Email 101 - How Emailing Works Within ShinePages

We often get questions from people wanting to know how emails work within the ShinePages platform or how to "Connect" their email to ShinePages.   

In this article we'll cover the 4 primary ways or "Categories" you may work with Emails within ShinePages. 

NOTE: SHINEPAGES IS NOT AN EMAIL INBOX

It's important to understand that ShinePages.com does NOT provide nor sell actual business email addresses (ie: yourname@yourdomainname.com) nor email inboxes (ie: the place where you actually access, send and receive one-to-one emails).

Therefore, you will not be sending and receiving one-to-one emails back and forth with customers nor "replying to" people from within the ShinePages Platform*. This is what your own Email Inbox is for.

ShinePages is simply the "middle-man" - using your domain-hosted email to send out marketing emails from our Servers (via Amazon SES).

If you haven't yet, and you'd like to purchase a business email address and set up a business email inbox on your device, you can do so from your Domain Registrar - ie: Namecheap, GoDaddy, Domain.com, Google Domains/Workspace etc.

Here are the 4 different "Categories" of how we DO work with SENDING EMAILS within the ShinePages platform:  

1) EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS: 

When someone fills out a FORM on your site (a Contact Form, an Application Form, a Freebie "Opt-In" form, etc.) - you can choose to get a "Notification" email sent to your own Email Inbox to "notify" you that a Form has been submitted and to relay Form Response answers (the information the customer entered into the Form). This notification can be sent to ANY email address of your choice - it does not need to be a "business email address".

You would opt-in to these "notification" emails within the FORM SETTINGS area of each Form on your pages. If you do NOT choose to get a Notification email - you can also access the Form responses which are all collected within the CONTACTS area of your account (you also have the ability to Export / Download this info from within your CONTACTS).

For more information, check out this article: 

Form Settings and How To Set Up Forms

How To "Reply" to someone who has filled out a Form on your site:  

In most cases you will simply compose and send them a separate email directly from your own email inbox. Feel free to copy and paste their Form Responses/answers into the Email you send them in response. 

*While there IS an option to send a one-off email directly to a Subscribed Contact from within the system*, you will not get any "responses" from them back within the system. Instead, they will go directly to your own email inbox. Again - there is no "inbox" for back and forth messaging within ShinePages. (see bottom of article for more information on this one-off-email option)    

If you have purchased a Business Email Address from an email or domain registrar, you can get verified via ShinePages to send out mass marketing emails from within our EMAILS & AUTOMATIONS area. 

The "Emails & Automations" function within ShinePages is similar to other 3rd-party Email Marketing platforms (such as MailChimp, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, etc.) in that it is used to send mass emails as "Campaigns" (one-time emails such as Newsletters or Email blasts) as well as set up "Automations" which are used to automate emails and have them running in the background. 

"Emails & Automations" is an add-on service and does have a monthly cost. Each ShinePages plan comes with a set amount of email "Subscribers" for free, and you would be able to add-on additional "Subscribers" as your List grows. Subscribers are Contacts who have been added to a ShinePages email list. 

For more information, check out this article: 

Getting Started With Email Marketing: Emails & Automations

3) SYSTEM-GENERATED/TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS

There are certain emails that automatically are generated from the system and sent to either YOU as the site owner - or to your CUSTOMERS and CLIENTS.  These include simple, transactional emails such as receipts, confirmations, password reset emails, etc. 

These basic, plain-text emails will come from a "no-reply" email directly generated from the system and they cannot be edited. The "From" name as it will appear in your customer's Email InBox is pulled directly from the "Website Title" you have input in the Website Settings > General section of your site. 

For more information, check out this article: 

System Generated/Transactional Emails

4) "CLICK TO EMAIL" 

You can setup any Button or Hyperlinked Text on your Site to allow a "Click To Email" function - where once someone clicks the link - their own Email platform will open on their device and input your email address automatically into the "To" field - enabling them to compose an email message to you and "send" it with just a few clicks. 

For more information, check out this article: 

How to Set Up a "Click To Email" Link

*NEW!  ONE-OFF-EMAILS: 

We have recently introduced the ability to directly send "one-off" or single-send emails to "Subscribed" Contacts from within their Contact Record.  Please note that this is NOT the same as an email inbox. It is not to be used for ongoing back and forth communication.  Any "response" or reply from your recipient will show up in your OWN Email Inbox and NOT within ShinePages. 

You can send plain-text emails from here or "switch to the email builder" to use the Email Marketing "builder" to create styled emails.  You can also 'schedule" these one-off emails as well.