Creating dynamic newsletters

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Dynamic newsletters allow you to send out any page from your website. You can create a new page specifically for the purposes of a dynamic newsletter. For example, to display new articles added to your website during the last month. Please note that some e-mail clients may not be able to process and display pages exactly like a standard browser. Your developers may need to simplify the source page’s content or adjust its CSS stylesheet.

Dynamic newsletters are sent out automatically using the built-in scheduling system. When you schedule the mail-out of a dynamic newsletter, the system creates a new scheduled task named Send dynamic newsletter: <newsletter name> for the current site. The task reads the content of the newsletter’s source page and sends out the issues to the newsletter’s subscribers according to the set time interval.

To create a dynamic newsletter:

  1. Open the Newsletters application and click New newsletter.

  2. Fill in the basic properties of the newsletter:

    Newsletter properties

    Property

    Description

    Newsletter display name

    Name of the newsletter that is displayed in the administration interface.

    Newsletter name

    Name of the newsletter that is used as an identifier in web part properties, URLs and the API. You can leave the (automatic) option to have the system generate an appropriate code name based on the display name.

    Subscription confirmation

    Select the template that the newsletter uses for subscription confirmation e-mails.

    Unsubscription confirmation

    Select the template that the newsletter uses for unsubscription confirmation e-mails.

    Sender name

    Name of the sender used in newsletter e-mails. Authors of individual newsletter issues can override the value and set a different sender name.

    Sender e-mail

    The e-mail address that the newsletter uses as the sender in issues. Authors of individual newsletter issues can override the sender address.

  3. Choose Dynamic newsletter and enter the following details:

    Dynamic newsletter properties

    Property

    Description

    Source page URL

    The URL of the page from which the newsletter loads the content for issues.

    Clicking Check Page URL availability checks if the specified page is currently accessible.

    For the purposes of this example, you can use: http://www.kentico.com

    Schedule mail-outs

    If enabled, the system automatically sends the newsletter according to the time interval settings below.

    For testing purposes, use a short interval such as: 

    - **Period**: Minute- **Start time**: Click <i class="kx13-calendar" style="color: #000000"></i> and select the current date and time (click **Now**)- **Every**: 1 minute- **Between**: 00:00 and 23:59- **Days**: Check all days

    Creating a dynamic newsletter issue

  4. Click Save. The system creates the newsletter and opens its Configuration tab.

  5. Configure the advanced settings of the dynamic newsletter:

    Advanced newsletter properties

    Property / Section

    Description

    Base URL

    Enter the base URL of your website (including the protocol, domain name and virtual directory). The newsletter uses the base URL to convert relative links to absolute URLs inside newsletter issues (for unsubscription links, image paths, etc.).

    Example: https://www.example.com

    Unsubscription page URL

    The URL of the page where users can unsubscribe from the newsletter. The page must contain the Newsletter unsubscription web part, which ensures the required functionality.

    If you leave the property empty, the newsletter uses the value of the Settings -> On-line marketing -> Newsletters -> Newsletter unsubscription page URL setting.

    When testing on the sample Corporate site, you can enter ~/SpecialPages/Unsubscribe/Newsletter.aspx. This default page ensures the required functionality.

    Send draft e-mails to

    The addresses specified here are pre‑entered by default when sending draft newsletter issues for testing purposes. You can enter multiple addresses separated by semicolons.

    Draft e-mails are not included in tracking statistics (e-mail opening and link clicking).

    Send issues via e-mail queue

    If enabled, the newsletter sends issues through the system’s e-mail queue. Recommended for large amounts of subscribers or when using role or contact group subscribers.

    Enable resending

    If enabled, it will be possible to edit newsletter issues and manually send them again even after they have been mailed out to subscribers. Disable this property to ensure that subscribers do not accidentally receive the same content multiple times.

    Subject

    Sets the subject of the dynamic newsletter e-mails. You can either use the page title of the source page or enter a title manually by selecting Use the following subject.

    On-line marketing

    The properties in this section are related to tracking of the newsletter’s e-mails and keeping marketing statistics.

    See Tracking newsletter e-mails.

    Double opt-in

    You can use the properties in this section to set up double opt-in subscription for the newsletter.

  6. Click Save.

To see the functionality of the dynamic newsletter, you need to have at least one subscriber in the system.

(Optional) Creating newsletter subscribers

  1. Back in the Newsletters application, click Subscribers tab in the left menu.

  2. Click Add subscribers and fill in information about the subscriber.

    Creating a newsletter subscriber

  3. Click Save.

  4. On the Newsletters tab, edit () the newsletter in which you created the dynamic issue again.

Adding subscribers to a dynamic newsletter issue

  1. Edit () the newsletter in which you created the dynamic issue.

  2. Open the newsletter’s Subscribers tab.

  3. Click Add subscribers. A dialog appears. Select a subscriber

    Selecting a subscriber for a newsletter issue

  4. Choose a subscriber and click Select.

You can also use the Add users, Add roles, Add contact group, orAdd personas buttons to select from the users, roles, on‑line marketing contact groups, or personas defined for the current website.

Subscriber in a newsletter issue

Dynamic newsletter unsubscription

Because the content of a dynamic newsletter is loaded from a web page, it may be difficult to include a standard unsubscription link. To allow users to easily cancel their subscription, you can instead add the Unsubscription request web part onto the newsletter’s source page. Subscribers will then be able to enter their address and receive a special e-mail with an appropriate unsubscription link.

Sending dynamic newsletter issues

The dynamic newsletter sends out issues automatically based on the configured mail-out interval. You can view a list of sent issues on the newsletter’s Issues tab.

Note: If you configured a 1 minute sending interval for the sample newsletter, you may need to wait up to 2 minutes until the first issue is sent out.

Sending dynamic newsletters manually

You can send out a dynamic newsletter issue at any time on the Send tab. The tab supports both regular issues for all subscribers and testing drafts sent to specific addresses.

Using the external scheduling service

To ensure reliable sending of dynamic newsletters even when your web application is inactive, you can use the external Windows scheduling service.

  1. Go to Settings > On-line marketing -> Newsletters.
  2. Enable the Use external service for dynamic newsletters setting for your website.

This does not change the settings of existing dynamic newsletter tasks. To configure existing dynamic newsletters to use the external scheduler:

  1. Open the Scheduled tasks application.
  2. Edit the corresponding Send dynamic newsletter tasks.
  3. Enable the Use external service property.

Blocking dynamic newsletter mail-out

If you want to block the mail-out of the dynamic newsletter page (for example if there is no new content on the source page), you can:

  • Disable the Schedule mail-outs property of the dynamic newsletter on its Configuration tab.
  • Set the title of the source page to ##DONOTSEND## (if the source page is managed in Kentico). You can change the page title by selecting the corresponding page from the content tree in the Pages application and editing the Page title field on the Properties -> Metadata tab.