Want to highlight a particular auction item or remind your bidders that an item category is ending soon? With Attendee Notifications, you can send custom messages to your auction attendees via email, via text, and in the Givi app. This article will walk you through configuring and sending notifications from the auction control panel.
Please note: Attendee Notifications will only be sent to auction registrants who have opted in to receive them via email, text, and/or Givi. To check an attendee’s notification preferences, head to the Attendees tab in the Auction Virtual Terminal.
Please note: In order to send Text notifications, you will need to have enabled the Text Fundraising package for your organization. Organization administrators can add and remove packages on the Plans and Pricing page. If you have questions about your plan, please reach out to the Customer Experience Team.
Contents:
Creating a Notification
To create a custom notification, navigate to the Messaging area of your form-level control panel located under Communications.
Click New Message.
Please note: Only users with permission to Manage Social and Notifications for the auction form can access and create attendee notifications. To learn more about user permissions, check out this article.
Message Type
First, select Notification as the message type. Then, click Continue.
If you'd like to learn about Email Campaign messages, check out this article.
Notification Content
Next, you’ll configure your Notification Content.
Enter a Reply To Email Address, Notification Title, and Notification Body.
Pro tip: The Reply To Email Address will default to the Contact Email Address if you entered one in the Event Contact Information.
Please note: Notification Title and Body will be sent to all attendees.
In the Notification Body, you can Insert Tags, which will populate with unique information for each recipient, such as a Display Name or Seat Assignment.
Here’s how each tag will appear in the notification editor and what each tag will populate in your sent notification:
Display Name %DisplayName% Displays the attendee’s first and last name if both are available.
If only first name or only last name is included in the attendee’s ticket details, the tag will populate whichever name is available.
If neither first name nor last name is available, the tag will populate “Guest of [ticket purchaser’s name].”
If neither first name nor last name is available and a company name is available, the tag will populate “Guest of [company name].”
Company %Company% Displays the company name for company registrations if one is available.
If no company name is available, the tag will be ignored in the sent notification.
Bidder Number %BidderNumber% Displays the attendee’s bidder number if a number is assigned.
Seat Assignment %Seat% Displays the attendee’s table name and seat assignment, if applicable.
If the attendee has not been assigned a seat, the tag will populate as “unassigned.”
Balance Due %BalanceDue% Displays a bidder’s outstanding balance for won or purchased items.
If the attendee doesn’t have a balance, the tag will populate as “N/A.”
Auction Home Page %AuctionHomePage% Populates a link to the home page of the auction site.
Click Send Test to send a test of the notification to an email address or phone number of your choice. Once you’ve input the recipient, click Okay to send the test.
Click Continue to choose recipients for your message.
Choose Recipients
Click in the Select Attendees field to choose who you'd like to receive the notification.
You can send the notification to All Attendees or segment recipients by Attendee Status, Packages, Payment Type, Table Seating, and/or Tickets.
You can also choose multiple segments for a single notification. They'll appear in the Select Attendees field.
Click Continue to configure Delivery settings.
Delivery Settings
Your options here are to Save as a draft, Send now, or Schedule for later.
If you select Schedule for later, you’ll see date and time fields to schedule when you’d like the message to send.
Please note: Notifications will default to the time zone selected in your event settings.
Click Save to confirm your Delivery settings.
Preview
If you choose to Schedule or Send your notification, you’ll see a Preview of the notification's content as well as a breakdown of how many recipients will receive the notification. Click Save & Schedule or Save & Send to confirm.
If you chose to send the notification immediately, anyone who has opted in to notifications will receive it as soon as you click Save & Send.
Please note: In order to send Text notifications, you will need to have enabled the Text Fundraising package for your organization. Organization administrators can add and remove packages on the Plans and Pricing page. If you have questions about your plan, please reach out the Customer Experience Team.
Managing Notifications
Once a notification has been sent, scheduled, or saved as a draft, the Messaging table will update.
In addition to its Status, you can see each message's Title, Body, Type, Date it was sent or scheduled to be sent, the number of recipients it was sent to, and some additional actions.
Above the table, you can search for notifications by their Title or Body content. You can also filter the list by Status and Date.
In the Actions column for Scheduled and Draft notifications, you’ll see options to Edit, Delete, or Send Now.
For Sent notifications, your only option in the Actions column is to View the sent message.
When you click View or Edit, you’ll see up to three tabs for the notification: Message, Activity, and History.
Please note: The History tab will only appear for Sent notifications.
The Message tab displays the Notification Content, which you can edit if the notification has not yet been sent.
The Activity tab displays any changes that have been made to the notification since it was created, including changes to content and delivery settings.
The History tab displays the names of anyone who has received the notification and the methods of delivery. From here, you can also search for specific recipients and Resend the notification.
Viewing All Notifications for an Attendee
The Messaging area in the form-level control panel only displays custom messages that you have created. To view all notifications that have been sent to an attendee, including automated system notifications, head to the Attendees tab in the Auction Virtual Terminal.
From there, you can click an attendee’s name and navigate to the Messaging tab to view all notifications the attendee has received.
The table displays the content of the message, when it was sent, and how it was sent. You can also resend a notification from this screen by clicking Resend.
Bulk Sending Notifications to Select Recipients
From the Attendees tab or the Checkout tab in the Auction Virtual Terminal, you can also bulk send ad hoc notifications to select recipients. To learn more about bulk sending notifications, check out this article.