Five simple steps to get you going! And once you have saved your project you can use it over and over again or alter it and use it for other mailings. Your most recent projects are always at your fingertips on the My Projects tab, which helps you to find your mailings quickly and get you started right away as you run QIOS Pelican.

The first steps

Below you will find an explanation of the five steps that are involved in starting a new project. For detailed information on how to work with QIOS Pelican, please fefer to the manual. To get informed with your hands on, you might want to check out one or more of the sample projects that we have included when you install the software. Each sample project deals with specific aspects and possibilities of QIOS Pelican and shows you how simple it is. You can use and extend these sample projects as you like.

Here we go

Step 1: Create a datasource

In the first step you specify where the data, that should be contained in the e-mail, resides. You probably have a list of e-mail addresses and additional data like the person's name and customer number, stored in a file or database, somewhere on your computer or network.

All kinds of datasources are supported. You can attach to Microsoft Excel, Access, Outlook or to plain text files. But databases like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL are supported as well. 

Furthermore you can retrieve the data directly from your Microsoft Exchange Server, via WebDAV. All kind of other datasources are supported when you use the Custom OLE DB or Custom ODBC options to attach your datasource.

Step 2: Retrieve and modify the data

The second step let you retrieve the data. This basically happens with a single click on the button. After that the data is ready to be used right away.

You can preview all the data that is in the defined datasource. The grid allows you to sort your data.

Optionally you can modify the data so it will meet your exact requirements. You can include or exclude recipients in your mailing with a single click.

Step 3: Create the e-mail text

In the third step you define the actual e-mail text. You can incorporate the datafields you like to use in your text, by typing them in your e-mail or just by selecting them from the fields list.

E-mail text can be created via the WYSIWYG design view or in the HTML view for those who like to go beyond the basic functionality of the designer. Another option is to create the e-mail just as plain text, without any styling or pictures. 

Step 4: Map the fields and / or transform the data

Step four let you map your datafields to your e-mail fields and makes it possible to do some intelligent custom transformation on your data.

You can define the e-mail fields yourself or you can have them created automatically from your data fields.

Define custom transformations on your Data fields before inserting them into the e-mail. There are a lot of options; but you can think of date formatting or adding the proper salutation to someones name. 

Step 5: Test and send it

Step five is the final step you have to make. Here are several options to test the e-mail against the datasource.

You can see what the e-mail will look like on the Preview tab and you can send a preview e-mail to one or more preselected test address. Do a complete test run on the Finish tab.

A click on the Send button will send the e-mails to all the people you have selected to be included in your mailing.