In this article, we'll review how to send announcement emails.
Start by navigating to the EMAILS tab.
Click the SEND ANNOUNCEMENT button.
The NAME YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT EMAIL modal will appear. This is a name for your internal reference only. Guests will not be able to see this. My announcement email is regarding a change in venue, so I've labeled it accordingly.
After naming your announcement email, press SAVE NAME.
At this point, you'll want to choose the recipients of your announcement. There are a number of ways to do this. One way is to add specific contacts. To do this, click ADD A CONTACT.
The ADD CONTACT TO CUSTOM EMAIL modal will appear. You can search existing contacts by name. To add new contacts to your organization, please refer to Uploading New Contacts.
Another way you can choose recipients is by pressing ADD CONTACT LISTS.
When you press that button, the ADD CONTACT LIST(S) modal will open. You will choose which list of people you want to receive the announcement by pressing the + icon that corresponds with that group. Then press ADD CONTACT LIST(S).
If you ever accidentally add a contact list, just press the - icon that corresponds with that list.
For more information regarding this process, refer to Lists within the Contact Database.
After pressing ADD CONTACT LIST(S), you'll land back on the EMAILS page. You can see the list we added is now selected as the announcement recipient. If you ever want to undo this action, simply click the X button next to the list and it will remove the list or lists that you chose.
Another way you can select recipients for your announcement is by clicking SELECT RECIPIENTS BY TYPE / TAG.
The SELECT RECIPIENTS BY GROUPS / TAGS modal will appear. Check the box next to the groups you want to receive the announcement, then press SAVE SELECTION.
PLEASE NOTE: You can create an announcement email for an event before anyone has registered. So, even if you choose an option that has '0' participants currently, if you set the announcement to launch at a later date/time, it will be delivered to how many people are in that group at that future time.
After pressing SAVE SELECTION, the group or groups you chose will show up under SELECT RECIPIENTS BY TYPE / TAG.
You can also choose recipients of your announcement emails based on their answers to registration questions. This tool is mostly used to follow up with guests who have not answered their registration questions. For in depth instructions on this process, please refer to Follow-Up on Additional Registration Questions.
After selecting your recipients, press CREATE EMAIL.
The ANNOUNCEMENT modal will open. You can write whatever message you'd like in here. Please refer to How to Compose Emails with SeatRobot for best practices on formatting, merge fields, etc.
After finalizing your email, press SAVE.
After choosing your recipients, you can decide when you want this announcement email to go out. To do this, press SET LAUNCH TIME.
If you want to send the announcement out as soon as possible, select LAUNCH IMMEDIATELY and press SAVE.
If you want to send the announcement email at a specific day and time, select CUSTOM LAUNCH DATE / TIME and choose your desired time, then press SAVE.
If you want to send the announcement email a specific number of days before or after the event, select LAUNCH DAYS BEFORE / AFTER EVENT. Select the number of days then use the drop down to choose BEFORE EVENT or AFTER EVENT, then press SAVE.
If you want to send the announcement email a specific number of hours before or after the event, select LAUNCH HOURS BEFORE / AFTER EVENT. Select the number of hours then use the drop down to choose BEFORE EVENT or AFTER EVENT, then press SAVE.
Your choice will appear under the SET LAUNCH TIME icon.
Once you've checked your email and determined that everything is accurate to your specifications, you can press the LAUNCH button to send it to your recipients.
The CONFIRM EMAIL SEND modal will open. Press CONFIRM to officially launch the announcement email.
If you ever want to save an announcement email for further review, you can press the HOLD button instead.
This will save the announcement email in the INVITE / EMAIL HISTORY table INVITE / EMAIL HISTORY table at the bottom of the EMAILS page. When you're ready to edit or send it out, click the lock icon and it will be available again at the top of the page.
At this point, you'll have the option to DELETE, LAUNCH or HOLD it again.
When you do officially launch an announcement email, it will show up in the INVITE / EMAIL HISTORY table. Under the clock icon, it will say SCHEDULED... until it has officially launched. If you want to refresh this page to see if that status has changed, you can click the refresh icon in the top right corner.
When the announcement has been officially sent out, a time stamp will appear underneath the clock icon, confirming what time it launched.
Thank you! If you have questions about this process or any other SeatRobot features, please contact support.