Automated emails: what is sent and what you can change
The emails the portal sends on its own, when each goes, and the wording, timing, limits and sending hours you control.
This article is for the administrators who run an organisation's Portava portal.
In short
- Operations, then Email lists every automated email, when it sends, and lets you rewrite, re-time or switch off most of them.
- The invitation and the welcome invite always send, because somebody pressed a button expecting them to.
- A frequency cap and sending hours hold email rather than drop it.
The portal sends a handful of emails on your behalf without anyone pressing a button. Operations, then Email is where you see them and shape them.
The emails and when they send
- Event reminder: to everyone registered, before an event starts. 2 to 72 hours before; 24 by default.
- Event follow-up: sent by an administrator from the event once the photos are up.
- Renewal reminder: before each renewal date, once per renewal. 7, 14, 30 or 60 days before; 30 by default. Sending one by hand from a member’s page replaces their automatic one.
- Member invitation: when you invite someone. Always sends.
- Member welcome: when you send welcome invites to imported members. Always sends.
- Unfinished signup reminder: once, to someone who started signing up, agreed to hear from you and stopped. 4 to 72 hours later.
- Guest access ending: once, before a guest’s last day. 3, 7 or 14 days before.
- Membership lapsed: once, when a membership lapses. Not sent to members you deactivate by hand.
Sign-in links, password resets, two-factor notices, tickets and receipts are not on this list, and nothing here can hold them back.
What you can change
Each email has a switch, except the invitation and the welcome, which read Always sends. Choose Edit to change the timing where there is one, and the subject, heading and opening paragraph, with a preview and Reset to default. The details panel, the button and the footer are fixed. Members who have unsubscribed never receive any of these.
Sender, reply-to and sign-off
The Automated email card holds the master switch, which holds everything on the list above and nothing else, and who the email appears to come from: the sender name, the reply-to address and a sign-off that closes every automated email.
How often members hear from you
Set a limit per member of 1, 2, 3 or 5 automated emails per week, fortnight or month, or no limit. Campaigns you send yourself are not counted. Turn on sending hours to hold automated email until a reasonable time in your time zone, and weekdays only to keep weekends clear. Anything held is sent when the window next opens, not dropped. Emails you trigger yourself, such as invitations, are not held by the hours.
The sending address
Automated email comes from a Portava address. Campaigns come from your own domain, which the Portava team sets up and verifies for you; the Email delivery card shows its status.