System Emails

To add or edit a System Email, follow these steps:

1. Go to Email Marketing > System Emails in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
2. You can add new System Emails in one of two ways:
• Click the Add New System Email button at the top of the page and select the type of System Email you want to add from the drop-down list.
• Click the corresponding Add New Email button on the right side of the panel for an individual System Email.
3. To edit an existing System Email, click the Edit button at the right side of the System Email that you want to edit.
4. Enter or edit the following details:

Setting	Description
Site Email Details
System Email ID	The Unique IRP identifier for this System Email. This is automatically generated when adding a System Email.
Active	Whether this Site Email is currently active for its Email Type. Active Site Emails will be sent to Customers in the given situations whilst Inactive Site Emails will not.
Name	Name of the System Email to be used for reference in the IRP Admin.
From (Email Address)	This is the Email Address and Reply Address that the email will be sent from.
From (Display Name)	This is the Name displayed instead of the From Email Address.
Email Subject	The Subject of the Email. You can use placeholders here.
HTML Content
Header & Footer	Select the HTML Header & Footer to appear either side of the Email's HTML body. You set these up using the Headers & Footers section. If you don't want to include a Header or Footer, select 'No Header & Footer'. Note that you must add the $$HEADERCONTENT$$ and $$FOOTERCONTENT$$ placeholders if you want headers and footers to appear in the email.
HTML	This is the HTML version of the Email. Please make sure you do not include any html, head or body tags in this field - these will be automatically generated for you. This field should only contain whatever will appear between the body tags of your email. Placeholders can be used here. NOTES: 1. Headers and Footers: You must add the $$HEADERCONTENT$$ and $$FOOTERCONTENT$$ placeholders if you want headers and footers to appear in the email. You can also select a language from the drop-down list in order to translate the content into any active language in your system. 2. There are many placeholders you can use, most of which are self-explanatory. One of note is $$OrderNotes$$: once added, the placeholder will be replaced with the notes recorded against an IRP order (or removed when no notes are present). By including any comments or requests that a customer has made during the order process, you can ensure that the customer knows you have received their directions. You could also easily forward these to any third-party suppliers who use customer order confirmations to process orders. Note that this placeholder is available for most, but not all, system emails (you will see whether or not it is available by examining the list of placeholders in the 'HTML Content' section of each email). 3. Order Update Complete Pending emails: You can display a message containing information about a customer's current Loyalty Scheme to the Order Update Complete Pending email. To display the message, insert the placeholders $$LoyaltySchemeMessageBegin$$, $$LoyaltySchemeMessageContent$$ and $$LoyaltySchemeMessageEnd$$ to the content of the Order Update Complete Pending email. The structure of the message is generated automatically by the customer's current Loyalty Scheme data. For example, if the customer does not currently belong to a Loyalty Scheme, a message explaining this will be shown, detailing the name and discount percentage of the next available Loyalty Scheme and what the customer must spend in order to qualify. If the customer does currently qualify for a Loyalty Scheme, a message explaining which Loyalty Scheme they are currently qualified for will be generated. If there is a further Loyalty Scheme which they could qualify for upon more spending, the message will also contain information about the next available Loyalty Scheme. 4. You can use the $$PaymentMethod$$ placeholder to show the payment method used (for example, Amazon Pay). 5. The $$OrderVAT$$ placeholder is replaced with the following values: For VAT-Free orders, Small Translation ID 385 replaces the placeholder (the default English text is: This is a tax free country or area as it is outside the European Union. For Foreign VAT-Inclusive orders, the Foreign Currency VAT Amount replaces the placeholder. For Default VAT-Inclusive orders, the Default Currency VAT Amount replaces the placeholder.
Out Of Stock Message (New Order Confirmation Emails Only)
Use this section to add HTML content. You can use placeholders here; the ones relevant to this email are listed in the ‘HTML’ section. You can also select a language from the drop-down list in order to translate the content into any active language in your system.
Cheque / Bank Transfer / Invoice Payment Method Info (New Order Confirmation Emails Only)
Use this section to add HTML content. You can use placeholders here; the ones relevant to this email are listed in the ‘HTML’ section. You can also select a language from the drop-down list in order to translate the content into any active language in your system.
Finance Information Message (New Order Confirmation Emails Only)
Use this section to add HTML content. You can use placeholders here; the ones relevant to this email are listed in the ‘HTML’ section. You can also select a language from the drop-down list in order to translate the content into any active language in your system. Note that all voucher placeholders should be added to the Voucher Code section (and ensure that you do not include the $$VoucherCode$$ placeholder in the Content section, otherwise you will generate an error). This section will then be added to the main text/html content in place of the $$VoucherCodeDetails$$ placeholder. This is required so that all voucher details are hidden when vouchers are not offered with the email. The following placeHolders are available for the Voucher Code section: $$VoucherCode$$ $$DiscountAmount$$ $$VoucherExpiryDate$$ $$MinimumSpend$$ $$DiscountAmount$$
Voucher Code Section (Stock Notification Emails & Mailing List Signup Emails only * see Note below)
HTML	The HTML Content of the voucher code details. We advise designing emails in an external editor and pasting them into the HTML text window. Placeholders can be used here, as described above.




* NOTE: In order to use the Voucher Code and Placeholders sections for Stock Notification Emails, you must provide positive values for the Application Settings ‘Stock Notification Voucher Amount’ and ‘Stock Notification Voucher Duration Days’. You can find these in the ‘Stock Notifications’ grouping where you will also find two other settings: ‘Stock Notification Voucher Discount Type’ and ‘Stock Notification Voucher Min Basket Total’

5. When you have entered all of the relevant details you can test the email to see what it will look like in your email client/browser.

   To do this, select the Preview & Test tab, select your language and enter an email address that you have access to in the Email Address field. When you have entered these details, click the Send Test Email button, then check the email address that you sent the email to. We advise that you check in multiple email clients/browsers and update the content as necessary.

   Note that when adding a voucher to a test ‘Mailing List Signup Email’ System Email, the following Application Settings for vouchers are included: ‘Mailing List Voucher Min Basket Total’, ‘Mailing List Voucher Amount’ and ‘Mailing List Voucher Discount Type’ (in addition to ‘Mailing List Voucher Duration Days’).

6. When you have entered or edited the details, click the Save System Email button. You should see a 'Success' message.
   

7. If you have created an additional email of any type, you must now select which email of that type will be the Active Email.

   Return to the System Emails page and scroll to the corresponding Email Type section. Select the email that you want to be activated and click the Activate button:

   

In order for the IRP to effectively send mail to your customers, you need to make sure that for the domain your email comes from, an SPF (‘Sender Policy Framework’) record is set up correctly in order to let receiving mail servers know that the mail you’re sending is authorised.

An SPF is a TXT DNS record that is added in your domain control panel to indicate who is authorised to send email for your domain.

If your website sends emails from, say, sales@domainname.com, where www.domainname.com is your website, then you will add the TXT record to the root of your domain. This is generally the standard situation. If, for some reason, your email will come from sales@mail.domainname.com, where www.domainname.com is your website, then you have to add the SPF for the subdomain ‘mail’. You will need to examine your domain’s control panel documentation for instructions on how to do this.

Basic SPF Record Format

The basic SPF record to start from is as follows:

v=spf1 mx ip4:212.78.239.121 -all

Specifying Email Origin Locations

The ‘-all’ at the end gives extra credence to your SPF entry, as no other computer is allowed to send email for you, therefore you have to be absolutely certain that all locations from which your email can come from are listed in this record.

For example, if you use Trustpilot you will need to add this to your record:
include:trustpilotservice.com
In this case, the full record will be:
v=spf1 mx ip4:212.78.239.121 include:trustpilotservice.com -all

As another example, if you use Google Apps to handle your domain email, you will need to add this to your record:
include:_spf.google.com
In this case, the full record will be:
v=spf1 mx ip4:212.78.239.121 include:_spf.google.com -all

If you use any other third party which sends mail on your behalf, e.g. Basket Abandonment solutions, Bulk Marketing Mailshot services, these will probably need to be taken account of here. You will have to contact these third parties for what, if anything, is required for your SPF record.

Setting Up Your SPF Record

In order to set up your SPF record, you will have to use your domain name’s control panel. Given how many there are out there, you will have to review their documentation as to how to do this. However, once you think you have completed your setup, you can test your setup at:

http://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx

Just enter the domain name that your mail comes from and click SPF Record Lookup. The resulting summary will examine your SPF and tell you what it has found.

Other Standard Sources – ‘a’ and ‘ptr’

There two other standard records for the SPF Record that you will see; these are ‘a’ and ‘ptr’. In the standard SPF record mentioned above, they would look like this:

v=spf1 a ptr mx ip4:212.78.239.121 -all

‘a’ means that any computer that is listed as an A record – a record which points to a physical IP address – is authorised to send mail. For IRP, this is not necessary, as the IP address of your website will never be the same as the outbound IP address of any email it sends.

‘ptr’ means that any reverse mapping of an IP address to a DNS entry should be allowed. Again, this entry should NOT be included, for two reasons:

1. These are slow to check, and can hinder your domain’s deliverability, even if you have no PTR records set up for your domain.
2. These records can potentially be spoofed, and therefore weaken your SPF, rather than strengthen it.

Other Potential Sources

If at some point you wish to use a third-party mail service, such as Amazon SES, instead of the IRP internal mail array, you will need to replace the IP address of the IRP mail array, 212.78.239.121, with the outbound IP address of your website. This will not be your website IP address, so you will need to contact your Systems Integrator for this. You will also have to add any additional entries to the SPF to authorise your third-party service.