Email Campaigns

Setting up SMTP

Prerequisites

Before sending emails, you need:

• A working SMTP server (Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, or any SMTP provider)
• Your SMTP credentials (host, port, username, password)
• A sender email address verified with your SMTP provider

Configuration Steps

1. Navigate to SMTP settings

   Go to Settings → SMTP in the sidebar.

2. Enter your SMTP credentials

   Fill in your mail server details:

   • Host — Your SMTP server address (e.g., smtp.gmail.com, smtp.sendgrid.net)
   • Port — Usually 465 for SSL or 587 for TLS
   • Username — Your email address or SMTP login
   • Password — Your email password or app-specific password
   • From name — The display name recipients see
   • From email — The sender email address
   Common SMTP providers

   Gmail: smtp.gmail.com, port 587, use an App Password. Outlook: smtp.office365.com, port 587. SendGrid: smtp.sendgrid.net, port 587, username “apikey”, password is your API key. Amazon SES: email-smtp.region.amazonaws.com, port 465 or 587.

3. Save and verify

   Click Save & Verify to store your credentials and test the connection in one step. Mergram will attempt to connect to your SMTP server and report any errors. If verification fails, your credentials are saved but marked as unverified — fix the settings and re-verify before sending emails.

Creating an Email Campaign

1. Set up your merge template

   Upload your PDF template and spreadsheet as usual. Place data fields on the canvas and preview to ensure everything looks correct.

2. Configure email settings

   In the merge dialog, switch to the Email tab:

   • To — Select the column containing recipient email addresses
   • Subject — Enter an email subject (use [[ColumnName]] for dynamic values)
   • Body — Write the email body (supports HTML formatting with the rich text editor)
   • Attachments — Each merged PDF is automatically attached
   Email body formatting

   The rich text editor supports bold, italic, bullet lists, numbered lists, and links. You can also switch to raw HTML mode for advanced formatting. Use [[ColumnName]] placeholders anywhere in the subject or body to personalize content.

3. Send

   Click Send Emails to start the campaign. Emails are processed in the background, and you can track progress in real time.

Tracking & Status

• Batch status — View the overall progress of your email campaign
• Per-recipient tracking — See the delivery status for each individual email (sent, failed, bounced)
• Error details — If an email fails, the error message is displayed for troubleshooting
• Credit usage — Each email sent costs 1 credit from your team’s balance
• Open tracking — See how many recipients opened their email (via a 1×1 tracking pixel)
• Click tracking — See which links in your email body were clicked
• CSV export — Download tracking data as a spreadsheet for reporting
• Privacy-conscious — IP addresses are hashed; no JavaScript in emails

Email Tracking

Mergram provides built-in open and click tracking for every email campaign. No third-party analytics services are required — tracking works with any SMTP provider.

How Open Tracking Works

When you send an email campaign, Mergram appends an invisible 1×1 tracking pixel (a .png image) to the end of the email body. When a recipient’s email client loads remote images, the pixel is fetched from Mergram’s server and the open event is recorded.

Each open event captures:

• Timestamp — When the email was opened
• Open count — Multiple opens from the same recipient are counted

How Click Tracking Works

Any links in your email body are automatically rewritten through a Mergram redirect URL. When a recipient clicks a link, they pass through Mergram’s server (which records the click event) and are then immediately redirected to the original destination URL.

Click tracking captures:

• Timestamp — When the link was clicked
• Click count — Multiple clicks from the same recipient are counted

CSV Export

You can export all tracking data as a CSV spreadsheet for reporting and analysis. The CSV includes per-recipient columns for delivery status, open timestamps, open counts, click timestamps, and click counts.

Data Retention

Tracking data follows the same fileRetentionDays policy as other team data. When the retention period expires, tracking records are automatically purged along with the associated job data.

Privacy

Mergram’s tracking is designed to be privacy-conscious:

• IP addresses are hashed — Recipient IP addresses are not stored in plain text
• No JavaScript — Tracking relies on a simple image pixel and URL redirects, not embedded scripts
• No third-party services — All tracking data is processed and stored on your Mergram instance

Tips & Best Practices

• Send a test email first — Always test with your own email address before launching a campaign
• Verify email addresses — Clean your spreadsheet to remove invalid or duplicate email addresses
• Use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC — Configure these DNS records for your sending domain to improve deliverability and avoid spam filters
• Keep attachments small — Large PDFs may be rejected by recipient mail servers. Aim for under 5 MB per attachment
• Personalize subject lines — Emails with personalized subject lines have higher open rates. Use [[Name]] in your subject template

Limitations

• Tracking accuracy depends on recipient email client settings — Clients that block remote images will not register opens; privacy-focused clients may not load the tracking pixel
• No bounce handling — Bounced emails are reported but not automatically retried
• No scheduling — Campaigns start immediately when you click Send
• SMTP-dependent — Deliverability depends on your SMTP provider’s reputation and configuration