Broadcasts allow you to send messages to multiple clients at once. Broadcasts can be used in our Plus and Team plans. You can send either direct chat messages, emails, or both.
- Creating Broadcasts
- Attaching Files
- A Note on SPAM
- Send a Broadcast to Clients in a Program
- Updating and Deleting Broadcasts
- Viewing your Message Dispatch Summary
Creating a new Broadcast
To create a new broadcast, go to your Chat page and select click the New broadcast from the Fast Action Button in the bottom-right corner:
1) Enter a description for your broadcast. Use a descriptive name to identify your message (e.g. "Group Session Recap"). Your clients will not see this description when receiving your message.
2) Select the delivery method. You can choose from the following options:
- Send a direct chat message - Clients with access to the Client Portal will receive a direct chat message.
- Send a direct chat message (or email if uninvited) - Clients with access to the Client Portal will receive a chat message; clients without access to the portal will receive an email
- Send an email
- Send a direct chat message and an email
3) Select a date for your message to be dispatched. This can be set to send immediately or scheduled for a future date. Your message will be sent based on the time zone in your profile.
4) Enter your direct chat and/or email message. Use the placeholder button (<>) to insert template fields to personalize your message. You can include the following placeholders in your chat and email messages:
- %CONTACT_NAME%
- %CONTACT_FIRSTNAME%
- %CONTACT_LASTNAME%
5) Click Next to select the recipients of your message. You can select individual clients or send your message to recipients with a specific tag(s):
Tip: Hold the Shift key and click a tag to select all clients in the list associated with the tag. You can then unselect individual clients if you don't need to send the message to all clients with the tag.
6) Review the list of recipients and click Submit/Schedule to create your broadcast.
Attaching Files
You can attach up to 5 documents with a maximum file size of 5 MB. The total attachment size cannot exceed 5 MB.
Click the Attach files button in the bottom-left corner of the popup to select files from your device:
A Note on SPAM
Misspelled words, excessive use of caps, repetitive use of exclamation marks, and promotional leads such as “free” and “buy now” will likely result in your emails getting sent straight to the junk folder and clients unsubscribing from future notifications.
Examples of "spammy" content include:
- BOOK A FREE CALL!!!
- LAST CHANCE TO SAVE!!!
- BUY NOW!!!
Sending Broadcasts to Clients in a Program
You can send broadcasts to clients in your program by going to your program's Overview page. Click the Fast Action Button in the bottom-right corner, then select Send a broadcast from the options provided:
Updating and Deleting Broadcasts
You can manage your upcoming and past broadcasts from the Broadcasts tab on your Messages page. For scheduled broadcasts, click on the broadcast description to make updates before your message is dispatched.
Click the 3 dots to either duplicate, cancel or delete the message.
Viewing your Message Dispatch Summary
You can view the delivery summary for a dispatched broadcast message by clicking on the broadcast then selecting the Delivery Summary tab:
The type of message sent to each client will be displayed beside their name (e.g. Email sent, Direct chat sent, or Email and direct chat sent).
You may see Not dispatched next to certain clients in a couple of scenarios:
- The Direct chat only method was used and the client is not invited or has not activated their Practice Better account.
- The Email method was used and the client's email is blacklisted (or a dummy email).
Please note, there may be cases where an email was sent to a client but not delivered, e.g. the email address is incorrect or does not exist (bounced) or the client previously marked our emails as spam.
Email Broadcast Limits
Please also note, there are limits to how many broadcast emails can be sent per month.
The Plus Plan has a limit of 10,000 broadcast emails per month.
The Team Plan has a limit of 30,000 broadcast emails per team member per month.
Each individual email to a client counts toward this limit. For example, if a broadcast email is sent to 50 clients, this will count as 50 emails.