How do I e-mail many clients or contacts at once (i.e. send a mass e-mail)?
From within WebCATS, you can click on any e-mail address hyperlink to automatically generate an e-mail message. But beyond sending one-to-one e-mail messages, WebCATS also features the ability to send the same e-mail message to large numbers of recipients at once.
Specifically, you can send mass e-mails to:
- The clients or contacts associated with groupings of records (discussed next)
- The members of conference attendee lists
- The members of survey request lists
Sending a Mass E-mail to the Clients or Contacts Associated with a Grouping of Records
You can send mass e-mails to all the e-mail addresses found in a grouping of client records; all the contact e-mail addresses found in a grouping of client or contact records; or even to all the client e-mail addresses associated with a grouping of client activity records.
The following set of steps outlines how to send an e-mail to all or some of your clients or contacts:
- Use WebCATS' various filter tools (e.g. subsets, filter boxes, or *last client views) to display a grouping of client, contact, or client activity records that is relevant to the topic of your e-mail.
- Once the appropriate grouping of records is displayed, click the E-mail button.
- If you're e-mailing from:
- A grouping of client records, proceed to the next step
- A grouping of contact records, skip to step 6
- A grouping of client activity records (e.g. counseling sessions, milestones, etc.), skip to step 8
- Choose which e-mail addresses to use:
- Use E-mail Addresses of Companies (as found in the top area of the client record)
- Use Bid Match E-mail Addresses of Companies (as found in the "Bid Match Options" area of the client record)
- Use E-mail Addresses of Primary Contacts of Companies (as found in the contact record for the primary contact that is associated with the client record)
- Use E-mail Addresses of All Contacts of Companies (as found in the contact records for all contacts associated with the client record)
- Decide whether or not to exclude e-mail addresses that belong to records with the Include on mass e-mailings? option deselected, then click Next, and skip to step 9.
- You can further narrow down your e-mail recipient list by choosing to e-mail only those contacts that are designated as primary contacts on their associated client records. Note: This will also eliminate those contacts that aren't associated with client records.
- Decide whether or not to exclude e-mail addresses that belong to contact records with the Contact interested in receiving mass e-mailings? option deselected, then click Next, and skip to step 9.
- WebCATS prompts you to decide whether or not to exclude clients that are not interested in receiving mass e-mailings (as designated in the client record).
- In the WebCATS e-mail screen, compose your e-mail message.
- Modify addressing information as needed.
- When you are finished composing and addressing your e-mail, click the Send button.
You cannot apply any special formatting or include attachments from WebCATS' e-mail screen. If you require that your e-mail message contains special formatting or imported objects, consider copying the e-mail addresses from the Bcc field and pasting them into another e-mail application.
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Even though WebCATS places all recipient e-mail addresses into the Bcc field, it's important to note that, under the hood, the e-mail is being delivered individually—one per e-mail address. Upon receipt, your clients will only see their e-mail address in the To field.
Sending a Mass E-mail to the Members of a Conference Attendee List
Once you've created a conference attendee list and populated it with contact records, you can easily e-mail all members of the attendee list, as shown in the next graphic.
For more information on attendee lists, see the FAQ titled How do I create and manage conference attendee lists?
Sending a Mass E-mail to the Members of a Survey Request List
Once you've created a survey request list and populated it with client or contact records, you can easily e-mail all members of the list, as shown in the next graphic.
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For more information on survey request lists, see the FAQ titled How do I create, post, and advertise surveys?