Emails/form letters/text messages

Use the Emails page to define automated mass email messages to customers.

You can save the custom list of email recipients and email content definitions and reuse them in the future.

Go to section

Custom Lists

Dynamic Content Setup

Sort Options

Save Report Definition

Locations

Communication > Email/Form Letter > Create email/form letter/text message

Reports > Population Reports > Email/Form Letter

To use an existing email definition

From the Emails page, click Recall at the top of the page to go to the Report Definition for Emails page, which displays a list of existing email definitions.
To modify or run a particular email definition, click an email definition Title link.

To create a new email definition

The following options are included on the Emails page:

Name of Field	Type	Description
Custom Lists You can use custom lists to select email recipients based on criteria that you specify. Email content also includes the subject and body of the email message.
Custom List	Dropdown list	Title of the email recipient list. Click the Preview/Edit List link to view or edit the custom lists of email recipients.
Show additional filter options	Checkbox	Option to apply additional filters to the custom list and fine tune the email recipient list. See Report Filters. Select this checkbox to display the various sections of filter criteria (Population, Finance, Registration, Facility, Membership, Daycare, Leagues, POS, Locker). Click More>>> for a particular section to expand it and add filter criteria. Click <<<Less to collapse the section.
Email Content
From	Dropdown list	The "From" email address that is used when emails are sent. Click Edit/Add to view or edit the list of internal email addresses.
Subject Text	Text	Text to display in the subject line of the email.
Merge Field	Dropdown list	This field can be mail merged with the body of the email: First Name Middle Name Last Name Login Name Password Email Address Customer ID Account Balance(Customer) Account Balance(Family) Note: The account balance is the total balance due on the customer's or family's account, excluding any part of the balance that is linked to account credits. Account Credit(Customer) Account Credit(Family) Note: The account credit includes the total available credits on the customer's or family's account, excluding any linked credits. To include the merge field in the body of the email, click Insert. For example, you can merge the customer's first name with the email body as "Dear %%FirstName%%", where %%FirstName%% is replaced by the customer's first name in the actual email.
Body Text	Text	Main body text of the email. You can use a formatting toolbar to edit and format the body text. The formatting toolbar includes tools such as text style, font type, font size, bold, italic, underline, paragraph alignment, ordered or unordered list, indent and outdent, text and background color, insert hyperlink, image and table. You can also include basic HTML tags in the body text.
Preview	Hyperlink	Click Preview to view the email as it will appear to the recipient(s). Use the preview in editing your work before sending the email.
View Source	Checkbox	Option to display the HTML source code of the body text. If you select this option, the formatting toolbar disappears to allow for HTML coding (it prevents the user from formatting the HTML code itself).
Included Site Address	Text	Address of the site that is included at the bottom of the email body. Defaults to the address of the current site, but may be changed. Click the downward facing arrow to expand the textbox. You can collapse the textbox again by clicking the upward facing arrow.
Select Attachments	Hyperlink	Email attachments to be included in the email. Click the link to display the list of uploaded files, where you can select an attachment. To remove a file that you have previously selected, select the file from the list, then click Remove.
Send Email Notification	Checkbox	Select this option to send an email notification to customers listed in the Email Address field below.
Email Address Box	Text box	Option to enter one or more email addresses to send an email notification to. Note: This option is only available if you have selected Send Email Notification above.
Track Email Open / Click Through	Checkbox	Option to track the emails opened and acknowledged by the recipients. If you select this option, Click Through Text (see below) displays after the body text of the email and requests that the recipient click through the link provided. The tracking results are reported in the Email Open / Click Through report.
Click Through Text	Text	If you have selected Track Email Open / Click Through, then this text displays after the body text of the email and requests that the recipient click through the link provided. Click the downward facing arrow to expand the textbox. You can collapse the textbox again by clicking the upward facing arrow.
Opt-out List	Dropdown list	Subscription opt-out link that displays at the bottom of the email to give the recipient the choice to unsubscribe from a specific subscription list (or all subscription lists). Possible options are All subscription lists, No, do not include opt-out, and other subscription lists. If you select No, do not include opt-out, no opt-out link is included in the email.
Include Additional Email Address	Checkbox	Option to send the email to an additional address. Note: You can only send emails with payment details and direct links to the primary email address. You can send emails with a total charge to both the primary and additional email addresses. You can only send emails which help to retrieve the lost password or account to the primary email address. You can send other notification emails to both the primary and additional email addresses.
Unique Email Addresses	Checkbox	Option to send the email only once to each unique email address, even if an email address is included multiple times. For example: An account could have the same email address for all family members, so the email is sent only once to the address if this option is selected.
Preview Recipients (does not send emails)	Checkbox	Option to preview the email message and recipient list on the screen without sending the email. The checkbox is selected by default so that you can validate the email first before sending. After you have previewed the email, clear the checkbox to send the email.
Emails/Labels	Dropdown list	Choose one of the following: To only send the email to customers with an email address, select Email. To send the email to customers with an email address and print mailing labels for customers without an email address, select Email or Label if no email.
Customer Name Format	Dropdown list	Format of the customer name to display in the email report, as selected from either Lastname, Firstname or Firstname Lastname.
Send date and time	Date/Time	Option to schedule the date and time when the email is sent. If you leave the date and time blank, the email will be sent on the next system send cycle schedule. Note: ACTIVE Net sends the email to the server for distribution at the date and time that you specify. Depending on server traffic, it is possible that emails may not actually reach their intended recipients until up to several hours after the specified time.
Form Letter Content Use this section to send customizable form letters. Print Customer Address: Select this option to display customer addresses on form letters Exclude Customers with Email Address: Select this option to print the form letter only for customers who do not have an email address on their profile. Merge Field: Select the field to mail merge with the body of the email.
Text Message Content Use this section to send customizable text messages to customers. Note: To receive text messages, select Agree to receive text messages on the Change Customer Address page. In the From list, select a email address to send the message from. To add a new email address or edit an existing one, click Edit/Add. In the Message box, enter the text of your message. Tip: To add a field to the message (e.g. Customer Title, First Name, etc.), select the field in the Merge Field list, then click Insert. (Optional) To check the length of your message before sending, click Character Count. ACTIVE Net displays the number of characters and the approximate number of text messages to be sent. From the Include Customers list, select which customers to include when sending the text message: All (Customers who) Agree to receive text messages only (Customers who) Don't agree to receive text messages only Do one of the following: To preview the message before sending, click Preview Recipients. A text message report is generated, which displays the message, names and cell phone numbers to be attempted. To send the message directly without previewing, clear Preview Recipients. Near the bottom of the page, directly above the Save Report Definition section, click Send Text Message.
Customer Information
Print Customers Scholarships?	Checkbox	To display selected scholarships (below) in the email/form letter/text message, select this option.
Scholarship	Hyperlink	Select the scholarships that you want to display in the email/form letter/text message if Print Customers Scholarships? is selected above. To display all scholarships that are linked to the customer, leave this option blank.
Dynamic Content Setup
To customize email content, use the dynamic content settings below. Select Include Dynamic Content? Select an Activity Category and/or Activity Other Category. In the Activity Details listbox, select any details you do not want to include in the email message, and click Remove. Enter the Maximum number of activities to include in the email message. To include only activities that have been flagged as new from the activity category and/or activity other category you selected, select Only Activities Flagged as New. To include only activities added to ACTIVE Net within a certain recent time period, enter the number of days in the Only activities flagged as new in the last ___ days field.
Sort Options
Sort Options	Dropdown list	Sort order to use when displaying the recipient list in the email report, as selected from Customer Name, Zip Code + Address, Zip Code + Customer Name. If you select Customer Name (default selection), the list is sorted depending on the Customer Name Format (Lastname, Firstname or Firstname Lastname).
Save Report Definition
Report Title	Text	Option to save the report definition for later use. For more information about report definitions, see Report Filters.

To run the email report, click Run Report. If you have selected Preview Recipients, the email report displays on the screen without sending the email.

To save the email definition (for future use), enter a title in the Report Title box, then click Save. If you edited an existing email definition and want to save the new definition in another file, enter a title in the Report Title box, then click Save As.

Note: If you are copying text from Word, use the following steps:

Choose Save As to save the file in a different file type.
Select Plain Text(*.txt) as the file type
In the File Conversion dialog box, in the Text encoding method section, select Other encoding, and select Unicode(UTF-8) from the dropdown list, then select Allow character substitution and click OK.
Open the saved .txt file and copy and paste from that.