Sending Announcements to Groups

Sending Announcements to Groups

Overview

Announcements are a way for Group Admins to communicate important information to all of your group's contacts. Some examples of ReachWell announcements include a classroom weekly newsletter, athletic/sports team details, volunteer opportunities, various tips & tricks, and more!

Because messages will come through as push notifications on contacts' devices initially, it is important to make sure message titles are short and to the point. Be sure to include important, concise information in the message title so that even if contacts (i.e. families) only read the push notification alert from their devices, they will still get all the information they need. 

Instructions

To begin, please view this brief video and then follow the instructions below.

  1. Navigate to your ReachWell Dashboard.
  2. Select Messages from the main navigation bar, and then Create Announcement.
  3. Under Message Type, app notification or email is automatically selected. Update the Message Type as needed.
  4. Under Recipients, select the group(s) you would like to send the message to.
  5. Enter a concise title that clearly articulates what the message is about.
  6. Enter the content of the message, including any hyperlinks, screenshots, attachments, emojis, and so on. For specific details on how to incorporate various resources into your message, please see the following sections in this article.
  7. Select Send to send your message. Selecting Save will only save the message to draft.
Depending on the status of the message, it will show under one of the following three columns from the Messages > All Messages page.


Sending an Individual Announcement

Please Note: Contacts cannot reply to individual announcements. If you'd like to reach out to individual contacts, rather than an entire group, we recommend using the Chatting feature. Only use Individual Announcements if you'd like to send both an app notification and an email.

To send an individual announcement, under Recipients, select the contacts you'd like to send the announcement. You will not be able to select contacts who are not contactable by the method selected under Message Type. Next to each contact, an icon shows whether they are reachable via app or email: 

Creating a Newsletter Template
Located directly on our “New Announcement” homepage right above the text box, you’ll see a “News Template” button. This button will integrate our newsletter template into the text box for customization.

Inserting an Image

  1. When creating your message, click on the image icon to open the image locator box.
        
  1. Either enter a URL (i.e. web address) for the image, or select Upload to locate and select an image from your desktop. Please note, once you have uploaded an image to the message, the Image URL will automatically populate in the image search box.
         
  1. Select Save to include the image in the message.
          

To embed a link into your message body, please:

  1. Start from the Add New Message screen and type the viewable text that you will link to a URL. 
    1. For example: "Click HERE for instructions." (The word HERE would be the viewable text that is hyperlinked)
  2. Highlight the viewable text.
  3. Click the chain icon (i.e. link icon).
  4. Paste the entire URL of the website you'd like to link.
    1. Recommended setting: Select the option to open the link in a new window rather than opening it in the current window for users. 
  5. Select Save. When contacts receive your message they will click on the hyperlinked viewable text to take them to the linked content.

Sending Google Drive Documents

This section details the process for sending out large documents (e.g. PDF files) with ReachWell messages via Google Drive. This is helpful in cases where the document file size is larger than the acceptable standard size by most email providers. Most email providers have a 10 MB limit for email attachments so, if the file is bigger than this, we recommend using the Google Drive feature to send the document with messages.  To do this:
  1. Upload the document to your Google Drive. For instructions on how to do this, please visit THIS Google Help Center article.
  2. Highlight the document and click the share icon, or right-click on the document to copy the shareable link.
  3. From the share permissions screen, select the Advanced option to open the share settings.
  4. Change the setting to On - Public on the web access to make it available to anyone via the web.
  5. Select Save.
  6. Make sure you have the shareable link copied.
  7. Navigate to the ReachWell Dashboard > Messages > Add New Message screen.
  8. Add a clear and concise title for your message.
  9. In the body of the message, be sure to include the viewable text that you will link to the Google Drive document URL. 
    1. For example: "Click HERE for instructions." (The word HERE would be the viewable text that is hyperlinked)
  10. Highlight the viewable text.
  11. Click the chain icon (i.e. link icon).
  12. Paste the entire URL of the Google Drive shareable link. 
    1. Optional setting: Update the target URL to open in a new window rather than opening the link in the current window for users.  
  13. Select Save.
  14. When contacts receive your message they will click on the hyperlinked viewable text to take them to the linked content.

Inserting a GIF

  1. To insert a GIF into your message, click on the image icon to open the image locator box.
        
  1. Navigate to GIPHY.com to search for your desired GIF, and then click on it to open it. 
  2. Select the Media option to copy the Source URL.
         
  1. Navigate back to your ReachWell message and enter the source URL for the GIF into the image box.
         
  1. Ensure the width is set to 300 so it will fit on your contacts' devices.
  2. Select Save to include the GIF in the message.
  3. Your message now has a fun GIF embedded! 

Attaching a Video

To attach a video to your message, you have several options:
  1. Attach a video: If your video is relatively brief (e.g. 15-20 sec) you can attach it using the Add File section in the message creation page. Be sure to first upload the video to your desktop or device, and then add the video file to your message. Contacts (i.e. families) simply tap the video attachment link in their message to view the video on their device or from their email.
         
  1. Link to a YouTube video: Upload the video to YouTube, and then copy the video URL (i.e. link). Paste the video URL into the body of your message. When a user taps the link it will automatically open the video in the YouTube app if the user has the app downloaded to their device. If they don’t have the app downloaded to their device,  the video will open in their default web browser.
  2. Link to a video on Google Drive: Upload your video to Google Drive, and make sure to change the sharing settings for the video to allow viewing by anyone. Copy the share link and paste the link into the message body in ReachWell.

Attaching a File

Group Admins can add up to five attachments to a message. To do this:

  1. Navigate to the Attachments section, and select Add File to locate and attach files from your desktop.  
  2. When sending a message with an attachment, we recommend telling the reader to "Open the Attachment" at the beginning of the message.
          
Please note: It is important file names do not include any periods.  For example, a file titled 6.30.20.pdf will not be successfully attached to the message. However, renaming the file to 6-30-20.pdf or 063020.pdf will make it into an acceptable format.

ReachWell currently supports the following file types for message attachments:

  • Images: pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif
  • Docs: csv, xls, xlsx, doc, docx, txt
  • Videos: mpeg, mov
  • Audio: mp3, m4a

Attachments will also be viewable to contacts from your organization's news-feed in their ReachWell app.  

 


When a contact clicks on the message attachment, it will open in their device's default browser allowing for easy viewing and sharing.

Please note: ReachWell has a 10 MB size limit for message attachments, and we allow up to five attachments total. If an attachment is bigger than our acceptable limit, or if you have more than five attachments, we recommend utilizing the Google Drive feature to send the attachment with messages.  Please see the Send Google Drive Documents section of this article for more!

Scheduling a Message

Scheduled messaging allows you to plan ahead by creating a message to be sent later. Group Admins can schedule a message from the Schedule Message section. If you do not input a send date, the message will be sent immediately once the message is saved. Messages are scheduled to be delivered during your organization's designated local time. Scheduled messaging works for all message sending options (e.g. email, text, app notifications and phone calls).


Editing a Message

  1. Navigate to your ReachWell Dashboard.
  2. Select Messages from the main navigation bar and then All Messages.
  3. Under the Action column in the far right of a message, click on the pencil icon to begin editing.
  4. Make any needed updates to the existing message. 
  5. Select Send to either send the message now or schedule it to be sent at a later time. Selecting Save will only save the message as a draft that will not yet be sent to contacts. 

The message will be redelivered as a push notification to all associated contacts' devices. This will not change the order of how the message appears in your contacts' ReachWell app news-feeds.  

Archiving or Restoring a Message

  1. Navigate to your ReachWellDashboard.
  2. Select Messages from the main navigation bar and then All Messages.
  3. Under the Action column in the far right of a message, click the archive icon to archive the message.
  4. To archive multiple messages, check the boxes on the left that correspond to the messages, or check the top box of a page to archive every message on the page. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and then select Archive and Submit.
Doing this will remove the message(s) from all associated contacts' news-feeds. To restore archived messages, navigate to your Dashboard > Messages > All Messages > Archived tab. Check the boxes to the left that correspond to the messages, and then scroll to the bottom of the page to select Restore and Submit.
From your ReachWell Dashboard, select Messages > All Messages to see all messages sent, scheduled, or drafts!

Viewing Sent Messages 



  1. Navigate to your ReachWellDashboard.
  2. Click on Messages > See all messages.
  3. There are three tabs of messages. Those that are sent or scheduled, those that are drafts, and those that have been archived off of the app.
  4. For each message, you can

    • make a copy of the message

    • archive a message to remove it from the app

    • see the stats of a message

    • edit the message

Sending regular messages is the best way to keep your community well-informed. Now that you know how to navigate the See all messages screen, you’ll be able to do a quick audit on how often messages are going out from you and any other group admin who manages the group with you.


For additional questions, please reach out to support@reachwellapp.com. We are happy to help! 
Click here to subscribe to status updates through our ReachWell Academy channel on the app.



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