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Email Types
Your Print Store comes with an email notification system that allows you to make customized text or HTML templates. You can choose to have email notifications sent to you, your staff, or your customers, depending on the settings. Use PrintNow's email macros inside the email template to pull relevant data from the database to help communicate details to the customer.
You can view and update your Print Store's notification emails from the Email Notifications page in your Unified admin located under Print Store>Settings>Email Notifications.
Your Print Store’s customer email notifications are sent using the email account configured under Settings/Email Account. You can use any email provider that support SMTP server configurations.
- Welcome
- Email is fired when user account is created on Print Store.
- Order Placed
- Email is fired when order is placed on Print Store.
- Order Status Changed
- Email is fired on when status is changed in PrintNow Admin Tools.
- Order Shipped
- Email is fired when status is changed to a shipped type.
- Order Pickup Ready
- Email is fired when status is changed to pickup type
- Order Awaiting Approval
- Used for PDF proofs pushed back in PrintNow Admin Tools for customer approval. Fires when status is changed to Awaiting Approval Type.
- Order Approved
- Used for PDF proofs pushed back in PrintNow Admin Tools for customer approval. Fires when status is changed to Approved Type.
- Order Declined
- Used for PDF proofs pushed back in PrintNow Admin Tools for customer approval. Fires when status is changed to Declined Type.
- Invoice Created
- Used for User Groups requiring approval workflows in Print Store. Fires when order is created and requires approval.
- Invoice Declined
- Used for User Groups requiring approval workflows in Print Store. Fires when order is declined by order approver.
- Invoice Changed
- Used for User Groups requiring approval workflows in Print Store. Fires when status is changed in PrintNow Admin Tools.
- Invoice Approved
- Used for User Groups requiring approval workflows in Print Store. Fires when order is approved by order approver.
- Download Instructions
- Used for digital downloads. Fires when order is placed and comes before download ready.
- Download Ready
- Used for digital downloads. Fires when order PDF is ready and comes after download instructions. May take a few minutes to process but usually under a minute.
- Lost Password
- Email is fired when end user requests lost password. Allows the users to reset password after entering email tied to acccount.
- Inventory Warning
- Email is fired when items left in inventory hit the min value set and will email a admin user.
- Vendor Purchase Order
- Email is fired when order is assigned a vendor and status is set on vendor Type.
Email Templates
Your Print Store has many notification templates. Notifications are triggered by events, like a new order being placed, or an order being fulfilled.
You can customize your email notifications and also edit the content of email individually.
- From your PrintNow admin, go to Print Store>Settings>Email Notifications.
- To add a new email click +Add Email button and click Edit.
- To edit an existing email click Actions icon and configure email template.
Edit View
- Email Details
- Types: Their are 17 Email types in PrintNow. Choose one that relates to the email template your working with.
- From: You can enter (%COMPANY_EMAIL%) to pull from your SMTP email account. Use the same email address your sending email from to avoid being flagged as Spam.
- To: Use (%USER_EMAIL%) to send email to users account email.
- CC: CC is a way of sending additional copies of an email to other people. Separate multiple emails by a comma.
- BCC: Unlike with CC, no one but the sender can see the list of BCC recipients. Separate multiple emails by a comma.
- Subject: Keep it short and sweet. Email subject lines will get cut off if they're too long, particularly on mobile devices. You can combine email macros like" "Your Order# (%ORDER_ID%) is on it's way!
- Text or HTML: It's the way web pages and email templates are coded so that text is formatted and images are added. Plain Text is regular text, with no formatting options such as bold, italics, underlines, or special layout options. Emails can be received and viewed in both HTML or Plain-Text formats.
- Email Macros
- Use Email Macros in your email template to pull data from the database. For each email type you work with there is a different set of Email Macros that will be available.
- WYSIWYG Editor
- PrintNow offers WYSIWYG rich HTML editing software for fast develpment with better developer and user experience in mind. Our products are the building blocks for creating and editing beautiful content easier and faster. Learn More.
Tips & Tricks when creating email templates
Visually appealing email designs and flawless code are the basis to creating the perfect email experience. So what are the things you need to take into consideration? We compiled a list of best practices to be aware of when your designing your notification emails.
1) Keep it Simple
The design of your email templates should be simple. Design should enhance your message, not distract from it! Emails with too much design take the reader's focus away from your message. The fewer elements you have referenced in your email, the less likely it is to render improperly or trigger a SPAM filter.
2) Use Clean Coding Software
Don't use Microsoft Word to write your email template code. WYSIWYG editors typically add "bonus" code that makes your emails bloated. If you're using Dreamweaver, Notepad ++ (free on your PC!), or PrintNow's CMS tools -- just to name a few options -- you'll be a-okay.
3) Don't forget about mobile users
Aim for 450 too 500 pixel width if you want one template for both desktop and mobile users. Conventional emails are set to a fixed width between 550 and 600 pixels, which is ideal for average desktop computers. However, mobile screens are much smaller; the most common mobile email readers are in a range of 320 pixels.
iPhones allow for a 300-pixel width when held vertically and a 480-pixel width in landscape format. iPhones also resize emails to fit the screen, but many other smart phones don't, so it makes sense to design for the lowest common denominator. The benefit is not only that you ensure the recipient sees as much of your email as possible, but also that it limits the aggravation of scrolling side to side when viewing on a mobile device.
iPhones allow for a 300-pixel width when held vertically and a 480-pixel width in landscape format. iPhones also resize emails to fit the screen, but many other smart phones don't, so it makes sense to design for the lowest common denominator. The benefit is not only that you ensure the recipient sees as much of your email as possible, but also that it limits the aggravation of scrolling side to side when viewing on a mobile device.
4) Tables Are Your Best Friend
If you've been coding for a while, you may think that sounds insane, but it's actually important to use tables in email template design to ensure your email renders the same way across every email client.
5) Avoid Body Attributes
You may encounter email clients that don't pay attention to body attributes, which means all your hard work is for naught. So if you wanted to, say, create a light gray email background, you should simply use a 100% width light gray table, and then nest the content of your email within that table.
6) Don't Use HTML Bullet Points
Those pretty HTML bullets you're used to don't work too well when rendered in email. Use a plain text alternative, like dashes (-) or asterisks (*) to ensure readers don't see broken or missing bullets in their email message.
7) Tread Lightly With Video
Video in email is still in its infancy; as such, it doesn't render well in most email clients. In fact, most email clients don't let you view rich media by default, which means your video might not get seen. Instead, take a screen capture of your video and put in that little white "Play" triangle we're used to seeing at the beginning of a video. You can then include that image in your email, and link it to a web page with the video embedded.
8) Inline CSS Is Your Best Friend
Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail ... what do they all have in common? They're browser-based email! What else? They (and other browser-based email clients) will strip out things like BODY, DOCTYPE, and HEAD tags. You won't encounter this problem if you use inline CSS.
9) Write Out Your Inline CSS
It's tempting to use shorthand, but you should write out your CSS in full. That means, for example, that your font isn't just:
font: italic 12px Arial
You give it the whole shebang, like this:
font-style: italic; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial
font: italic 12px Arial
You give it the whole shebang, like this:
font-style: italic; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial
10) Use Absolute Image Paths
That means any images in your email templates should be hosted on your website. Then, make the image path point to the URL of the page on which the image is hosted. You can always find the image URL by right-clicking on an image and selecting "View Image Info." It should end with a file extension like .jpg or .gif, not .com.
11) Steer Clear of PNGs
Speaking of that image URL, I used ".jpeg" and ".gif" as examples for a reason. PNGs should be avoided in email templates, because they're not supported in Lotus Notes.
12) Input an Image Width and Height
This may seem minor, but declaring the image width and height helps ensure your email template maintains its structural integrity across all email clients in the instance that images are turned off when recipients view your email.
13) Use the Right Number of Images at the Right Size
The smaller you can make your image files, the better. You certainly don't want to make the images grainy, but large image files increase email load time, and that impacts the success of your campaigns. You should also take care not to include too many images throughout your email, and maintain an even balance of images and text. This will help you stay out of SPAM folders and increase reader engagement.
14) Don't Forget About Image Alt Text
Nope, alt text isn't just to help search engines read images on your website. Alt text in emails helps readers determine what images were supposed to be had they rendered in the inbox. Including clear, descriptive Alt text helps fill in the blanks for recipients if images are blocked, turned off, or rendering improperly.
15) Use a Link Shortener for URLs
This may not seem like a big deal in your beautiful HTML email where URLs are hidden behind anchor text, but think of your plain-text version for a minute. In plain-text emails, the URL appears in parentheses ... and if your URL is long, that can start to look pretty unwieldy, particularly if you're including a ton of URLs in your email. Use a link shortening service -- there are plenty of free ones like bit.ly and ow.ly -- to shorten up those links.
16) Include an Unsubscribe Link, Physical Address, and Company Name
Including these three elements in your email template will help ensure you're always CAN-SPAM compliant. Because including these three components is ... well, the law. And it's way easier to just build it into your template than add it to every single email you send out!
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