The Media Contacts Distributions module allows you to create customised email press releases, event invites and other communications to send to your target groups. One of the main features is that links you add to your releases can be tracked so you know who has been looking at / downloading assets.

To create an email, firstly navigate to the Communicate module and select Distributions

Then click 'Compose Distribution'

You will see the information for input spans across two Tabs:

CONTENT - This tab holds all wordage to be input into your press release.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS - This tab (after selecting Email) will ask you for details of who the email is to come from using integrated DNS, plus information regarding recipients and also confirmation of what your Distribution will look like.

You have the ability to select from multiple templates which have coding which grabs data across from the CONTENT tab.

Firstly, let's take a look at the left side of the CONTENT tab:

1. Name your Release - An internal field for your reference only.

2. Add a Headline - This will also become the subject line of your email.

3. Subheading - Make this a snappy introduction to your story, it will appear below your Headline (If it is a part of your template in { } ).

4. Category, Tags and Key Messages are all optional fields; use these as needed for your set up to categorise and filter through previously sent distributions.

5. Release Attributes - Allows you to choose whether this Distribution is Proactive or Reactive (You may also leave this as "None". This is for internal filtering purposes).

6. Display Date - This is the date which is displayed on your email.

7. Schedule Date - The date and time you wish to send your email. Please note if you schedule this for the future as in the picture above, please also amend the Display date to match it.

8. Related Items - Allows you to associate the Distribution with a Subject/Issue which has been created in the past.

On the right side of the CONTENT tab, you will see 3 large text boxes (Core Copy, Notes to Editor, Boiler Plate). These in functionality all work exactly the same. The only thing to note here is that these will link to your template in the Distribution Channels tab. So you need to be aware of their position in the template. If you leave them blank, they will not appear in the sent email.

Let's look at the functionality:

The main text of your Distribution can either be straight copied and pasted straight into the text area. This will also bring across any images within your WORD document. Just remember to click "Keep Formatting".

You can Format the text to remove any links and images.
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​Import Word Doc - NB. This is no longer used. To utilize a completed WORD document, simply copy and paste using CTRL+ V. This ensures that the text and formatting is kept, including any links or images..

Insert Asset and the Link Icon are great ways of using as your host of images and documents. See article on how to add images and files to the Asset Library for more information.

It is possible to wrap your text around any images added, in one of two ways:

Select a cell in the table, and add images and text as you usually would. If you add the table last, you can just drag and drop images and text into the cells >

You may still link the image to your asset library, make it bigger and smaller etc. The spacing of text in these cells can also be amended using the standard enter to move up and down and also, the cell divider too >

In some cases in order to accomplish the desired look, it may look different/strange in the Content Tab. But when looking at the Distribution Channels tab, the actual email will look great >

Once editing is complete:

Head to the 'Distribution Channels' tab at the top of the page.

Select 'Email' from the drop down to open the email settings >

Preview (1) - Firstly as in the image above, you will see all your content completed in order of your template. If you have not completed all fields like the Subheading above, do not worry, in the live email this will not show and will just be a blank space. If you need to make changes to the text you can just click into the CONTENT tab and back again as you wish.

Email From (2) - Add the name and email address you want your email to appear from. By default your emails are sent from a Vuelio domain. To send from your own brand/organisation's domain you'll need to amend your DNS settings.

Greeting Format (3) - Type in your preferred greeting and select the format to use. For example type 'Hi' and select 'First name' to display the greeting as 'Hi Joe'. If you do not have the Greeting code on your template, you can add in {Greeting} to the space in your content tab where you wish the greeting to appear.

Select who to send your Release to:

Groups - These are the groups you've saved in Media Contacts. Click '+' to select the groups you want to send to. You can select multiple groups, if a recipient is in more than one group with the same email address, the system will automatically dedupe this from the email sent.

Contacts & Outlets - Select contacts or outlets to add to your recipient list.

Manual Recipients - Add individual recipients or import from a CSV file.

Send a test to preview your email:
It's always a good idea to preview your html email prior to sending to your recipients and get a second pair of eyes on it to proof read and check links.

To send yourself or a colleague a test email, enter your email address and click 'Send Test'.

Finally, to send your Distribution, click SAVE on the top right. This will save the Distribution as a Draft, you will then have the ability to SEND the Distribution.