In the Communications module of Church360° Members, you can create and format an email message and audience all in one screen.
This is in contrast to emailing via a client, where your chosen emails are grouped into a recipient line within your default email client (where you would then create your message).
To send an email blast,
1. Go to the Communications view and click the link to start a "New Message".
2. In the drop-down menu, choose "New email".
3. For your new message, choose a message type that best describes the purpose of your message. Message types can be created under Communication Settings.
4. Type in your message title. This will be used on the main Communications view to show statistics for your message.
5. Using the drop-down menu, choose who you'd like this email to be addressed from. If it is from the church, the email will be sent from email@email.church360.org and have your church name as it appears in Account Settings. If it is from you, it will be from the email used to log into your account (followed by @email.church360.org) and have your name as it appears in User Settings.
Whichever is chosen will also act as the Reply-To address for your message.
6. Under the Audience section, click to "Add filter" to choose which groups, individuals, and/or custom criteria to use to determine those you want to receive your message. Multiple lines can be added to include and exclude person records. The statistics below the menus will automatically update to show how many people are selected in total, as well as the number of selected records that have emails on their records and those that do not.
For more information on choosing your audience, please visit our article here.
7. After selecting the groups and persons for your Audience, click the "Review recipients" link to review the email addresses used for each person. Click "Done" once your review is complete.
Note: If filters are added or edited after changes where made under "Review recipients", manual selections will be reverted according to Selection Priority. For this reason, it is recommended to add and choose inclusion and exclusion filters under Audience before reviewing and editing individual contact selections.
8. In the next section of the screen, type or paste your message into the text editor. For more information on composing your message, please visit our article, which goes into more detail here.
9. Once finished with the text of the message, click "Choose Files" under Attach files to add an attachment to the message if desired.
10. After composing your message, choose your desired action from the buttons at the bottom of the page.
- Cancel - This will cancel your message permanently and return you to the main Communications screen.
- Save Draft - This will save the message to the Communications view without sending it. You will be able to edit this message before scheduling and sending it at a later time.
- Schedule - This will allow you to set a date and time for your message to be sent to all chosen recipients.
- Send - This will send your message out immediately to all chosen recipients.