Messages lets you email the customers registered for your programs from your provider dashboard: a schedule change, a packing list, or a reminder about pickup. Open Messages in your provider dashboard to write one, or start from a roster or a listing's Sessions page with the Message action.

What Messages is for

Messages is for operational email with customers who are registered with you right now. It keeps the conversation about a registration in one place, sent under your organization's name, with replies coming straight to you.

Messages is not an email marketing tool, and it does not replace one like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. It is built for the emails a customer expects because they registered, not for newsletters, promotions or campaigns. In particular, Messages does not:

• Reach past customers, people who have not registered, or everyone who has ever registered with you. Only current registrations can be messaged (see Who a message reaches).
• Import contact lists or let you add addresses by hand.
• Offer designed templates, images in the body, or formatting. A message is plain text, with up to three files attached.
• Track opens or clicks. You see whether each email was delivered, and nothing more.
• Run automated sequences, drip campaigns or audience segments.

If you want to market to a wider audience, keep using an email marketing tool for that. Use Messages for what your current customers need to know.

Who a message reaches

Every message belongs to one of your listings. Under Who it goes to, choose one of:

• A listing -- everyone registered in that listing's current and upcoming sessions.
• One session -- that session's registrations. If the session has drop-in dates, you choose whether to include none of them, all of them, or the dates you pick.
• People you select on a roster -- tick participants on a session's roster and choose Message. The message goes to exactly the registrations you ticked.

Some registrations are never messaged, and there is no setting to change this:

• Sessions that have ended. Once a session's last day has passed, you can no longer message the people registered for it, and Message is not available on its roster.
• Cancelled registrations, unpaid seats, invitations that have not been accepted, and checkouts that were never completed.

There is no way to message every customer in your organization at once. That is deliberate: Messages reaches people about the program they are registered for.

Which addresses it goes to

Under Which addresses, choose where each registration's copy goes. It lists Account email followed by every Email address question on the forms behind the registrations you chose.

• Account email is always listed and ticked by default. It is the address on the account that registered and paid. If you send to nothing else, every registration is reached through this address.
• Email address questions on your registration forms let you reach a second contact as well: a second parent, a guardian at another address, a nanny, an emergency contact.

Each option shows how many of the registrations in front of you have a usable address for it, written as "4 of 12 registrations". Account email is usually close to the full count; a second-contact question is usually lower, because not every family fills one in. A question stays on the list even at zero, so the list does not change shape as you move between sessions. A zero means nobody in this audience answered it, and ticking it adds nobody.

Tick as many as you want. Addresses are combined across everything you tick, and each address receives one copy: a parent who gave the same address as their account email and as the second contact gets one message, not two.

Adding an Email question to a form

A form question appears under Which addresses only when it was built as an Email address question. Options are not guessed from a question's title or from what people typed: a question titled "Parent 2 Email" built as a plain text question will not appear, while an Email address question will, whatever it is called. This is deliberate, so that you never send to a field that only happens to hold an address.

1. Open the form you want to change from Forms in your provider dashboard.
2. Add a question and choose Email address from the toolbox, beside Phone number.
3. Title it so a parent knows whose address you want. "Second parent's email" is clearer than "Email 2".
4. Mark it Required only if you need it. A parent with no second address to give will type something like "n/a" to get past it, and that answer is skipped.
5. Save the form. The question appears the next time you write a message.

The parent's browser checks an Email address answer as they type, so common slips -- a comma instead of a dot in "name@gmail,com", a missing ".com" -- are caught while they can still fix them. A plain text question accepts them and you never find out.

Each question holds one address. A question built to collect a list of addresses is not offered at this time, so ask for two contacts in two questions. Rewording a question later keeps the addresses already collected under it.

Changing the questions on a form means it is asked again at the next registration: answers to unchanged questions carry forward, and a changed or new question opens blank. See Do Parents Have To Fill Out Forms Every Time They Register? Marking an existing question as an Email address question is the exception and does not have that effect. For more on building forms, see How to Make a Registration Form.

Registrations, customers and addresses

The composer shows three different counts, and they are often very different numbers. That is expected. Every email address receives your message once, no matter how many registrations it is connected to.

• Registrations -- one child in one session. A parent who registers two children for three sessions each has made 6 registrations. Each drop-in date a child is registered for also counts as a registration.
• Customers -- the people who paid for those registrations. That same parent is one customer.
• Addresses -- the different email addresses the message will go to, from the options you ticked under Which addresses. The number under Goes to is this count.

Seeing every address before you send

Under Goes to, choose See every address. The list shows:

• The addresses that will receive it, grouped by where each came from: Account email first, then each email question on your forms. Under each address are the children it covers. An address that appears in more than one place is listed once, under the first.
• Left out -- the addresses and answers the message will skip:
  • Unsubscribed from you -- people who used the unsubscribe link in one of your messages.
  • Can't receive email -- addresses that have bounced or reported email as spam. Check the address with the customer.
  • Not an email address -- what was typed into an email question when it isn't a valid address, such as "n/a" or "same as above", with the children it was entered for. This helps you ask the customer for the right address.

Every answer is checked again when the message is sent. Anything skipped is never sent to, and the composer tells you how many were skipped before you send. The list updates when you change who the message goes to or which addresses to include, so it always matches the count under Goes to.

Writing, testing and sending

1. Write a subject and your message under The message. Attach up to three files if you need to.
2. Switch to Preview to see the email exactly as a customer will receive it.
3. Choose Send me a test to email the message to yourself first. A test goes only to your own address, with "[Test]" before the subject, and no customer receives it.
4. Choose Send now, or Schedule for later and pick a date and time up to 90 days ahead, in your organization's timezone.

Before anything goes out, the composer shows how many addresses the message will reach and asks you to confirm. A message stays a draft until you send or schedule it, and you can save it and come back later.

By default you also receive your own copy of every message you send (Send me a copy).

How scheduled messages work

A scheduled message goes to whoever is registered when it sends, not when you scheduled it. Someone who registers in between receives it; someone who cancels does not. If you scheduled a message for people selected on a roster, it goes to those who are still registered.

To change a scheduled message, open it and choose Unschedule and edit. It becomes a draft again.

If a scheduled message can no longer be sent when its time comes -- for example, nobody is registered anymore, or your daily limit is already used -- it is marked Failed, the reason appears on the message, and you are notified in the dashboard.

What your customers receive

• The email comes from your organization's name "via Enrichment.kids", with your logo at the top.
• One address gets one email that names every participant it covers, so a parent with two children registered gets one email that mentions both.
• A second contact you ticked receives their own copy, with their own unsubscribe link.
• Replies go to your organization's email address, or to the reply-to address you set on that message. Replies do not come back into the dashboard.
• The footer explains why they are receiving it, for example which of their children is registered for which program.
• Every message includes a link to stop receiving messages from you.

Limits

A scheduled message counts toward the daily limit for the day it will send. The Messages page shows how many messages you have sent in the last 24 hours. If a message cannot go, the composer tells you why before you send.

Unsubscribes

A customer who follows the unsubscribe link stops receiving messages from your organization only, at that address only. They still receive their receipts, registration updates, and messages from other providers, and their registration is not affected. They can resubscribe from the same link at any time.

Addresses that have unsubscribed from you are left out of every message automatically. Messages are also not sent to addresses that have bounced or reported email as spam anywhere on Enrichment.kids.

Checking what was sent

The Messages page lists every message with its status: Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Sent or Failed. Open a sent message to see the email and a Recipients table with every address it went to, where the address came from, and who it covers.

Each address shows Waiting to send, Sent, Delivered or Delivery failed. An address that is now unsubscribed from you is marked in the Unsubscribed column.

FAQ

Can I send a newsletter or promotion to all my past customers?

No. Messages only reaches registrations in current and upcoming sessions, and it is not built for marketing. Use an email marketing tool for newsletters and promotions.

Why can't I message a session that just ended?

Messages are for sessions that are running or coming up, so once a session's last day has passed, it can no longer be messaged. If someone from that session is also registered for a current or upcoming session of the same listing, you can still reach them through that session.

My form asks for a second email address, but it is not in Which addresses. Why?

The question was built as a plain text question rather than an Email address question. Add an Email address question to that form and it will appear the next time you write a message. See Adding an Email question to a form.

My listing has 119 registrations. Why does the message only go to 23 addresses?

Because each email address receives the message once. One customer can hold many registrations -- several children, several sessions -- but their account email is still one address. See Registrations, customers and addresses for a worked example.

Why did fewer people receive my message than I expected?

Besides counting each address once, the message leaves out cancelled registrations, addresses that have unsubscribed from you, addresses that bounced or reported spam, and form answers that are not valid email addresses. Choose See every address under Goes to to see exactly which were left out.

Can I recall a message after sending it?

No. A sent message cannot be recalled. Use Send me a test and Preview to check it first. A scheduled message can be unscheduled and edited any time before it sends.

Where do replies go?

To your organization's email address, or to the reply-to address you set on the message. Replies do not come back into the dashboard.

A customer unsubscribed by mistake. How do they get messages again?

They can open the unsubscribe link in any of your messages again and choose Resubscribe. If they no longer have the email, contact support.