Emailing a lot of people at once

Writing to every parent, every teacher, or everyone in one group - from a query, without a spreadsheet and a mail merge.

Step 1 of 7

Start from a query, not a list

Batch email comes from Query. A query whose Type is Distribution List gains a Send Email button when you run it - that setting is the whole difference between a query you can write to and one you can only read. You can see it on the query's Details tab.

If a query has no Send Email button, its Type is something else. Ask us and we will set it on the Master copy for everybody.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

1. Start from a query, not a list

   Batch email comes from Query. A query whose Type is Distribution List gains a Send Email button when you run it - that setting is the whole difference between a query you can write to and one you can only read. You can see it on the query's Details tab.

   If a query has no Send Email button, its Type is something else. Ask us and we will set it on the Master copy for everybody.

2. Run it, then Send Email

   Run the query and check the rows before you write anything - this is the list, exactly. Send Email sits in the toolbar along the top, next to Send SMS.

   Filter the columns first if you want a subset. The email goes to what is on screen, so filtering down to one group is how you write to just that group.

3. One email per row - so pick the right query

   This is the part that surprises people. Emailing sends one email per row, so a query returning one row per lesson writes to the same parent four times. The de-duplication has to come from the query.

   Contacts - Contact 1 with active Activity returns one row per main contact for every pupil with something active this year. It is the usual starting point for writing to all parents.

4. Write it

   From decides whether it comes from you or from the service's own address - which is where replies will go, so it matters more than it looks. Then a subject and the message. Any column from the query can be dropped into the body with Insert Tag, so Dear {FirstName} does what you expect.

   A template fills in the message body only, never the subject. An email with no subject will not send, and that catches people who loaded a template and pressed Send.

5. Campaign - the one worth learning

   Set a Campaign and a Campaign Stage and Xperios remembers who has had it. Anybody who already received that stage is left out, so sending again only reaches the people who did not get it. If a big send is ever interrupted, that is how you finish it without writing to everyone twice.

   The Marketing email switch below it sends on the marketing channel instead of the one used for invoices and reminders. Leave it off for ordinary service mail.

6. Check who it is going to

   The Recipients tab lists everyone and lets you untick anybody you do not want. Above it are two dropdowns worth a look: which column holds the email address, and which holds the contact. Xperios guesses from the column names, and on a query with more than one email column it can guess wrong.

   The contact column is what puts the email on the right person's journal. Get it wrong and the email goes out but lands on nobody's record.

7. Afterwards, check a journal

   A sent email appears on the recipient's journal. That makes the journal the honest answer to "did it go?" - if an email is not there, it was not sent, whatever the screen said at the time.

   Worth knowing when a send errors: look at two or three journals before sending again, so you do not write to the people who did get it.

Why this one is worth knowing

Three things account for nearly every batch-email question.

One email per row - people run a query that returns a line per activity and are surprised when a parent of three gets three emails. The fix is the query, not the email.

No Send Email button - the query's Type is not Distribution List.

"Did it actually go?" - the journal answers it, and nothing else does.

Campaign and Campaign Stage are the least known and the most useful: they turn a re-send into a top-up rather than a duplicate.

The same ground, as reference

• Sending a batch email — the screen in full
• Queries — query types, and what each one is for
• Running a query — filtering, exporting and alerts