Email broadcasts let you reach the right fans at the right time with a message built in the Openstage email editor. This article covers building, reviewing, scheduling, and tracking an email broadcast.
⚪ Note: Posts is the recommended way to email fans. A Post delivers by email and also publishes to the web, where you control who gets access using gating.
See Create and Publish a Post to get started, or Migrate Broadcasts and Subscriber Content to Posts to bring existing drafts and templates across.
🟡 Please note: Add a reply-to email address in Artist Settings before you send any email broadcast. Link it to an inbox you can access, because fan replies go there and nowhere else in Openstage. The reply-to address applies to every email broadcast. You cannot change it for an individual broadcast.
Create an Email broadcast
Navigate to Message > Broadcasts.
Click + New Broadcast in the top right.
The Broadcasts page lists your broadcasts with the following status tags:
Draft - not yet sent
Complete - finished sending
Pending - currently sending
Scheduled - queued for a future send time
1. Choose your channel
Name your broadcast and select Email as the channel. The name is internal and fans never see it. For SMS, see Send an SMS Broadcast.
2. Design your message
Start from a blank email or from a saved template. Select Blank to open the editor options, or Template to choose from your saved templates. Manage your templates by clicking Manage Templates next to + New Broadcast.
The message preview shows your content at a glance. Click the three dots next to Edit message content to:
Save your current work as a template (available once content is built)
Replace your current work with a template
🟡 Please note: Replacing your work with a template removes the content you have already built.
Add a Subject and Preview text. Both are required.
🟢 Top tip: Lead with a strong call to action in your subject line and heading, because they are the first things fans see. For example, Subject: “UK! We’re going on tour!” and Preview text: “Register for presale now.”
Edit message content
Click Edit message content to open the email editor. Build your email by dragging structure presets and blocks into the content window.
Available blocks include:
Text
Images
Videos
Buttons
Spacers
Dividers
Social links
Click Preview to see your email on desktop and mobile. Click Switch to edit mode in the top left to return to editing. When you finish, click Save and exit with the X in the top right.
🟢 Top tip: Test your email in both light and dark mode on different devices. Some email clients, including Gmail, change text and background colors automatically in dark mode.
🟢 Top tip: When you use a structure preset with more than one column, set your blocks to Stack columns on mobile. Content then moves from horizontal on desktop to vertical on mobile.
Merge tags
Merge tags pull fan data into your email. The following merge tags work in Openstage:
First name - the first name from the fan record
Last name - the last name from the fan record
Email - the email address from the fan record
You can use the First name merge tag in the Subject field to personalize it. Merge tags also power Abandoned Cart automations. See Set Up an Abandoned Cart Automation for more detail.
🟡 Please note: Merge tags do not work in the Preview text field.
3. Choose your audience
Select the fans who will receive your broadcast.
Choose from the recommended audience cards, or select Other to browse all your saved audiences.
Combine audiences. Each one appears as a pill in the Added audiences section.
Refine your selection or build a new audience from scratch with the Audience Builder in the lower half of the window.
The Recipients column on the right updates as you refine your audience. See Build an Audience for more detail.
4. Review your broadcast
Review every detail of your broadcast in a single view. The review step flags any issues:
Yellow warnings - worth reviewing, but the broadcast can still send
Red errors - must be fixed before the broadcast can send
Click Edit to return to the relevant step.
From the review page you can also:
Check Spam Score - see whether your email is likely to land in spam folders, with advice on how to improve it
Send a Test Email - available once there are no errors and you have saved your draft
Clone - duplicate the broadcast with the same design and settings
Delete - remove a draft broadcast. You cannot delete a broadcast that has already sent.
5. Schedule and Send
Click the green Schedule button in the bottom right. Schedule your broadcast for a later date, or click Publish Now to send immediately.
🟡 Please note: Your broadcast does not send until you click Save & Schedule, regardless of the scheduled time.
🟡 Please note: A cloned broadcast keeps the schedule time from the original, which may now be in the past. In that case, clicking Save & Schedule sends the broadcast immediately. Check the schedule time before you confirm.
🟡 Please note: Do not change the subject, preview text, or audience while a broadcast is active and sending. Changes mid-send can cause errors.
Performance
Once your broadcast sends, open the Performance tab to track results.
The Broadcasts overview page shows recipients, open rate, and click-through rate for each broadcast.
Use the three dots menu on a broadcast to clone or edit a draft, clone a previously sent broadcast, or delete a draft.
See Broadcast Metrics for a full breakdown.
Retarget fans
Build an audience of fans who were sent your email broadcast but did not read it. Use the Audience Builder, or the Audience step of the email broadcast builder.