In this article, 'Email-Only' refers to customers who only have email enabled for their community - there is no member experience (web or mobile app) access for their community members. Below we provide an overview of what you can expect with Email-Only, as well as some helpful links to get you started.

Email-Only Content

All Firstup customers can send beautiful emails that can be fully experienced within the email platform. The exceptions are content blocks that require the user to click on the content, videos, and links to other campaigns. Users with the full member experience will be prompted to sign in to the member experience to play videos or open linked content - in contrast, Email-Only users will simply click on the videos and links within the email to view the content! Clicking on links to external content (external URLs) will take the user directly to the URL.

Users can access Studio content by following a link in an email without having to log in. Authentication is handled by a token embedded in a link. The token is valid for 24 hours and allows access to all Studio content relevant to the user. Each link has its own token. If a user clicks a link after the token has expired because they already used it 24 hours ago, they will be offered the option to resend the email to themselves with a new token. Please note that this functionality does not work for test emails.

Video Example (Web)

Linked Studio Content Example (Web)

Video Example (Mobile)

Linked Studio Content Example (Mobile)

In order to view linked Studio content, the user must also be part of the target audience or topic for the linked piece of Studio content. If not, they will receive a 'Content Not Found' error when trying to access the content.

Intelligent Delivery

With Email-Only, instead of comparing email, push, and Assistant, Intelligent Delivery will only evaluate email as a reachable channel. This places more emphasis on the other variables - such as how many emails the member is already receiving on a given day, what priority they are, etc. - but does not change how Intelligent Delivery works.

Email-Only campaigns will also not be able to utilize features such as Commentable, Resources, Featured, and Shareable. These features are limited to communities with access to the member experience. However, Email-Only can leverage the Translatable and Acknowledge features.

FAQ

Are all content blocks available for Email-Only? 

All content blocks, except poll blocks, are available for Email-Only.

How can Email-Only customers use topics in the new Studio? 

An Email-Only community can still use topics to organize content internally and for publishing without sending communications. For example, if you want to create multiple stories to feature in a newsletter, you can publish those stories first without an audience to avoid sending an email about them.

How do you create a newsletter? 

Use link blocks when creating a new campaign to create a newsletter. The Studio experience allows you to create a newsletter by linking to existing Studio content, linking to external content, and/or placing content directly in the email.

An example of creating a newsletter in the new Studio can be found here.

How do the drips or other multi-step emails work?

Drips and other multi-step emails are configurable from Studio under Workflows in the Configure section.

We recommend archiving both the Invitation Drip and Welcome Drip for Email-Only communities, as you do not need or want to drive your members to register.