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 setup screen:
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. [The dates and times are based on your event time zone, and include any adjustments for Daylight Saving for the dates you specify, for that time zone.]
Tip: if you're using the Recurrence tab, the Recurrence Start Date will be auto-filled from the Start Date here.
Target Group - select this to set the recipient list. You must open the Target Group filter and either press "Apply" for all contacts in your event, or select your filter(s), and then press Apply.
This is Marketing Checkbox - this option indicates to EventsAir that this is a marketing communication, and adds an opt-out option within the email body. The marketing opt-out is required to conform to anti-spam standards for email communications. If someone has registered for an event, these communications are typically NOT considered marketing, since they're in a formal business relationship with you.
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 Tag Codes, you can enter any phrase to categorize a specific email campaign you've sent. Then, you can search and filter on any specific campaign at a later time.
Tip: 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 your previous Tag Codes.
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). Your email domain is set up when your EventsAir 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 - add the subject of your email.
Attachments - this option lets you attach files to your communications, such as FAQs, maps etc.
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 - you can merge in data from a selection of fields.
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.
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 [based on your event time zone]
Pattern [the initial send 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
Under this tab, you can see all the people who'll receive your communication. If you haven't filtered your list, this will be all active records in your event. If you apply a filter, only 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. You can also see this information in an individual contact's record (in the Communication module).