Sending an Informational Broadcast to Your Contacts

To send an email broadcast to your contact list, simply mouse over the Messaging tab and select “Broadcasts”. You will then be shown a listing of any past broadcasts, as well as any unfinished broadcasts in your system. Click “New Broadcast” to begin the five step process of creating a new broadcast.

• Choose Broadcast Type
• Specify Recipients
• Compose Message
• Test Broadcast
• Schedule Send

Choose Broadcast Type

The Options page allows you to customize various elements of your broadcast, from the purpose of the message to the method of communication.

Please tell us the purpose of your message

You will need to select one of the five options. Note that each option is linked to an article specific to that type of broadcast. 

• Contacts
  • “Drive my contacts to my Action Center” will create a message with a smartlink. That smartlink not only directs your users to the action you select, but also imports the information you have on file for that person into the User Profile on the page.
  • “Send newsletter and information to my contacts” allows you to create a standard email that does not automatically include a smartlink to a particular action.
• Officials and Staff
  
  • "Contact elected officials" allows you to send a message directly to the state or local-level elected officials included in your package.
  • "Contact congressional staff" is available depending on your VoterVoice package and allows you to directly email staffers of federal-level officials.

Enter the name of the broadcast

Make sure to enter a name here that will allow you to easily identify this broadcast in the future

Method of Communication

You will also need to select the method of communication you will be using to contact your advocates.

• “Email” is the default setting and will be sent to your supporters’ email inboxes
• “Mobile Push Notification” will send to your supporters’ VoterVoice app and show up as banner notifications on their phone. Your supporters must have the VoterVoice mobile app installed on their phones for this method to work. If they do not have the app installed, they will not receive the notification.
• "Text" will be an additional option if your association is enrolled in an SMS Texting plan. This allows your supporter to opt into receiving text messages from you by texting a key word of your choice to a number we provide or by agreeing to receive texts and providing their mobile number when taking action through the VoterVoice software. Your account manager can set up that option for you.

 Once you have made your selections of message purpose, name, and method of communication, continue to the “Recipients” page.

Specify Recipients

The Recipients page allows you to pick out those contacts who should receive the Broadcast.

• By default, when you send a Call to Action email, the system will automatically search through your contact list and just send to those users who are constituents of the officials targeted in the campaign.
• For Informational emails, there is no constituency requirement, so they will go to all valid, subscribed email addresses in your database.

You also have the option to narrow your list further using an advanced search. To do this, just click on the dropdown list and change “send to entire list” to “use an advanced search to filter.” This section allows you to search your database using specified criteria.

Compose Message

The “Compose” page is where you enter all details of your message and also get to test and finalize your broadcast send.

• Message details if Call to Action are auto-populated
  • The From field will be based on the default administrator.
  • The Subject fields will be based on the action alert headline from the linked campaign.
  • The message body will be based on the action alert from the linked campaign.
• Message details if Informational are written from scratch
  • The From field will need to be a VoterVoice admin or email alias.
  • The Subject will be what you would like the subject of the email or mobile push notification to be.
  • The message body will be entirely up to you!

Test Broadcast

When you are finished composing and preparing your message, you will want to test the broadcast to ensure your supporters will receive the desired message.

• Click “Send Test.”
• Enter the email address the test message should go.
• Go to the inbox of the email address you entered and open the message to review it.

This test email contains the exact look and feel of the email that the system will broadcast out to your members. If you would like to make any changes, do so in the Compose Page and send another test message to verify your edits. Once you’re satisfied with the message, you’re ready to send your broadcast.

Testing your broadcast when you’ve chosen the Mobile Push Notification delivery option is a similar process. You will need to make sure that the individual testing the notification has the VoterVoice app installed and has their email address registered in the system.

Schedule Send

In sending your broadcast you can choose to schedule the broadcast for later or for “now”, effectively a 10-minute waiting window.

• If you wish to send your broadcast later, you can specify a time within the next week to send the message. The system will automatically send the broadcast at the date and time specified.
• To send the broadcast now, click Send Message

If you choose to send the broadcast now, you will have a 10-minute window starting from the time you click Send Message to stop the broadcast, should you find any errors.

Choosing broadcast type, specifying recipients, composing the message, testing the broadcast, and then scheduling the send—that’s all it takes to send a broadcast through the VoterVoice system. The broadcasts you send through the system make it easy for your advocates to take action and be part of the process.