How do I send a message?

Sending messages individually

1. When working on a form response, you can reach out to a family in 3 ways:

• A button next to the contact method on each parent/guardian listed on the student's information
• A button in the Messages tab

• An option to message when updating the status description. This can save time because it will add what you wrote in the status description to the message.

2. When you create a message, you'll see details about who you're sending the message to, like:

• The parent/guardian's preferred language
• Whether they’ll get an email or an SMS. If only one option is listed, they won’t receive a message on the other one.

3. When the message is ready, click "Send".

Sending messages to multiple recipients

Sometimes it's easier to send messages to a group of people. You can message every parent/guardian connected to a form response by selecting multiple responses. You can also use filters to find specific groups of people.

1. Select one or more responses in your view.

2. Click "Send message."

3. When creating the message, it will look the same as sending messages individually. You'll still see parent/guardian details like their language and contact method.

4. Personalizing messages can be tricky, but it can boost your outreach engagement. Avela helps you achieve this by using variables in your automatic messages. See more about using variables.

5. When your message is ready, click "Send".

General tips for sending messages

Your email, in your words

Avela helps you convey your emails in your preferred style by offering near limitless possibilities through our content editor. Titles, italics, bolding, lists - you get to choose how to send your message, even emojis ✅

Best practices

• Send messages that are relevant, concise, and valuable to the recipient, avoiding spammy language or unnecessary frequency.
• If you have to send a link, include enough context for the family. This will help prevent it from looking like spam.
• Make sure your recipients have updated contact information to reduce the chance of bounces.