Sending an email broadcast

Broadcasts are a way to send an email in bulk to multiple users from within Award Force.

Common uses

• Contact in progress entries to remind users of deadlines 
• Send a newsletter to your users 
• Provide log in instructions to entrants or judges that have been bulk imported into the system 
• filter users by Entrant role and invite them back for a new season
• send event night ticket details to voters (filter by role)
• filter by tag to send targeted communication (e.g pay additional fee or incomplete entry details) 

To send a broadcast

1. Choose the most appropriate view to broadcast from (see below)
2. Filter results
3. Click Broadcast
4. Write message
5. Send broadcast

Note: When configuring a broadcast, program managers have the option of setting the sender name and address for emails. This step is important to be able to facilitate replies to broadcasts going to the client, rather than to the default no-reply@awardsplatform.com email address.

However, depending on the policies of either: a) the recipient's mail server or b) the sender's domain or both — emails sent with a client's sender address may be treated as spam.

Please see Email Delivery Problems for details on how to facilitate successful delivery.

Broadcast locations and examples

Places you can send an email broadcast from and some examples.

1. Manage entries
1. Entrants with entries in progress
2. Entrants with submitted entries
3. Entrants in a particular chapter or category
4. Entrants with entries that have been moderation approved
5. Entrants with entries with specific tags
2. Users
1. Users with a specific user role e.g. Entrant, Judge, Chapter manager, Guest, Program manager
2. Users with entries in the current season
3. Users that have no entries in the current season
4. Users with entries in an archived (previous) season
5. Users that have no entries at all
3. Progress
1. Judges on a particular panel
4. Leaderboard
1. Entrants that have moved to the next round of judging
2. Finalists or winners for a particular chapter or category
5. Manage reviews
1. Users with pending reviews

Use cases

Use case 1: Entrants with entries in progress

A common example is sending an email to entrants that still have entries in progress and you want to remind them to submit their entry before entries close. Here is how to send an email broadcast using this example:

1. Go to Entries > Manage entries
2. In the search box, click on Advanced.
1. This will give you a drop-down menu to filter your entries.
3. Under Status, choose In progress
4. Click Search.
1. This will give a list of all the entries that are currently in progress
5. Click the Broadcast button (underneath the search box).
1. Here you can write your email and see the list of users the broadcast will be sent to.
6. Once you’ve finished writing your email you have the option to click Review + send or Save as draft.
1. Review + send will allow you to see the broadcast as the entrants would before you send it. If you’re happy with it click Confirm + send. Otherwise, click Back to edit to make any changes.
2. Save as draft allows you to save your email and send it at another time. To find your draft broadcasts, go to Settings > Communications > Broadcasts

Use case 2: Communicate with your judges using Broadcast.  

When you are ready to open judging, you can use the Broadcast feature to notify your judges. Go to Judging > Progress, select the relevant score set round to reveal all the judges who have assigned entries and click Broadcast to send them all an email. 

Click Broadcast and compose a message, remembering to include the {password_set_url} merge field if you did not assign a password yourself.

Note: You can use any of the filters to narrow down the list of users you want to contact.

Note: Broadcasts cannot be customised. Use a generic greeting like 'Hello' or 'Dear Entrant' or 'Hello Applicant' when drafting the email. Please note, a broadcast is limited to 5000 users only. 

You can find a list of sent and draft broadcasts under Settings > Broadcasts

To discard a draft broadcast

1. Go to Settings > Communications > Broadcasts
2. Click on the title of the broadcast you want to remove
3. Click Discard

For details on how to theme your broadcasts, see the Theme configuration guide