Sending mail with SendGrid

This is a guide on the basic use of SendGrid. While the system is capable of many advanced features, this will help you to understand the fundamentals so you can send your first mass mailing quickly and easily.

When you are more comfortable with the system and want to make your vision come to life, click on the YouTube link below for a walkthrough on how to customize a template.

A video guide to creating your own template

Getting Started Sending Mass Mailing Campaigns in SendGrid

Log into the SendGrid website at app.sendgrid.com
On the left you will see Marketing. Click to expand

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Click on Single Sends
Click on Create a Single Send in the top right corner

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At this point you can choose to create your own Email Design, or choose one of the premades.

Create your own takes more time and effort, but affords complete control over the end result.
SendGrid Email Designs will enable you to quickly create something visually interesting that you can tweak if you so wish, replacing graphics and text to fit your particular needs.
For this example we will use a premade since that is an easier way to get familiar with the interface before moving on to taking complete control.

Click on SendGrid Email Designs. This will then display over 50 pre-made templates to choose from.

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For the purposes of this example we will choose Short Employee Newsletter. Mouse over it and choose Select.
You will want to choose Design Editor. This is the type of interface most people will be comfortable with. The Code Editor is for people that are comfortable with coding the web language HTML.
The page will now load the customization interface. Let’s go down the items on the left and what they mean:
1. Single Send Name – This is the name that you will be giving this particular email campaign. Only you will see this. Give it a name now as you will need it later.
2. From Sender – When they get the email, who will it appear to be from?
3. Subject – The subject of your email
4. Preheader - A preheader is the short summary text, typically found below the subject line in email inboxes.
5. Categories – Something you can use to help organize your mailings. They are only visible to you.
6. Recipients – Here is where you will upload the list of addresses that you will be mailing. If you click on the words “Select recipients” it will present you with a list to choose from. Now we will take a small diversion to go create that list. Click on Upload Contacts at the bottom of the drop down.
7. A window will open that says Add Contacts. We will be going to Add Contacts to create the list of addresses that you will be using.
8. Choose the Radio button for Add Contacts to a new list. Then name the list where it says Create a new list
9. As you can see, the system would like a file called a CSV at this point. CSV stands for Comma Separated Values. This is a list where each value, a First Name, Last Name, Email Address, is separated by a comma. For an example there is a link provided that will allow you to download a template as an example. This file will open in Excel.

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first_name

last_name

address_line_1

address_line_2

city

example@example.com

John

Doe

123 Neverland Lane

Suite 42

Denver

Save this file with a name of your choosing. Here you will enter the data that you have for each person. The only field that is necessary is email. The others are at your discretion. Make your changes and save the file, making a note of where it is located.
Next drag and drop the CSV into the box, or click on the blue text to browse to the location and choose the file you just created.
The grey box will then changed to reflect the name of the file that you created. Click on the Blue button in the bottom right corner.

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It will then show you what fields have been mapped to what values. Review it and make sure that the emails are in the email field, first names are in the first_name field, etc. Then at the bottom click Next: Add Contacts
It will then tell you when the addition is complete. Click Done.
Now we will go back to the template we were working on. Go back to Marketing on the left and click on Single Sends again. It will present a list of Single Sends, one of which will have the name that you gave it in step 9a. Click on that name to open it.
Now go back to the Send To box on the left and click on Select Recipients. There you will see a new list that will have the name that you gave it in step 9h. Choose that list.
You can now test your email. At the bottom of the list on the left you’ll see Test Your Email. Expand that and you can type in an email, probably your own, that you can have the system send a test message to so that you can see that it looks the way that you want.

Customizing the email
1. When you move your mouse over any of the objects on the email you will see several buttons appear.
2. This will allow you to move the tile around the page
3. <> Loads up the HTML editor. Do not use that.
4. Will create a copy of whatever you have selected.
5. The trash can will delete
6. Clicking on that will allow you to change the image, uploading one of your choosing.
7. You can also change the text as you wish. As you become familiar with the way that the interface works, you can increase your comfort level until you feel comfortable enough to create your own from scratch. Feel free to play around with this as much as you wish. You cannot damage the original and can always simply restart.
8. When you are satisfied with the email click on Review Details and Send in the top right.
9. Here you will see a summary of all the details and can make one final review before sending the emails.
10. When you are happy, click on the Send button in the top right.