Messages and broadcasts: emailing or texting your members and entrants

    Audience: Club organisers, event organisers, riding schools and instructors

    Overview

    Communications → Messages is where you send a one-off message to a group of people (a broadcast) and check what has already gone out. The page title is Communications. It shows:

    • New broadcast: write one message and send it by email, SMS or push notification to members, people watching your organisation, or the entrants of one event.
    • Needs attention: anything that failed, is still waiting, or is switched off.
    • Recent broadcasts: the broadcasts you have sent or drafted.
    • Going out next: reminders and scheduled broadcasts due in the next 30 days.
    • Automated messages: what Horsify sends for you, such as reminders and confirmations.
    • Sent messages: a log of every email sent to a member, entrant or client, whether you sent it or Horsify sent it automatically.

    Plans: sending broadcasts needs the Instructor, Riding School, Club Site or Club Site Premium plan (a free trial of these counts), or an older plan that includes email marketing. On other plans the broadcast form shows a notice titled Broadcasts are part of the Premium and Club Site plans, which says: "Email, SMS and push broadcasts to your members and entrants come with a paid plan. Automated messages such as reminders and confirmations keep sending on every plan." Apart from the Recent broadcasts list, the rest of the page, including the sent-message log, works on every plan.

    Who can use it: organisation admins, and staff who hold the Communications area. View lets someone open the page and read the sent-message log and past broadcasts. Sending a broadcast needs Communications at Manage. With View only, the New broadcast form still opens, but saving or sending it is refused.

    Send a broadcast

    1. Go to Communications → Messages.
    2. If you look after more than one organisation, choose the right one in the organisation switcher.
    3. Press New broadcast.
    4. Under Channel, choose Email, SMS or Push notification. Or tick Cheapest channel first (see below).
    5. Choose an Audience (see the table below). For Entrants of one event, also choose the event under Published event.
    6. Check the recipient count beside the audience. It updates as you change the audience and reads "eligible recipients".
    7. Enter a Name. Only you see this; it is how the broadcast is listed on the page.
    8. Write the message:
      • Email: a Subject and an Email body. Basic HTML works. For images, buttons and a rich-text editor, press Save as draft and open it in Email Campaigns.
      • SMS: an SMS message. "Reply STOP to opt out." is added automatically. Keep to 137 characters to stay within one SMS; the box takes up to 160.
      • Push notification: a Title and a Message.
      • Cheapest channel first: a Title (used as the push title and the email subject) and a Message (sent as the push and SMS text, and as the email body).
    9. Press Send now. The button shows how many people it is going to. You'll see "Broadcast queued for sending." and it is delivered in the background.

    If Send now is greyed out, the page tells you what is missing, for example "Fill in the name and subject and message to send." For an event audience you must also choose the event.

    To keep working on it later, press Save as draft instead. Drafts appear under Recent broadcasts.

    Choosing an audience

    Audience Who it reaches
    All organisation members Everyone on your member list.
    Current active members Active members whose membership hasn't ended.
    Expiring soon (30 days) Active members whose membership ends in the next 30 days.
    Expired former members Members whose membership expired in the last 12 months.
    Pending approval Members whose application is still waiting for approval.
    Cancelled former members Members whose membership was cancelled.
    No Horsify account yet Members with an email address who haven't created a Horsify account. Email only: SMS and push can't reach them.
    People watching this organisation Riders who follow your organisation and have agreed to marketing emails.
    Entrants of one event Riders with a confirmed entry in the event you choose who have agreed to event updates. Only published events are listed.

    Everyone your organisation's emails can't go to is left out of the count and the send: people who unsubscribed from your organisation, addresses that bounced or reported spam, and members marked as not Contactable on their member record. A member's Preferred Channel is respected. Each email address gets one copy, even if it appears more than once.

    What "Cheapest channel first" means

    The page describes it as: "Push where someone has the app, then SMS, then email for anyone without a verified mobile. A shared mobile number is only sent to once." Each person gets the message once, by the first channel that can reach them. Texts count against your monthly texts: once they run out, everyone still waiting who would have been texted is emailed instead.

    SMS and your monthly texts

    Broadcast texts count against your organisation's monthly SMS allowance, then any SMS packs you have bought. If you send by SMS only and there aren't enough texts left to reach everyone, the whole broadcast is refused before anything goes out, with a message telling you how many texts you have left. The broadcast stays as a draft. Buy an SMS pack under Settings → Communications, or send it by Email. The refusal message also suggests sending to all channels: with Cheapest channel first, texts go out until they run out, and everyone after that is emailed.

    Numbers that have replied STOP are never texted. For member and watcher audiences, SMS goes only to verified mobile numbers. For Entrants of one event, the number on the entrant's record is texted even if it isn't verified (for a child, their parent or guardian's number).

    Manage your broadcasts

    Recent broadcasts lists your broadcasts newest first, with the latest 6 shown. Press See them all or All campaigns for the full list. You can filter by channel. Each one shows a status: Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Sent, Partly sent or Failed.

    • Draft: edit it, send it now, or delete it. Deleting can't be undone, and only drafts can be deleted.
    • Sent, Partly sent or Failed: press Results to see who it reached.
    • Any broadcast: press the copy icon to Duplicate it as a new draft.

    To schedule a broadcast for later, save it as a draft and open it in Email Campaigns.

    Check what's going out and what has gone out

    At the top of the page, four tiles give the numbers: Sent · last 30 days (emails, all sources), Failed · last 30 days, Queued now and Upcoming · next 30 days. Tap one to jump to the matching list.

    Needs attention lists anything to act on: emails that failed in the last 7 days, a broadcast that failed or only partly sent, messages waiting to be sent, reminder SMS that couldn't be delivered, automated messages that are switched off, and broadcast drafts not yet sent. If nothing needs you, it says so.

    Going out next shows what is due in the next 30 days: scheduled broadcasts, event reminders, booking reminders and membership reminders. Counts are estimates.

    Automated messages lists what Horsify sends for you, how many each sent in the last 30 days, and whether each is On, Off or Automatic. To change them, press Switches and timing are in Settings or the Settings button at the top of the page.

    Find a sent message

    The Sent messages log lists emails sent to your members, entrants and clients, by you or automatically. It doesn't list SMS or push notifications: for a broadcast, use Results instead.

    1. Scroll to Sent messages. It opens on the last 7 days.
    2. Narrow it down with the status buttons (All, Failed, Queued, Sent, Delivered), the Type list (grouped by events, memberships, bookings and lessons, broadcasts and more), the From and To dates, or Search for a recipient or subject.
    3. Press Clear to remove every filter, including the date, and see older messages.

    Each row shows when it was written, the subject, who it went to, the type and the status. A failed email shows the reason underneath. The log shows 20 messages a page; use Previous and Next to move through it. It doesn't show the message body.

    Good to Know

    • Children: a child member with no login of their own is emailed through their parent or guardian. Broadcast texts never go to a child's own number.
    • Unsubscribing: every broadcast email carries an unsubscribe link, and texts carry "Reply STOP to opt out." Someone who unsubscribes is left out of your future broadcasts.
    • The recipient count is worked out for email. If you choose SMS or push, the number actually reached can differ: SMS needs a mobile number, and push needs the person to have push notifications turned on.
    • If your plan lapses while a broadcast is still going out, the rest isn't sent and the broadcast is cancelled.
    • Messaging one event's entrants on any plan: open the event's page and use Notify Participants.
    • More audiences: Email Campaigns also offers Mailing list and Riding school clients, plus a full editor and scheduling.

    Troubleshooting

    What you see What to do
    Broadcasts are part of the Premium and Club Site plans Your plan doesn't include broadcasts. Press See plans to change plan.
    This organisation has no published events. Publish the event first. Only published events can be chosen.
    An SMS or push broadcast reached fewer people than the count The count is for email. Only people with a mobile number (SMS) or push turned on (push) can be reached. Use Cheapest channel first to email everyone else.
    "The broadcast could not be created" or "could not be sent" Check you have Communications at Manage, your plan, and for SMS, your texts left this month.
    An email shows Failed in Sent messages Read the reason under the subject. Check the address on the person's record.

    Related

    Tags
    broadcast club organisers email members event organisers messages riding schools sent messages sms
    Published:
    Work parties and My jobs
    Email campaigns and your mailing list