Outstand lets you quickly write, design, and send your emails to individual or multiple recipients.
In this article, we’ll show you how you can design, organize, and send your own email messages using our composer.
Choose a template
Go to the Outstand home Dashboard.
Locate the section “Start with a template” at the top of the page.
There are six different layouts to begin building your email message. Select one.
Your selected layout will appear in a new email composer window.
Organize sections with content blocks
Your Outstand emails are organized in blocks.
The template you select will affect the number and type of blocks automatically created for your email design. You may add one or more content blocks to each email, but you cannot remove a template’s default blocks.
To add a content block
Click on the red window icon in the top left of the email composer’s toolbar.
Select your content type. Your new content block will appear at the bottom of your email.
To rearrange content blocks
Click on the block you wish to rearrange. A set of arrows will appear in the bottom left corner of the toolbar.
Use the arrows to move the block up or down.
You can also use the X icon at the bottom of the toolbar to remove a block.
NOTE: Deleting a block cannot be undone.
Designing and formatting your email
On the left side of the email designer, there are multiple formatting options similar to any standard text editor.
The formatting tools offer a flexible way to design and modify your email’s content. Some tools adjust only text that’s highlighted, but the following tools format the entire block:
Alignment
Font Size
Font Color
Font Family
Remove Text Formatting
NOTE: If you save your email and exit out of the composer, you can find your saved draft within the home Dashboard.
Automate your emails with data tags
Data tags help you personalize your email specifically to each contact. When you insert a data tag into your email’s text, the data tag is replaced by that recipient’s contact information. The following data tags are replaced with the corresponding information:
[First Name]: Recipient’s first name
[Last Name]: Recipient’s last name
[First & Last Name]: Recipient’s first and last name
[Company Name]: Recipient’s company
[My First Name]: Your sending profile’s first name
[My Last Name]: Your sending profile’s last name
[My First & Last Name]: Your sending profile’s first and last name
[My Title]: Your sending profile’s job title
[My Website]: Your sending profile’s website address
[My Company]: Your sending profile’s company label
Data tags will retain the same formatting associated with their blocks.
NOTE: If a contact’s profile doesn’t have any data associated with a tag that you use in an email, then their email’s data tags will not be populated.
Send a test email
Before sending your email to your contacts, first you may want to send a test to yourself or a colleague to make sure it looks and works the way you intended.
Click “Send Test” in the top right corner of the composer. A pop-up window will appear.
Enter the email address(es) to which you want to send your test.
Click the “Send Test” button in the bottom right corner of the pop-up window. Your test email should be sent.
NOTE: Make sure you’ve included a subject line. Make sure you select whether your test will use automation tags associated with your name and contact info, or from a random recipient within your test group.
If you sent a test to yourself, check your inbox for your email. It might take a few minutes to appear.
As a test, your email will send from a “no-reply” email address. This is perfectly normal, and will revert to your profile’s sending email address once it’s completely published.
Some people read their emails within their browser. You may also want to preview the email by clicking “View in Browser”.
NOTE: If you don’t see your test email even after a few minutes, be sure to check your spam/junk folder.
Schedule your email
Suppose you don’t want to send it right away. Outstand lets you specify whether you want to publish your email on a schedule or send it live immediately. To schedule your email:
Click the clock icon in the composer’s top toolbar.
Select the date and time that you wish for your email to start sending.
Click “Done” to create your schedule, or “Remove Schedule” to undo it.
If a send is scheduled, the red “Send” button will convert to read “Schedule”.
Scheduled messages can be edited or canceled up to the minute before it’s scheduled to send. You can view your scheduled messages in the Tracker.
Publish your email
After you’ve tested your email and it’s ready to be published, it helps to double-check the following:
You’re using the correct profile.
You added any attachments you wish to use.
You saved your draft and are sending the most current draft version.
The scheduled send time is correct.
Add contacts and/or groups to your send list
You can add new recipients by entering their email address(es) with the plus icon (+) on the right.
Use the address book icon on the right to select/deselect specific groups and/or contacts to send your email.
You can also enter a contact into your send list by typing their name or email address into the “To:” field.
Once everything looks good to you, click “Send”. Congratulations! You just published a newsletter. Now you can check out your results in the Tracker.