With the Newsletter module you send emails with school news to parents, teachers or staff. Each email is a campaign, built from a template. A campaign can go out once or on a recurring schedule, and afterwards you see who received it and who opened it.
We recommend following the steps in order: first Configuration, then the campaign, then the reports.
Contents
1. How do I open the Newsletter module?
Menu › Newsletter
Click Newsletter in the left menu. The Campaigns tab opens, with all the school's campaigns. At the top you find the other tabs: Templates library, Reports, Deliverability and Audiences.
Each card shows the campaign status, author, audience and scheduled date. With the filters at the top you see only Active, Drafts, Inactive or Archived campaigns. On the right you choose the Grid or List view.
Draft: the campaign is saved but doesn't go out until you activate it;
Active: the campaign will be sent at the scheduled date;
Inactive: the campaign was sent (“sent”) or stopped before sending (“not sent”).
Note! If you don't see Newsletter in the menu, the module isn't active. An administrator turns it on in Center Management › Kinderpedia Modules.
2. How do I set the newsletter defaults?
Newsletter › Configuration
Click Configuration at the top right. The settings here apply to every campaign the school sends.
Under Sending & schedule:
Quiet hours: holds scheduled sends overnight;
Sending days: the days a scheduled campaign may go out. A campaign scheduled for any other day is not sent. Send now is not affected;
Weekly send limit: warns you before a family gets too many campaigns in 7 days;
Mark new campaigns as essential: new campaigns start as Essential (see section 3);
Newsletter cards on the newsfeed: every sent campaign also appears as a card in the parents' Newsfeed;
Notify recipients in the app: also sends an in-app notification when a campaign goes out.
Under Branding & identity, fill in the Sender name (the name parents see in their inbox), the Reply-to address, the Default preview text, the brand colours, font and logo used in new templates.
Further down, under Deliverability, fill in the school's Postal address (printed in every email footer), choose Open tracking and whether you want to see Kinderpedia's ready-made templates in the library. Under Audience & testing, choose the Default audience for new campaigns and the Test recipients (one address per line). Don't forget to click Save settings.
Note! The postal address is legally required on marketing email. Fill it in before your first campaign.
3. How do I create a campaign?
Newsletter › Campaigns › Add campaign
Click Add campaign. The campaign is created in two steps: Campaign details and Email template.
First choose the campaign type:
Regular: goes to the families you selected, except anyone who unsubscribed from the newsletter. Use it for news and everything that can wait;
Essential: goes to all selected families, including those who unsubscribed. Use it only for closures, child safety and fee announcements.
Under Send newsletter to, click Select recipients. In the window, tick All Staff members, All Teachers or All Parents. You can also choose specific people (Parents, Teachers, Staff members), whole groups (Teachers by group, Parents by group) or a saved audience. Click a group's name to select it, then Submit to confirm the selection.
Tip: the Submit button in this window only confirms the selection. The campaign isn't sent yet.
Then fill in:
Subject (required): the email subject;
Preview text: the short text shown in the inbox beside the subject;
NewsFeed description text: the short description shown in the parents' and staff's Newsfeed.
Tip: if you often send to the same recipients, click Save as audience next to the recipient list. Next time you choose them in one click (see section 10).
4. How do I schedule the sending or a recurring campaign?
Newsletter › Add campaign › Campaign details
For a one-off campaign, choose the Date and Hour. For a campaign that repeats, turn on Recurring and choose the Frequency:
Weekly: choose the day of the week under Day;
Monthly: choose the day of the month. In shorter months the campaign goes out on the last day of the month;
Yearly.
Click Continue to move on to choosing the template.
Note! Check that the day you chose is ticked under Sending days in Configuration. Otherwise the scheduled campaign doesn't go out.
5. How do I choose the template and save the campaign?
Newsletter › Add campaign › Email template
Choose a template from the list or click Create new template. With Preview you see what the email looks like.
Finally, choose:
Save as draft: the campaign stays a Draft. You can edit and activate it later;
Save and activate: the campaign becomes active and goes out at the scheduled date and time.
Note! Ready-made templates contain sample text. Replace all text and images (see section 6) before you activate the campaign.
6. How do I edit the newsletter content?
Newsletter › Campaigns › ⋮ › Edit newsletter
On the campaign card, click ⋮ and choose Edit newsletter. For the subject, recipients or date, choose Edit campaign.
The editor has three areas:
on the left, Content blocks: Hero section, Heading, Section heading, Subheading, Paragraph, Quote, Rich text, Divider, Spacer, Table, Image, Video and Button;
in the middle, the email. Click a text and type straight over it;
on the right, the Block tab (alignment, size, colours of the selected block) and the Template tab (brand colours, typography, logo, background).
With Variable you insert personalised data, for example the recipient's name or the student's name. Each parent receives the email with their own data.
To add a block, click it in the list (it's added at the end of the email) or drag it where you want it. On the edge of the selected block you have the delete, duplicate and move buttons. With the icons above the email you see what it looks like on phone, tablet or desktop.
Click Save changes. With Save as new template you keep the design in the library for the next campaigns.
Tip: changes in the editor are saved to this campaign only. The template it was made from and emails already sent stay as they are.
7. How do I send a test email?
Newsletter › Campaigns › ⋮ › Send test email
From the campaign's ⋮ menu or from the editor, click Send test email. Check the subject, type the email address and click Send. A single copy is sent, only to the address you chose.
Tip: send yourself a test before every activation. Check the text, links and how it looks on a phone.
8. How do I activate, duplicate, archive or delete a campaign?
Newsletter › Campaigns › ⋮
Click ⋮ on the campaign card (see the image in section 6). The options are:
Reports, Preview and Recipients: see the results, the email and the recipient list;
Activate: the draft becomes active and goes out at the scheduled date;
Edit campaign and Edit newsletter: change the details or the content;
Duplicate: create a new campaign starting from this one;
Archive: move the campaign to Archived;
Send test email;
Delete.
Tip: for a newsletter that repeats with small differences, use Duplicate and change only what's new.
9. How do I create or change a template?
Newsletter › Templates library
In Templates library you find the ready-made templates (labelled PRESET) and the ones your school created. Search by name, filter by Favourites, Drafts or tags, and sort by Recently updated, Most used or Name. Each card shows how many campaigns use it.
From a template's ⋮ menu choose See campaigns, Add to favourites, Edit or Duplicate. Ready-made templates can't be renamed, retagged or deleted. Duplicate them and work on the copy.
For a new template, click Add new template. Choose a starting point: Start blank (an empty canvas) or one of the ready-made templates.
Build the email with the blocks on the left, as in section 6. In the Template tab set the brand colours, typography, logo and template background. Finally, click Save to library.
10. How do I save a recipient list (audience)?
Newsletter › Audiences › Add audience
An audience is a named recipient list, reusable in any campaign. Click Add audience, type the Audience name, choose the Recipients and save the audience.
The audience appears in the list, with the number of recipients. From its ⋮ menu you can Rename it, Edit recipients or Delete it. In campaigns, saved audiences appear in the Select recipients window, under Audiences.
11. Where do I see campaign results?
Newsletter › Reports
In Reports you see, for the chosen period, the total Emails sent, the share Accepted, the Open rate, the Click rate and Unsubscribed. Below, each campaign has its own results: how many clicked, opened, didn't open, or never received the email. On the right, Where the audience went shows step by step how many recipients were lost.
With Refresh stats you bring the figures up to date, and with Export you download the report.
Tip: for campaigns with few recipients, percentages don't tell you much. The report warns you when there are too few emails to draw a conclusion.
12. How do I check what happened to each email?
Newsletter › Deliverability
In Deliverability you see every email sent: the status, the recipient, the campaign, the date sent, and the number of opens and clicks. Search for a parent or an address and filter by status, campaign and period. With Export you download the list.
For a Bounced email, check the parent's address in Families Management, then use Resend.
Note! A bounced or invalid email usually means a wrong or non-existent address. Correct the address in the parent's profile.
Related articles
Need help? Write to us in the chat and we'll help you.