Client EDM

Read time 9 min Level Intermediate Prerequisites Client contacts in your CRM; at least one EDM contact group set up

In a nutshell: EDM (Email Direct Marketing) is the tool for sending direct-marketing email to your client's contacts -- newsletters, announcements, offers -- using the same rich-text editor and mail queue as Email Pitching. Create a campaign (Title + Description), compose with merge-field pills ({UserName}, {brand}, {filelist}, {prcontact} and the PR signature tokens), pick recipients by EDM Contact Group or Brand Type, and queue the send. The engagement report tracks Sent, Read and Placements -- the signals that anchor downstream attribution.

What you will learn

What EDM does in Buzzscribed -- direct-marketing email to your client's contacts, distinct from journalist pitching.
How an EDM campaign is built: CAMPAIGNS list, then COMPOSE → CONTENT → SEARCH & SEND.
The merge tokens, the EDM Combo macro, and how the recipient picker works.
What the engagement report measures and how to read it.
How exclusions and unsubscribes feed the suppression list.

The mental model

EDM stands for Email Direct Marketing. Find it under BUSINESS > Email Direct Marketing. EDM is the tool for sending direct-marketing email to the contacts held against your clients -- newsletters, announcements, offers -- while Email Pitching handles journalist outreach about a Story. Same underlying email machinery (the rich-text editor, the Mail Dashboard) and a different audience.

Acme PR Corp uses EDM to send Mr Widget Ltd's quarterly fintech newsletter to its client and prospect base -- one campaign per quarter, recipients drawn from a saved EDM Contact Group on the Mr Widget brand.

The shape is similar to Email Pitching: an EDM campaign is a container (Title + Description); inside it you create a pitch (subject + body); you pick recipients; you queue the send. With no Story attached, you type the body content yourself, using merge-field pills for personalisation.

Measurement follows Buzzscribed's standard pattern: opens (the Read pixel) and downloads / placements (files pulled from links in the email). Both feed ProofScore-style attribution -- you can see who picked up your assets and act on it.

The tabs and the flow

Tabs along the top, with the working steps numbered:

CAMPAIGNS: The list of your EDM campaigns. Add EDM Campaign opens a modal that takes a Title and Description -- the whole creation step. Pick a campaign to open it.
EXCLUSIONS: The suppression side -- review who is excluded from this campaign and add suppressions manually. Unsubscribes flow in here automatically.
ENGAGEMENT REPORT: Results for the selected campaign -- KPI cards plus per-recipient engagement grids.
1. COMPOSE: Select or create an EDM pitch. The editor opens with a Field Picker tree on the left and the rich-text editor on the right -- drag a field in and it drops as a styled pill.
2. CONTENT: Review the assembled email, the subject and the attached files before recipient selection.
3. SEARCH & SEND: Choose recipients, set the sender and send time, preview, and queue the send.

Composing: the editor and the tokens

EDM uses the same rich-text editor as Email Pitching, with merge-field pills dragged from the Field Picker tree. The Field Picker is the source of truth -- a token in the tree resolves at send time; a token typed by hand will go out as literal text. Drag, do not type.

[Screenshot placeholder -- the COMPOSE step: the Field Picker tree on the left with the EDM Combo macro and the individual fields, and the rich-text editor on the right with merge-field pills dropped into the body.]

Composing an EDM pitch. The Field Picker tree feeds merge-field pills into the rich-text editor.

EDM merge tokens:

{UserName} -- the recipient's first name.
{brand} -- the brand name.
{filelist} -- the list of downloadable files attached to the campaign.
{prcontact}, {premail}, {prmobile}, {prphone} -- the PR contact's signature block.

The picker also offers an EDM Combo macro that drops a ready-made layout in -- "Hi {UserName}," a downloads line with {filelist}, and the PR signature -- with an empty paragraph for your message. Start with the Combo, then tighten the body to fit the campaign.

Choosing recipients

On SEARCH & SEND, the Source dropdown gives you two ways to pick from your client contacts:

Contact Group: Pick a saved EDM Contact Group from your CRM. The fastest route when you send to the same audience repeatedly -- build the group once, reuse it across campaigns.
Brand Type: Filter by the client's type (NFP, Edu, Gov, Religious, Asn, Brand, Agency, or ALL). Pulls every client contact whose client matches that type -- useful for sector-wide announcements.

Narrow further by Country and Region. Once results are in the grid, a text filter lets you refine by name or email. Two safety toggles sit above the grid, default-on: Apply Exclusions (respect the suppression list) and Prevent Re-send (skip contacts already emailed). Both keep the recipient list clean without you having to think about it.

Preview, test, send, and unsubscribes

Before sending, the Email Preview pane shows the assembled email and Send Self Test drops it into your own inbox exactly as a recipient will see it -- pills resolved, files attached, signature in place. Read the test, fix anything that needs fixing, test again.

On SEARCH & SEND you set the sender, the send time and queue the send -- which flows into the Mail Dashboard the same way Email Pitching sends do, with the same Review, Reschedule, Cancel and View history actions on each batch.

Recipients can unsubscribe from any EDM. Unsubscribes land on the EXCLUSIONS tab as suppression -- with Apply Exclusions on (the default), future EDM sends skip them automatically. Manual suppressions go through the same Add Exclusion action on the tab.

Try this: Create an EDM campaign (Title and Description), open 1. COMPOSE, click Add New Pitch, drop in the EDM Combo, type a short message in the empty paragraph, then Send Self Test. Read how each pill resolved. Open 3. SEARCH & SEND, pick a small EDM Contact Group, queue with a Send Time an hour out, then cancel the batch from the Mail Dashboard. You have walked the full EDM loop without sending for real.

The engagement report

The ENGAGEMENT REPORT for a campaign carries five KPI cards:

Sent -- how many EDM emails went out for the campaign.
Read -- how many were opened (tracked by the open pixel).
Placements -- how many recipients downloaded files from the email.
Read Rate -- Read as a percentage of Sent.
Engagement Rate -- a percentage based on placements and downloads.

Below the cards, two grids list the per-recipient detail: Engagements / File Downloads and Engagements / Email. Read the cards for the headline picture; drill into the grids when you want to know exactly who acted.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between EDM and Email Pitching?: EDM targets your client's contacts with direct-marketing email -- newsletters, announcements, offers. Email Pitching targets journalists about a Story. Two pages, two audiences, one underlying platform.
What merge tokens can I use?: {UserName} (recipient first name), {brand}, {filelist}, and the PR signature tokens {prcontact}, {premail}, {prmobile}, {prphone} -- plus the EDM Combo macro. The Field Picker tree is the source of truth; drag, do not type.
How do I segment recipients?: Recipient selection runs through EDM Contact Groups, Brand Type filters and a name/email/region text filter. Build the groups that match your sending patterns and reuse them across campaigns.
Can I test the email before sending?: Yes -- the Email Preview pane shows the assembled email, and Send Self Test delivers it to your own inbox exactly as a recipient will see it.
Where do unsubscribes go?: To the EXCLUSIONS tab as suppression. With Apply Exclusions on (the default), future EDM sends skip those contacts automatically.
What does the engagement report measure?: Sent, Read (opens), Placements (file downloads), Read Rate, Engagement Rate, plus per-recipient grids. Read for the headline; drill for the detail.

Key takeaways

EDM (BUSINESS > Email Direct Marketing) sends direct-marketing email to your client's contacts.
Flow: CAMPAIGNS (Add EDM Campaign = Title + Description) → 1. COMPOSE → 2. CONTENT → 3. SEARCH & SEND, with EXCLUSIONS and ENGAGEMENT REPORT alongside.
Compose with merge pills from the Field Picker -- {UserName}, {brand}, {filelist}, the PR signature tokens, plus the EDM Combo macro.
Recipients: EDM Contact Group or Brand Type, with text filtering and the default-on Apply Exclusions and Prevent Re-send safety toggles.
Engagement report: Sent / Read / Placements, plus Read Rate and Engagement Rate. Unsubscribes flow to EXCLUSIONS automatically.