Email broadcasts

A broadcast is an email from your community to its members. Use it for announcements, event reminders or a regular update. You write it once, preview it, send yourself a test, and then send it now or schedule it for later.

Who can do this: the owner, admins and moderators of a community on Honey Bee or higher. How often you can send depends on your plan.

In the app the dashboard card is called Broadcasts. The page it opens is headed Community Newsletter, and the button to write a new one reads New newsletter. They are the same feature.

#Who receives a broadcast

Only members who want your emails receive them. A member is eligible when all of these are true:

• They have joined your community.
• They have a verified email address.
• They have switched on Community newsletters by email under Settings and Display & notifications.
• They have not unsubscribed from your community or from all newsletters.

Every broadcast includes an unsubscribe link, so a member can opt out of your community without changing their other email settings. The editor shows the number of eligible recipients above the Preview button. A single broadcast reaches at most 5,000 unique recipients.

#How often you can send

You can send one broadcast per cadence period. The period depends on your Hive3 plan.

The clock starts from your last send. If you try to send before the next allowed date, Hive3 shows when sending opens again and lets you schedule the broadcast for that date or later instead.

#Write a broadcast

1. Open Broadcasts

   On your dashboard, select Broadcasts, then New newsletter.

2. Add a subject

   Type the Subject. It can be up to 180 characters.

3. Check your branding

   The Branding card shows the logo and banner that appear in every broadcast, plus an Accent color for the header bar and footer links. Select Edit logo and banner to change the images, or Reset to return to the default color.

4. Add a hero image (optional)

   Select Upload under Hero image. If you skip it, your community banner is used when you have one.

5. Write the message

   Use the Rich text tab to write in the editor. It supports basic formatting, links, lists, headings, quotes, tables and images, up to 3,000 words. Appearance can vary between email apps.

#Use your own HTML instead

If you already design your emails elsewhere, open the HTML file tab and select Upload HTML file. Files must be .html or .htm and no larger than 256 KB. Hive3 removes unsupported elements, attributes and styles before it previews, saves and sends the email, and external stylesheets and CSS imports are not supported.

Switching between the two tabs asks Switch authoring mode?, because the content you wrote in one is not carried into the other. Choose Keep current mode to stay put.

#Preview and test

• Select Preview to open Email preview and see the email as members will receive it.
• Select Send test to me to email the broadcast to your own primary email address first. Your account needs a primary email for this to work.

#Save drafts

Select Save draft at any time. Open Drafts (the number shows how many you have) to go back to a broadcast. Each entry shows a status badge: draft, scheduled, sending, sent or failed.

#Send or schedule

1. Start the send

   Select Send newsletter. A window asks Send this newsletter? and shows the recipient count, your cadence and, if it applies, the next date you can send.

2. Pick when

   Choose Send now, or choose Schedule and set a Delivery time. A scheduled time must be at least a minute away, and no earlier than the next allowed send date.

3. Confirm

   Select Send newsletter (or Schedule newsletter). Delivery cannot be recalled once it starts.

#After you send

• While a broadcast is sending, a progress bar shows how many emails the email service accepted, how many failed and how many are uncertain.
• A scheduled broadcast shows Scheduled for and its date. Select Cancel schedule to return it to a draft.
• A sent broadcast is read-only. Write a new one for your next update.

#Tips

• Keep one clear message per broadcast, because you can only send every few weeks.
• If your recipient count is lower than you expect, remind members to turn on Community newsletters by email in their settings.
• Schedule around your events so reminders arrive at the right time.

#Related

• Members and applications
• Notifications
• Broadcasts API