Send a mailout

A mailout is an email campaign built from blocks: text, a picture, a button and an event card. You choose who gets it, preview it, send yourself a test, then send it now or schedule it. Mailouts are an add-on. See Add-ons for how to turn them on. Without the add-on you can still write drafts and read the results of earlier mailouts, but sending is locked.

Mailouts come with a monthly allowance of emails, which protects the sending service all organisations share. The "Mailouts" page and the "Add-ons" page show how much you have used this month, for example "1,240 of 5,000 emails used this month". The allowance starts again on the first day of each month, Sydney time. Test emails do not count.

Use a mailout for news and invitations. For an official notice to one event's field, use a bulletin instead. See Send a bulletin.

Write one

1. Choose "Mailouts" in the menu, then "New mailout".

2. Fill in the "Subject". Add a "Preheader (optional)" if you want a short line to show beside the subject in people's inboxes.
3. Under "Who gets it", choose "The whole organisation" or "One event". See "Who gets it" below.

4. Under "The email", add blocks with "Add text", "Add image", "Add button" and "Add event card". Use "Up" and "Down" to reorder them and "Remove" to delete one. Text is plain: paragraphs and line breaks are kept and web addresses become links. HTML is not accepted.
   • An image block takes a JPEG, PNG or WebP picture up to 5 MB. Describe the picture so people who cannot see it know what it shows.
   • A button block needs a label and a web address.
   • An event card block shows the event's name, dates and place, with a link to its public page.

5. Choose "Save draft".

Every email is sent in your organisation's branded layout. We add an unsubscribe link and a line saying who sent it: your organisation's name, the contact email and the postal address from your organisation settings. Check those are filled in before you send.

Who gets it

For one event, tick any of these groups:

• "Entrants: drivers and entrant managers"
• "Crews: co-drivers"
• "Officials on the roster"
• "Volunteers"
• "Waitlist: drivers and co-drivers"

Tick classes under "Classes" and entry states under "Entry states" to narrow the entrants and crews. With nothing ticked you reach every class and every entry that holds a place.

For the whole organisation, tick "Members", "Lapsed members", "Committee (organiser staff)", "Past entrants" or "Rostered officials". Members can be limited by "Membership types" and "Member status".

Each person gets one email, even if they are in several groups. People who have unsubscribed from your emails, and addresses we cannot email, are left out.

Preview, test and send

Open the draft from the list. Under "Preview and send":

1. The page says how many people the saved draft reaches today. The audience is worked out again when it is sent, so people who join or unsubscribe before then count.
2. Choose "Preview in a new tab" to see the email as people will, with sample details. Save your changes first: the preview and the send use the saved draft.
3. Choose "Send a test to me" to email the saved draft to your own address. The subject starts with "[Test]". Nothing is recorded and the links are not tracked.
4. To send later, pick a time under "Send later" and choose "Schedule". The time is in the event's timezone, or Sydney time for the whole organisation. Take a scheduled mailout back to a draft with "Cancel schedule" if you need to change it.
5. To send now, choose "Send now" and confirm in the "Send mailout" window.

A mailout is never sent in part. If it goes to more people than you have emails left this month, "Send now" and "Schedule" are refused with a message saying how many people it goes to and how many sends are left. Choose a smaller audience, wait for next month, or contact us to raise your limit. A scheduled mailout is checked again when it is due, because other mailouts may have used the allowance in between.

A sent mailout cannot be edited or deleted: it stays as the record of what people were emailed. Big sends go out in batches over a few minutes.

Read the results

Open a sent mailout from the list. "Results" shows how many were "Sent", "Opened (approx.)", "Clicked", "Bounced" and "Unsubscribed", and a table with one row per person.

• Sent means the mail server accepted the email, not that it reached the inbox.
• Opens are approximate. Some email apps load the tiny image at the end before anyone reads the email, and others block it. A click on a link also counts as an open.
• Clicked counts people who clicked any link in the email.
• Bounced counts addresses the mail provider reported as undeliverable after the mailout went out.

Unsubscribing

Every email has an unsubscribe link, and email apps show their own unsubscribe button. When someone uses either, they are added to your organisation's opt-out list and never receive another mailout or newsletter from you. This does not stop their account, entry and security emails.

If something goes wrong

• The send buttons are greyed out and a notice says Mailouts is an add-on. The add-on is off for your organisation. See Add-ons.
• The page says 0 people. Nothing matches the groups and filters you ticked, or everyone in them has unsubscribed.
• A scheduled mailout went back to a draft. At the time it was due, the add-on was off, nobody could be emailed or there were not enough emails left this month. The mailout page says which, and the owner gets a notification. Fix that and schedule it again.
• The page says only some sends are left this month. You have used most of your monthly allowance. Contact us to raise the limit.