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Email Templates

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Email Templates

Access via:  (Event) > Promote > Communication > Email Templates

Jump to:  ||  List  || Name  || Details  ||  Schedule  ||

You can create reusable Email Templates which can be used across your events.

You can select an email template when you send a mass email to a number of registrant, or to a single registrant. Best practice: always create an email template before mass-emailing a number of registrants.

Email Templates can also be used for the confirmation sent at the end of the online registration process: see Plan > Forms > Confirm

An email can be scheduled to be sent at a future date and time, even a specified period before or after the event starts or ends; see Schedule Settings below. (This is explained in detail in the PDF quick guide to Scheduled Emails in Certain.)

You select Email Templates for particular purposes on various pages in Certain, so they need to be set up here first. For example, on Forms > Entry you can select the email template to be used when an attendee forgets their password, on Plan > Configure > Options you select the one to be sent to a waitlisted attendee who is automatically accepted from the waitlist, and on Engage > Appointments > Configuration you select the templates to be used to notify attendees of the SSA (Self-Selected Appointment) requests they have received.

  • To add a new email template: Click Add New

  • To edit an existing email template: Click pencil icon: [edit] in the Actions column in the list of templates,  or just click the row itself.

  • To delete an email template: First edit it, and then click the Delete button at the bottom of the page.

[Play] icon Videos: Certain University Email Templates course

List of Email Templates

All existing email templates are listed, with the details listed below for each one.

The lists of templates may be a multi-page list.

Click an Action icon, or click the Add New button to create a new email template.

  • Name

  • Date Created

  • Date Modified

  • Action, a column with these three icons for each email template:

    [edit] pencil icon – Click to edit the template, in the sections described below.

    eye icon: [preview]– Click to preview the body of the email in a popup window. .
    ( If the email includes dynamic fields, the preview shows them as they appear in the Message body when you are editing it (see below), e.g. <{Field Name}>.)

    [copy] icon – Click to copy the email.
    Note: copying a scheduled email includes its Schedule. So to achieve the effect of recurrent emails, you could copy a scheduled email and just edit the copy's schedule. This is an easy way to send, for example, essentially the same email every 7, 14 and 21 days before the event.

[Play] icon Video: Creating an Email Template (2 min.)

Email Template Name

  • Name – (Required) The system tracks each template by its name.
                   Caution: If you elect to make the template available to all events in the account (see Visible to, below), make sure its name is unique across all events. It would overwrite existing templates in other events if they had the same name.

Email Template Details

In order to set up the email template, complete the following fields:

  • From  – (Required) The email address from which Certain will send the email.
    Defaults to the address set in Account Settings  > Implementation > Security: either "event-information@certain.com" or the event contact (set under 'Contact' on Plan > Event Setup > Detail).

  • Reply To – (Required) The email address to which replies will be sent when a recipient clicks Reply.
    Default: as described for From address.

NOTE 1: When you send email to registrants, the From and Reply To fields saved on the email template take precedence over those in  Implementation Security" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Account Settings and the  Event Setup Detail" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Event Contact.

NOTE 2: When you copy an event, including its email templates, the From and Reply To fields in  Implementation Security" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Account Settings and the  Event Setup Detail" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Event Contact are used for the new event. Any different addresses on the email templates are ignored for the copy.

CAUTION:

If you configure From and Reply To addresses for different domains (such as From: john.smith@certain.com, Reply To: john.smith@example.com), it increases the risk of that email message being interpreted as SPAM by some mail servers, because the From and Reply To address domains do not match.

Certain leverages Sendgrid, which is a cloud-based email infrastructure for transactional email delivery.

If you are sending email from an address other than the default event-information@certain.com address, we recommend that you work with your IT department to ensure that Sendgrid's mail servers have been added to your domain's SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records.

Please refer to this Sendgrid page for more information: https://sendgrid.com/docs/Glossary/spf.html.

Schedule Settings

This section is only displayed if the Scheduled Emails module is enabled for the event under Functional Areas Needed by This Event in Plan > Configure > Options.

It enables you to schedule the emails to be sent to a filtered set of registrants at a selected number of months/days/hours before or after the event's Start Date or End Date, or at a specified date and time.

Note: If you are editing an existing scheduled email, it will already be in the schedule queue. So if you change the schedule settings, that will alter the existing job.

Note: If you are editing an existing scheduled email that has already been sent and has a status of Complete, the Schedule this Email? check box described next will be cleared.

FYI: If you delete an event, its scheduled emails are set to "On Hold".

[Play] icon Video: Scheduled Emails (2.5 min.)

If you select one of the first four options, three extra fields are displayed, for you to specify the number of Months, Days , and Hours to be added to or subtracted from the event start date or end date.

If you select the fifth option, At a specified time and date, two extra fields are displayed in which you specify that date and time.

Note: The specified time and date must be in the Time Zone set for the event (on Plan > Event Setup > Details).

The Event Start Date and Event End Date are displayed on the right.

Below them is the Scheduled Date: the calculated date and time the event email will be sent, based on the Schedule and the values entered for it.

For example:

Schedule = Before Event Start Date

Months = 0

Days = 7

Hours = 6

Event Start Date 09-29-2020 9:00:00 AM (Note: The date used in the calculation is displayed in red.)

Schedule Date 09-22-2020 3:00:00 AM.

The Schedule Date is in the Time Zone set for the event (on Plan > Event Setup > Details).

FILTERS

Here you define the filter to be applied to determine the registrations to which the scheduled email will be sent.
Select a value in each of the three fields to build a simple filter.
(The default is "Complete = Yes", so that the email would be sent to all complete registrations.)
Optionally, you can then add one or more extra conditions to build a more complex filter.

  • Append – The Subject and Message body can each include dynamic information about the registration, event, or location. For example, personalize the message with the attendee's first and last name, or dynamically insert the name and phone number of the event's location.

  • Subject – (Required) The subject line for the email.

  • Message – The body text of the email. The usual editing features are available unless the Enable Editor? check box is cleared.

  • Enable Editor? – If this check box is selected (as it is by default), the Message body can be edited using standard controls for formatting, etc. (See additional instructions about using the Editor.) You can clear the check box in order to edit the Message body in a simple text box (which can still include HTML code if Send as HTML? is selected).

  • Send Test Email – Click to send a test email to up to five email addresses, such as your own, to show what the email would look like when received by registrants.
    A pop-up window opens in which you specify those addresses, and search for a registrant whose details will be used in the test email.
    Note: That registrant will not receive a copy of the test email.

  • Display: Send as HTML? – If selected (as it is by default), the message will be sent as HTML instead of as plain text.

  • Display: Include event's display shell? – If selected, the HTML display shell (defined in Plan > Configure > Display > Advanced) will be included in the email.
    Note: Available only if Send as HTML is selected.

  • Options:

  • Include registration confirmation? – If selected, the registrant's confirmation information is added to the bottom of the email. This is a way of reminding the attendee of his or her registration details.
    Caution: Do not select if Use as the template for Forgot Password is selected below.

  • Forgot Password

  • Use as the template for Forgot Password – If selected, the template is used for the email sent to registrants who click the Forgot Password link on a form.
    One template must have this option selected before the Enable Forgot Password option may be selected in any form in the event.

    [Play] icon Video: Forgot Password Email and Form Setup (2 min)

    Note 1: Only one template may have this option selected. (If you selected it in a second one, that would clear the selection on the original; you are warned when that would happen, so can choose to cancel.)

    Note 2: If this option is selected, you must make the template Visible to: current event only. See 'Visible to' option above.
    And you should not make the template 'Visible to: current user only'.

    Note 3: If this option is selected, the email is always sent as HTML, even if the Send as HTML check box (see above) is cleared. (The is to make the link in the email clickable.)

    Note 4: if this option is selected, the following features are no longer applicable to the template:

    •  Attachment,
    •  Attach Itinerary PDF,
    • Attach Invoice PDF,
    •  Attach Badge PDF, or
    • Schedule this email.

  • Text to display as link to reset password – The text of the hyperlink when you append the ‘Forgot Password Link Text’ DDF to your Forgot Password email template. This is what the registrant clicks in order to be sent a link to reset their password.
    (Available only when     Use as the template for Forgot Password is selected.)
    Default: "Click here to reset your password."

  • Attachment – If required, select a file to attach to the email. The file must already be uploaded to your event in Certain before you can attach it to an email. Click Upload new file to add a file you don't see in the drop-down list. You may upload the following file types:

    • Microsoft Excel (.xls)

    • Adobe PDF (.pdf)

    • ZIP and RAR Archive files (.zip and .rar)

    • Web-Safe image formats (.jpg, .png, and .gif)

    • Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes business cards (.vcs and .or5)

  • Attach Itinerary PDF – If selected, a PDF will be attached to the email, detailing the registrant's itinerary.
    The appearance and content of the itinerary are defined on Communication > Itinerary.

    If you do select Attach Itinerary PDF , additional check boxes (dependant on the modules enabled for the event) are displayed for you to select whether the itinerary should include Appointments, Agenda Items, and/or Travel Flights .
    Note: Those selections override the default selections on the Itinerary Settings page (Communication > Itinerary).

  • Attach Invoice PDF – If selected, a PDF of the attendee's invoice will be attached to the email.
    An additional field is displayed in which you select the invoice template to be used.
    Note: Available only if at least one invoice template has been configured. (At event-level: Communication > Invoices; or Account-level: Account Settings > Registration > Invoices.)
    Caution: Do not select if Use as the template for Forgot Password is selected above.

  • Attach Badge PDF – If selected, a PDF of the attendee's badge will be attached to the email.
    An additional field is displayed in which you select the badge layout to be used.
    Note: Available only if at least one badge layout has been configured on Manage > Badges.
    Caution: Do not select if Use as the template for Forgot Password is selected above.

    • Schedule this Email? When you are adding a new template, this check box is the only field in this section. If you select it, all the remaining fields are displayed, as described here (up to the end of those underFilters).
      Note: This option is only available if the template's Visibility is This event only.

    • Code – (Required) Must be unique within the event.

    • Schedule – (Required) Select one of the five options.

      • Before Event Start Date

      • After Event Start Date 

      • Before Event End Date 

      • After Event End Date 

      • At a specified time and date 

    • Columns – Select the column (field) to be evaluated. The list from which to choose is very long, including (standard and custom) profile fields and registration fields, event fields, etc.

    • Operator – Select the operator to apply to that column.

    • Value – Enter the value to be compared. For some columns, a magnifying icon  [Find] icon is shown, which you can click to display a Pick List from which to select a possible value. (For example, if the Column is "Complete", the list of values is "No", 'Yes" and "Null".)

    • Optionally, you can  select a logical conjunction to continue to add conditions to the filter. The options available are:

      • and

      • or

      • )and(

      • )or(

The first condition is preceded by "("so that you can use the ")and(" and ")or("conjunctions in whatever combinations you require.

Save Email Template

After completing the details above, click Save to save the template.

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