When creating a new message you can dynamically insert an RSS feed into the message contents. This means that when the message is being sent it will fetch the RSS contents and display them as you specified while creating that message.
To begin click the RSS icon on the message creation page:
Once you click the RSS icon you will see a screen with RSS options.
- Feed URL - This is the complete URL to the RSS feed that you wish to include in this message.
- Max. number of items to include - Choose the number of RSS entries that you wish to include.
- Would you like the most recent items or only new items to be included? - This option is useful for recurring campaigns or auto-responders. With this option you can choose to only fetch NEW items since the last time this message was sent. An example would be if you wanted to send a weekly recurring campaign that included that weeks blog posts.
Once you have entered the RSS URL and selected the options you desire click the Insert button.
You will now see the RSS template in your message editor:
You will see a variety of tags. Here is what each means:
- %RSS-FEED|URL:http://www.site.com/myfeed.rss|SHOW:ALL% - This is REQUIRED and will not be shown to the recipent.
- %RSS:CHANNEL:TITLE% - This is OPTIONAL and will show the title of the RSS feed.
- %RSS-LOOP|LIMIT:10% - This is REQUIRED and will not be shown to the recipent. This is the start of the loop that will show the RSS contents.
- %RSS:ITEM:DATE% - This is OPTIONAL and will show the date of the RSS entry.
- %RSS:ITEM:TITLE% - This is OPTIONAL and will show the title of the RSS entry.
- %RSS:ITEM:SUMMARY% - This is OPTIONAL and will show the summary of the RSS entry.
- %RSS:ITEM:LINK% - This is OPTIONAL and will show the link to the RSS entry.
- %RSS-LOOP% - This is REQUIRED and will not be shown to the recipent. This is the end of the loop that will show the RSS contents.
- %RSS-FEED% - This is REQUIRED and will not be shown to the recipent.
You are now free to style and customize the format in which each part/element of the RSS feed will look. Bold some parts, change font sizes, remove RSS content you do not require, and more. Here is an example of how you could style the RSS feed in your message.
Advanced: Using Custom RSS Tags
Any tag that is included in your RSS feed can also be included in your campaign message. For example, you may want to include an image along with each RSS item that is displayed. If your RSS feed has a tag within each <item> called <yourtag>, you can easily include that in to your message by typing — simply type in the name of the tag as part of your variable, formatted like so:
%RSS:ITEM:YOURTAG%
Note: Be sure to change “YOURTAG” in to the actual name of the tag.
In the example below, there is a tag within the <channel> called <image>, and there is a tag within that called <url>.
(click to enlarge)
So, if you wanted to include an image in to your mailing, using the above RSS code as an example, you would need to type something like this in to the Code Editor tab when composing your message:
<img src="%RSS:IMAGE:URL%">
(Since the <image> tag is part of the main <channel> tag, you do not need to add the word “ITEM” to the variable in your message. If you are using a custom tag that is included within every single item, you would type %RSS:ITEM:YOURTAG% within your message.)
The following image is an example showing what your message source code might look like:
(click to enlarge)
And below is a preview of what the above message would look like when it was sent:
(click to enlarge)
