Very similar to the Send Communication Action, Planned Communications lets you organize, create and schedule a variety of communications to your Attendees.
Clicking on the Planned Communication Action Button brings up this Planned Communication Panel:
Your options include:
Name - enter the name of your Communication, such as "Post-Event Thanks".
Type - selecting the type of communication you plan on sending:
Plain Text Email
HTML Email
Merge Doc Email
Text Message
Attendee App Message
Start Date - the Date and Time to send the communication.
Tip: if you are using the Recurrence tab, the Recurrence Start Date will be auto-filled from the Start Date here.
Target Group - selecting this lets you filter to any subset in the EventsAir database.
Tip: You must open the Target Group filter, (optionally) enter a filter selection, and then press Apply.
This is Marketing Checkbox - this option will indicate to EventsAir that this is a marketing communication, and as such, provides an opt-out option within the email body. It is important to note that if someone has registered for an event, these communications are typically NOT considered marketing, since they are in a formal business relationship with you. The marketing opt-out is required to conform to anti-spam standards for email communications.
Output - send automatically, or place in the email queue.
Tag Code - Whenever you send an email to a group of attendees, it can be extremely useful to categorize a specific email group or campaign. With Communication Tags, you can enter any phrase to categorize a specific email campaign you've sent. Then, you are able to search and filter on any specific campaign at a later time.
Tip: Unlike Tag Codes in other modules, Communication Tag Codes don't need to first be created in the Setup panel - just directly type in whatever you want here, or click on the field to select from a list of previous Tags you have entered.
From Name - you can enter the full name of the sending party here.
From Address - you can enter the sender's email address here.
Note: If your event is configured to use anything other than the default mail server (EventsAirmail.com), the email domain will be pre-filled for you here (@somedomain.com). These email domains are not configured inside EventsAir; they are set up by EventsAir when your account is first created. If you need to use a different domain, please contact EventsAir support.
BCC and CC - you can enter Carbon Copy (Cc:) and Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc:) email addresses here.
Subject - this is where you enter the subject of your email.
Attachments - this option lets you attach files to your communications, such as FAQ sheets or maps.
Body - this will change based on which option you select. HTML messages will get a full HTML editor, otherwise you will see a text window to enter your message.
Merge Fields - this useful feature lets you merge data from a selection of database merge fields into your communication.
Site Links - this lets you insert a link to one of your Interactive Sites.
Add Auto Login Token - this will insert a short line of code into your site link that when clicked, will open the Interactive Site with the contact's or attendee's details already populated in the site.
Open HTML Editor - if you select HTML, this button opens the HTML editor to create your message content.
Optional Alert - selecting this option tells EventsAir to send an Alert when this email is actually sent. You can also set the Alert Level for the alert.
Recurrence Tab
The Recurrence Tab lets you define a scheduled recurrence for the email to be sent. For example, you can define a filter to select only those records who have not yet paid their conference fees, and every week, that selected group of attendees will receive a payment due reminder.
Options in the Recurrence Tab include:
Start and End Date
Pattern
Daily
Every number of specific days
Every Weekday
Weekly
Monthly
On Registration - starts the recurring email send after the specific number of days after registration
Resend - this option lets you automatically resend emails after a specific number of days is reached (with or without date limitation) or for a number of times
Selected Records Tab
The information on this tab shows you all of the people who will receive your communication. By default, without any filters applied, you will see all the active records in your database. If you apply a filter, only those matching records will display.
Sent To Tab
This tab will list all attendees who were sent communications (similar to the Sent box in your email client). This can be extremely useful when confirming that a specific person was sent a communication on a specific date and time.