STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE Compiling OCE Newsletter
I. Purpose a. This procedure will detail the steps to create the Office of Community Engagements bi-annual e-newsletter using the email marketing service provider, Mailchimp. II. Responsibility a. This procedure applies to all interns responsible for maintaining the Office of Community Engagements tri-annual e-newsletter. The intern is responsible for enforcing this procedure; therefore, he or she must update all information accordingly. III. Pre-Procedure a. Ask campus departments and community partners about upcoming events to include in the e-news current events calendar; and research the Universitys calendar, which you can find at http://www.cvs.umd.edu/visitors/events.html. i. Do this by 3 weeks prior to sending the e-newsletter. b. Choose sporting events to include in the sporting events calendar in the e-newsletter, which you can find at http://www.umterps.com/. c. Query the staff for different volunteer announcements to add to the e-newsletter. d. Consult with director for content of Letter from Director text for main page of e-newsletter, then write the piece and have it saved. i. Add the letter when editing e-newsletter content. 1. Make sure letter is 180-200 words in length. e. To view the OCE e-newsletter production schedule, go to the OCE Intern shared drive and lick on the file, OCE E-news Production Schedule.
IV. Procedure a. Logging on to Mailchimp i. Go to website www.mailchimp.com and enter username and password. 1. Username: umdoce 2. Password: umd0ce b. Replicate previous Campaign i. Go campaigns page and click on the drop down menu for the previous (most recent) campaign. 1. However, make sure it is not the PDF version of the campaign. ii. Then, choose the replicate option on the drop down menu and it will open to the Recipients page of the campaign builder on Mailchimp. iii. From this page, you are able to go back, edit e-newsletter content, and make changes to the campaign before you send it out to subscribers. iv. To rename the new e-newsletter, go to Setup page of the campaign builder and change to (Current Semester and year) e-newsletter. v. Make sure to have the correct number of subscribers (about 700). c. Update the banner i. Before you start editing, go to the OCE Interns shared file drive on OCE desktop, find banner.psd Photoshop file in E- news images folder, and then open the banner in Photoshop. ii. Modify the Photoshop file to reflect the correct semester and year. iii. Make sure the newsletters banner resolution is at 72 dpi, so that it is the right resolution for online publication). iv. After saving it as a jpeg file, replace the modified banner in the Mailchimp template by adding it from your gallery. 1. Go to Design step on the campaign builder and edit the content block you want the image to bring up the content editor. 2. Click on the File Manager icon in the toolbar. 3. Select the Images link at the top of the File Manager to browse the images in your gallery. 4. Then, click the select button for the image you want to place in the campaign. d. Adding/Formatting content i. The most efficient way to add content to your campaign is to type it directly into the content editor on Mailchimp. Alternatively, you can copy and paste the text from applications like Notepad, Microsoft Word, etc. ii. If you are copying and pasting content from Microsoft Word, use the Paste from Word option on the content editor toolbar. iii. Since it is a copy of the previous campaign, the formatting the font, colors, and spacing is already set for the new campaign. However, you need to make sure the spacing is correct between paragraphs. 1. Make sure to save your edits before exiting the content editor on Mailchimp or else you will lose your edits. iv. For correct spacing, use HTML code and type in <br/> after each paragraph to create an extra gap. 1. To paste your own HTML code on the campaign builder, go to the templates step. 2. Under the code your own section, click the paste in code option. 3. Then, add your code to the paste in code box. e. How to use anchors i. To replace anchor links for story taglines and in the athletics section, add anchor directly before the text you want it to link to and create a name for it. ii. Then, go to insert/link option and choose anchor link this option allows you to choose which anchor to link the text to in the e-newsletter. iii. If you want to create a link to any website use the same insert/link option on Mailchimp, but choose web address instead and fill in the URL that contains http://. iv. Note double check to make sure every link in the e- newsletter is active. f. Editing photos i. In order to edit photos before you upload them to your campaign on Mailchimp, you can use PicMonkey Photo Editor. ii. To edit an image on PicMonkey, you first set the image to be square-shaped, crop it, and then resize it to 160w pixels x 160h pixels in order for the image to fit. iii. Make sure to then save the image on the designated OCE Intern shared drive to have it on file. iv. For reference on how to replace or add images to a template using Mailchimp go to http://kb.mailchimp.com/video- index/. g. Send e-newsletter for review i. After you finish editing the e-newsletter, send the final version of the text with the white background version of Letter from Director and the white background of Glorias signature to the University Department of Business Services (vpafweb.mercury@umd.edu). 1. Send them the photos in e-newsletter as well. ii. Make sure to receive confirmation of layout from them before sending out e-newsletter to OCE subscribers on Mailchimp.
V. Post Procedure a. Double check to make sure every link in the e-newsletter is active before sending it out.