Newbie - List of questions and queries

[affinity3251]

Hi,
I am new to ActiveCampaign and still trying to get my head round it as we look to migrate across from Mail Chimp.

I have to admit that the UI isn’t the most intuitive or quickest and navigating from screen to screen is a slow process.

I would appreciate if anyone can help me with any of the below queries:

1. How do I use conditional statement for personalisation within the email? I want the email “Hi %FIRSTNAME%,” but if there is no first name then to say “Hi,” as the fallback.

2. How do I change the from name for a campaign, it is currently using my email address rather than the company email address I need to use but can’t find where to change it.

3. Why if I paste some code in to the code editor does it remove all indentation?

4. Does conditional content work when sending a test email if the condition content is based on the email address the test is being sent to?

5. Why when setting up a segment does it not give you a running count on subscribers without having to navigate away from that screen?

6. Is there a way to schedule a send for a specific time (e.g. 9am) regardless of time zone?

7. Why do some screen auto save and yet on others there is a save button at the bottom?

8. What hours is the live chat support available? Being from the UK it seems a large part of our working day it isn’t manned.

9. Does conditional content need the
   tags that it generates? I assumed it did otherwise why would it put them there but obviously keeping them breaks my template. After removing them it seems to work still but I can’t figure out why they are even there.

10. When using conditional content, can you than just “If/Else”? Can you have “If/If/If/If/Else”?

11. Why when I chose to create a segment in a new campaign do I see a different segmentation screen with different options than if i chose to edit an existing segment? Surely the screens and options should be consistent?

12. Why once you are in a campaign do you lose the ability to navigate around the rest of ActiveCampaign? I might start working on a campaign and then want to check something within my templates or contacts but I am unable to do so without saving and exiting the campaign I am working on.

13. When using Insert “Content from URL” in the code editor, why if I select “Fetch at time of sending” does it then mean I can no longer edit my template?

14. Why is there only the option to “Save & Exit”? Why is there no option to exit without saving? I may have made some changes that I don’t want to keep and I either have to individually undo each of them or save them to be able to get out of a campaign.

[Brian]

Hi,

Welcome to the community! Congratulations on making the switch from Mailchimp. There will be a period of adjustment, but I think you’ll find the platform easier to use and simple to navigate very soon. Also, we hear you on the slowness at times and we’re in the process of taking aggressive steps to improve our infrastructure. You’ll notice the platform becoming more snappy over time.

1.) Here’s the Conditional Content you need to customize the greeting:

%IF $FIRSTNAME != ‘’%
Hi %FIRSTNAME%,
%ELSE%
Hi,
%/IF%

2.) You can customize the From name when you first create a campaign on the same screen that you set your subject line. If it’s a campaign that’s already created, you can adjust the From name by clicking the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner (while you’re on the Design step):

3.) I’m not sure why the code editor would remove indentations. If you’re certain the code is correct, you may want to open a support ticket so that someone can take a look at the campaign and code to identify the issue.

4.) Yes, Conditional Content works on test campaigns. Just be sure that the test email is also a contact in your account.

5.) That’s a great suggestion and I’d encourage you to submit feedback so that we can prioritize that change with other requests.

6.) Yes, you can schedule the send time from the Summary step (the step right before sending):

7.) Our platform is evolving quickly and you’ll see things becoming more standardized as it evolves.

8.) Live chat is usually available during U.S. business hours 7 AM - 4PM US CST.

9.) Conditional Content needs the psuedo code that it generates to work.

10.) Yes, you can do multiple If conditions on conditional content.

11.) The options should be consistent though the UI might be slightly different.

12.) You can open up a new tab and navigate around while a campaign is being edited but you can’t edit a campaign and navigate around your account in the same tab.

13.) “Fetch at time of sending” just means that it will grab the URLs code immediately before sending. You can continue to edit the web page or template up to the time of sending and it will use the most recent versions of both.

14.) This is another item that would be a good feedback item.

Let me know if you have more questions about any of this. We’re here to help!

[OliverOverwood]

Thanks @Brian! I had some of those questions, too (IF/Else, Multiple IF/Else)… So I don’t need to ask again and somebody has saved time with not having to answer again.

Great community, cheers!

[affinity3251]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply and help with someone of my queries, your answers have certainly put me on the right track with a few of them.
I’m also glad to hear that slowness is being addressed, when navigating between different screens repeatedly it certainly is a big frustration.

I just wanted to clarify a few things if possible please.

Question 6. What I really meant was, is there a way to schedule a campaign so that it sends at 9am in every country/time zone, rather than just sending at one specific 9am GMT?

Question 9. This question was regarding the < br > tags that are included in the generated code for conditional statements. Are they required for the conditional statement to work and if not, why are they generated as part of it?

Question 11. The options don’t appear to be consistent either. When editing a segment there is a “View Contacts” button which does not appear when creating a segment so there is no way of knowing how many subscribers you have selected unless you save and edit the segment or save and navigate to the “Send” tab.

Question 12. My point really with this was that once in a campaign, if I realise I want to check something in my contacts or automations, there is nothing on the screen that i can right click on and select to open in a new tab, which would be the easiest and quickest option to navigate there, I have to use a longer and more convoluted option to open another tab.
For example, even when in a Campaign in MailChimp, their logo is always visable and clickable in the top left hand corner meaning that you can use that to open a new tab
Not a major issue, but when using the platform for several hours a day it’s the sort of thing that could save time and frustrations.

Question 13. If I select the “Fecth at send” option, it removes all ability for me to be able to continue to edit my template.
The left hand side of the screen where I would normally edit the code is now completely greyed out with a message stating “Content will be dynamically fetched from:” and an option to edit the URL or remove the fetch at send.

A new point linked to this as well, once I have selected the “Fecth at send” option and I can now no longer edit my template, If i decide that I actually want to revert back to a previous revision, I am unable to do so until I have clicked that “Remove the fetch at send” button.

Also linked to that, despite having the time zone of my account set to “Europe/London” the time stamp on the revisions is for another time zone which makes it really difficult to know which revision it is you really want to revert back to.

[Brian]

@affinity3251

Question 6. What I really meant was, is there a way to schedule a campaign so that it sends at 9am in every country/time zone, rather than just sending at one specific 9am GMT?

Ah, this isn’t possible with a campaign but you can do this with an automation workflow. You’d have a “Wait until” action and the condition would be Current time (Contact’s Timezone) is XX:XX.

Question 9. This question was regarding the < br > tags that are included in the generated code for conditional statements. Are they required for the conditional statement to work and if not, why are they generated as part of it?

The
tags or any HTML, isn’t necessary for conditional content to work. Just the psuedo code. I’ve never seen HTML inserted into the code. Usually it just says “Insert Content Here” as a placeholder for your content.

Question 11. The options don’t appear to be consistent either. When editing a segment there is a “View Contacts” button which does not appear when creating a segment so there is no way of knowing how many subscribers you have selected unless you save and edit the segment or save and navigate to the “Send” tab.

Ah, yes, the UI is slightly different in some sections. I was saying that the options available in the segment builder itself should be the same any where in the app. You might prefer to create segments with the Advanced Search tool. This is how I prefer to do it. Click Contacts in the top menu, click in the search field, and then select Advanced Search in the drop down. The segment builder will appear and you can see the contacts that match your search as you add conditions.

Question 12. My point really with this was that once in a campaign, if I realise I want to check something in my contacts or automations, there is nothing on the screen that i can right click on and select to open in a new tab, which would be the easiest and quickest option to navigate there, I have to use a longer and more convoluted option to open another tab.For example, even when in a Campaign in MailChimp, their logo is always visable and clickable in the top left hand corner meaning that you can use that to open a new tab Not a major issue, but when using the platform for several hours a day it’s the sort of thing that could save time and frustrations.

Yes, I can see how that is inconvenient. I don’t really have a solution for you. You may just need to open a new tab and navigate to your account.

Question 13. If I select the “Fecth at send” option, it removes all ability for me to be able to continue to edit my template.The left hand side of the screen where I would normally edit the code is now completely greyed out with a message stating “Content will be dynamically fetched from:” and an option to edit the URL or remove the fetch at send.

A new point linked to this as well, once I have selected the “Fecth at send” option and I can now no longer edit my template, If i decide that I actually want to revert back to a previous revision, I am unable to do so until I have clicked that “Remove the fetch at send” button.

Yes, you’ll need to toggle Fetch at send off to edit your template and then turn it back on when you’re done editing.

Also linked to that, despite having the time zone of my account set to “Europe/London” the time stamp on the revisions is for another time zone which makes it really difficult to know which revision it is you really want to revert back to.

We’ve had customer requests to have all timestamps refer to the time zone setting. I imagine this is something we will take care of it at some point though I don’t know exactly when.

Let me know if you have any other questions!