Use this how-to guide for streamlining your communication with your fans, by using automated broadcasting techniques via email, SMS, and more.
Automated Broadcasts are sent using triggers dictated by you. These could be based on tags tied to a fan profile or by fan signup methods.
If you have not yet made your first Email Broadcast, please view our intercom article on how to do so.
You can also create SMS Broadcasts. This process is detailed here.
Pre-Save Broadcasts are another way to broadcast to your fans on Openstage. To learn more about these, click here.
Once you are confident with the three ways to broadcast to your fans, please follow the below steps to create your Automated Broadcasts.
Navigate to Engage --> Automated Broadcasts.
Select New Automation
Triggers
Triggers are tags given to fans based on their interactions.
Choose the relevant tag to trigger the automation.
e.g. A tag from a completed Landing Page flow looks like 'sign-up-where-should-I-play?'. This would be assigned to a fan who completed the flow of that page, thus receiving the automation triggered by this tag. These are customisable for each Landing Page, so you can clearly segment fans via a tag filter.
A quick breakdown on the system tags and when they are assigned to a fan:
welcome: sign up via any of your Openstage pages - commonly used to trigger a generic welcome email.
sms-welcome: a fan who texts your number.
voice-welcome: a fan who calls your number. You have the option to leave a voicemail for fans to hear when they call.
presave-welcome: a fan who has pre-saved on either Spotify, Apple, or Deezer. This is commonly used to send fans a welcome playlist as a thank you for pre-saving.
ticketing-welcome: a fan who has bought tickets through an Openstage box office.
**Top tip: Fans signing up via a QR code can be targeted with an Automated Broadcast using both methods (i.e. using the tag from the QR code or the tag they receive by completing a Landing Page flow that the QR code was linked to). Use what best works for you as a flow.**
Unless you need to filter your audience more (i.e. in Target Audience) to ensure that only a specific demographic receives your automations, navigate to Set Channel and choose your automation type. For more information on creating audiences, please follow this link.
Choose your Action - either Email, SMS, or Pre-Save.
Email Automations
Follow the next few steps for creating an Email Automation.
Select a template or build out an email, as you would for a regular broadcast.
**Top tip: Feel free to navigate back to Broadcasts and save an existing email broadcast as a master template for use here, to speed up your workflow.**
Use the Content tab to build out your email broadcast. For more on emails, please see this intercom article.
Once built, head to Details to name your automation and add the date and time it should start sending.
You can send it using a delay, so that it waits that amount of time after the trigger has been recognised.
You can also choose whether this automation should only be triggered once per fan. This is often used for welcome emails that are triggered by the tag 'welcome'.
Make sure the scheduled time is set for when you want the automation to start sending to fans. It will only start 'listening' to fans if you have activated it and the scheduled time has passed.
SMS Automations
If you selected SMS as your action, please follow the below instructions and use the same method as above to choose a trigger.
Here, you can add text content and any links. A link will use 29 of your available 160 characters. You can find more on SMS Broadcasts here.
**Top tip: It is always effective to add a Landing Page link in your texts to fans if these are not already linking out elsewhere. Navigating them towards a landing page flow means you can collect more fan data and involve them in campaigns based on mechanisms, such as fan uploads and polls.**
Remember, regardless of the scheduled time and just like regular broadcasts, these automations will not activate until you click the green 'Activate' button.
You will see a 'Set Up Phone Numbers' prompt if you don't have phone numbers set up or you don't have one of either a UK/ROW or US/CAN number set up in your Artist Settings. Reach out to support@openstage.live to get these set up.
Pre-Save Automated Broadcasts
If you selected Pre-Save Broadcasts earlier on in the flow, these work in the same way.
Choose your trigger and your default audience will be set to include fans who have pre-saved. You can then segment them further if necessary. For example, you could send a playlist featuring personally curated tracks to fans who have pre-saved through a sign-up Landing Page flow.
**Top tip: Test the flow internally before making any broadcasts client-facing, whether they are manual or automated.**
Video Walkthrough