We have spent the last few weeks getting to know the Messages module, we have created a message list, designed a message template, now ready to send my template to my recipients.

Find Messages from the Message Menu.

Click on the Create Message to create a new message.  Enter Subject and select which template to use. 
The template editor will load where you can make any final edits to your template. Click Save to continue.
Choose preview to view your message before sending, there is also a handy mobile icon to view the message on various devices.

Click on Message Details to configure sending settings such as Subject, Reply-To address, From Label.

Adding Personalization of First Name and/or Last Name is similar to merge tags, by adding first or last name to each subject, this data has to be added to constituent manager or, the first name and last name must be included in the email upload for this to work.

Select your reply-to address from the drop down. The From Label can be used to indicate where the message is coming from, but does not have to be the same as reply-to address. For example use My School 

Internal Use Only section can be used to help organize your messages back end, use tags for other admins to easily find the message.

Most messages that you send will fall into the Marketing category, as these will contain school news.  However, for important critical messages containing information where unsubscribe preferences should be ignored like Operation type can be used. See our article Operational vs Marketing for more information.

Finally select your message list from the List drop down (who you are sending the message to) click update to save the settings.

Before sending the message, it’s useful to do a test send to yourself or colleague for one final check.  Once you are happy, click on Schedule Send, this allows you to send your message now or schedule for a later date.

Check back next week for Message statistics and user history.