Sending Broadcasts

A broadcast is a one-off email to your listeners, written once and sent now. The Broadcasts tab of Email Editor is on a show only: email with no show has nobody to send a broadcast to.

Writing and Sending One

1. Write your message in the same six blocks as any email. A broadcast starts empty, and your branding goes around it.
2. Fill in Subject and Preview text, shown beside the subject in an inbox.
3. Under Send to, choose who gets it: Everyone on this show, All paying subscribers, Followers or any of your tiers. Someone in more than one gets it once.
4. Check it with Preview and test.
5. Click Send broadcast…. It says how many people it reaches, before opt-outs. Click Send now to send it.

Merge tags such as {{subscriber_name}} are filled in for each reader. Blocks in a broadcast can’t have conditions.

Nothing unsent is saved, and Benecaster asks before you leave with a message unsent.

The Broadcast row on the Templates tab doesn’t change what you send. Benecaster lists that email type, but a design saved there only changes its preview. A sent broadcast always carries the message you wrote here.

Opt-outs

Anyone who has opted out of announcements is skipped. Benecaster adds the unsubscribe link and your business address to every broadcast. See Unsubscribe Handling.

Broadcast History

Broadcast History, on the same tab, lists what this show has sent, and updates while one is going out.

In Your Data Export

Settings → Your Data offers two sheets from this add-on. Both cover only shows where the add-on is on now, and times are your site’s time.

• Broadcast History has Subject, Sent, Recipients, Show and Status, and follows the export’s date range.
• Email Opt-Out List has Email, Opted out of, Date opted out and Show. It ignores the date range, because it lists who is opted out now, not the history of opt-outs. Someone opted out of two things has two rows, and Opted out of reads Broadcasts, Episode notifications or All emails. It holds your subscribers’ email addresses, so treat the file accordingly.

See Exporting Your Data.

Sending to a Large List

Benecaster sends in the background, in batches. For a large list, use a transactional email provider rather than your web host’s mail: see SMTP Setup.