Using Buildout’s Email Editor, you can quickly build unique email blasts, review email campaign metrics, and optimize your emailing experience.
- Setting up your Email
- Configuring Content
- Sending and Testing Emails
- Reports and Historical Campaigns
- Individual Property Emails
- Multi-Property Emails
- Space Needs Emails
- Company Email Settings
Setting up your Email
In the Email Editor, you’ll be able to customize the Email Settings, Recipients list, Scheduling, and Content by expanding or collapsing the left-hand menu options to build your new email blast.
Email Settings
Start building your e-blast by giving your new email campaign a name. This name will be used for internal purposes only and will be useful when searching for the email later on in the new Search field on the main page of the general Email Tab. Create an email Subject line, choose the From Email address you would like recipients to see, and type the name of the person or organization that is sending the email into the From Name field. “From Emails” will pull from a list created by your email provider and can be updated outside of Buildout in your provider directly.
Recipients
Use the drop-down in the Recipients section to choose the email list this email blast will be sent to. Email lists pull from the email provider connected to your account and can be configured outside of Buildout.
Scheduling
Choose to send your email blast Now or Schedule a time to send the email in the future. Your current time zone will populate automatically based on your computer's IP address.
Configuring Content
Use the Content drop-down to configure your email content while previewing changes and updates in a live draft of your email blast. First, select a Template Theme, either the classic Rivet version or the updated Spindle template, and the property name. Brokers listed in the Property Edit Form for the selected property will automatically populate in the footer of the email; override the default brokers by selecting new names from the Brokers drop-down list.
Exploring Your Options
To show or hide various elements in your email blast, use the On/Off option buttons. Information and data will automatically pull from the Property Edit Form, Demographics tab, or Broker Profile Settings.
If the selected property is marked as both For Sale and For Lease in the Property Edit Form, use the Availability, Highlights Source, and Description Source dropdowns at the bottom of the Content section to customize the information displayed in the email.
Editing Text Options
To customize the email, type directly into the text fields on the live draft of the email blast. You can also view all editable fields by clicking the blue “Highlight Editable Elements” button on the right side of the Email Editor, or hover the cursor over the text itself. To restore the email’s default text, click the “Reset” button that appears above the text box after edits have been made. Reset all edits by clicking the blue “Reset All” button; this will restore the entire email to its default state.
Table Functionality
The Email Editor permits editing the text, rows, and columns within tables just like the Document Editor. Select the “Edit Rows/Columns” button that appears when the cursor hovers over the table to edit the table configuration. Use the Green and Red icons to Add or Remove a row or column. New rows automatically populate at the bottom of the table, and new columns will appear on the right side of the table. To more precisely control the placement of new sections, click inside the table before adding additional sections. Shift the placement of rows and columns using the Blue icons that appear when you click on a specific cell.
Sending and Testing Emails
Preview what the completed email blast will look like on a Desktop or Mobile device by clicking on the corresponding icon. Send yourself a Test Email using the Send Test Email button. Return to finish editing the email blast at a later time using the black Save as Draft button.
When the e-blast is ready to send, click the orange Send Email button to send the email blast via the connected email provider. Alternatively, if you’d like to send an email outside of Buildout, you can get the HTML code for any email template and copy the HTML email code to your Clipboard by clicking the Code Previewer icon; then paste the code into an alternative email campaign editor.
Reports and Historical Campaigns
Visit the main page of the Email Tab to see email reports and view historical email campaigns.
Email Reports
Reporting becomes available after an email blast has been sent. Select the name of the Sent email to view campaign metrics at a glance. Click the View Email Tab to view the sent email itself. To send the same email again, return to the main email page and click the Gear icon to Duplicate the email blast.
Historical Email Campaigns
Historical email drafts, sent emails and reporting are available in the Legacy tab. If you’d like to send a legacy email again, it will need to be rebuilt in the new Email Editor.
Individual Property Emails
To send an e-blast on a single listing, you’ll use the Individual Property e-blast. This can be accessed via the general Email Tab or through the Email Tab within an individual listing.
Multi-Property Emails
In addition to Individual Property email blasts, you can also send Multi-Property e-blasts that feature up to 20 listings in one email. This email type still permits you to customize the Email Settings, Recipients list, Scheduling, and Content in the same way as the Individual Property email; however, Content options will apply to all properties within the email, rather than just a single property. You can select which of your properties should appear in your email blast using the Properties option under Content. Simply click into the Properties box, and, in the pop-up window that appears, click the blue plus and minus icons to select your properties.
Space Needs Emails
Space Needs e-blasts allow you to advertise your space needs and requirements using a variety of free-form Content options, such as adding a custom photo or a third-party logo, as well as entering custom descriptive text. These emails are designed to be flexible, so they might also serve a variety of other purposes specific to a firm’s individual needs: advertise recently closed deals, send auction notices, circulate newsletters or company announcements, and so on.
Company Email Settings
Once you’ve built a few email blasts and find a content formula that works for your team, you can adjust the default appearance for your email blasts from the Company Settings page. This is only available if your user account has the “Can Manage Company” permission.
Choose the Email Template Theme you’d like to modify. Then click the ‘pencil’ icon next to the content you’d like to override. You can preview your changes on the right side of the screen. If it would be helpful to look at a particular property while making your edits, use the Preview Property dropdown to select that property. If at any point you’d like to return a piece of content to the way it was originally, hover the cursor over the pencil again and click Use Default.
