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, a tracking string can be appended 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. However, you can still edit the tracking parameters to customize for each email.

There are five parameters you can set:

1. Campaign Source – The platform (or vendor) where the traffic originates, like Facebook or your email newsletter.
2. Campaign Medium – You can use this to identify the medium like Cost Per Click (CPC), social media, affiliate or QR code.
3. Campaign Term – You’ll 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 – If you’re A/B testing ads, then this is a useful metric that passes details about your ad. You can also use it to differentiate links that point to the same URL.
5. Campaign Name – This is just to identify your campaign. Like your website or a specific product promotion. Here’s an example screenshot with the campaign names you might see when you navigate to Traffic Sources >> Sources >> Campaigns.

To add Tracking Parameters, click on the blue “Add” button on the right side of the row labeled Tracking Parameters.

After clicking the “Add” button, you will see the prompt below:

Before you click “Add” within this prompt, make sure you have the correct tracking parameter specified first. It will add what is selected in the dropdown list.

To change the parameter, click the dropdown list and choose the correct parameter and then click “Add.”

As you add each parameter, you will see them listed out in the prompt (shown below). Keep selecting and adding parameters as needed. You can add up to five.

After five parameters have been added, the dropdown list is no longer available.

• Now that parameters are added, you can now enter default values and enable them.
• To enter the values, click in the text box under default value for each parameter.
• Once the default values are entered, toggle each parameter to “enabled”.
• Once the Action buttons are enabled and the default values entered, you can enable the “Append Tracking Parameter” option at the top of the prompt.
• This adds these default values to each email/link in your emails. Again, you can change these defaults when selecting the properties within each specific email when designing the creative and going through the Send process.
• Click the “Save” button at the bottom to save your new settings.

After saving, you will be brought back to the settings page and you will see the parameters you have added:

Adding a test list into the Email Designer allows you to quickly send test emails to a specified group of contacts such as Executive Management for review/approvals. It also makes sending to larger test lists more efficient by eliminating the need to manually enter the emails one by one.

To add a test list, simply click “Add List” next to the dropdown in the Test List section.

• After clicking “Add List” you can create the name of your test list.
• Type the name of your test list and hit save. Note: You can make more than one test list, if needed.

• After saving, you will see the name of your list both in the dropdown and in a new “View” option.
• Click “View” to view the list and add contacts

• After clicking “View” you can view the list and add contacts.
• You can upload a list of contacts by clicking the choose file option.
• Contacts can also be manually added one-by-one. Simply click “Add” in the bottom right-hand corner.

• 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.

• You will now 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 test 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. Only contacts with their Active status equaling True will be sent the test email.

• Hit “Save” to save the changes to the Active status.

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 into the Email Designer allows you to keep key internal stakeholders informed of outgoing emails. The seed list is effectively copied on any outbound email sent from the Email Platform.

To add a seed list, you must first be in the "Email Settings" section. Navigate to the Seed List section > click the “Add List” text next to the dropdown.

• After clicking “Add List” you will get the prompt below to create the name of your seed list.
• Type the name of your seed list and hit save. You can make more than one seed list so repeat this process to create any other seed lists you’d like.

• After saving, you will see the name of your list in the dropdown as well as a new “View” option.
• Click “View” to view the list and add contacts.

• After clicking “View” you can view the list and add contacts.
• Upload a list by clicking the “choose file” option and select the file. 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. Only contacts with their Active status equaling True will be seeded on the outgoing email.

• Hit “Save” to save the changes to the Active status.

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