Contents
- Introduction
- What email options are available?
- Sending an email
- Using email templates
- Working with merge fields in your emails
- Selecting a Reply-To email address
- Scheduling an email
Introduction
As a ChMeetings Owner, Admin or Group Leader, you can email people in your congregation right from within your account, for free, through an easy-to-use email editor.
📔 Please note: You cannot send emails for the first 48h after having created your account, no matter the plan you’re using. This is due to the approval process that each of our accounts is going through.
📔 Please also note that if you are a free user, you can send 50 emails per month. All paid plans come with unlimited emails.
What email options are available?
Email an individual person
You can email an individual person by going to the People module, accessing their profile and clicking on the email icon underneath their profile picture. It is possible to email people from anywhere you can access their profiles, not just the People module (e.g.: Contributions, Users & Roles - both accessible to Owners & Admins).
Email one or more people in one go
- Go to the People module,
- Select one or more people using the checkbox next to them,
-
Select Email.
Email everyone
- Go to People
- Select Email, right next to Send All People, at the top of your list.
Email the people in a group
You can send emails to everyone, or to part of the people in a group by following these steps:
- Go to the Groups module,
- Select the Group you require,
- If you click the Email button without selecting anyone, then you can email everyone in the group.
-
Alternatively, select the people you want to email, then click Email.
Email event participants
You can email the people who have registered for an event by following the steps below:
- Go to the Events module,
- Select the required Event,
- If you are working with a recurring event, please also select the occurrence.
- Click on People,
- If you click the Email button without selecting anyone, you can email everyone in the group.
-
Alternatively, select the people you want to email, then click Email.
Email people from the Follow Up module
You can email someone (or more than one person) that you need to follow up with by email, right from within your list of Follow ups.
- Go to the Follow Up module,
- Select all follow ups or just those you need,
- Click Bulk Actions,
- Select Email People.
Sending an email
Once you have clicked one of the available email options above, you will be shown an email editor window, where you can compose your message.
The email editor includes the following fields:
-
BCC or TO - This is where email recipients are listed. You can add more recipients to both these fields after making the initial selection of people to email. The default selection is BCC
- BCC: When emailing multiple people in one go, this option sends separate messages to each address without making other recipients visible. This means that people cannot see and reply to others’ messages. However, you can use merge fields to pull individual people's profile data,
- TO: When you send an email using the TO option, then everyone can see all other recipients and reply to each other’s messages. However, merge fields cannot be used due to the multiple recipients of the email.
- Template - You can save an email as a template, then use it later so you don’t have to type the same message again. Please see the section on Using email templates, below.
- Subject - This is the main subject of your email.
- Add to body - This field allows you to select specific fields from within your recipient profile(s) and automatically retrieve their information without having to type it in for each person. Please see the Working with merge fields section below.
- Body - Here is where you can edit the text of your email message.
- Attach files - This is where you can click on Select File and browse your computer for a file you want to attach to the email. The maximum file size is 20MB.
- Send - Once you’re ready editing your email, click on Send. Click Cancel otherwise.
Using email templates
Email templates allow you to insert text into your messages with just a couple of clicks. This way you don’t have to type everything in and just tweak your message as needed.
📔 Please note that templates save the subject and body, but do not include attachments, only the email body text.
Creating a new template from scratch
To create a new template, simply edit the email body, then click on Save this as template.
Especially for templates that you may use to email people in bulk, we highly recommend that you add merge fields to the body. This way the information will be automatically added for each person, from their own profiles. It saves you time and prevents possible mistakes.
Next, give your template a name. Click the checkmark icon when you’re ready to save.
Once you save the template, your current email will automatically select it. You can choose this template anytime later, using the Select Template dropdown.
Updating an existing template
If you would like to update an existing template, please follow the steps below:
- In the email editor, first choose your desired template from the Select Template dropdown list.
- You will then see the following options:
- Rename the template by clicking the pencil (🖉) icon next to its name.
- Save as a new template. To do this, simply make the changes you require, then click Save this as a new template. All changes made will be saved as a new template. If you do not change the name, your new template will be saved as a copy of the one you have updated.
- Update the template: You can update the selected template by making your required changes, then clicking Update template. This will save your changes over the selected template.
- Delete template allows you to remove the selected template from your list. You will need to confirm your choice to delete. Please note that deleted templates cannot be restored.
Working with merge fields in your emails
How are merge fields useful?
If you would like to personalize your email, you can use the merge fields at the top of the text editor, listed under Add to Body. These allow you to automatically retrieve some of the information that the member provided and respond to them in a more personal manner. These fields will automatically update their corresponding information if it changes, therefore you do not need to update the email template in this case. The field will automatically update it for you.
Each merge field corresponds to a profile field. Both default and custom fields are available to select.
You can use merge fields both in templates and in standalone emails that you don’t save as a template.
Adding a merge field
You can add merge fields to the email body and the subject line. To add a merge field, please follow these steps:
- In the text editor, place your cursor in the position where you would like the personalized information to display. For example, if you would like to address a new member by their first name, you can use the FIRST_NAME field after the greeting. When the member sees your message, “FIRST_NAME” will be replaced with their actual name.
- Click on the fields list, found under Add to Body.
- Select the field that you would like to add.
- Click the 🕀 sign next to the list. This will add the field into the text area, at the position of your cursor.
Deleting merge field
You can delete a merge field like any other text, using your backspace/delete key.
Selecting a Reply-To email address
By default, emails are sent from the sender’s profile email.
As an Admin or Owner, if you want users to be able to choose between the profile email and the main church email, please configure the Sender Name and Reply To address under Settings > Account Settings > Email Settings. Learn more.
You can then select the Sender within your email window, under the Attach File option.
Scheduling an email
You can easily schedule to send an email at a specific date and time.
Simply open the email editor, create your message, then turn on the Scheduler, from the bottom of the window.
Once the Scheduler is on, you will see two additional fields in your editor: Date and Time. Simply select when you would like to send out this email, and click Schedule. ChMeetings will save it for you, and only send it at the scheduled date and time.
You can edit and delete scheduled emails by going to Reports > Email History Report.