Learn how to send mass email or text messages to your contacts — also called “broadcasts” — in three simple steps.
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Feature update: Since this video was produced, you can now manage all your SMS messaging using Inbox. Check out this article to learn more about this feature.
Any businesses sending SMS or MMS messages that do not have their Sender Profile registered may be subject to blocked messages and/or noncompliance fees.
Learn more about why this is required and how to successfully register in this article. Then click here to register.
Feature update: Since this video was produced, you can now manage all your SMS messaging using Inbox. Check out this article to learn more about this feature.
Home > Ontraport for marketing > Messages > Email + SMS broadcasts
Email + SMS broadcasts
Course Instructor
- How to select contacts to receive a broadcast message
- How to choose a message to send
- How to schedule a broadcast
- How to cancel a broadcast
- How to review your broadcast stats
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Transcript
After watching this video, you’ll know how to send email or text messages to your contacts in Ontraport. We call this “sending a broadcast.” It’s perfect for one-time messages — like announcements or newsletters — that aren’t meant to be part of an automated follow-up sequence.
Sending a broadcast can be done in 3 steps, and we’ll cover them all in this video:
Step one is figuring out who you’ll send your broadcast to.
In step two, we’ll pick the message you want to send.
We’ll wrap up by scheduling your broadcast in step three.
After that, we’ll show you how to stop your message from going out — in case you happen to make a mistake. We’ll also talk about how to review all your broadcast stats before wrapping up.
And, since emails and SMS messages are sent the exact same way, we’re going to knock out two birds with one stone here.
Ready? Let’s get started.
First, let’s pick out the contacts we want to send your broadcast to.
To send an email or SMS via broadcast, you’ll start by navigating to your Contacts collection.
Note that this same process works if you want to send messages to an object other than Contacts. For example, if you wanted to send a message to Companies, you’d start by going to the Companies collection.
Now, let’s select which group you want to send your message to.
If you haven’t created your group yet, go ahead and do that now. If you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, take a look at our video “Viewing your data: Table View.”
Once your group is all set up, hover over this checkbox up here and select “All in Group.” If it makes more sense, you can also pick out contacts one by one. When your contacts are selected, you’ll notice this Group Action menu at the top of your screen.
This brings us to step two where we pick out the message we’re going to send in our broadcast.
This step is really simple. If you want to type out a new one-off message, just select Quick Email or Quick SMS here. Or, if you’d rather choose from your saved messages, you can hit Select Email or SMS here.
And there’s step two! Now it’s time to schedule our broadcast in step three.
If you’d like to send this message immediately, go ahead and hit Send Now. There’s still a five-minute window before the message is sent, so you’ll have time to cancel the broadcast if need be.
Your other option is to schedule your broadcast for a later time. To do this, just hit Send Later and select the date and time of day you’d like to send the message.
Boom, that’s it. Your message is on its way to all the contacts you selected, as long as they have an opted-in SMS number or email address.
Now, let’s finish up by talking about what happens after your message is sent. All that action takes place in broadcast history.
Broadcast history is a collection of all the emails and SMS messages you’ve sent by broadcast to your contacts. It’s where you can track how many messages you’ve sent, as well as your open and click stats for those messages. In the case of large broadcasts, you can even see the current status of the broadcast as it’s being processed. Pretty cool.
If you ever happen to schedule and send a broadcast message by mistake, you can also select the message here and cancel the broadcast, if you’re quick enough. It takes about 5 minutes to initiate a broadcast, and it can take anywhere from a few seconds to over an hour to finish, especially if it’s into the millions of emails.
That’s all there is to sending broadcasts — great work! The next thing to tackle is SMS messaging. It’s a little different from email and deserves some special attention.
Sending a broadcast can be done in 3 steps, and we’ll cover them all in this video:
Step one is figuring out who you’ll send your broadcast to.
In step two, we’ll pick the message you want to send.
We’ll wrap up by scheduling your broadcast in step three.
After that, we’ll show you how to stop your message from going out — in case you happen to make a mistake. We’ll also talk about how to review all your broadcast stats before wrapping up.
And, since emails and SMS messages are sent the exact same way, we’re going to knock out two birds with one stone here.
Ready? Let’s get started.
First, let’s pick out the contacts we want to send your broadcast to.
To send an email or SMS via broadcast, you’ll start by navigating to your Contacts collection.
Note that this same process works if you want to send messages to an object other than Contacts. For example, if you wanted to send a message to Companies, you’d start by going to the Companies collection.
Now, let’s select which group you want to send your message to.
If you haven’t created your group yet, go ahead and do that now. If you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, take a look at our video “Viewing your data: Table View.”
Once your group is all set up, hover over this checkbox up here and select “All in Group.” If it makes more sense, you can also pick out contacts one by one. When your contacts are selected, you’ll notice this Group Action menu at the top of your screen.
This brings us to step two where we pick out the message we’re going to send in our broadcast.
This step is really simple. If you want to type out a new one-off message, just select Quick Email or Quick SMS here. Or, if you’d rather choose from your saved messages, you can hit Select Email or SMS here.
And there’s step two! Now it’s time to schedule our broadcast in step three.
If you’d like to send this message immediately, go ahead and hit Send Now. There’s still a five-minute window before the message is sent, so you’ll have time to cancel the broadcast if need be.
Your other option is to schedule your broadcast for a later time. To do this, just hit Send Later and select the date and time of day you’d like to send the message.
Boom, that’s it. Your message is on its way to all the contacts you selected, as long as they have an opted-in SMS number or email address.
Now, let’s finish up by talking about what happens after your message is sent. All that action takes place in broadcast history.
Broadcast history is a collection of all the emails and SMS messages you’ve sent by broadcast to your contacts. It’s where you can track how many messages you’ve sent, as well as your open and click stats for those messages. In the case of large broadcasts, you can even see the current status of the broadcast as it’s being processed. Pretty cool.
If you ever happen to schedule and send a broadcast message by mistake, you can also select the message here and cancel the broadcast, if you’re quick enough. It takes about 5 minutes to initiate a broadcast, and it can take anywhere from a few seconds to over an hour to finish, especially if it’s into the millions of emails.
That’s all there is to sending broadcasts — great work! The next thing to tackle is SMS messaging. It’s a little different from email and deserves some special attention.
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