What this helps you do
Sending a Blast delivers your message to the phones and computers of everyone in the audience you pick who is on Blasts, and by email to the customers on your list who are not on Blasts yet. You can send now, schedule for later, or repeat weekly. The composer supports formatting, links and images (a photograph of what arrived), up to three attached files (the workshop calendar or a holiday ordering form), a YES or NO reply the Hub counts, and Send a test to me so you see exactly what customers will receive.
When to use it
Use it for the messages a customer is glad to get because they asked for that kind of thing: something is back, new merchandise or the season's first shipment landed, a limited shipment where the count matters, a workshop or an event with places left, holiday ordering opening or closing, a change of hours or an unexpected closure, a safety or recall notice your supplier asked you to pass on, and, among all of that, the occasional honest offer.
How to do it
- Open Send, or start from one of the starter templates your Hub seeds for just in, back in stock, a limited shipment, seasonal arrivals, events and workshops, holiday ordering, hours changes and the occasional offer.
- Pick the audience the message is relevant to: New Arrivals, Back in Stock, Events, Offers, Store Updates, a department, one store. Pick All Customers only when it genuinely concerns everyone.
- Type the message and add a photograph of the piece. Attach the workshop calendar or the ordering form if it helps (up to three files, 5 MB each).
- For a limited shipment or a workshop, ask for a YES or NO reply and the Hub counts the answers. A YES tells you who is interested; a person follows up.
- Read the Delivery panel: one Blasts credit per customer on Blasts, one email credit per customer still on email.
- Click Send a test to me, then choose Send now, Schedule for later, or Repeat weekly for a what-is-new note.
- If you are sending to All Customers, confirm with your passkey or on your phone when asked.
Example
The delivery lands at nine and the manager reads the packing slip: the cookbook people kept asking about is back. She picks Back in Stock, writes two lines and a photograph, and clicks Send now. The 180 customers who ticked that interest hear it before the boxes are unpacked; everyone else hears nothing. On Saturday the block loses power, so she picks All Customers, says the store is closed today and that Sunday is normal hours, and confirms the send with her passkey.
Good to know
- An immediate send is held for about a minute so you can cancel it from Sent & Scheduled; nothing is charged for a cancelled Blast.
- Delivery counts come from the Blasts app, not from tracking pixels; read counts appear where your account's sending lane reports them. Neither is a confirmation: ask for a YES or NO reply when you need an answer.
- The Hub does not know the shipment landed, that stock changed or that an order is ready. Your point of sale, your online store or the packing slip tells you; you tell your customers.
- A YES reply is a customer's own answer, which the Hub counts. It does not hold merchandise, reserve a place or charge a card; someone on the team does whatever comes next.
- Recurring Blasts, such as a weekly what-is-new note, are managed under Sent & Scheduled: pause, resume or delete them there.
- If a manager's Blasts require approval (Settings; off for a new store), their send waits under Sent & Scheduled until an administrator approves it.
- Write the holiday hours in October and schedule them for the week before. A scheduled send costs the same as one you type on the day.
- The Hub suggests the hour your Blasts are read most, based on the last 60 days.