Sending an Email to a Distribution List

You can send an email to all stakeholders included in an Email-format Distribution List, as we explain in this article.

Video coming soon...

Open the Distribution List module, and open the Distribution List you would like to email. The list's Format will need to be set as Email.

On the View Distribution List page, look at the left-hand menu and select Email Distribution List. On the next page, complete the three-step process for creating your new email.

Creating your Email

Step 1: Email Details

For this step, we will outline the basic details of the email.

Email Subject is simply the email's subject line.
From Name and From Address show recipients who the email has come from. You can add different email addresses from the System Admin menu.
Reply-To Email Address is the address that will receive any replies to your email. You can add different email addresses from the System Admin menu, as above.
Classification can be set as either Subscription Preference or Compliance Send.
Priority marks the email as high or low priority to recipients, if necessary.
Owner Teams indicates the Users or Teams in your Tractivity system with ownership over this email. This defaults to all Users.

Using Subscription Preference vs Compliance Send

When emailing a Distribution List, your choice of Classification will affect which recipients are included from your Distribution List.

If you choose Subscription Preference: Stakeholders from the Recipients tab back on the View Distribution List page will be included as recipients for this email.
If you choose Compliance Send: Stakeholders from the Recipients tab and the Not Subscribed tab will be included as recipients for this email.

In short, Compliance Send will ignore the Subscription Preferences of your stakeholders. This should be used when sending vital communications that a stakeholder cannot afford to miss.

When using Compliance Send, you'll need to confirm your understanding that the emails are being sent to stakeholders for a legitimate purpose, by checking the checkbox that appears on the Email Details form.

You can choose a Template to use when building your email — convenient for sending emails in a series, or for quickly applying branding. Click the Template you want to use, or click Blank to build your email from scratch. You can also select previously sent emails to use as templates.

Include files alongside your email using the Attachments pane. You can attach documents from Tractivity's Library module, or upload files directly from your device: click Browse to open your file browser and select the file, or drag and drop it into the Attachments pane. You can include multiple attachments, but note that the total size of all attachments cannot exceed 5 MB.

Step 2: Choose Recipients

This page will display the recipients from your Distribution List.

Please note: If you choose Compliance Send for the Classification, the Recipients list will include stakeholders from both the Recipients and Not Subscribed tabs on your Distribution List. There will be no distinction between the two types of recipient in this list.

You cannot add more recipients on this page — to do so, use Manage Recipients from the View Distribution List page. You can, however, remove recipients at this stage: just click Delete to remove a recipient from the list of email recipients.

Note: Deleting a recipient in Step 2 of the email process will not remove them from your Distribution List. It will only remove them from the list of recipients for this specific email.

Once you're happy with the list of recipients for your email, click Next, below the Review Recipients section.

Step 3: Build Email

The Email Builder will now load, showing the template or previous email you selected earlier (or a blank canvas, if you selected Blank).

For guidance on using the tools and features in the Email Builder, please visit the Knowledge Base: Help Articles | Knowledge Base.

Once you've finished, save and close the Email Builder. You'll then see a preview of your new email along with the following options:

Edit Email – reopen the Email Builder to continue working on your email.
Save as Template – save your new email as a template for future use.
Save Email – complete the creation of your new email. This will take you to the View Email page.

Sending Your Email

Before you can send your email to your stakeholders, you need to complete a test of the email. This confirms that the From address selected in Step 1 works correctly and gives you a chance to review the finished email in your own email program, such as Outlook.

Click Send Test from the left-hand menu, enter the email address you'd like to send the test to, then click Send Test.

Once the test has been sent, a new option will appear on the left-hand menu: Schedule Email. Use this to send your email to your recipients. Click Schedule Email and, in the prompt that appears, choose the date and time you'd like the email to be sent. When you're ready, click Set to schedule the email.

The email will be sent to all recipients at the scheduled time, and this page will update once it has been sent successfully.