Frequently asked questions

1. How much credit points it costs to send out a newsletter?

You can send 1 newsletter to 1 contact for 1 credit point. For example, if you have 4500 subscribers to whom you want to send the newsletter to, you need at least 4500 credit points in your account. You can read more about using credit point in our manual.

2. How to get/add SPF and DKIM records?

SPF and DKIM records are a common way to check the senders authenticity. These records have to be added to the domain you are sending emails from (the sender address) so that the emails have a higher likelihood of reaching the inbox and not end up in junk. Learn how to add SPF and DKIM records here.

3. How can I delete my Smaily account?

Smaily accounts can be deleted by reaching out to our support agent via support@smaily.com

4. I can’t access my account anymore, what to do?

First, make sure you are using the same authentification method as before, e.g when you have previously logged in using your personal email, then use it every time to access the account. If you still have problems accessing the account, contact Smaily support via support@smaily.com.

5. My account is suspended, what should I do?

The account will be suspended automatically when your invoices have been due for a while. Make sure all of your invoices have been paid and contact Smaily support to re-open the account.

6. How can I share access to my account to a colleague?

You can share access to your account under account settings. See detailed manual here.

7. Can I change the system language?

Yes, you can change the system language to English, Estonian, Finnish or Russian, under account settings – under profile.

1. How can I see my template in mobile view?

You can switch to mobile view in browser settings. Open the template preview and press on F12 on the keyboard, then press ctrl+shift+m.
Another option is to minimize the browser window or send a test email to yourself.

2. Why can’t I use special fonts in my newsletter?

Unfortunately, fonts for emails are more limited than fonts for web deisgn. Email clients like Gmail and Outlook have only limited support of fonts they display. This is why you can only use basic, cross-platform fonts for your newsletters. From Sans-serif fonts it is safe to use: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Lucida. From Serif fonts: Times New Roman, Georgia. From Monospace fonts: Courier, Courier New. Those are the fonts you can use when making a template in Smaily.

3. Why can’t I use the same solutions with email as with webpages?

Typical email programs that people use (eg Gmail, Outlook, especially older Outlook versions) are not created to show the same dynamic content that webpages are able to show, they technically can’t display the content like a webpage.

For example, an inbox cannot play Youtube videos, Soundcloud music, show live Instagram feeds, survey forms, etc. When composing an email, you have to take those limitations into account and create an email that displays nicely in different inboxes. For example, you can add an image from the media content and link that image to the right webpage that plays the content you wish, instead of trying to add the media directly to the newsletter. Read more on the topic from our blog.

Below is a table that shows what you can or cannot use in an email:

4. What are the image widths in email template?

In full width layout row the picture is 560px wide or without padding 600px.
In 1/2 element the picture width is 270 px, in 1/3 element the width is 173px and in 2/3 element the picture width is 367px

5. Why my template has Smaily logo in the footer?

When you have a Freemium account or your payment method is credit points, then the Smaily logo will be added automatically to the footer. If you don’t want our tiny logo in your newsletters, you can consider changing your payment plan to monthly subscription. You can read more here.

6. Can I add a video in my template?

Unfortunately you can’t add a video directly into your template, because many email clients do not support that. But you can link a video to a picture, button, etc. More information here.

7. I can’t save my template, what is the problem?

It might be that your browser session has expired. Leave the template window as it is, but open a new tab. In the new tab log in to the Smaily account again. Now try to save your template in the previous tab.

8. Can I personalize my newsletter, so it says Hello, name! ?

You can personalize your email templates and subjects with the information that is in your contact fields. You can personalize a name to make a more personal greeting or even whole paragraphs, links etc. Read more here.

1. Where did contacts disappear from my segments?

If you notice that after importing subscribers, some of the filters have run empty, the first thing you need to check is if those filters are “temporary” or parameter based. Temporary filter is a filter that uses “modified at” and date in its segmentation rules. That means all the subscribers with the same modified date are filtered from all database to that segment. When the contact is imported or otherwise modified, its modified at date changes and no longer is the same as it was in the filter. That is why the “temporary” filters may run empty after a while.

More information in this manual.

2. What is an active subscriber?

Active subscriber is a contact with a working email address, who can receive newsletters (even if they are not opened). Inactive subscriber is a contact with an email address that no longer is working or the contact has received multiple error messages from different campaigns.

3. What does it mean “Your contact list has been submitted for administrative verification”?

When a new account is created the imported contacts are manually verified by Smaily administrators. Usually the verification takes a few minutes during working hours and there is no need to contact Smaily support. If we have any questions reagrding the contact base, we will contact you instead.

4. How can I delete all my subscribers?

As a user, you can delete 20 contacts at a time. If you need to delete more subscribers at once, contact Smaily support.

5. How can I delete or unsubscribe on contact? 

You can delete or unsubscribe contacts under contacts view. Find a contact you wish to remove and mark the checkbox before the email address, then choose the action. See more detailed guidance in our manual.

6. How can I prevent bot/spam addresses from joining my subscriber’s list?

To prevent emails added by bots from joining your mailing list, you need to add CAPTCHA to your sign-up forms. CAPTCHA (in most cases) can identify which sign-ups are from humans and which are from bots and prevent them from signing up. Most of Smaily forms and plugins have built in reCAPTCHA, but when you are creating a sign-up form using other methods, you need to add CAPTCA yourself.

7. How can I opend exported .csv contact file in Excel?

In some cases if you open your .csv contact file in Excel, the rows and columns might get scrambled and it is difficult to read data. But there is an easy solution to opend .csv file format in Excel, folow the steps here.

8. I deleted all the segments from my Smaily account but the number under “All subscribers” did not change? Why?

Deleting segments from your account will only delete the filter that was used to filter out contacts from “all subscribers” list to that specific segment (using a parameter and a value). The contacts will remain in your database even after the segment was removed. Segment is not a separate list.

1. I launched my campaign, but it shows that 0 letters have been sent out, why?

After launching your campaign, you will have 5 minutes of buffer time (in case you need to cancel) and after that the letters will start to go out. Come back after some time and refresh your page to see the campaign statistics.

2. Why the newsletter was sent to fewer recipients, than last time?

The system will automatically remove unsbubscribed contacts and contacts with active error messages from sending. This might be the reason your recipient list seems smaller than last time.

3. Why the subscriber does not receive my newsletters?

There might be many reasons for that. First check if the subscriber is subscribed in your “all subscribers” list. If the contact is unsubscribed, they can’t receive newsletters. If they are subscribed, check from the contact card, if that person has any error response messages. Also make sure that your sender’s address domain has Smaily SPF and DKIM records added, which can help with the deliverability of your letters.

If you are still not sure why the contact doesn’t receive newsletters, contact us for more information.

4. How can I test my newsletter?

You can test your newsletter under campaign creation second step. See how to a campaign.

5. Can I see overall statistics for campaigns sent for the last six months?

Under the campaign tab, you can export “Completed”. In the exported file are all of your campaigns and their statistics. See more here.

6. Why I can’t see any statistics about email forwards? I know some of my clients have forwarded their emails.

Under statistics, the forward tab shows how many times the newsletter was forwrded to a friend, using a Smaily functionality, but it doesn’t count the email client’s forwrd function. Read more here.

7. One of my campaign’s statistics says that open rate is 0%, but there are unsubscribers. Is there anything wrong with the statistics?

If the campaign is sent out just a few minutes ago, it might take some time for the statistics to load. If the campaign was sent out a while ago and the open and click rates are still 0%, then it might be that the collecting of statistics was turned off in campaign creation. You can check that from the campaign statistics, under general tab.

8. I tried to launch my cmapaign, but it says “You do not have enough credit to launch the campaign”?

First check if your account subscription is credit point or monthly subscription. If it is credit points, you simply don’t have enough credit to launch the campaign, see more information here. But if you have monthly subscription, the please contact us at support@smaily.com.

9. How can I share my campaigns on social media?

Best way to share your campaign is to send the campaign to yourself, open the web view and copy the link of the campaign to share on social media.

10. Is it possible to design an email that looks like a “regular blank email”? No pictures, no fancy fonts, no box-in-box solutions, no nothing.

One option to create a simple email is to create a new HTML template. Got to the templates tab, click on “new template” and then choose “new HTML template”. In the editor you can just add the text and make sure you have web view and unsubscribe options added as well.

11. How can I delete an old campaign from my account?

Unfortuantely it is not possible to delete campaigns that have been sent out.

12. Why do my newsletters got to Gmail’s promotion tab?

The main reason why emails might go to promotions tab in Gmail is the previous behavior of your contacts – have they marked newsletters as spam, reported, moved the letters to other tabs etc. In addition, it may be affected by your email subject, content (too much pictures and other elements), percentage of links etc and also your domain reputation.

13. Can I use emoticons to my campaign subject?

Yes, you can use most emoticons in your campaign subject and templates, but we higly recommend testing the newsletter, before sending it out. You also need to consider that not all email clients can display all the emoticons. Read more here.

1. How can I modify the content of the letter, that is sent out by automation workflow?

Automation workflows, like campaigns, use templates to send out letters. To modify the content, find the template that was used in the workflow (you can copy the template name under forkflow “send mesage” element and paste it in the search box in the templates tab). Open the template for editting, make the changes and save. Now your automation workflow should have updated letter.

2. How can I send a welcome emails to subscribers that are added manually by myself?

If you are adding a few contacts manually and wish to send them a welcome email, you can create a simple landing page subscription form and connect it to a automation workflow. Then you can add those subscribers via a form that will automatically send out a welcome email to the. Read more on how to create landing page forms.

1. I created a landing page subscription form and people have regisrered through it, but where do the contacts go?

All the contacts who sign up via the landing page go to your Smaily account’s “All subscribers” list. If you wish to create a separate segment of those subscribers you need to add a hidden parameter to your landing page and create a new filter using that parameter and value. Read more here.

2. If I am using a checkbox field in my landing page, what are the values for that field?

For every checkbox option is created a new parameter using that option name and the values are either 1 or 0 – 1 meaning the subscriber checked the boc and 0 meaning the checkbox remained empty.

3. Can I change the confirmation page that is shown after form subscription?

To change the confirmation page that is shown after a contact subscribed through landing page form, you need to create another landing page as the confirmation page. Then you can change the success url in the original form. Follow the steps in this manual.

4. Can I see anywhere how many people have visited the landing page and how many have actually subscribed?

At the moment we do not have any statistics available regarding landing pages. You can see how many people have subscribed if you are collecting those subscribers to a separate segment.