How to Email or Text Selected Guests

You can email or text a group of guests straight from the Guest List: select the guests, write your message, and send. Each guest gets their own copy with their first name filled in.

Note

Available on Core and higher plans. If you don’t see Message selected, contact Handbid Support to switch it on for your organization.

Send an email

1. Open Guest List for your event.
2. Select the guests you want to email. The selection bar appears at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click Message selected.
4. Enter a Subject and a Message. Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
5. To greet each guest by name, click Insert first name. It adds {firstName} where your cursor is. Guests without a first name are greeted as “there”.
6. Check the line above the buttons. It shows how many guests will get the email and how many will be skipped.
7. Click Send email.

If more than 50 guests will receive the email, you are asked to confirm before it sends. You can email up to 500 guests at a time.

Send a text message

If your plan includes text messages, the message window shows Email, SMS and Both.

1. Choose SMS (or Both to send an email and a text).
2. Write a short message. The counter shows how long it is: up to 207 characters, and {firstName} counts as 12.
3. Avoid emoji and curly quotes: they can’t be sent by text and are highlighted in red.
4. Check What guests receive. Every text starts with your organization’s name and ends with “Msg&data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to end alerts.”
5. Check the box confirming that every recipient has agreed to receive texts from your organization. You can’t send a text without it.
6. Click Send text (or Send both).

You can text up to 200 guests at a time. Each text uses one or two of the texts in your plan (two when it’s longer than one text message), shown above the buttons as “n texts · m left in your plan”.

Why some guests are skipped

Click Skipped under the message to see who will not get the email, grouped by reason:

• No email address: the guest has no email on file. Add one from the guest’s record.
• Opted out of messages: the guest has unsubscribed from your organization’s messages.
• Duplicate email (sent once): two selected guests share an address, so it is sent only once.

For texts:

• No mobile number or Placeholder number: add a real mobile number to the guest.
• Opted out of messages or Replied STOP: the guest asked not to be contacted.
• Duplicate number (sent once): two selected guests share a phone number.
• Over your plan’s text allowance: your plan has no texts left for this send.

If none of the selected guests can receive the message, the send button stays off.

Replies

Replies go to your organization’s contact email, shown at the bottom of the message window. If your organization has no contact email, replies go to Handbid support. To change it, update your organization’s contact email.

See what was sent

Open a guest’s record from the Guest List and scroll to Messages. It lists the 10 most recent emails and texts with their date, subject or text, and status:

• Queued or Sending: on its way.
• Sent: handed to the email or text service.
• Failed: the message could not be sent.
• Skipped: not sent, with the reason.