Where to start?

This guide will help you get acquainted with the basic functionality of enKod and understand the platform at the start of your work.

You can find links to all necessary instructions in the platform under the “Getting Started” button in the top right corner of your account or in the left menu, under “Need some help?” → Getting Started.

Mailing groups

This is a list of customers, who are consenting to recieve mailings. Groups are assigned to contacts and allow you to control communications, sending messages only to those topics and channels for which the user has given permission.

You can create groups for different purposes, for example: a group for mass communications, a group for customers of a certain category and others.

Data fields

Data fields are made for storing additional information about a contact that you want to use in your work (for example, to segment or personalise communications).

You can store a contact's location, the number of children, status, and more in data fields.

Address the recipient in an email by name or select all contacts who attended a specific event. Data fields are designed to do just that.

File preparation

Rules for correctly uploading contacts to the account:

• the file with contacts are required to be in .csv or .zip format (with .csv file);
• file size up to 150MB;
• encoding in -
  • UTF-8;
  • WINDOWS-1251;
  • KOI8-R;
  • CP866;
  • ISO-8859-5;
  • WINDOWS-1252;
• delimiters “,” or “;”

To make it easier to understand the requirements, we have prepared for you file template.

Don't forget to fill the file with additional information about your contacts (e.g. names, if you store them) in addition to the email addresses themselves.

Downloading the database

1. Preparing and downloading a file

Create a contact list based on the template. Upload the file to the platform using manual import via Data ➔ Contacts ➔ Actions ➔ Import contacts.

2. Matching data fields and columns

After selecting the file, match the data fields and columns you created earlier to ensure that all the information you need is correctly recorded.

3. Attaching mailing groups

Be sure to attach mailing groups so that you can send messages to your customers after the import. Once this step is complete, the file reconciliation will start.

4. File reconciliation

Reconciliation is an analysis of the import file and is performed in the background. You can monitor imports via Data ➔ Imports

Completing an import

After the reconciliation step, you need to complete the import.

Select what you want to do with new contacts and what you want to do with existing contacts. When importing contacts for the first time, they will all fall into the “New” category. Select “add” in the appropriate row to upload them to enKod.

Contact card

After the import is complete, open the contact card from Data ➔ Contacts ➔ Click on the email address and check that all the person's details have been entered in the fields required.

Creating segments

Segments are filters for contacts in your database. A variety of conditions will allow you to categorise all subscribers into groups based on values in data fields or activity in messages.

Segmenting your database is necessary to increase the personalisation of your newsletters. Segmentation makes it possible to distinguish the target group from the general list of contacts.

For example, you can send an email only to female representatives of a certain age or to those who have read the previous email. You can also combine several criteria for more precise selection.

The main conditions that you will need at first are conditions on field values and on messages sent.

Example segment

Try creating a segment that selects all contacts from Moscow. Recalculate the segment to check that the selection is correct.

Gradually increase the number of recipients to improve your reputation. This is a very important process that will affect all your future work in the account.

Reputation depends on:

• whether your emails will be delivered
• in which folder they appear to recipients (inbox or spam).

A bad reputation of a sender leads to blacklisting: emails that you are sending will be blocked by mail services.

Warming up involves regularly sending different messages to segments of recipients of a certain size.

Example of a warm-up segment

A warm-up segment includes several conditions: subscribing to the mailing group you selected when importing the database, and sending a message with the tag “warm-up” to avoid duplicate messages. The conditions should be configured so that they work simultaneously.

In addition, in the warm-up segments you should set a limit on the number of contacts in accordance with your warm-up plan.

To create your first message go to Mailings ➔ Messages ➔ New message ➔ Email. You will be taken to the message editor, which consists of several steps.

In enKod, you can customise the message so that it is:

• sent immediately after creation
• sent on the date and time you specify
• sent regularly according to a set schedule
• sent when an API request is received
• sent when a certain event occurs
• sent at the moment of subscription to confirm it

There are several ways to create a message in enKod. The method you choose depends on whether you have some basis for the message or whether you will create it from scratch.

• To manually create a message without HTML knowledge, use the the inbuilt block editor
• If you have an archive of your customised message or HTML, upload it to the editor.
• If you don't know where to start yet, use our post templates.

After creating the email itself, you can personalise the content using personalisation tags (dynamic content).

Personalisation in newsletters allows you to tailor your message to specific recipients, increasing the likelihood that they will read the email and take a targeted action.

Personalisation also improves customer relations, increases customer loyalty and increases the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Data fields that were previously created and populated with information when the database was imported can now be displayed in the message.

Personalisation. Contact name

Open the dynamic contact manager in an HTML editor (or edit the text container in a block editor) and use the “Contact First Name” tag {{onboarding:subscriber_firstname}} in the text of the message at the place where it is required. Now the recipient will not see a dry “Good afternoon” but a more personal “Good afternoon, Ivan!”

Using personalisation in the HTML editor

Using personalisation in the block editor

Personalisation. Link unsubscribe

Be sure to add an unsubscribe link to your email to give your recipients the option to unsubscribe from communications. Otherwise, they'll just send the email to spam and your reputation on emailers will start to plummet. To add an unsubscribe link, select the desired tag (for example, {{onboarding:link_unsubscribe}}) which is named Unfollow all mailing groups in the dynamic content manager.

Using personalisation in the HTML editor

Using personalisation in the block editor

Personalisation. Preview

To see how personalisation works, use the preview. Enter the email address of any contact who has a name filled in you contact base and see how the email will look specifically for that contact.

This step is used to select the contacts to whom you want to send the newsletter.

It can be a mailing group, a segment or both. The message will not be duplicated if the contact is in a segment and subscribed to a mailing group, i.e. only one email will be sent to him/her.

If you have a list of email addresses in .csv format, you can send a mailing to this list by uploading it at the “Select Recipients” step. In addition, you can exclude a certain segment from the recipients.

Autosave protects your work in the email, scenario message, SMS, and other message builders. You can edit a mailing without worrying that a sudden internet disconnection, closing the tab, or an accidental crash will erase all your edits. The system automatically remembers every important change so that you can restore the last saved version.

The feature is already enabled by default for all accounts — no additional settings are required.

Autosave covers everything you change at any step of the message builder, including:

• text input (including HTML, text, and AMP versions);
• all settings: sending conditions, dates, checkboxes, toggles, lists, message creation methods;
• selected templates, uploaded archives, and layout from Stripo (after clicking the “Apply” button);
• split tests and their versions.

• The first autosave occurs 30 seconds after you start making changes (entered a character, changed a setting, etc.).
• If you are continuously entering text, autosave will occur every 30 seconds.
• When you click the “Apply” button in the HTML editor or the “Save” button in the text/AMP editor, autosave starts immediately, without waiting for the 30-second interval.

Further rules depend on which message you are working with. There are two scenarios:

• Existing message — you have opened and are editing a previously created mailing.
• New message — you are creating a mailing from scratch or copying an existing one.

The following describes how the system behaves in each abnormal situation for both scenarios.

Applies to both scenarios

When you navigate to another menu section or click the exit button from the message builder, the system shows the familiar popup: “Are you sure you want to leave this page without saving changes?”

• Choose “Leave” — all autosaved edits are deleted, the message returns to the state before editing began.
• Choose “Stay” — you continue working without changes.

Applies to both scenarios

The system waits for the connection to be restored for 20 seconds:

• If the connection is restored within this time — you continue working as if nothing happened. All changes made during the disconnection are saved.
• If there is no internet for more than 20 seconds — the editor is considered closed. The next time you log in, you will see a popup asking to restore the last autosaved version. If you agree, all edits that the system managed to save before the disconnection will be loaded. If you decline, for an existing message the original version will open, and for a new message — a draft in the last saved state.

Rules differ

For an existing message:

All your edits are saved automatically. The message itself, however, remains in the state it was before editing — as if you hadn't opened it yet. When you click “Edit” again (from the message list or just refresh the page), a popup will appear with the question: “The message was not saved due to an improper closing of the editor. Do you want to restore the latest changes?”

• “Yes” — the last autosaved version will load with all the edits the system managed to save.
• “No” — all autosave drafts will be deleted, and you will see the original version of the message, which was manually saved before the crash.

For a new message:

All your edits are saved. The message automatically appears in the mailing list as a “Draft” — in the state where you stopped. When you want to continue — just click “Edit”. No additional popups or questions: you will immediately access the last saved version and continue working.

All autosave drafts are deleted when you:

• manually save the message as a draft and exit the editor;
• activate the message (sent or scheduled);
• select “Leave” during manual exit (discard changes).

After that, only the final manually saved version applies.

Autosave also works for split versions of messages. If you created version B and the system managed to save it, both versions will be displayed upon recovery. If version B was not saved — only version A will remain.

We've covered the core features and tools of the platform that will allow you to effectively manage your newsletters, segment your audience, personalise your messages and maximise results.

We hope that you now have a better understanding of how the enKod platform can help you with your tasks.

Remember, successful email marketing requires not only quality content, but also a smart approach to segmentation, personalisation and message delivery. enKod provides you with everything you need for this, and we are ready to support you every step of the way. We remind you that our team is always ready to help you with any questions related to the platform operation.