Send mass emails to all members or specific groups. Track delivery, suppress bouncers, honor opt-outs.
What you can do
- Compose plain-text or HTML emails to any member group.
- Target by tier ("only Lifetime members"), by status ("only active"), by committee ("Library Committee only"), or by hand-picked list.
- Schedule for later or send immediately.
- Track per-recipient delivery status (sent / bounced / opened — opens require an open-tracking pixel).
- Honor opt-outs — members who unsubscribed from a category never receive future blasts in that category.
- Reuse templates — save common emails ("monthly newsletter announcement," "annual meeting reminder") and tweak before each send.
How to send your first blast
SocietyPress → Blast Email → Compose.
- From — defaults to your site's admin email. Override per blast if you want.
- Subject — required.
- Audience — pick from dropdown (All active members / All members / Specific tiers / Specific committee / Custom list).
- Body — rich-text editor. Inserts merge tags (e.g.,
{{first_name}}) that personalize per recipient. - Schedule — Send now / Schedule for [datetime].
Preview before sending — the preview renders as it'll appear in the recipient's inbox, with a sample member's data filled in.
Click Send (or Schedule). The blast queues and sends in batches (default 50/minute to avoid tripping host rate limits).
How merge tags work
Available tags:
{{first_name}}— recipient's first name.{{last_name}}— recipient's last name.{{org_name}}— your society's name (from Settings).{{member_number}}— their member ID.{{expiration_date}}— their dues expiration date.
Custom merge tags can be added by extending the merge-tag map in your child theme — see the developer reference (when written).
How opt-outs work
Every blast email includes an unsubscribe link in the footer (required by anti-spam law). Clicking it presents the recipient with a granular opt-out:
- Unsubscribe from all SocietyPress emails (transactional confirmations like password resets are excluded).
- Unsubscribe from a specific category (newsletter / events / general announcements).
Their preferences are saved on their member record. Future blasts in opted-out categories skip them automatically.
To check who's opted out: SocietyPress → Members → [member] → Communication Preferences tab.
How delivery tracking works
Each recipient gets their own row in the blast's recipients table. Status starts at pending, flips to sent when wp_mail returns success, flips to bounced if the host reports a hard bounce.
Open tracking is optional — when enabled, a 1px pixel is added to HTML emails. When the recipient opens the email and their client loads images, the pixel fires and the row's opened_at timestamp records.
(Some email clients block image loading by default, so open rates are always under-reported. The number is directional, not exact.)
To see results: SocietyPress → Blast Email → [blast] → Recipients tab.
How to use templates
SocietyPress → Blast Email → Templates. Save commonly-used emails as templates. When composing a new blast, pick a template to pre-fill subject + body. Edit the body before sending.
Common templates: monthly meeting reminder, annual meeting announcement, dues renewal nudge, new-quarterly-issue alert, fundraiser kickoff.
If something looks wrong
Sent count is way lower than expected. Some members are opted out of the category. Some have invalid email addresses (bounced previously). Some are inactive or lapsed. Check the blast's recipients tab for the per-status breakdown.
Emails not arriving at all. SocietyPress → Settings → Email → Send test email to confirm outbound mail. If the test fails, switch to SMTP under the same Settings page. Also check your host's anti-spam practices — some hosts throttle outbound mail aggressively.
An invitation went out to someone who shouldn't have received it. They might be in the targeted group via a tier or committee assignment. Check their member record. If they shouldn't be in the audience, either change their tier/assignment or use the "Custom list" audience type for one-off precision.
Members complaining about too many emails. Add categories to your blasts (newsletter, events, fundraiser) so members can opt out of categories they don't want without unsubscribing entirely. Send less.
Open rate is implausibly low (or zero). Open tracking depends on the recipient's email client loading images. Some clients block by default; iOS Mail privacy-protect adds noise. Treat the number as directional only.
Related guides
- Members — audiences are defined by member attributes
- Newsletters — new-issue announcement is a common blast use case
- Events — event reminders are another common use case