About EmilyD85

We switched to . We're a performing arts company and integrates with our ticketing platform, so that was a big improvement on top of the HTML functionality and custom content blocks. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to try out some of the ticketing-related bells and whistles due to COVID-19 putting a halt to live performances. They might not be the right fit for everyone, but they've been great for us. The takeaway is that it CAN be done, CC just isn't doing it for whatever reasons. ... View more

Hi folks – I've been getting emails of these thread replies and it's disappointing to see that this issue hasn't been improved, and I feel like I need to update my previous comment and say that our organization has since left Constant Contact (will this get me booted from the forum?) and we are now using an email service that allows HTML editing, is mobile optimized (and looks really good on mobile), and lets you create custom content blocks to reuse in future campaigns. Although it lacks some features that CC has, we are very happy with it! We had some other good reasons to change providers, but the HTML issue was not the least of them. So, sorry CC, you lost a customer in part because of this lack of functionality.   ... View more

I am trying to create a list of "inactive" contacts which I am defining as those that have been consistently receiving our emails for a length of time (two years) AND have never opened any. I want to begin the process of updating or removing these inactive emails from our email list. Having more options in segmentation would vastly improve this. My current idea to accomplish this is to (Step 1) create 24 segments by contact activity, each segment with the criteria of "were sent" for a one-month timeframe, such as "were sent 1/1/2017-1/31/2017."  (I can't simply do one segment with a two-year timeframe because I want to ensure the contacts have been getting emails the whole time, not just once or a few or even half of that two-year timeframe. We send emails to our entire list at least once a month.). Next (Step 2) I take the 24 segments, export them, and combine them into one Excel spreadsheet, then remove all the records that don't appear in every segment. Now I have a list of contacts that were sent email in every single month for two years. (Step 3) I create one more segment by activity, for "opened" during that total two-year time frame. I export and add that to my Excel sheet and remove duplicates so that the only remaining contacts are those which received email campaigns in every month for two years but never opened any. This feels like a ridiculous amount of work to get a list that meets this criteria: Was sent email in every month from Jan. 2017 through Jan. 2019 AND never opened. Is there a better way to do this?? Adding multiple criteria for each category seems to be the answer, but until that feature is available (IF it become available), what do I do?   Thanks! ... View more

Thanks for finally being straight with us. That said, here is one (of many) issue I have with the lack of access to HTML:   In our emails, we frequently copy the style, layout, and content of one block in a previously sent email into a new email. I achieve this in the old editor by simply making a copy of the old email campaign, opening the HTML view on the block I wish to replicate, selecting all, copying to the clipboard, and then closing that copied campaign (without saving so that it's deleted because now I'm done with the copy), then going into my new email campaign I'm creating and pasting the HTML code into a new content block. I actually have several Notes files where I just keep the HTML code for my most frequently used types of content blocks, so I can just grab the code, paste it in, and then change the text or images as needed in the editor. It isn't a solution to simply copy the whole campaign, because I may be combining content blocks from several previous emails, and/or copying a content block from a campaign we sent a year ago and, in the time since, many other elements of our campaign look and feel have changed. I'll give you a scenario: Let's say, every summer we hold an annual event. How about an ice cream social that's in late July. In early May, I send a campaign containing a block with a save-the-date for the ice cream social. Then I don't mention the ice cream social for the next several campaigns. Mid-June, I send a campaign mentioning the ice cream social again now that tickets are on sale, so I just copy the block HTML from my early May email and add the new ticket info. Then I mention it in every campaign up until the event. Then summer turns to fall, fall turns to winter, and then at the beginning of the new year we freshen up our branding with a tweaked email campaign layout, some changes to our header and footer, etc. Time continues to pass and here we are again in May, planning our annual ice cream social. To save time, I want to just reuse last year's ice cream social marketing (same image, description, etc.). So I find the previous May email (now a year old) in my past campaigns, copy the HTML from the ice cream social block, and paste it into my new email, change the date, and VOILA! – now my campaign has our current branding with the new header and footer, the other current news, and the ice cream social info. I don't see how to do this without accessing the HTML, but here's a potential solution: Let us save content blocks to a library, the way we can save images, so that as we are building campaigns, we can simply insert content blocks from other campaigns into our new campaign without having to build them from scratch anytime we aren't copying an entire campaign. In other words, if you can find a way to let us copy various elements from multiple different campaigns into one new campaign, that would make me a lot less hesitant to switch to the 3rd generation editor. I want to be able to copy a block from Campaign A and a block from Campaign B and put both into Campaign C. I'd be happy to give other examples or further clarify if you have any questions about how I use HTML. I really hope you find a way to incorporate this functionality if you don't plan to let us access HTML in the future.  Thanks for listening and considering this request. - Emily ... View more

I'm chiming in here to echo some of Sue's feedback. I started trying to use the 3rd generation editor today and I am shocked that HTML is not accessible. In anticipating the switch, I had already gone ahead and copied several sections of HTML code from my 2nd gen campaigns so that I could easily recreate those blocks within the 3rd gen editor. Come to find out, that's useless. To reuse content, you suggest copying the whole campaign, but for our company, this isn't a suitable solution. I am often combining elements from several different previous campaigns into a new campaign, or copying a block from a year-old campaign to update with this year's info and in that time the style or other elements of our regular campaigns has changed such that to copy and update a whole year-old campaign would be a ridiculous waste of time. To illustrate: Let's say we held an event last spring (2017) that we're hosting again and I want to promote it in my newsletter the same way (same photo, layout, general info) but update the time and date and maybe put a fresh spin on the body copy. In 2nd gen, I would open up that OLD email, copy the HTML from the block, and paste it into my new email, alongside all the other current events and new info that I'm sharing with our audience. I would never copy the entire campaign from 2017 just to reuse the one block about the event and replace everything else. So it looks like now my choice is to just rebuild everything we've ever made in the 3rd gen editor AND rebuild it every time we want to use it in the future, or stick with the 2nd gen editor for now. Unfortunately, for this and other reasons, it looks like we'll be forced to stay with the 2nd gen editor. ... View more