How to

How to schedule an email blast (and cancel one)

The board meeting moved and every member needs to know by Friday. A blast sends one message template to everyone in a distribution group. Email blasts always wait at least 30 minutes before they go, with a countdown, so the typo or the wrong group you notice a minute after clicking is a cancel, not an apology.

Before you start

  • Communication is on for your company, and your login can manage blasts.
  • Email is set up for your company (otherwise Email isn't offered as a channel), and blasts send from your company's verified domain.
  • There's a message template for the email (see the merge-fields guide below).
  • There's a distribution group with the right people in it (Communication → Distribution Groups).

Steps

  1. Open Communication → Blasts and click New Blast.

  2. Fill in Name:, set Channel: to Email, and pick the Message Template:. The Message Preview on the right shows the email as it will look, with merge fields highlighted.

  3. Under Send as:, keep Company mailbox or pick an employee's mailbox. Pick the Distribution Group:.

  4. Click Save Draft. The app says Blast saved.

  5. To send later, set Send at:. Leave it blank to send as soon as the hold allows.

  6. Click Schedule. The confirmation names the group and the time, "in 30 minutes" or "at" your time, whichever is later. Confirm it.

  7. The blast is now Scheduled. A banner counts down: "Scheduled — sends in 28m 10s … to N recipient(s). Nothing has gone out yet; send it now or cancel it any time before then."

  8. Changed your mind? Click Cancel Blast: "Cancel this blast? Nothing has been sent yet, and nothing will be." Sure it's right? Click Send now to skip the rest of the hold.

Once it's sending. The blast shows Sending with a running count. Cancel Blast still works: everything not yet sent is stopped, and what already went stays sent. The Blasts list shows Delivered, Failed and Cancelled counts for each blast. (screenshot: the Blasts list)

Invoices go first. Email is sent in batches, and each batch sends invoices and other one-off mail first, with no limit. Blast mail fills what's left, up to a daily limit per sending mailbox (50 a day unless your settings raise it). A blast never pushes an invoice to tomorrow. The flip side: a large email blast can stay Sending for days.

Text and voice blasts use the same screen. They have no hold: they send right away unless Send at: is in the future, and a member who replied STOP is skipped.

What posts behind it

Nothing to the ledger. Each message is recorded against the blast with its status, and per-message cost where the channel has one (text and voice).

When it won’t let you

Bulk email blasts must be sent from your company's verified domain (yourcompany.com). 'someone@gmail.com' is not permitted for blasts. Pick Company mailbox or a mailbox on your own domain under Send as:.

A message template is required to send a blast. Pick a Message Template: and save before scheduling.

This blast has already been sent and can no longer be edited. Once a blast leaves Draft it's read-only. Cancel it and make a new one.

Cannot delete a blast while it is scheduled — cancel it first.

Only a scheduled or sending blast can be cancelled (this one is Complete).

What this doesn't do

There's no unsubscribe list for email: an "unsubscribe" reply is handled by hand (text and voice do honour STOP). No open or click tracking; the counts are delivered, failed and cancelled. No attachments. One distribution group per blast, no segment builder. The preview shows the merge fields, not one recipient's filled-in copy. And the 30-minute hold can be made longer in settings, never shorter; Send now is the only way past it.

Related

Stuck on this one? Call (509) 955-0770 and we'll walk through it with you.

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