Creating a Send Message Automation
Prerequisites for Creating Issue Alert Automations
User must have following permissions:
Create, Edit, and Delete Send Message Automations, which allows the user to create the automation.
View the Search Page and Search for Students, so they can search for students and save searches if using Saved Searches to create the automation.
View and Search Using the Advanced Search Filters is not strictly necessary but will probably be needed to create robust saved searches if they are using these to create their automation.
Various Standard Report permissions if the user is creating automations from V3 reports, they need to have access to at least one relevant report.
Have the ability to send the message.
If the user has these permissions, they should create a Saved V3 Report OR a Saved Search to create the Issue Alert automation from.
Creating a Send Message Automation
First Steps: Saved Search
Open the Lists and Saved Items page. Navigate to the Automations table and select New Automation.
The New Automation page opens. Enter the Automation Name.
Enter the Automation Conditions. Select a Saved Search from the dropdown. Choose Send Message from the THEN... take this action field. If desired, check the Omit initial matches box, which identifies and omits initial matches from future automation runs. You may want to do this if (for example) your intent is to automatically send a welcome message to student when they are assigned to you, so that students already assigned to you don't get a redundant message.
First Steps: Saved V3 Report
There are two places you can initiate a new automation for a Saved V3 Report: the Lists and Saved Items page on the Automations table or the My Report Automations tab on the Reports page.
If you are creating an automation from the Lists and Saved Items page, select the New Automation button on the table. If you are creating an automation on the My Report Automations tab, select the Add Automation button.
The New Automation page opens. Enter the Automation Name.
Please adhere to the same procedures as outlined for Saved Search.
Creating the Message and Saving the Automation
Next, create your message. Users may create EITHER a recurring email or a recurring text to be sent to the students, not both.
Email messages have a rich text editor and the ability to add the merge fields Recipient Name, Recipient First Name, and Recipient Last Name.If desired, they can also preview the message or send a sample of it to themselves.
Text messages are restricted to 300 characters and do not have formatting options beyond using a Content Template. All text messages sent via automation will come from either your Bulk Messaging Number or a short code which students are not able to reply to.
After entering the Automation Conditions, it's time to enter the Automation Schedule.
First, set your duration. For example, if you want your automation to remind students to fill out financial aid forms as shown in the screenshots above, you can have the automation occurrences run from January to April.
Next, set the automation frequency. This sets how often your automation checks for new students. Finally, set a Time. You will be notified by email two hours before each automation run, so it's best to set this two hours after you can review it.
Once everything is set, click Save Automation. A confirmation window opens. Click Save as Active to start the automation.