Sending an Email Distribution to Media Search Results

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Modified on: Thu, 1 Dec, 2022 at 6:03 PM

You can easily send an email distribution to Media Contacts or Outlets you have selected in your result set. You do not need to save the Media Contacts or Outlets to a list to take advantage of this feature.  However, if have already saved the selected Media Contacts or Outlets to a list, click here to learn how to Send an Email Distribution to a Media List. If you have not yet saved the Media Contacts or Outlets to a list, follow the instructions below to send your email distribution.

1. Check the Media Contacts or Outlets to whom you would like to send the email. You can select all of the Media Contacts or Outlets using the top checkbox. Or, use the checkbox directly to the left of a Contact or Outlet to select them individually.
2. Click the Connect button and choose Send Email.

You will be guided through a step by step process to create and send your email.

Settings:

1. To start, give your distribution a name for internal reference; it is not seen by your recipients. Be as descriptive as possible so you can easily remember what was sent at a later date.
2. You can customise the “from” name and address. By default, the system will use the information of the logged in user.
3. Choose whether or not you would like a copy sent to you.
4. Click Next from the bottom right.

Recipients:

Since you have already selected the Contacts or Outlets to whom you will send the distribution, you will see this Recipient screen already populated. Specifically, you will see the number of Media Contacts or Outlets selected and “from Search” indicated.

You have the option to send the distribution to any additional saved Media Lists as well at this point. To do this, click into the Media Contacts or Outlets field and check the lists to whom you would like to distribute.

1. Click Next from the bottom right.

Select a Template:

You can choose to either work with a blank HTML slate, or you can choose one of our pre-designed templates to help you get started.

1. On the Default Template Page, you will find templates provided to you by Cision. If you would like to use a template shown here, simply click the template that best suits your communication.
2. If you, or other Cision users within your organisation, have saved any of your own templates, click the Custom Templates heading to select from those options. Saving a Custom Template will be covered in the next section.
3.  Click Next

Design Your Email:

Now it’s time to craft your communication.

Enter a Subject for the email. This is the title the recipients will see. It should stand out and grab the reader’s attention and be about 55-75 characters in length.

Add the body of your release by importing, pasting or typing.

Importing the Email Body as a Word Document:

If you have already constructed the body of your release in Word, you can simply upload the Word document using the Import Word Document link. Any images and links existing in the document will also be uploaded. You can edit the body of the email further once it has been imported.

Designing the Email  Body using the Editor:

If you have not already created the body of your release in Word, fill out the body by typing in the text or you can use the paste text buttons to paste sections of text from a word processing application. 

You have the ability to format your release using the Toolbar and to point out a few of the most useful ones:

The personalisation option will be greyed out if you have included Additional Email Addresses on Email Recipients page as these two features cannot be used together.

Once you have constructed the body of your email, you will have the option to modify the plain text version of the email and add an attachment if desired.

If the HTML email is blocked by the recipient’s server, a text version will be sent automatically. You can customise the plain text by selecting the Manual option. Tip: You will want to edit the plain text version if you are using links or images in your release to clean it up for the recipients.

Click Attachment to upload an additional file. The file must be smaller than 3 MB. It is intended to be purely supplemental information and your most important points should be in the body of your release. Also be sure to review pitching profiles to make sure your recipients are OK with receiving attachments.

If are using one of the Marketing Automation Systems listed, you can use these fields to track the traffic driven by links added in the body of the email. In order to accomplish this successfully, one of the links in your email needs to be for the site you are monitoring.

The following is an example of the fields that will appear for Google Analytics. Note that the fields that appear are based on the system that is selected:

Confirmation:

You can review your information on the Confirmation step, 

1. Click any of the Edit links to make changes to the choices you made in the previous sections.
2. Use the Send Preview button to send a preview of the release to yourself or colleagues.
3. An Opt-Out language is required. This is the language that will be used to generate the required Opt-Out information that appears at the bottom of the email.
4. An Opt-Out address is required, and you can change the address displayed by clicking on the Override Address box.
5. If you would like to add the Email Distribution to a Campaign, select the Campaign name from the drop-down.
6. You can have the email sent Now, or schedule it for a future time and date. Emails scheduled for future distribution can be modified before the send date.
7. Click Submit when you are satisfied with your choices.