the email series has been created, customers may be subscribed to the email series. Customers may be subscribed to the email series using any of the following methods:
  • A store admin may manually subscribe customers to the email series.
  • An event may be created to automatically subscribe customers to the email series in response to specified triggers.
  • The Subscribe to Email Series setting in the Product Editor may be used to automatically subscribe customers to the email series upon purchase of the product.
  • A mailing list signup form may be created that includes a form field to automatically subscribe customers to the email series when the form is submitted.
 
Subscribe Customers Manually

Customers may be subscribed to an email series individually or in bulk from the Search Customers page.

To subscribe customers to an email series from the Search Customers page, follow the steps below:
  1. In the store's admin area, go to [Customers > Search Customers].
  2. Select the checkboxes in the rightmost column for each customer to be subscribed to the email series.
  3. Scroll down to the Perform an action on the rows selected above... section at the bottom of the Search Customers page.
  4. From the dropdown menu, choose subscribe to the email series... which will result in another dropdown menu being displayed to the right.
  5. From the new dropdown menu to the right, choose the email series to subscribe the customers.
  6. Click the Go button.
The Search Customers page will reload, and the selected customers will now be subscribed to the selected email series.

Customers may also be individually subscribed to one or more email series from the Customer Editor.

To subscribe a customer to an email series from the Customer Editor follow the steps below:
  1. In the store's admin area, go to [Customers > Search Customers].
  2. Click on the SID number link or edit button of the customer to be subscribed to the email series.
  3. In the Customer Editor, scroll down to the Customer's Email Series Subscriptions section. All of the store's current email series are displayed in this section, and any email series to which the customer is currently subscribed will have a selected checkbox in the rightmost column.
  4. Select the checkbox(es) in the rightmost column for the email series to subscribe the customer.
  5. Click the blue Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
The Customer Editor page will reload, and the customer will now be subscribed to the selected email series.
 
Subscribe Customers Through Events

The Event Editor may be used to create an event that includes "subscribe the customer to the email series... " as a result, to automatically subscribe customers to an email series in response to specified triggers.

recommended reading
Only event trigger and event result settings directly related to email series will be discussed in this introductory tutorial. It is recommended to review the following Knowledge Base articles for an in-depth explanation of events and the Event Editor:
Event Engine Editor
Subscribe customer to an autoresponder when they purchase a product

To create an event that automatically subscribes customers to an email series in response to certain triggers, follow the steps below:
  1. In the store's admin area, go to [Admin > Event Engine Module > Search Events > + ].
  2. Set the options in the Order of Operations and General Information sections as desired (refer to the Knowledge Base article above if needed).
  3. In the Add a Trigger to this Event section, set up a compatible trigger.
    triggers compatible with email series subscriptions
    Many event trigger types are not fully compatible with subscribing and/or unsubscribing customers to an email series. Only triggers that occur when an order is placed are fully compatible.

    Example of a compatible trigger:
    Trigger Type     basket
    Trigger Details The basket grand total is greater than $0.00

    Example of an incompatible trigger:
    Trigger Type customer
    Trigger Details The customer is in the Customer Group SID 123
  4. In the Add a result to this Event section, set up a result for the email series, such as:
    Result Type email series
    Result Details subscribe the customer to the email series... Example Email Series (SID 123)
  5. Click the blue Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
 
Subscribe Customers Through Product Settings

The Product Editor may be used to create an product that specifies one or more email series in the Subscribe to Email Series setting, to automatically subscribe customers to email series when the product is purchased.
 
recommended reading
Only Product Editor settings directly related to email series will be discussed in this introductory tutorial. It is recommended to review the following Knowledge Base articles for an in-depth explanation of product settings and the Product Editor:
Product Editor
Search Products

To create a new product, in the store's admin area, go to [Products > Search Products > + ].

To edit an existing product, in the store's admin area, go to [Products > Search Products], then click the SID number link or edit button of the particular product to edit.

To set up a product so that customers who purchase the product are automatically subscribed to one or more email series, follow the steps below:
  1. In the Product Editor, scroll down to the Correspondence section.
  2. In the Subscribe to Email Series text field, enter the SID number of the email series (or a comma-separated list of multiple email series SID numbers).
  3. Click the blue Save Changes button to apply the setting.
email series sid numbers
To look up the SID number(s) of the specific email series, in another browser window or tab, go to [Design > Modular Mailer (Bulk Email) > Email Series].

what happens if a customer re-orders a product that triggers an email series?
If a product is set to subscribe customers to an email series, then the first time the customer purchases the product, the customer will be subscribed to the appropriate email series. The steps in the series will be scheduled and sent based on the date and time of that first order.

The next time if the customer purchases the product, if the original email series subscription has not yet completed (there is at least one step that has not yet been sent), then the product's email series setting will be ignored. The original email series subscription will continue on its schedule based on the first order.

On the other hand, if the original email series subscription has completed (all steps have been sent), then the shopping cart will re-subscribe the customer to the email series, so all steps will be sent again, with the schedule based on the date and time of the new order.
 
Subscribe Customers Through A Mailing List Sign Up Form

A form field may be added to a mailing list sign up form, so that when the form is submitted, the customer will automatically be subscribed to specified email series. Detailed instructions are provided in the Using the form to subscribe customers to specific Email Series section of the following Knowledge Base article:
Create a Mailing List Signup Form
 
Editing Existing Email Series

Even after an email series has been created and customers have started subscriptions, it is still possible to customize the email series by removing steps, adding steps, changing the templates assigned to existing steps, or changing the delivery dates assigned to existing steps. Customizing an existing email series may affect existing subscriptions to the series in a variety of ways.

Removing Steps
Modular Mailer processes subscriptions to an email series in sequence. The current step is held in the email queue until its scheduled send date. When the current step's send date arrives, the queued email is sent, and Modular Mailer advances the subscription to the step with the next possible delivery date.

As a result, when a step is removed from an existing email series, the current step of any existing subscriptions to the email series remains unchanged. The current step has already been added to the email queue with a scheduled send date. Once the current step has been sent out from the email queue, Modular Mailer will check for the next step.

If the removed step had a delivery date prior to the delivery date of a subscription's current step, that subscription will not be affected by the removal. The email for the removed step would have already been sent for that subscription, and that cannot be undone. The subscription will complete its current step, and will then proceed through the remaining steps in the series with no change.

If the removed step had a delivery date after the delivery date of a subscriptions's current step, that subscription will be affected by the removal. The subscription will complete its current step, and will then proceed through any remaining steps. The email for the removed step will not be sent, because that step will no longer exist when Modular Mailer advances to the step with the next possible send date.

If the removed step was the current step of a subscription, that subscription will be broken. The email for that step will still be sent, since it had already been prepared and added to the queue. However, Modular Mailer will not be able to advance to the next step of the series, because the removal of the corresponding step means that email is no longer part of any series.

Adding Steps
When a step is added to an existing series, any existing subscriptions to the series that are already past the delivery date of the new step will skip that step. The new step will only be included in any existing subscriptions that are not yet past the delivery date of the new step.

Changing Templates
When an email template is edited to change its content or appearance, if the email template is assigned to a step of an email series, any existing subscriptions to the email series may be affected. If the template is assigned to the subscription's current step or a future step, then the new version of the email template will be used when Modular Mailer sends the corresponding email. If the template is assigned to a past step, then obviously it is too late for the new version of the email template to be applied.

When a different email template altogether is assigned to an existing step of an existing email series, any existing subscriptions to the email series may be affected. If the subscription is currently on or has already passed the step to which the new template is assigned, the original template will be used rather than the new template. If the subscription has not yet reached the step to which the new template is assigned, then when the subscription does reach that step, the new template will be used.

Changing Delivery Dates
When the delivery date assigned to an existing step of an existing email series is decreased, any existing subscription to the series that is already on or has already passed the updated step will disregard the change to the delivery date. Any existing subscription to the series that has not yet reached the updated step will use the revised delivery date, when it does reach that step.

However, a decreased delivery date could mean that when the subscription reaches that step, the delivery date will have already passed, in which case the step will be skipped.

example of a decreased delivery date resulting in a skipped step
For example, an email series might include the following steps:
Step 1: Template SID 12, Delivery Date 15 minutes
Step 2: Template SID 34, Delivery Date 1 day
Step 3: Template SID 56, Delivery Date 2 days

If a customer subscribes to the email series at 10:30am on July 9th, 2014, Modular Mailer will immediately generate the Step 1 email from template SID 12, and add it to the email queue with a send date of 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, which is 15 minutes after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, the first step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template SID 34, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, which is 1 day after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At 5:00pm on July 9th, 2014, a store admin edits the email series to decrease the delivery date for step 3 from 2 days to 2 hours. The email series is automatically reordered, and now includes the following steps:
Step 1: Template SID 12, Delivery Date 15 minutes
Step 2: Template SID 56, Delivery Date 2 hours
Step 3: Template SID 34, Delivery Date 1 day

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, the current step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step. However, the step using template SID 56 now has a delivery date of 2 hours, which has already passed, so the step must be skipped. Since the change to the delivery date, there are no more steps for this email series, and Modular Mailer ends the customer's subscription to the series.

When the delivery date assigned to an existing step of an existing email series is increased, any subscription that is currently on the updated step will disregard the change to the delivery date. Any subscription to the series that is not currently on the updated step will use the updated delivery date when determining which step to add to the queue next.

An increased delivery date could push the step's order back past an existing subscription's current step. As a result, the step would be sent again in its new order, even though it had already been sent once for that particular subscription.

example of an increased delivery date resulting in a repeated step
For example, an email series might include the following steps:
Step 1: Template SID 12, Delivery Date 15 minutes
Step 2: Template SID 34, Delivery Date 1 day
Step 3: Template SID 56, Delivery Date 2 days

If a customer subscribes to the email series at 10:30am on July 9th, 2014, Modular Mailer will immediately generate the Step 1 email from template SID 12, and add it to the email queue with a send date of 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, which is 15 minutes after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 10:45am on July 9th, 2014, the first step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from the template SID 34, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, which is 1 day after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At 5:00pm on July 9th, 2014, a store admin edits the email series to increase the delivery date for step 1 from 15 minutes to 1 day plus 2 hours. The email series is automatically reordered, and now includes the following steps:
Step 1: Template SID 34, Delivery Date 1 day
Step 2: Template SID 12, Delivery Date 1 day and 2 hours
Step 3: Template SID 56, Delivery Date 2 days

At the first email queue processing time after 10:30am on July 10th, 2014, the current step of the email series is sent to the customer. Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step. However, the previously sent step using template SID 12 now has a delivery date of 1 day and 2 hours, and is now the step after the step using template SID 34. Even though an email using template SID 12 was already sent, due to the increased delivery date, that step is up next, and so is added to the queue again, with a send date of 12:30pm on July 10th, 2014, which is 1 day and 2hours after the customer subscribed to the email series.

At the first email queue processing time after 12:30pm on July 10th, 2014, the step using template SID 12 is sent to the customer (for the second time). Modular Mailer advances the customer's email series subscription to the next step, preparing the email from template SID 56, and adding it to the email queue. The email's send date is set to 10:30am on July 11th, 2014, which is 2 days after the customer subscribed to the email series.
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