Creating a Newsletter

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Modified on: Tue, 22 Nov, 2022 at 6:03 PM

Cision's Newsletter option offers an easy-to-use and elegant solution for sending curated news coverage. Newsletters are sent to a recipient’s email inbox in a beautifully packaged template, allowing recipients to stay engaged with the most important news. Each article in a newsletter contains details like social amplification and readership metrics while also including hyperlinks to the web version of the article, offering its full text.

• For US Clients: There is no limit to the number of email recipients or newsletters you can send, regardless of which country the content originated.
• For Canadian Clients: If your newsletter contains Canadian Print or Canadian Broadcast content, the number of recipients for that Newsletter is limited to the number of Readers Licenses you have added to your Subscription. Based on these Reader's licenses, this total number of recipients will also apply to the number of people your newsletter recipients forward the newsletter to after receipt. 
  • NOTE: This limitation of recipients does not apply to newsletters with only online content.
  • Please get in touch with your Account Manager to learn how many Reader licenses have been purchased for your subscription.

To Begin Creating a Newsletter:

1. Click the Alerts tab on the toolbar
2. Select the Newsletter option
3. Choose Create a Newsletter in the upper right-hand corner

NOTE: The most recent newsletter will be at the top of the list if you have previously created a newsletter.

Before creating your Newsletter, notice the buttons in the upper right-hand corner of the Newsletter Builder.

• Click the Save button to preserve the Newsletter you create if you cannot create the Newsletter in one session or want to share it with your team before sending it. There is no auto-save function as you create a Newsletter.  
• Click the Exit button to close the Newsletter module without Saving.

When Creating your Newsletter:

1. Start the creation process for establishing the date range of content that should be included in the Newsletter. This option is available at the left-hand panel of the Newsletter Builder. 2. Select the content section you wish to filter. 3. Determine how you want to Sort the news content by either Impact Score (a metric reflective of Readership, Social Shares, and Tone) or Published Date and click on the Apply button. 4. Set the Publication Date or Tagged Date filter for a date range and click the Apply button. This filter will determine what Tagged content is included in the Newsletter using the Publication Date or Tagged Date. For example, you may use the same Tag called Newsletter to curate content that should be included in your weekly Newsletters. When you apply the Tagged Date filter, you are telling the system to only include content that was tagged during the specified range. We've included multiple options for the tagged date range: Last 12 hours, Last 24 hours, Last 48 hours, Last 72 hours, and Last 7 Days. NOTE: The Last 72 Hours is a great option for articles tagged on Friday to include in the newsletter you want to send on Monday.

Next, direct your attention to the top center of the Newsletter creation screen to edit the Sender, Reply, and Subject Line information. 

1. Click the Customise link to edit the From and Reply-to Email addresses. You will want to be sure to replace these addresses with the sender and reply information that you want to media to see and recognize. Replacing the default information ensures that the media does not know the email is being sent through the Cision servers. 

2. Click the Save button to incorporate the newly added addresses.

3. Add the Subject, which will be the Subject line of the Newsletter email.

Continue in the center panel of the screen and to the Newsletter logo.

1. Click on the Newsletter logo in the center panel.  This will add quick edit buttons in the upper right-hand corner. The arrow buttons will enable you to move the logo section up or down in the newsletter. The trash can icon will remove the section. (NOTE: It is recommended that the logo in the header be 600 pixels wide by 200 pixels high; 600x200)
2. Edit options to replace the logo will be activated in the left-hand panel. To upload a new logo, click the Replace button. This will open a window where you can select a logo file reflective of your brand and add it to your newsletter. You can also add an image title to the logo if you prefer.

Directly below the logo section, you will find the Newsletter Title.

1. Click on the Title of Newsletter section in the middle panel of the screen.  This will add quick edit buttons in the upper right-hand corner. The arrow buttons will enable you to move the logo section up or down in the newsletter. The trash can icon will remove the section.
2. Use the left-hand panel to add the preferred Title and Subtitle for the Newsletter.
3. You can change the background and text colors of the Title section if you prefer.

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The "In This Newsletter" section is the Table of Contents of the Newsletter.

1. Click on the In This  Newsletter section in the middle panel of the screen.  This will add quick edit buttons in the upper right-hand corner. The arrow buttons wills enable you to move the logo section up or down in the newsletter. The trash can icon will remove the section.
2. In the left-hand panel, you will see a description indicating that each section of articles in the Newsletter will be described in this section.

Underneath the Table of Contents, you will add the articles to be included in the Newsletter. This means that you will select the Tags associated with the curated content you want to include in the Newsletter.

1. Click on the Select a set of curated articles by tag section in the middle panel of the screen.  This will add quick edit buttons in the upper right-hand corner. The arrow buttons will enable you to move the logo section up or down in the newsletter. The trash can icon will remove the section.
2. Use the activated left-hand panel to determine which metrics associated with the articles will be included in the Newsletter. Only selected metrics will be included. You may need to scroll down the panel to see these metric options.
3. Select the Add articles by tag button. Choose the tags from the list for which you want to add coverage to the Newsletter.  Tags appear in two categories in the list, My Categories (those created by your user name) and Shared with Me (tags created by other user names). Remember that only coverage with the selected Tags with publication dates in the range you determined in step one of these directions will be included in the Newsletter.

NOTE: You can hide individual articles you do not want to be included in the newsletter and add them back into the newsletter as well. Click here to learn how!

You can include additional sections to your Newsletter to further customise it.

1. Using the left-hand panel, select the Add Content tab. 
2. Sections that can be added will be listed under the Add Content tag. Click on the section you want to add to the Newsletter and drag it to the center profile. 
3. Once the section has been added, you will have additional options to make relevant customisations.
4. Click on Edit Content in the left panel to make changes.

In the bottom portion of the left-hand panel, add the recipients to whom you want to send the Newsletter.

1. Click on the Recipients section in the left panel to expand it.
2. Using Who would you like to send this to? box, type in the email address of the first person to whom you want to send.
3. Click the Add Another link to add more recipient email addresses. Repeat this process until you have added all email addresses.

Once you have created the Newsletter, determine if you want to send a test newsletter, save it as a draft, or send it now to recipients.

1. Clicking Send Now in the left panel will immediately send the Newsletter to all recipients.
2. If you prefer the Save the Newsletter at another time, you can click the Save button in the upper right-hand corner of the Newsletter page.
3. To send a Test Newsletter, click on the Actions button in the upper-right of the screen and click on Send Test Newsletter option. Enter up to 5 email addresses you would like to send the test newsletter to and click on the Send Test button.

NOTE: Test newsletters will appear exactly as the “real” one in a recipient's inbox. The only difference is that the “View it in your browser” link is unavailable at the top of the test email. Instead, there is the following text. “Viewing it in your browser is unavailable because this is a test.”