Trellis

Send your first email to the whole church

Step by step, from turning Communications on to watching your first church-wide email arrive.

When to use this

The first time the church emails everyone from Trellis. It takes about half an hour the first time, most of it on the church's email look. After that, a church-wide email takes a few minutes.

Before you start

  • An admin needs to do the setup steps: turning Communications on, the email look and the sending name. Staff and the Communications role can do the writing and sending.
  • Your people need to be in Trellis with their email addresses. See Add your people.
  • You don't need your own email domain. Until you have one, Trellis sends in the church's name from an address it shares with every church.

Steps

Get ready (admin)

  1. Check Communications is on. If Communications isn't in the menu, open Church settings, then Parts and billing, and turn it on. See Turn parts on.
  2. Open Communications, then Settings. Look at the Sends as card. That's the name and address people will see. Press Change if you want a different name, then Save.
  3. Open Email look. Choose a Header, a Colour and a Type.
  4. Under Footer, add the church's Mailing address. US law asks for one on messages to lists. A PO box is fine. Add When you meet and a link or two, like your website.
  5. Press Save the email look.
  6. Press Send me a test and look at it in your inbox, on a phone if you can.

Check who it will reach

  1. Open Communications, then Messages. If nothing has been sent yet, press A word to everyone under "Nothing sent yet". It opens a message to everyone with an email, with a subject and a short hello already written. Otherwise press Write a message and, under To, choose Everyone with an email from Quick.
  2. Look at Reaches. It shows how many people will get it, and how many are left out because they have no email or have unsubscribed.
  3. If that number looks low, some people may be missing an email address. Add the addresses in People and come back. Anything you've written is kept as a draft under Pick up where you left off. See Choose who gets an email.

Write it

  1. Add a Subject, or check the one that's there. Keep it plain, like "A note from" and the church's name.
  2. Choose a Look. Letter suits a first hello from a pastor.
  3. Write in the blocks, or change the words that are there. Start with "Hi {first}," and each person sees their own name.
  4. Say what these emails will be and that people can reply.
  5. Check the preview beside the message.
  6. If you'll send something like this again, press Save as a template and give it a name. See Email templates.

Test and send

  1. Next to Send a test, leave the address blank and press it. The test goes to your sign-in email.
  2. Read the test in your inbox. Check the links work.
  3. Back in the message, press Send to followed by the number of people, and confirm.

After it's gone

  1. Trellis opens the sent message. Watch the Delivery list fill in over the next few minutes: Sent, then Delivered and Opened.
  2. Check Replies over the next day or two. Answer anything that needs it, and press Done, no answer needed on the rest. See Replies to church email.

If something goes wrong

  • Send to is greyed out. It stays that way until the message has words in it and reaches at least one person. If sending isn't set up yet, a note at the top of the message says why. A sign-up or serving block that can't fill in also stops it; the preview says which.
  • "Nobody on that list can be emailed: no real addresses, or everyone has unsubscribed." Everyone on it has no email, unsubscribed, or bounced before. Pick another list or add addresses.
  • "This is a practice church, so nothing is emailed." You're in the practice copy. Your own church sends for real.
  • "Email sending isn't set up on this Trellis deployment yet." That's on Trellis's side. Write to support@trellischurch.app.
  • "Church-wide email is paused." Too many emails bounced or were marked as spam. See Unsubscribes, bounces and pauses.
  • A note says the send goes over this month's emails. Tick the box to send it and pay for the extra, or send to fewer people.
  • Lots of bounces in the Delivery list. Those addresses are wrong or closed. Trellis skips them from now on. Fix them on each person's page in People, then press Try again next to Email bounced.
  • Trellis didn't answer after you pressed send. It may or may not have gone. Look in Messages before sending it again. A draft can't go out twice.

Who to ask

  • An admin can turn Communications on, change the email look, and change who the church sends as.
  • Anyone with the Communications role, staff or an admin can write and send.
  • For anything else, write to support@trellischurch.app.

Next

Still stuck? Ask Silas

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