Email Settings

This email settings section is specific to clients using the Ascent360 ESP (email platform). 

With the Ascent360 Email Designer, you can quickly and easily upload Seed Lists, Test Lists, modify your default Tracking Parameters (appended tracking strings for Google Analytics) as well as adjust the default settings for Domain, Reply-To and From Email Info. This list of articles will teach you how to do this.

Note: During onboarding, Ascent360 will setup the Domain, Reply-To, From Email and Tracking Parameters with you. The Email Settings section will allow you to change those settings after the initial setup. 

To navigate to the email settings section, simply click on your profile/user icon in the top right corner and click on Settings. 

You will then see the settings page as shown below:

If you utilize Google Analytics UTM tracking, Ascent360 can automatically append a tracking string to each of the links in your emails. Setting this up in Email Settings allows you to set default Tracking Parameters for all your emails. With a default value, you can still customize each parameter for a specific email sent from Ascent360.

Available Parameters

1. Campaign Source – we recommend setting this as Ascent360.
2. Campaign Medium – use this to identify the medium like Cost Per Click (CPC), social media, affiliate or QR code. We would recommend setting this as Email (or SMS, for text message marketing).
3. Campaign Term – use this mainly for tracking your keywords during a paid AdWords campaign. You can also use it in your display ad campaigns to identify aspects of your audience.
4. Campaign Content – use this to differentiate links that point to the same URL.
5. Campaign Name – this is typically your email or campaign name.
   

Add or Edit Tracking Parameters

To add tracking parameters, hover over the Profile icon in the top-right corner and select Settings. Then, go to Email Settings.

Note: If you don’t see the Email Settings option, please contact the Help Desk to request the necessary permissions.

In the Tracking Parameters section, you’ll be able to view and edit available parameters. By default, all five parameters should be visible.

To edit a parameter, click Edit. For each one, you can set a Default Value and toggle the setting on (blue) or off (grey) as needed.

Once you've saved your settings, the configured tracking parameters will be visible. These default parameters will automatically be applied to all draft emails. As a result, when recipients click any link within your email, the tracking parameters will be appended to the URL, allowing tools like Google Analytics and other site analytics platforms to capture and report the data.

Using System Fields as Parameters

You can use the following to dynamically insert values as UTM parameters:

For the values to work properly, the brackets must be included.

Best Practice:

To avoid issues with the UTM values it is best to use "_" or "-" between values and leave out spaces and certain special characters such as "!"

Adding a test list allows you to quickly send test emails to a specified group of contacts for review & approval. It also makes sending to larger test lists more efficient by eliminating the need to manually enter the emails one by one.

Add a Test List

Navigate to Settings by hovering over the blue icon in the top right of the Portal.

Within Email Settings, select Add List in the Test List section.

Name your Test List and click Save.

After saving, you will see the name of your list in the drop-down as well as a new View option. Click View to add contacts to the list. 

To load contacts in bulk, click choose file option and select the file. In your file, please use "Email" as the column header name. You can also click Add in the bottom right-hand corner to add contacts manually.

If you click Add to enter them in one by one, you will get another prompt to enter in the email address.

After saving the email, you will see the email added to the test list and the Active Status = True.

Repeat this process to add any additional contacts to the test list.

To change the status of a contact from the seed list, click “Edit” and toggle the Active status from True to False. When false, the button is gray and to the left, when True, the button is blue and to the right. 

To learn how to send an email to your newly created test list, please see our How to Send/Schedule and Email article

Adding a seed list allows you to keep key internal stakeholders informed of outgoing emails. If an email is configured to send to a seed list in addition to the required audience, individuals on the seed list will receive the email, even if they don't qualify for the audience you are sending to.

Add a Seed List

Navigate to Settings by hovering over the blue icon in the top right of the Portal.

Within Email Settings, select Add List in the Seed List section.

Name your Seed List and click Save.

After saving, you will see the name of your list in the drop-down as well as a new View option. Click View to add contacts to the list.

To load contacts in bulk, click choose file option and select the file. In your file, please use "Email" as the column header name. You can also click Add in the bottom right-hand corner to add contacts manually.

If you click Add to enter them in one by one, you will get another prompt to enter in the email address.

Hit the blue Save button to save the email into the test list.

After saving the email, you will see the email added to the seed list and the Active Status = True.

Repeat this process to add any additional contacts to the seed list.

To change the status of a contact from the seed list, click “Edit” and toggle the Active status from True to False. When false, the button is gray and to the left, when True, the button is blue and to the right.

To learn how to send an email to your newly created seed list, please see our How to Send/Schedule and Email article