In this tutorial, we will review the creation and automation setup of client and employee messages within the portal templates. As a reminder, the messages created within this specific event type’s portal template will only apply to events in that same designated event type. For example, I will place all wedding client and employee specific messages in the wedding template.

Add any automated emails that your clients will receive in the “scheduled client messages” section of the event portal template. As a reminder, the difference between scheduled client messages and event to-dos is the scheduled client messages appear in the messages area of the portal and do not have any tasks associated with them. These messages truly are touchpoints that are sent to the client throughout the process leading up to their event start date, but no action is being required of them in the system.

As a best practice, it is nice to configure automated touchpoints here to remind the client of their event leading up to the event date. You can send messages 3 months before, 2 months before, the week before the event, however you see fit.

We recommend that you configure a client welcome email here informing your client about their event portal and recommending that they download the mobile app for the best overall experience. For an example of the welcome email, go to help.releventful.com and search for “Welcome Email Example".

To add a new message, select the “add” prompt underneath the scheduled client messages header. Give your portal template a name. In this case, you might have a title of “monthly email reminders”. Once the title is populated, select the “add template” prompt at the top of the page to configure your first message. If you have an email template in the system that you would like to utilize, select the hyperlink “choose existing template.” If not, you can continue to build your email directly in this pop-up window with the subject and email body fields.

Remember to use the token manager to pull in variables that will adjust based on the client and event the email is sent for. Tokens are supported in both the email body and the subject line as well. This creates a more custom message for your client receiving the automated email.

Select the “Notification Settings” tab at the top of the page.

If you would like this email to come from a specific individual, you can enter their name in the “Send Email From” field. This is not required but is an available option for you.

To set the date for when the notification will be sent, select the three dots to the right of the scheduled email text and select “change email schedule.” Configure the trigger rule with the fields provided to indicate when this email should be sent to clients within this event type. As a reminder, you can select the third field to open the date options available to you. Here you can cue up the scheduled email date off of the event start date, event end date, pipeline close date or automation start date. There are other options available to you if you select the “default” field on the left-hand side. You will see an option for “event status change”. This provides the option for sending this client message based on a change in event status for the client’s event. Select the trigger date or status that works best for you and the message you are sending.

Set the “number of days” to indicate how many days before or after the date that this message should be sent. For example, if you wanted this scheduled email to be sent to the client 2 months before their event, you can select the “event start date” for the third column. Select “done” at the bottom of the window to return to the other details of the trigger configuration. Next, set 60 days before in the other two fields. This will indicate that the scheduled client message will be sent 2 months before the event.

As a reminder, below the trigger rules, you can schedule when the message will be sent when the conditions are met. Set the time of day that the email will be delivered to the client.

Once your message is ready to go, select the “save” button in the lower left-hand corner of the window to save the message to the portal template.

If you have additional messages to configure that fall into the same category, you can select “add template” back on the portal template page to add additional scheduled messages here.

Set the toggle to “on” when you are ready to apply this to the event type automations.

By default, this scheduled client message will be applied to booked events, however, this can be changed if you select the three dots alongside this setting and select the prompt for “change portal template settings.” You can change when this scheduled message is applied to your event type with the first available drop-down.

By default all templates here will be added to your clients portal according to the portal template automation run setting.

Click the “save” button in the upper left-hand corner of the page to add this setup to your event portal template.

The “Scheduled Employee Messages” section is an area where you can configure messages to be sent to employees included in the portal team. These messages will not go out to all your employees but will only be sent to employees who are added to the portal team. This is a great place to send a preparation message to your employees working the event a week or so before with the guest count, booked inventory items, schedule for the events, etc.

To add employee messages, follow the same guidelines as described earlier in this tutorial for configuring client messages. The same process applies, however, the messages configured here are of course for your employees included in the portal team and not your client.

We hope that this tutorial has been helpful in explaining the client and employee automated messages and setup. For additional tutorials and resources, please make sure to visit help.releventful.com.