Write and send an email

Write an email to a list in Communications, build it from blocks, preview it, send yourself a test, and send it.

Communications is where the church writes to a list of people: the whole church, the group leaders, a team. Admins, staff and anyone with the Communications role can write and send, once an admin has turned Communications on.

Each person gets their own copy, in the church's house style, with their first name filled in and a link at the bottom to stop getting these emails.

Start a message

Open Communications. You land on Messages.
Press Write a message.

If nothing has been sent yet, Messages also offers three ready-made first messages: Invite people into a group, A word to everyone and Thank your group leaders. Each opens as a draft with the people, the subject and a few lines filled in. Change any of it. Nothing goes until you send it.

You can also start from Lists: press Write to them beside a list.

Choose who it goes to

Pick from To. Your lists are the lists the church has made. Quick has ready-made choices, like Everyone with an email and Everyone who leads a group.

Reaches shows how many people will get it. If some on the list have no email or have unsubscribed, it says how many. See Choose who gets an email for lists.

Choose who it's from

From shows who the email comes from. If you can write as more than one sender, pick one. Your own sender is marked yours, and the church's main sender is marked the church's voice. Which senders you see depends on your role. See Send from your church's own domain.

Pick a look

Under Look, choose one of four:

Letter: a note from a person.
Announcement: one thing to know.
Newsletter: a few things at once.
Event: one date, one button.

Each look starts you with a few blocks. If you change the look after you've written something, your words stay and only the look changes.

Build the message from blocks

The message is a list of blocks, top to bottom. Use the arrows on a block to move it up or down, and the cross to take it out. Add a block from the buttons under the message:

Text: a paragraph or two. Select words and press Link to link them. B and I make words bold or italic.
Heading and Subheading: to start a section.
Button: one clear thing to do. Fill in what it Says and where it Goes to.
A link: words that open a page.
Picture and Two pictures: upload a PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF, up to 5 MB. Describe the picture for people who can't see it.
A file: a PDF up to 10 MB, sent as a link.
An event: the date, day and time, what and where.
A line: between sections.

Some blocks fill themselves from another part of Trellis when the email is sent. They show Fills itself, and only appear when that part is on:

A sign-up: an open sign-up from Registration, with when, where and places left. A full or closed event says so instead of showing the button.
Who's serving: from Serving. Sent to volunteers, it names who said yes, by area, as first name and last initial. Sent to anyone else, it only says how many are serving.
Groups with room: your open groups, when they meet and the neighbourhood. Never an address or whose home.
Give: a button to the church's giving page.

Use fill-ins

In text, headings and buttons you can type {first}, {last}, {church} and {me}. Each person's copy fills them in. {first} becomes their first name, or "there" when there isn't one. {me} is the sender's name.

Check it before it goes

The preview beside the message shows the email as it will arrive, in the church's house style. If something is wrong, like a sign-up that has closed, the preview says so and the message won't send until you fix it.

To see it in a real inbox, type an address next to Send a test and press it. Leave the address blank and the test goes to the email you sign in with. The subject starts with "[Test]".

Send it

Add a Subject.
Press Send to followed by the number of people.
Confirm.

Trellis opens the sent message so you can watch it go out.

There's no way to schedule a message for later yet. It sends when you press Send to.

Drafts

A message saves itself as a draft a moment after you start writing. Close it and pick it up later from Pick up where you left off on Messages. To delete a draft, press the cross on its card.

After it's sent

Open the message from Sent to see each person and what happened to their copy: Sent, Delivered, Opened, Bounced, Marked as spam, Failed or Skipped. A skipped person shows why, like "no email" or "unsubscribed". Sent means the email service accepted it. Delivered and opened come in later.

Replies come back to Replies. See Replies to church email.

To tidy the list, press Select on Sent, pick messages, and press Archive. Archived keeps them. An admin can delete an archived message once it went out more than 60 days ago. Deleting also removes its delivery record and the replies to it.

The church's email look

Every email Trellis sends for the church wears the same house style. Open Communications, then Email look. An admin can choose the Header, the Colour, the background, the Type, and the Footer: the mailing address, when you meet, and up to four links. Press Save the email look, or Send me a test to see it first. Everyone in Communications can see the page; only an admin can change it.

Other ways to email

One person: open their page in People and press Email.
A group: group leaders and staff can email a group from Groups. See Group leaders.
Text messages: Trellis doesn't send texts yet. On a phone, Text on a person's page opens your own messages app. On a computer it shows the number to copy.

Still stuck? Ask Silas