Publisher | Email and Social Automation Creation

How to create email and social media automations in Publisher

This feature allows Publisher admins to create, schedule, and manage automated emails and social media posts. In this article, we will show you how to create:

• Email Automations 
• Social Media Automations

Click on the links above to quickly navigate to a section!

Email Automation

Accessing the Email Automation Feature

1. Log in to your Publisher account.
2. Navigate to the “Manage” tab.
3. Click on “Automations” to view and activate available automation.

Creating and Scheduling an Email for Automation

1. Navigate to Publish > Emails.
   • Here, you can either duplicate an existing email to use as a template or click “Add Email” to build a new email from scratch
   
2. Add/Edit Email
   • Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required: Email Title, Email Subject, and at least one section within the body of the email.

1. Preview Email
   
   • The preview email feature generates a preview of the email as last saved. You can download this preview as a PDF. 
   • Note: The logo, email signature, and contact information on the preview email are placeholders.
2. Send a Test Email
   
   • Use this feature to send the current version of the email to a selected email address for testing purposes.
3. Publish
   
   • Publishing saves the email layout, making it initially visible and usable within a subscriber's Content Library. Once compliance approves, the published email can be set as pre-approved.
4. Save Draft
   
   • Saving the draft preserves the current email layout. It is visible only to the agency admin.
5. Cancel
   
   • Clicking cancel closes the email editing page. If unsaved changes exist, a confirmation modal will appear.
6. Email Title*: The email title is a required field and contains the title of the email.
7. Email Subject*: The email subject is a required field and contains the subject line of the email.
8. Keywords: Add keywords for sorting and searching associated content within the subscriber's Content Library.
9. Editing Lock (Premium Feature): The editing lock toggle enables creative lockdown.
10. Thumbnail Image (Mobile App Only): Upload an image for easier email identification on the mobile app.

Adding Sections to Your Email 

1. Advisor Header: Placeholder for the subscriber's logo.
2. Advisor Footer: Placeholder for the subscriber's email signature, contact information, and disclosure.
3. Add Section: Click the "+ADD SECTION" button to add additional sections.
   
   
   • Text Section
     
     • Text: Simple text field with a toolbar for editing text features.
     • Headline: Larger-font text on a colored background.
     • Button: Simple button for an External URL or File.
     • Greeting: Address contacts by their first name.
   • Image Section
     • Image: Contains an image uploader for displaying an image within the Email.
   • Widgets Sections
     
     • Featured Content: Select from FMG and associated agency content.
     • Multi-Content: Include multiple content entities.
     • Video: Include a video in the email.
     • Divider: Break up the email into distinct sections.
4. Sectional Editing Controls
5. Sort Up/Sort Down (arrow icons): Controls the placement of a section within the email.
6. Settings (gear icon): Unique settings per section.
7. Duplicate: Instantly duplicates the selected section.
8. Delete (trash can icon): Allows the agency admin to delete a section.

Adding Content-Specific Email Disclosure

1. Scroll down to the Email Footer section.
2. Enter the disclosure text in the provided space. This disclosure will appear above the standard email disclosure, providing a dedicated space for content-specific information.

Note: This option may not be available by default. Please contact our support team to request this feature. 

Scheduling and Approving the Email Automation

1. Click the “Actions” button > Share for Advisors.
   
2. Select the corresponding campaign and schedule your email.
3. Compliance Approval: Navigate to Library Cases > Emails. Under “Scheduled Emails,” change the Status from “Visible” to “Approve”.
   

Note: Automations will not send if they are not compliance pre-approved.

Email Automation Best Practices

• Schedule the email automation for a specific date/time at least one hour in the future to allow for review and cancellation if needed.
• Once the automation is deployed, it cannot be recalled if a mistake is made.
• The FMG system prevents the "same" email from sending out within 24-hours. If you need to resend the same email, schedule it at least 24 hours after the first send or create a brand new email.
• Impersonate a test account to verify that the email was sent correctly.

Social Automation

Creating and Scheduling a Social Post for Automation

1. Log in to your Publisher account.
2. Navigate to Publish > Social Posts.
3. Click “Add Social Post” to begin creating the post.
4. Fill out the following fields:
   • Social Post Title
   • Post Description
   • Any keywords
5. Build your post.
6. Click “Add Post” to finalize.
7. Once you see the post populated in the list, click “Share for Advisors.”
   • Please note that this is an immediate post. There is no option to schedule for a future date/time.

Note: Social automation is different from email automation. Once social automation is enabled in your publisher account, you can post content for advisors who have the automation turned on in their accounts. There is no option to toggle social automations on or off like email automation. You can verify that your social automation has been set up by navigating to Publish > Social Posts. If you see a "Share for Advisors" button, then you know the automation has been enabled.

Social Automation Best Practices

• For social posts, note that they are pushed out immediately. 
• Impersonate a test account to verify that the social post was sent correctly.