Create emails that support your organization’s message and engage your constituents. When you create emails in Bloomerang CRM, you start with a template, customize the layout and content, and build the recipients list. You can also preview your email on desktop and mobile devices and run readability tests.
This article helps you create mass emails that you can manually send now or schedule. To automate donation acknowledgements, drip campaigns, and milestone communications, we recommend that you use Journey Automation.
Before You Begin
Before you create your first email:
Enter all required organization settings. Email templates include the contact information from the Organization Settings page.
If you plan to use a sender email address from your organization’s domain, set up required email authentication.
Tip: We recommend using a sender address from your organization’s domain to help increase email deliverability. Mailbox providers are more likely to deliver emails from your domain rather than emails from personal mailbox providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and others.
Don't see this in Bloomerang CRM? Email [email protected] to upgrade your free account to start creating emails.
Create Emails
Create as many email messages as your organization needs. You can also copy an email template by clicking Action next to the email, then selecting Copy. This allows you to create a different version of an existing email.
Note: Your email subject line and body cannot contain emojis. If you try to preview an email that contains an emoji in its subject line or body, the preview will not work and you might receive an error message.
To create a new email:
Click Communications.
Click Emails.
Click New Email.
Select an email template to customize. To view templates in only certain categories, select a template category from the drop-down list. Read more about email templates.
Enter the Email Name. This name helps you manage your email list in Bloomerang CRM. Recipients don’t see this name.
Click Next.
Select a Purpose. Read more about email purposes.
Select the Type: Constituent, Interaction, or Transaction. The email type determines the merge fields and filters available for this email.
Tip: Bloomerang CRM can automatically mark donations as acknowledged when you send receipts for online donations. To set this up, create a transaction-based email template and select the Acknowledgment purpose. In the settings for your online donation or event registration form, select this email template as the confirmation email.On the Header tab, enter message information that recipients see in their inbox: Subject, From Name, and From Email.
To customize the email content:
Click Design.
To add rows and columns, and to apply styles to individual rows, click Rows. Tip: You can keep the default layout or remove rows and blocks to start with a blank canvas.
To apply styles to your entire email, click Settings.
To add content blocks (text, images, videos, social media buttons, and other elements), click Content. The Bloomerang CRM email editor includes robust design options and an optional AI writing assistant. Read more about how to design and write emails.
(Optional) Select to Allow Blank Merge Fields. When you select this option, Bloomerang CRM generates an email for a constituent even if the constituent has no data for a merge field.
Save Emails
Save periodically as you work, including before you navigate away from the email builder.
To save an email, click Save and.
Choose from three options for where to go next:
Save and Preview - Save and preview the design and recipients.
Save and Keep Editing - Save and remain in the email builder to keep working on your email.
Save and Go to Email Home - Save and go to the email list that displays all active and inactive emails.
Open Emails
To open an unsent email that you would like to continue editing:
Click Communications.
Select Emails.
From the email list, locate the email you'd like to edit.
Click the name of the email you'd like to edit to open in the email builder.
Preview the Layout
As a best practice, preview how your email looks on both desktop computers and mobile devices.
To preview an email:
On the New Email or Edit Email page, click the Design tab.
Click Preview Layout.
Click Desktop to preview how your layout looks on desktop computers.
Click Mobile to preview how your email appears on a mobile phone screen.
Turn on Dark Mode Preview to preview your design on devices that have dark mode enabled (light text on a dark background).
To leave the preview, click the Close button.
Tip: The Preview Layout tab shows merge fields that aren't populated with constituent data. Merge fields appear in curly brackets like this: *{{First Name}}*.
To see populated merge fields, click Save As and then select Preview. For more information, see the Preview the Design section on this page.
Test Emails
As a best practice, send a test email to yourself or staff before you send it to constituents.
You can also run these readability tests:
The "You" Test — Counts the number of "you" words to help you write reader-centric emails. Read more about the "You" Test.
Flesch–Kinkaid Reading Level — Scores your email based on school grade levels. This test can help you write emails that are readable by a wide audience. Read more about the Flesch–Kincaid readability test.
To test an email:
On the New Email or Edit Email page, click the Design tab.
Click Preview Layout.
Click Send a Test Email. Enter up to three email addresses to send a test email to. The word
[TEST]appears in the subject line andTHIS IS A TEST EMAILappears in the message. Merge fields aren’t populated with data.Click Test Readability to run the "you” test and the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Level test.
Build the Recipient List
When you create an email in Bloomerang CRM, you select email interests that describe the focus of the email. Your constituents can subscribe to or opt out from email interests. The recipient list includes only constituents subscribed to at least one email interest that you select. Read more about email interests.
To refine the recipient list more, add filters that include or exclude constituents and groups. Read more about filters.
To build the recipient list:
Click the Recipients tab in your email template.
Select one or more Email Interests. For transaction-based emails, select all email interests.
(Optional) Add filters to include or exclude constituents and groups. The available filters depend on whether the email type is Constituents, Transactions, or Interactions.
Note: The filters you select affect which constituents, transactions, or interactions appear in rows on the Recipients tab. Bloomerang CRM uses these rows and selected email interests to generate the complete recipient list. You can view the complete list of recipients only on the Preview Email page.To preview the design, recipients, and skipped recipients, click Save And > Preview. For more information about the Preview Email page, see the next section on this page.
Preview the Design and Recipients List
As a best practice, preview the design and recipients before you schedule or send the email.
To preview the design and recipients list:
Select Save As > Preview.
On the Design Preview tab, verify the From information and the Subject.
Note: Bloomerang CRM replaces the domain name in your email address with mailman.bloomerang-mail.com in some cases. Read why Bloomerang CRM replaced your domain name.In the message body, verify the merge fields, links, social media buttons, and other content.
To view constituents included in the recipients list, click Recipients.
Tip: If the Recipients tab doesn’t appear, the recipients list is empty. Click Make Changes and then click Recipients to select different email interests, filters, or both. You can also select Allow Blank Merge Fields.To view constituents excluded from the recipients list, click Skipped Recipients. Read more about skipped recipients.
To edit your email before you send it, click Make Changes.
Next Steps
After you create an email, you can send it now or schedule it to send later.
To save but not schedule or send the email, on the New Email or Edit Email page, click Save And > Go to Email Home.
You can also edit, deactivate, reactivate, and delete emails. Read more about how to
Important: Once an email is sent, it is locked to preserve a record of the message, settings, and recipients and cannot be edited further.