Setup & Scheduling 🗓
Head to Engage --> Broadcasts. Click the yellow 'New Broadcast' button at the top right of the page.
Click the 'Set Channel' button and select Email Broadcast.
Return to your details and add a description (i.e. for internal use) and start date for the Email Broadcast to send.
Please note, the description is internal and for your own records. Fans won’t see it. Additionally, even if scheduled, an email will not broadcast until the activation button has been pressed.
Use the Target Audience tab to choose a saved or system audience OR use the filters to build a new desired audience for this broadcast. Our Build an Audience article provides more information on building and filtering your fanbase.
Designing the email 🎨
**Top tip: Certain email clients - including Gmail - automatically change copy and background colours when displaying in either light or dark mode on various devices. Make sure you A/B test your emails across different devices in both light and dark mode to ensure your broadcasts are not negatively affected.**
Head to Content and select a starting template. This can be either an existing template or blank template if it is your first email. Click the 'Use This Template' button.
Email Templates
Saved templates can be found in the Email Templates drop-down list. You can also clone email templates if you only need to make minor changes and then save your new one separately.
(Left to right "Edit Details", "Edit Template", and "Clone Template").
It is good to have saved templates to avoid building from scratch every time you want to email your fans. Three standard templates are available to you, but you might want to design your own. You can do this by going to Engage --> Email Templates. It is important to name your email templates clearly, so that on returning to create a new broadcast you know which template you would like to select.
Next, add your Subject Line and Preview Text. There is a preview box to demonstrate how this will appear in a fan's inbox. This can be changed later if you change your mind.
Please note, at any point you can click the 'Reset All' or 'Reset Content' buttons to start steps again.
When you are happy, click Save. Then click the 'Edit Content' button to start building out your email. Here, you can tweak your template with relevant text, images, GIFs, buttons, and more. Once you have finished building the email, click Save and Close in the top right corner.
**Top tip: Back in your main window, click the ‘Save as Master’ button if you would like to save your current work as a new email template for future use.**
Final Checks 🔍
After exiting the email builder, you will be back in the main broadcast window. Use the 'Test' function to send yourself a test copy of the email. Make sure to check it for any mistakes and to click every link you have included, so that these lead where they’re supposed to.
**Top tip: If you send tests with TEST in the subject, make sure to remove this before broadcasting to fans.**
You can also click the ‘Check Spam Score’ button to see whether your email is likely to end up in fans’ spam folders in its current state.
Send it out! 📤
Click the green ‘Activate’ button at the top of the page (i.e. below details) to launch your Email Broadcast. If you have scheduled it for a time in the future, it will send out at the scheduled time. If the scheduled time has now passed, it will begin sending out immediately.
As you confirm the activation, the email will check for various errors, as detailed below.
If you want to change the scheduled time, you can do so by clicking on the 'Start Date (required)' field.
Similarly, if you wish to change the selected audience, you can do so by clicking Edit Audience.
Please note, do not change your Subject, Preview Text, or desired audience whilst a broadcast is 'Active' (i.e. sending) as this can lead to errors in sending.
Video Walkthrough