Broadcasts are a way to send emails to a chosen group of users. You can create email Broadcasts for Tutors, Clients, or Students, and filter them by status and Labels. You can also send a preview of your broadcast to someone (including yourself) by just entering their email address.
Take a look at our Markdown guide for help with writing broadcasts.
You can create a Broadcast by navigating to Communications > Broadcasts and selecting the New Broadcast button. This opens a dialog box where you can select whom you wish to send the broadcast to i.e., Administrator, Client, Student or Tutor. You can then apply the required status and Label filters before writing your email.
You can also include an Email Style to your broadcasts. Once you save your broadcast, you will automatically get directed to the ‘Broadcast Details’ page. Before sending it, you can click Send Preview and enter your email address to preview what the broadcast will look like before it goes out to your users. Once you've previewed the broadcast and made any necessary changes, click Send. You can check the status of your Broadcasts in Communications > Outbound Emails.
Creating a new broadcast.
How do I unsubscribe a user from receiving broadcasts?
Every broadcast email that users receive from TutorCruncher comes with an Unsubscribe link. Alternatively, you can also unsubscribe users if they no longer wish to receive a particular email. Simply navigate to their profile, select Actions > Edit Profile and untick the ‘Receive Broadcasts’ checkbox under their address details.
Why didn't all my users receive a broadcast?
In line with GDPR, your users can unsubscribe from receiving broadcasts by clicking the unsubscribe button that appears at the bottom of the email’s body. When they unsubscribe, they will stop receiving any future broadcasts that are sent from your account.
You can check if a user has opted out from receiving broadcasts by going to their profile page and selecting Actions > Edit Profile to verify if the 'Receive Broadcasts' box has been unchecked. It's also worth checking that the user has an active email address assigned to their profile.
Why didn’t my broadcast go out to users with the selected Labels?
If you are sending out a broadcast filtered by a specific Label, only the users who have that Label applied to their profile will receive the broadcast. Similarly, if multiple Labels are selected, then only roles with all of the Labels will receive a broadcast.
Can I add an attachment to a broadcast?
Attachments cannot be added to broadcasts currently. As a workaround, you could include a link in that broadcast that would redirect the user to download the file elsewhere. Using Markdown, you can upload files such as images, PDFs, etc. that can be linked to. This means that anybody with that link will be able to access and download the file.
Markdown Guide
TutorCruncher allows text formatting using the markup language Markdown in multiple areas of the system. You can format plain text efficiently with very simple code in job descriptions, email, broadcasts, reports, etc.
To apply formatting to plain text you can either use the tools provided on top of the text field or write the text with Markdown straight away. To preview how the text will be rendered click on the eye symbol.
Markdown editor in TutorCruncher
Headers
Header | Code | Result |
Heading 1 |
| H1 |
Heading 2 |
| H2 |
Heading 3 |
| H3 |
Heading 4 |
| H4 |
Heading 5 |
| H5 |
Heading 6 |
| H6 |
Emphasis
Effect | Code | Result |
Italic |
| Italic |
Bold |
| Bold |
Bold and Italic |
| Bold and Italic |
Lists
1. For ordered lists 1. give the list item 1. A number 1. Sublists use 1. indents of four spaces.
For ordered lists
give the list item
A number
1. Sublists use
2. indents of four spaces.
* Unordered lists * use asterisks * and spaces. * Sublists use * indents of four spaces.
Unordered lists
use asterisks
and spaces.
* Sublists use
* indents of four spaces.
Links
Links can easily be created like this [TutorCruncher](https://tutorcruncher.com) and will render like this: TutorCruncher.
You can add a link title that displays when you hover over the link like this:
[Check out our website.](https://tutorcruncher.com "TutorCruncher")
Images
Images can be inserted like this
You can put an alt text that displays when you hover over the image in the brackets like this ![alt text], or leave them blank ![].
Images as a link
It's simply a combination of the above two options:
[](https://tutorcruncher.com)
Tables
Tables can also be created in Markdown and used in text boxes in TutorCruncher.
| This is | a table | in Markdown |
|--------------|:--------------:|--------------:|
| columns | can be aligned | with colons |
| left aligned | centered | right aligned |
| **Markdown** | *also renders* | in tables |
This is | a table | in Markdown |
columns | can be aligned | with colons |
left aligned | centered | right aligned |
Markdown | also renders | in tables |
Colons can be used in the second row of the table to align the columns. It is not necessary to line up the raw Markdown for it to render properly as long as there are at least three dashes separating each header cell.
not | aligned | still | works
--- | --- | --- | ---
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
not | aligned | still | works |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Moustache templates guide
Example | Function | Description |
| Insert variable | This is how we insert variables into template. For instance, `` will pull in the first name of the person you are sending the email to. |
| IF statement | This adds logic to the template. If the variable exists or is true, then the text in the middle of it will be inserted into the template. If the variable doesn't exist or is not true, then the text will not be included. |
| IF NOT statement | This does the opposite of the line above. If the variable doesn't exist or is not true, then the text will be included, and vice versa. |
Why aren't my variables working?
Even if you have entered the right variable for a particular field, it may be the case that these aren't being reflected on the emails themselves. The reason for this may be that you have yet to frame these variables. Framing your variables is sometimes necessary in order to tell the system what it should be looking for. For example; if you were attempting to write a Job Confirmation Email to your Tutors, you may wish to let tutors know what the student's details are (name, address, their associated client, phone number, etc.). However, when taken alone, entering the variable ###{{ client_name }} will not return any results, because the system requires context within which to search for that information.
The way to provide this much-needed context is through "nesting" your variables, here's a quick run-through, using the example above as our guide.
In this example, we would want to nest our variable ###{{ client_name }} within a variable which tells the system that you are looking for the details of that particular student (a.k.a. Service Recipient).
How would we tell the system this? Simply by adding another variable before, in this case, that would be: ###{{ #student_recipient_details }}
Now that we have told the system to look for these ###{{ #student_recipient_details }}, it will come to the variable for ###{{ client_name }} and know exactly what it needs to look for, but what happens after that?
If left like this, the system will continue to look for the student's details for every other variable on the page, which is not what we want, so in order to structure our email properly, we will need to tell it to stop looking for the student's details at some point as well.
The way we do this is by writing another new variable, below ###{{ client_name }} which tells it to stop, this is written as ###{{ /student_recipient_details }}
Now the system knows where to start looking for the correct information: ###{{ #student_recipient_details }}
Where to look specifically for the information: ###{{ client_name }}
And when to stop looking for the correct information: ###{{ /student_recipient_details }}
This is how you nest your variables in order to keep them functioning properly.
What nested variables can I use?
As described above, nesting variables in the way to tell TutorCruncher what type of variables which it should be looking for in a given Email Definition. This initial, or Primary Variable, sets the context for the rest of the variables, we can call them Secondary Variables, which are "nested" inside the opening and closing parts of our Primary Variable. So, if a Primary Variable establishes the context, and the Secondary Variables come within that Primary variable, how do you know which is which?
You can identify these different kinds of variables on TutorCruncher by going to your Email Definitions, editing a given email and scrolling down to the list of Available Variables. Secondary Variables will be listed below their corresponding primary variable, indented to the right and filtered grey.
This is an example of the Nested Variables which correspond to the primary variable ###{{ #student_recipient details }} - As per the example given above.
Please note:
The logical parts of the template, the IF and IF NOT statements, must be opened and closed for the template to work. For instance, you cannot simply do
###{{#variable_to_check}} ..., you also include###{{\variable_to_check}}.If you have inserted the first part of an IF or IF NOT statement, the opening part, then you must include the second part, the closing part, before you close another. For instance, the following will not work:
###{{#first_variable_to_check}} < Opening first IF statement...###{{#second_variable_to_check}} < Opening second IF statement...###{{/first_variable_to_check}} < Closing first IF statement...###{{/second_variable_to_check}} < Closing second IF statementWhereas this would:
###{{#first_variable_to_check}} < Opening first IF statement...###{{#second_variable_to_check}} < Opening second IF statement...###{{/second_variable_to_check}} < Closing second IF statement...###{{/first_variable_to_check}} < Closing first IF statement
How do I add or attach documents/PDFs/pictures/images to a broadcast/email?
You can upload files such as images, PDFs, etc. that can be linked to or used in emails. You do this by uploading a publicly viewable file, meaning that anybody with the link will be able to access the file.
List of publicly available files.
Navigate to Communications > Public Files, choose your file from your computer, and click 'Upload'. The file will appear in the list on the page.
Click on the 'Copy to clipboard' icon, next to the file name, to copy the files link to your clipboard ready to be pasted.
Add this link address with the Markdown editor (email body) for email definitions and broadcasts or the HTML editor for templates.
How do I include images in my email?
With Markdown, including images is easy.
