Building upon PensionPro's Blast Email feature, Fast Blast provides the capability of sending emails based on customized templates to multiple recipients. However, while Blast Email is powerful and can send an email to many Contacts across many Plans, it can be cumbersome when the email only needs to be sent to a Plan Contact or two. In contrast, Fast Blast excels when an email needs to be snapped off quickly; simply select a template, select the Contacts, and the email is sent—all without needing to navigate away from the Project or Plan.
Tier Availability: Business Bundle
Article Contents
Requirements
The settings applied within PensionPro Preferences for Blast Email also apply to Fast Blast, and a connection to an email server must be established before either can be used successfully. If necessary, refer to the article Blast Email - Preferences & Troubleshooting to get started.
Fast Blast simplifies the process of sending a Blast Email Template. However, the desired Template must exist before it can be sent using Fast Blast. For instructions on creating a new Blast Email Template, refer to the article Blast Email.
Not every Blast Email Template can be used for Fast Blast. To be eligible, the Template must meet the following prerequisites:
- The Blast Email Template must be set to one of the following Mailing Types:
- Plan Contacts
- Census Request / Reminder
- Distribution Request / Reminder
- General Web Collection Request / Reminder
- The Available for Fast Blast option must be set to Yes.
Sending a Fast Blast
As opposed to Blast Email, which occupies its own space within the Communications menu, a Fast Blast is sent directly from either the Plan tab or the Project tab. This provides the following benefits:
- A Blast Email can be sent without navigating away from the Plan or Project.
- PensionPro can hide Blast Email Templates that are not appropriate to the situation.
- The Plan's Contacts are automatically retrieved as eligible recipients, without requiring any filters to be set.
- A user lacking the Blast Email Security Right can still send a plan communication using Fast Blast.
To send a Fast Blast:
- Open a Plan or Project tab.
- At the top-right, in the tab header, select More
> Create Fast Blast. The Create Fast Blast window displays.
- Select the desired Blast Email Template from the dropdown. The Recipients grid will appear, populated with all of the Plan's Contact Roles.
- Choose at least one recipient by selecting a checkbox at the left side of the grid.
- If desired, select Preview at the top-right of the Create Fast Blast window to review the chosen Template. The preview will open in a new browser tab.
- If the Subject or Body of the Blast Email Template contains any Merge Fields, the preview will not pull in the data referenced by the Merge Field.
- When satisfied, select Send Fast Blast.
Once the Fast Blast is sent, a popup notification will appear at the bottom of the screen, and the email will be saved as an Interaction. If the Fast Blast is not successful for any reason, the Interaction will not be saved, and the popup notification will contain a link to an error log.
When selecting the Blast Email Template to use for the Fast Blast, only Templates that have been designated as Available for Fast Blast will be made shown in the dropdown. Additionally, PensionPro will hide any Template that is not applicable to the Plan or Project that the Fast Blast is being sent from. This is determined by the Mailing Type used for the Template, as follows:
Plan Contacts | Available for any Plan or Project tab (excluding Distributions). |
Census Request/Reminder |
Only available on the Project tab. The Project Type must be Annual Administration, and Web Collection must be enabled. |
Distribution Request/Reminder |
Only available on the Project tab. The Project Type must be Distribution, and Web Collection must be enabled. |
General Web Collection Request/Reminder |
Only available on the Project tab. The Project Type must be General Web Collection, and Web Collection must be enabled. |
Additionally, if the Project Type supports a Request or Reminder Fast Blast, but the chosen Blast Email Template does not apply (depending on the current stage of Data Collection—for example, attempting to send a Reminder when a Request has not yet been sent), PensionPro will display the following error:
If this occurs, a different Blast Email Template will need to be selected.