Getting Started with Broadcast News

The Broadcast News feature is an easy way to communicate to your entire congregation or select groups via their email addresses using the email you've already entered into your Church Directory! 

 Create and send email messages quickly and easily with this feature. In just a few, simple steps you’ll be able to create and deliver email information to your church community at no additional charge.

In this article:

• Create and test your quick message
• Send your quick message
• Can I edit a scheduled email?
• Manage Unsubscribes to your email messages

Create and test your Quick Message.

1

Now you're ready to create and send your first quick message. Click on Broadcast News and then click on the Send a Quick Message button.  

2

Create your message by entering a subject line and message. And here's the best part ... it's FAST and EASY!

• Enter a title in the Subject field—this creates the title of your email and will show in the existing message list once created.
• Write your message in the text box.
• Use the toolbar to format your message with bold, text alignment, colors, hyperlinks, etc.
• TIP: If you want single spacing after hitting Enter you can "Shift"-"Enter" at the same time to single space after a return. 
  

  

• Send a test email (if you wish) by entering an email address in the Send Test Email field, then click the Send Test Email button. This will send a test email to the email address you’ve entered. You can use the test email to review the message you’ve created and make any changes if you wish. It can take a few minutes for the test to arrive depending on your email provider. 

NOTE: Your test email will include [MERGED VERSION] in the subject line of the received test email. This will not appear on your final, sent email to your recipients.

Now that you've created your email, you're ready to click Select Contacts and Publish button. This will take you through a few quick checks to select your publishing options and review your message. 

If you’re not ready to send your email, your email will be saved and will show in the ‘Drafts’ folder on the ‘Broadcast and Send News’ page. Your email can be edited and/or sent whenever you are ready. The subject title you entered when first creating your message will be the name of the email shown on the list.

To edit an existing message, simply click on the title link of the email and make any necessary adjustments and you’re ready to send a test email or Select Contact and Publish.

Note Broadcast News does not provide the ability to include any type of attachments (e.g. documents or photos) with your emails. Adding an attachment will often cause your email to go into a "junk" folder.

If you'd like to send a file, you can upload it to your website or a cloud server (such as Google Drive) and then insert a link (URL) to the file within the body of your email.

Send your quick message

1

Choose your Contact Lists. Click on All Contacts or Choose one or more groups. You can click on the magnifying glass icon to view the complete list of members in each list. 

Who are in your Contact Lists?

All Contacts include all of your Family Emails and any individual emails with "Send Email Message" enabled.

Group lists will include family and/or individual emails belonging to that group.

If you have a group selected for a family, all emails (family and individuals with "Send Email Message" checked) will receive the email. If you have a group selected for a single individual, only the email address for that individual will receive your message.

Note: Family Emails are automatically opted in to receive broadcast messages. If they want to "opt-out" - you can remove the email address from the Family Email(s) field and move it to the individual where you can ensure "Receive Email Message" is NOT selected.

2

Confirm your Email Details. Confirm your Subject, From Name, Reply-to and Your Address are as you expect. 

• Subject - This is the title of your email.
• From Name - This is the sender’s name that appears in email clients. 
• Reply-to Email Address - This is where replies to your email will be sent.
• Read your email - Give it one final check. If you would like to make edits, go back to Broadcast News and look under Drafts. Click on the email to edit. 
• Your Address - To meet the requirements of anti-spam legislation, you must include a physical address as a part of your email content. Use the Update Address button to edit your address, and it will automatically be added to your email footer. You can change that address by clicking on the Update Address button.

 Send the email as soon as possible

This option moves your email to the Scheduled tab where it is then uploaded to the email server and added to the queue for sending.  It can take up to 20 minutes to send, but it usually happens much sooner. Once it is sent, the email will move to your Sent folder.

Schedule the email for later

This option allows you to choose a future time or date to send your message. When the time arrives, your email will go through the same steps described above.