Send by Email allows you to send bulletins to your subscribers from your local email client (e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, etc.), without having to log into the govDelivery interface.

How to Send a Bulletin By Email

Enable Send by Email for the Topic

Before you can enable the Send by Email feature for a topic, it must be turned on for your account. Have an Account Administrator request this feature by contacting your dedicated Customer Success Consultant or submitting a request at the bottom of this page. Once Send by Email is enabled at the account level, you can enable or disable it at the topic level. 

To enable Send by Email for the Topic:

  1. On the left navigation toolbar, click Topics.
  2. Click on the topic for which you want to enable send by email.
  3. Scroll to the Send by Email Settings section and set Send by Email Enabled to Yes.
  4. Click Save.
  5. govDelivery will assign a Send by Email address specific to the topic.
    Note: The email address is found in the Send by Email Settings section. You will need to enable Send by Email for each topic that you wish to send updates for via email.

Send Email to Send by Email Address

  1. Compose an email in your email client (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, etc.). The email should include all content that you want sent to your subscribers and an appropriate subject line. You can include attachments up to a total of 1 MB in the email.
  2. Send the email to the Send by Email address noted in above. To send the email to multiple topics, include each Send by Email address in the To field. Do not send the email to each Send by Email address separately, as this may result in subscribers receiving duplicate messages. Do not enter the email address in the CC or BCC field. Remove any signature items that you do not want to appear in your bulletin.

Confirm Email

  • You will receive a challenge response email from Granicus.
  • Review the text of your original bulletin at the bottom of the challenge response email. Ensure that the From Address, Subject, Body, Footer, and any attachments are correct.
  • If satisfied with the email, either reply to the email with the word APPROVED as the first word in the subject line of the email or click the link provided.
  • Once clicking the link in the confirmation email, click Confirm to send your bulletin to your subscribers. After clicking Confirm, you will receive confirmation that your bulletin has been sent.

Bulletin Sent to Subscribers

Once you confirm the email, govDelivery will send the email to all subscribers of the designated topic.

Send By Email Templates 

When a bulletin is sent to a topic via Send By Email, that bulletin inherits the settings and styling of the topic bulletin template, outside of the body section, for the topic being sent to. If more than one topic is being sent to, the bulletin inherits the settings and styling of the general template. The text that is created in your default email client will automatically become the body content of your govDelivery bulletin. This gives your organization the freedom to continue to send branded and dynamic emails while still using your default email client, sending from the field, and more. You can also set bulletins to automatically post to Facebook or Twitter using these default topic bulletin template settings.

Posting Send By Email Bulletins to Social Media

A helpful feature of Send By Email bulletins, is that they can still automatically be posted to social media accounts when they are sent. To do this complete the following.

  1. You must have a Facebook or Twitter account authorized for your account within govDelivery. Learn more about integrating integrating social media. 
  2. Go to the the Topic Bulletin Template for the topic that you would like to automatically post to social media with.
    1. Click on Topics on the left side of your screen.
    2. Then, click on Topic Bulletin Template on the right side of your screen.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of your Topic Bulletin Template. You will see options for Publish to Facebook and for Publish to Twitter. You can enable social media posting at the template level, and compose default comments here.
  4. Now, when a bulletin is sent using Send By Email to that topic, the content will be published to social media according to your settings in this area.

If your organization decides to use Send By Email to send a bulletin to multiple topics, that bulletin will inherit the settings and styling for your default general bulletin template, in order to prevent any overlapping settings that two different topics may have.

Send By Email Drafts

Send by Email Drafts are bulletins submitted to govDelivery via Send by Email but not yet sent to subscribers. To access Send by Email Drafts:

  1. From the navigation on the left side of your screen, click on Topics.
  2. Click on the desired topic name.
  3. From the navigation on the right side of your screen, click on Bulletins.
  4. Click the Send by Email Drafts tab.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can anyone send a bulletin to subscribers via the Send by Email function?

A: No. The email address that originates the Send by Email bulletin must match an administrator email in your govDelivery account. Note that the "From Address" of the email must exactly match the administrator's email in govDelivery. If a Send by Email bulletin is received from someone that is not an administrator for the account, an email is sent to the Topic's Administrator with an error message that the bulletin failed.

 

Q: Do administrators receive courtesy copies for Send by Email bulletins?

A: Yes, courtesy copies for all Send By Email messages are sent to all administrators who elected to receive these messages for the topic.

 

Q: Do Send by Email bulletins expire if they are not confirmed within a certain time frame?

A: Yes, administrators most confirm a Send by Email bulletin within 48 hours. If 48 hours has elapsed since the confirmation email was sent, the bulletin shall not be sent and an error email shall be returned to the administrator. 
 

Q: Can someone other than the originator of the Send by Email bulletin confirm the bulletin?

A: No, the bulletin must be confirmed by the originator of the bulletin. The original sender must either click the link in the confirmation email or reply from the email address that originated the bulletin with the word APPROVED in the body of the message.

 

Q: Are unconfirmed Send by Email bulletins automatically deleted from govDelivery?

A: Yes, unconfirmed Send by Email bulletins are deleted after seven days. Administrators may also manually delete unconfirmed bulletins at any time.

 

Q: Are Send by Email bulletins included in govDelivery reports?

A: Yes, all Send by Email bulletins are included in govDelivery reports.

 

Q: Can you send attachments in a Send by Email bulletin?

A: Yes, attachments can be included in Send by Email bulletins. Attachments are limited to a total of 1 MB per bulletin. Bulletins that exceed the size limit are not saved to govDelivery. Note that if an attachment is infected by a virus, govDelivery will not save a draft of the Send by Email bulletin and the sender is not notified of the error condition. If the bulletin contains an unsupported attachment type, govDelivery will send the administrator an error message. Read more about Adding Attachments to Bulletins.

 

Q: When sending a Send by Email bulletin to multiple topics, what From Address will the bulletin originate from? Can an administrator select which From Address to use?

A: The administrator cannot select a specific From Address for a Send by Email bulletin sent to multiple topics. Granicus will select a From Address of one of the Topics.

 

Q: Can you send a Send by Email bulletin to multiple topics?

A: Yes. To send a Send by Email bulletin to multiple topics, send the email to the Send by Email address for each topic. govDelivery will automatically eliminate duplicate subscriber email addresses, ensuring that subscribers do not receive duplicate messages.

Q: I received an error message stating that my bulletin contained invalid characters. What does this mean?

A: Bulletin subject lines cannot include curly braces: { or }, so if your subject line contains either of these characters, you will need to remove or replace them before sending your bulletin. 

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