Sending a batch email

A query can do more than tell you who fits a description — it can write to them. A query set up as a Marketing List gains a Send Email button on its results screen, which emails every row in the result.

This is how you contact "every teacher without a current DBS", or "every parent of a pupil starting next term", without exporting to a spreadsheet and mail merging.

Making a query a Marketing List

A query's Data Source setting decides what kind of query it is:

Type	What it is for
General Query	An ordinary question, run for its answer
Report	Backs a report
Marketing List	A list of people to write to — this is the one that enables Send Email
Process	Calls built-in logic rather than running SQL

Set it to Marketing List on the query's Details tab.

Who gets the email

Xperios works out which of the query's columns holds the email address, and which holds the contact, by looking for likely names — Email, ContactEmail, EmailAddress, and ContactID.

Because a query can return any columns at all, this is a suggestion rather than a certainty, so both are shown as dropdowns you can change. Check them before sending, particularly on a query returning more than one email column.

TIP

Your query must return an email address column for this to work. If Send Email cannot find one, add it to the SQL.

Writing the message

Subject and Message are the two things you must provide. Attachments can be added.

Template loads a predefined message so you are not starting from scratch. A query can also carry a Default Template, which loads automatically when the compose window opens.

A loaded template does not fill in the subject

Templates carry a message body but no subject line, so Send stays unavailable until you type one. If the Send button will not click, that is usually why — the reason is shown next to it.

Merge tokens

Any column your query returns can be dropped into the subject or the message in curly brackets, and is replaced per recipient. A query returning FirstName lets you write Dear {FirstName},.

Invite tokens

The invite templates use a handful of tokens that no query returns as a column. These are recognised and filled in for you:

Token	Becomes
{UserName}	The recipient's user name
{IssueUserName}	The name of the user sending the invitation
{BusinessName}	Your organisation's name
{WebPortalAddress}	A personal link into your Portal, generated per recipient
{BusinessTelNo}	Your organisation's telephone number
{BusinessEmailAddress}	Your organisation's email address

{WebPortalAddress} is the important one — each recipient gets their own link, created at the moment the email is sent.

The Organisation Invite template

That template also uses an {Organisation} token, which is not one of the recognised names above. It is only filled in if your query itself returns a column called Organisation. Without one, recipients see the literal text {Organisation} in the email.

Sending

Emails are queued rather than sent one at a time, and go out within about a minute. Each one is recorded against the recipient's contact record, so there is a history of what was sent to whom.