Broadcasts are a way to send an email in bulk to multiple users from within Award Force. While you may need to reach out to your program's users for a variety of reasons, the process remains largely the same as you'll see below. In this guide you will find instructions on how to send broadcasts, a list of common uses, and frequently asked questions about the feature.
Send a broadcast
To send a broadcast, follow these steps:
- In the Manage workspace, navigate to the appropriate view, such as Entries
- If desired, apply a filter by clicking Advanced in the search bar; see: How to search and filter
- When viewing your desired list, click Broadcast
- Compose your message, including an optional sender name and reply-to email
Tip: you can customise your broadcast through the use of both Markdown formatting and merge fields to improve your users' experience! - Choose your desired Send time
- Send immediately: will send the message as soon as you've completed the steps below
- Schedule: will display fields to choose a desired date and time to send
- Click Review + send to preview the message
Note: to save your broadcast for another time, click Save as draft. Drafts can be located and sent in the Manage workspace via Settings > Communications > Broadcasts later on. Scheduled broadcasts will read Review + schedule. - Select Confirm + send when you're ready
Advanced broadcast settings
When composing a broadcast to your users, there are a few more options available that you may be curious about.
| Feature | Details |
| Send a copy to myself |
The checkbox allows you to receive a copy of your broadcast to the email address associated with your Award Force account. |
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Send one email per user or Send one email per entry |
If you opt to send a broadcast to all users from a list where they may appear twice, this setting allows you to choose whether this user will receive the message once or each time they appear within the list.
Example: you've clicked Broadcast in the Manage workspace on the Entries page. With Send one email per user selected, a user with five entries would receive your broadcast once. Should Send one email per entry be selected, the user would receive five copies of the broadcast, one for every entry.
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Legal basis for sending email |
In this drop-down there are two options: Freely given consent by user and Legitimate interest of the data controller. These options control whether a user who has unsubscribed from notifications and broadcasts will receive the message. For more details, see our dedicated guide: Legal basis for sending emails. |
Common uses
Use case #1: contacting entrants with entries in progress
| Reason | Instructions |
| You may wish to remind users with entries in progress to submit their entries before the end of your award. |
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Use case #2: communicate with your judges
| Reason | Instructions |
| After adding judges to your program or when beginning a new judging round, you may need to contact your judges. |
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Use case #3: send a newsletter to your program's users
| Reason | Instructions |
| For programs who wish to periodically inform their users with organisation updates, sending a "newsletter" is useful. |
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FAQs
Award Force uses a third party mail provider to send your program's broadcasts and notifications. While the system has been refined to improve the chances of delivery, it's impossible to guarantee that an email will arrive. Individual inboxes may have advanced filters applied that could reject even crucial messages.
If some users have reported not receiving email notifications or broadcasts, there are a few things you can check:
- Ask the user to look for the message in their junk or spam folders or any social/promotional tabs that they've configured in their inbox. Broadcasts and notifications from the Award Force platform can occasionally be routed to these areas.
- Ask your user to mark the addresses from which notifications and broadcasts are sent, no-reply@app.awardforce.com and sender@app.awardforce.com, as allowed or safe listed.
- Look at the user's profile to see whether they have unsubscribed from broadcasts and notifications. To do so, go to Users and click on the user's name, then open the Preferences tab.
In the event that you notice a discrepancy between the number of users to whom you've selected to broadcast and the number that appears when composing the message, there is a simple explanation. The users who do not appear have unsubscribed from broadcasts and therefore will not receive them. To view if a user has unsubscribed, go to Users and click on the user's name, then open the Preferences tab.
Absolutely! Through the use of both merge fields and Markdown formatting, you can create a dynamic, engaging broadcast emails.
You can view all sent and draft broadcasts from your program in the Manage workspace Settings > Communications > Broadcasts.
For those on the Pro plan and above, you have the ability to apply your organisation's theming to all broadcast and notification emails. To learn how, see our guide: Theme configuration guide.
The broadcast feature of Award Force is designed to allow simple, one-way communication to a selected group of users. If you need to track email delivery or other statistics, you should use a dedicated platform such as MailChimp.