Basic Set-up

What is a 'Campaign Action' For?

A 'Campaign Action' is primarily for grouping multiple 'Action Editions'. If you only have one Action Edition per action (most common) then you may want to use it to group actions by year. As it isn't required (except if you system administrator has made it required) then using it is your choice.

If you wish to have multiple 'Action Editions' for different areas or targeted at different audiences or in different languages then this allows you to have an overview of the all 'Action Editions' related to a 'Campaign Action' (aka parent action) and to download the data from all the related 'Action Editions' at once. All that needs to happen is for all relevant 'Action Editions' to be related to the same 'Campaign Action' (aka parent action) regardless of where the 'Action Editions' are on the site.

An 'Campaign Action' can contain other content - but only:

• 'Action Editions'
• 'Target Person' or 'Target Organisation'
• 'Action Message'
• 'Thank You Page'
• 'Thank You Email'
• Image
• File
• Document

How To Create a 'Campaign Action'

1. Add a 'Campaign Action' item from the 'add item' menu. Note there is a 'default' and 'configuration' sub-section for this item
2. Enter the following information:
   1. 'Action Name' is an internal name for the action - something you and others will recognise it by (e.g. WTO Petition 2006) but is not used publicly
   2. 'Headline' is the title that will go at the top of the 'Campaign Action' page - but since a 'Campaign Action' is mainly a grouping item it will not generally be seen publicly
   3. 'Description' just allows you to elaborate on the 'Campaign Action' and will not appear on the 'Campaign Action' page but is used in search results
3. Press the 'Next' button to move to the 'configuration' sub-section where you can also set the minimum number that has to be reached before the action count can be publicly displayed (an advanced option). Press the 'Save' button if you are not interested in this option (most common). Note the default is '0'.
4. Done. You'll now notice from the add item' menu of the 'Campaign Action' you only have items related to setting up an Action Edition

What is a 'Target Person' or 'Organisation' For?

Your 'Campaign Action' is probably one of three types:

1. It is aimed at one or more influential people who, through pressure from the general public, may help your cause (i.e. politicians, business leaders, famous people). People completing an Action Edition are therefore helping to increase this pressure. (most common)
2. It is aimed at getting the people completing the action to change their behaviours such as pledging to do something (i.e. buy fair trade goods, use less electricity) or boycotting something (e.g. stop buying a good or service until a change occurs).
3. It is aimed at changing the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of the general public (a public education campaign) (i.e. stop violence against women, stop drunken driving, eat more fruits and vegetables). People completing an Action Edition usually already have the desired beliefs, attitudes and behaviours and are taking action to convince friends, family, colleagues and by extension society.

Only in case '1' is there a specific target who will at some point receive a signed petition or letters from the your supporters. Only in the case of an e-letter Action Edition does a 'Target Person' or 'Organisation' get sent a copy of each letter your supporters write (and only if you provide a valid email address for that target). However a petition still has a target even if no email is sent to them. Since it is good practice to define who your target is and how to reach them, this item is currently required for completing any Action Edition - even a pledge or public education campaign.

How To Create a 'Target Person' or 'Organisation'

1. Add a 'Target Person' or an 'Target Organisation' item from the 'add item' menu.
2. Enter some / all of the following information (everything optional):
   1. 'Description' is any information you or others may find useful about the target. It is also used in search results.
   2. For a 'Target Person', Name consists of 'Name Prefix' (i.e. President, Ms, Dame, Rev., Hon.), 'Given Name', 'Middle Name', 'Family name' and 'Name suffix' (i.e. Ph.D, III, M.D.)
   3. For a 'Target Organisation', Name consists of 'Organisation Name'
   4. 'Position' is the target's role (i.e. Managing Director, CEO, Prime Minister)
   5. 'Email address' is the address you wish letter 'Action Editions' to be set to. This could be the target's actually email address or a special email account you set-up to collect the letters (although there is generally no need for this since the message each supporter writes is saved). If it is left blank, the letter is not sent. You may wish to use your address for testing the action and then change it when the action is launched.
   6. 'Phone number', 'Fax number', 'Street address', City, Postal Code and Country are simply where you can store extra contact information about a target in case you (or someone else with access) wished to contact them. Only a target's name is displayed for e-letter 'Action Editions'. The other information could be displayed if the template was edited (by a developer) or even fed to a fax or phone gateway.
3. Save
4. Done

What is an 'Action Message' For?

Whatever type of action you are running (see step 2), you usually have some text that forms the essence of what you are asking your supporters to do:

• For a petition this is a petition statement
• For an e-letter it is the default text that will be delivered to the target

The 'Action Message' fulfils this role. An 'Action Message' is normally needed for your Action Edition, but for some e-letters you'll not want any default text so that your supporters must write their own message (resulting in lower participation rate but more genuine and effective letters).

If used for an e-letter Action Edition, this message (as is or if you allow the message to be edite then whatever it is changed to) will be sent to a target(s) via the email address you provided for the target(s). Appended tho this message will be a supporters full name and country since these details are the minim needed to be credible to most targets. This can (and should) be changed (in the templates) to include city and address if it will be received by a national from national based supporters since this is even more effective.

The 'Action Message' text (original or edited by supporter) is always stored with the supporter's data ('Action Record') so there is no need to keep a copy of each letter a sent by supporters in other places.

How To Create an 'Action Message'

1. Add an 'Action Message' item from the 'add item' menu.
2. Enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Title' is the name that appears in folder listing and search results only
   2. 'Description' is an overview of the message and is appears only in search results
   3. 'Subject' is the subject of the letter sent to targets or the title of a petition statment.
   4. 'Message' is the default body of the letter to targets or petition statement and can be 'rich' text (HTML) or plain text. In the Action Edition set-up (Step 6) you can specify if you want the message to be editable (e.g. for a e-letter). If so, ensure you make the 'Message' to be 'plain text' and don't include HTML tags otherwise your supporters will see HTML code.
3. Save
4. Done

What is a 'Thank You Page' For?

After someone completes an Action Edition (fills in the form and presses send/join), the next page they see is the 'Thank You Page'. This is a highly strategic page as it is the page everyone completing the action will see, and thus should be used to:

1. Acknowledge that their action has been received and successfully processed (i.e. sent to target, added to petition)
2. Cross-promote secondary objectives such as telling friends about the action, taking another action, downloading information, etc.

If you choose an 'Action Type' which has multiple steps, the 'Thank You Page' will be the last step of the 'Action Process' (i.e. the second step for two step processes, the third step for three step processes, etc.). See Advanced Set-up for more details

How To Create a 'Thank You Page'

1. Add a 'Thank You Page' item from the 'add item' menu.
2. Enter some / all of the following information (everything optional):
   1. 'Title' is the name that appears in folder listing and search results only
   2. 'Description' is an overview of the message and is appears only in search results
   3. 'Subject' is the headline of the 'Thank You Page' displayed when the Action Edition is completed
   4. 'Message' is the body of the 'Thank You Page' and should always be in HTML format.
3. Save
4. Done

What is a 'Thank You Email' For?

The 'Thank You Email' is:

1. Acknowledgement to the email address the supporter supplied that the action was completed successfully
2. An opportunity to cross-promote secondary objectives such as:
   • Opting-in to further updates
   • Telling friends about the action
   • Taking another action
   • Getting 'white-listed' in a supporter's 'trusted sender' list
   • Downloading information
   • Other secondary priorities you may have online and offline
3. Confirming that the email address was valid and the recipient actually did want to participate in the action

It consists of both the 'Thank You Email' message and the 'Action Message' text (so that supporters have a copy of what they participated in).

For anyone who didn't 'opt-in' for updates, this is the last change you have to communicate with them and thus is a strategic communication for encouraging people to opt-in.

The email 'receipt' also provides an opportunity for people who did not take the action if someone else typed the recipient's email address in intentionally or accidentally because it is similar. But this is rare.

Sending an email to an email address is also the only real test that the email address is valid. If the email bounces, it will go to the 'Sender email address' specified when setting up an Action Edition (Step 6). Best practice would be to differentiate between permanent/hard bounces and temporary/soft bounces and flag each supporters' record with their bounce history and removing people who are opted-in from receiving future email communications unless a new email address is confirmed.

How To Create a 'Thank You Email'

1. Add a 'Thank You Email' item from the 'add item' menu.
2. Enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Title' is the name that appears in folder listing and search results only
   2. 'Description' is an overview of the message and is appears only in search results
   3. 'Subject' is the headline of the 'Thank You Email' received by supporters when the Action Edition is completed
   4. 'Message' is the body of the 'Thank You Email' and would usually be in HTML format.
3. Save
4. Done

What is an Action Edition For?

An Action Edition is the specific implementation of a 'Campaign Action' that links together: - All the action elements ('Target Person/Organisation', 'Action Message', 'Thank you page', 'Thank you email') - Defines the Action Type (simple, multi-step or smart-step; petition, letter or email subscription) - Defines other key parameters (action parent, thank you 'from' name and address, allow message editing, etc.)

It is recommended it be created last since it cannot be saved until all the other action elements are created and linked to it.

All 'Action Records' (data of each person who completed the action) are stored within each individual Action Edition.

The Action Edition has a few special tabs:

• The 'contents' tab shows you a listing of all 'Action Steps' and other Action Elements (see Advanced Set-up)
• The 'view' tab shows you an over of the action count and the action settings
• The 'take action' tab is the actual URL for the action form page
• The 'edit schemas' tab allows you to edit the form fields and labels (see Advanced Set-up)
• The 'get data' tab for downloading the 'Action Records' as a comma separated values file (CSV) that can be imported by Excel and databases. (Note: For Excel, save it to your had drive first - Excel can't handle CSV files opened directly from the Internet)

The Action Edition also contains a number of 'Layout Elements' which are design elements for the 'Action Page' and the 'Address Page' and is accessed via the 'contents' view. (see Advanced Set-up).

An Action Edition can contain other content - but only:

• 'Target Person' or 'Target Organisation'
• 'Action Message'
• 'Thank You Page'
• 'Thank You Email'
• Image
• File
• Document

How To Create an Action Edition

1. Add an 'Action Edition' item from the 'add item' menu. You'll notice it has three sub-sections: 'default', 'configuration', 'thank you - settings' and 'advanced'.
2. Under the 'default' sub-section enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Action Edition Name' is the internal name you use to the action.
   2. 'Headline' is the headline that can appear at the top of the action page (requires template change) and will appear in search results.
   3. 'Description' is an overview of the action and will appear in search results.
   4. 'Action Type Preset' is the pre-configured group of settings you want to use
   5. 'Parent action' is the 'Campaign Action' to which this Action Edition is part of. Simply navigate to the location you saved it and press 'insert'.
3. Press 'next' or 'save'
4. Under the 'configuration' sub-section enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Targets' are one or more of the 'Target Person' or 'Target Organisation' items you created earlier. Simply navigate to the location you save them and press 'insert' for as many targets as you wish.
   2. 'Action Message template' is the 'Action Message' items you created earlier. Simply navigate to the location you save them and press 'insert'.
   3. 'Allow message modification' is an option to allow the 'Action Message' to be editable by supporters (anonymous users) when they are taking the action. If this is used, be sure the 'Action Message' is plain text (not HTML - unless you want it to be).
   4. 'Action coverage' (optional) is what country or region the Action Edition relates to. It is currently only for information purposes. The list of countries is sourced from the /portal_properties/country_lists property accessed via the ZMI (Zope Management Interface).
5. Press 'next' or 'save'
6. Under the 'thank you - settings' sub-section enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Sender name for thank-you emails' is the text that will appear in the 'from' field of a recipients email software when they receive the 'Thank You Email'. Best practice is to put a person's name followed the organisation or campaign name.
   2. 'Sender email address for 'Thank You Emails' is the email address that the 'Thank You Email' will appear to be from (but the sender name will be displayed) and emails will go to if the recipient replies to the 'Thank You Email'. Best practice is to keep this address the same so it can be put in a recipient's 'white list' for bulk email they have requested and want to receive (otherwise it may go to the spam folder)
   3. 'Thank You Email template' is the 'Thank You Email' items you created earlier. Simply navigate to the location you save them and press 'insert'.
   4. 'Include a copy of the message' is an option to include the content of the 'Action Message template' into the Thank You Email. This is useful in some cases so participants have a record of the action message the signed-up to/sent - especially if they edited the message.
   5. 'Thank You Page template' is the 'Thank You Page' items you created earlier. Simply navigate to the location you save them and press 'insert'.
7. Under the 'advanced' sub-section enter some / all of the following information:
   1. 'Minimum number of completed actions before displaying the live progress or count' is an option to allow you to prevent the publication of the total actions completed until a minim threshold is reached. This is only relevant if you use the counter publicly (see Advanced Set-up). Leave as '0' until after the Action Edition is set-up and tested to prevent confusion with reported actions taken during testing.
   2. 'How many completed Action Editions do you aim to achieve on THIS web site?' is an option to allow you to set your goal for this Action Edition on the web site and is used if you want a progress bar to indicate how close you are to your goal. If you run multiple Action Editions under a Campaign Action then you should set the goal at the Campaign Action instead. Furthermore if you want to include off-site numbers in this count (feature not added yet) then the goal would apply to the on-site and off-site total.
8. If you are setting up 'Action Editions' in multiple languages, you should also go to the 'properties' tab and make sure the 'language' setting reflects the language of the Action Edition copy. This is useful so that when you download the data at the 'Campaign Action' level you can see in what languages each person has completed each Action Edition.
9. Save
10. Done