Creating a Recruitment Campaign

Recruitment campaigns are email blasts to non-members of the community that include an invitation to the community and a registration link (the screener).

Step 1: Create Recruitment URL

The first step to creating your recruitment campaign is to create a Recruitment URL.

After you finish creating the URL, you do not need to export the link – the campaign editor will automatically insert the correct URL when you compose the message. However, we recommend exporting the list to test that it is working properly.

Step 2: Upload Email List

Next, you need to upload a list of email addresses to send the recruitment email.

Go to the Email Lists tab inside the Communication Center (Communication Center > Email Lists). Click the “New Email List” button to start.

The email list needs to be a CSV file. You can click the “email_validation_format.csv” link on the page to download a sample version of the file. In the first column enter the email addresses. Make sure the top row of the column says “Email Address” and then all rows below it are email addresses.

If you have additional information you want to insert into your recruitment campaign, such as the person’s name, you can add additional columns. Make sure the first row of the column has a description in all caps with no spaces. For example, you can put FIRST_NAME on the first row of the column and then add names corresponding to each email on the rows below. You can any number of custom parameters by adding a new column for each parameter.

Once your CSV file is created, give your email list a title. This title is for moderation purposes only. Then click to upload the file and click the “Create” button to upload your email list.

The platform processes the email list into whitelists and blacklists:

• The whitelist includes all the emails that are valid and that have not unsubscribed from community emails.
• The blacklist includes the emails that are not valid or who have previously unsubscribed.

When you send the recruitment email, only the addresses in the whitelist will receive the email.

Depending on the size of the email list, it might take a few moments for the email list to process into the white/black lists. Once the list has been processed, you can see how many emails have been whitelisted and blacklisted. You can also click the download icon next to each list to download a list of those emails.

Step 3: Create Recruitment Campaign Email

Now, you can create your recruitment campaign email.

Go to the Recruitments tab inside the Communication Center (Communication Center > Recruitments) and click the New Recruitment Campaign button.

Email Content

The first tab of recruitment creation is called “Email Content” and is the same as creating a Campaign.  Follow this link to learn about how to create an email campaign.

Adding Recruitment URL link to Fuel Cycle Email Composer

Recruitment campaigns will follow the same flow outlined above and you can use the Fuel Cycle Email Composer.  To add a link to the recruitment URL, simply paste ${RECRUITMENT_URL} as the URL link for a button or text link.

Adding Custom Variables

If you added any custom parameters to your Email List, you can insert the parameters into your email but using the following format:  ${PARAMETER_NAME}.

For example, if you added a NAME column, you could add:

Dear ${NAME}

The above will replace the parameter with the name entered in your CSV file when sent to the user.

Please note: These variables must match exactly the variable used in the CSV file, otherwise they will not properly pull. 

Follow this link to learn more about adding custom variables to email campaigns.

Step 4: Schedule & Delivery

Once you have finished composing your email, you’ll go to the Schedule & Delivery tab.

From here, you need to select a Recruitment URL to use in the email. Type the name of the recruitment URL in the field and matching recruitment URLs will display as you type. Select the one you want to use.

Now, select the Email List you want to use. Start typing the title of the email list and matching lists will display as you type. Select the one you want to use. Once selected, you’ll see the total number of Max Signups allowed in the recruitment URL (if one is specified), total signups (current number of signups already used in that recruitment URL) and total number of whitelisted emails available in the list you selected.

Finally, select if you want to save as Draft or Schedule the email to send. Once scheduled, your recruitment email will be sent to recipients at the date and time you chose.