When you think of a robust, efficient, all-in-one communication platform... your mind may have drifted towards your daily drivers like Brevo, Mailchimp and Beefree. You may like their features: a drag-and-drop email builder, templates, customization, personalization, analytics, etc. You may have even jumped between services to get the feature list you desire. Are you tired of jumping? Are your legs wearing out? No more jumping. Rock has you covered on all communication fronts.

Why choose Rock for communication?

• You have access to all your data to empower personalization
• All interactions with comunications are stored in your database
• No integration needed

The wizard works just like you'd expect, guiding you step-by-step with forward and back buttons. Let’s walk through how to send a communication using the wizard.

Build a Communication

To begin a new communication, go to People > New Communication. The first screen you'll see, pictured below, is where you'll pick who you want to send the communication to.

There are many ways to arrive at the Communication Wizard,

• Select ti ti-message-circle comment from a grid
• Navigate to the page yourself then you can:
  • Add individuals manually with a Manual Recipient List
  • Use a Communication List

• Use Simple Editor - Click this button to launch the Simple Editor.
• Communication Name - This is the name of the communication you’re sending, for internal use only, to help you identify which communications were sent as you look through your history of communications. The name you provide here will not be included in the communication you send.
• Topic - Specify which campaign or communication topic this falls under (e.g.: Missions Update). This is used to group communications, making them easier to find in the future. You can update topics in Admin Tools > Settings > Defined Types > Communication Topic.
• Communication List - If you want to select individual recipients manually, you can do that here. This lets you create a list of people without using a configured Communication List. If there are more than 1,000 recipients you'll only see a summary of those who may not receive the communication because, for instance, they don't have an email address or SMS phone number.
• Bulk Communication - Here you choose if it's a bulk (group) communication. When you enable this option, Rock includes a link for the recipient to unsubscribe. Recipients can opt-out of bulk communications as well. You can change the default for this option in the block settings, but we recommend leaving it on. Note, this will be hidden and automatically enabled if the recipient count exceeds the threshold set on the Communication Mediums page. See the Configuring Email chapter for more information.
• Segments - The Segments feature lets you filter people in the Communication List according to your selections. For instance, you could apply the '35 and older' segment to only communicate with people from the 'Members and Attendees' list who are 35 and older. Only segments under the 'Communications' category are shown. This category can be adjusted in the block settings. To learn more, see Segments.
• Recipients Must Meet - If you’ve chosen more than one Segment then this lets you decide if the people who receive the communication should meet all of the segment requirements, or any one of them.
• Prevent Duplicates - This setting is only visible if enabled in the block's settings. People within a family will often share an email address or SMS phone number. Selecting this option will cause only one communication to be sent per email address or phone number. For instance, if spouses share an email address, then only one of them will receive the communication, personalized to that person. In most cases you don't want this set as the communication will be personalized to only one of the recipients.
• Medium - The options you see here may vary depending on your Rock configuration/data. In this case we can choose to send an email, an SMS text message or a push notification. Or we can send it using different mediums based on each recipient’s communication preference.
• Schedule Send - Select when a communication sends, even down to the minute. By default, the communication will be sent immediately after it has been created (and approved, if applicable).

Click Next to advance to the Choose Template screen. This is where you’ll select the email template you want to use to create your communication. You can imagine how, after you’ve created a number of templates, having a Template Image Preview (i.e., thumbnail) will help you easily locate the template you want.

Use the category filter dropdown to help you locate your template. If you don’t see a template listed, you may not have permission to use it, or it might not be set up for use with the wizard. You can learn more about template security and support in the Email Template Survival Guide.

Rock ships with these three templates out of the box, but the list will expand as you create your own. Remember, these templates are a starting point for your communications, later, you can customize them to your heart's content.

Once you have a well-crafted email, SMS message or push notification, you can use it as a template. To learn more, see the Templates section below.

After selecting your template, click Next to advance to the Email Settings screen. This is where you specify the sender, the subject and any files you want to attach to the message.

Click Next to advance to the Email Builder. If your communication will be sent by SMS or Push only, then the wizard will skip this screen.

Email Builder

If you spent time coding your email templates in the past, get ready to take a big sigh of relief. The Email Builder gives you complete creative freedom, with no coding involved (unless you want to) and you can save your build as a template! There are three unique screens (Blocks, Sections and Styles) used to configure your email with simple drag-and-drops.

Blocks - Drag-and-drop email content directly to quickly structure your email.

Sections - Create or re-use groups of content, streamlining email building.

Styles - Customize the style of your email from the text to the buttons.

Blocks

Blocks are the content components themselves. To add an element, simply drag it from the Blocks bar to its resting place in your message.

Content Components

Once you place a component, you can click on it for editing. Try implementing Lava to add a personal touch, change how round your button corners are or insert image and video with ease.

After placing a component, you can edit it by clicking on the section it's in. The options associated with that component are displayed on the right side of the screen. Notice that the section you’re editing is highlighted with a blue border, and you can view your changes in real time. If you want more of a component or layout, once you have selected one, click ti ti-copy. If you decide you don’t want that element after all, click ti ti-trash.

Column Layouts

Column Layouts group content in an elegant format. They can be edited to display unique column spacing and alignment. Each layout can be saved as a Section for re-use. That means not only is the format saved, the content is saved as well. More on that below. 

At any point while working in the Email Builder, you can send a test email to yourself by clicking the Send Test button. Click ti ti-eye to see both desktop and mobile previews of your design. Click  to save a draft of your email. Select the ellipsis (ti ti-dots-vertical) in the top right to save your built email as a template.

Sections

Sections house groups of content that speed up and structure your email building. Drag one in, and you've saved yourself from some serious work.

When to use a section:

• If you have a unique paragraph with lots of Lava
• When using a common "Hero" section
• For an often-used header or footer

This can be done quickly by selecting a column and clicking Save, the following screen will pop up.

Save yourself some trouble by adding a Name and a Usage Summary, which describes the intended use of your section.

Styles

Styling is where you, well... style your email. Each change you make here will affect the entire email, giving you consistent style from top to bottom.

This allows you to select the overall design of your email and provide default values for things like heading, text and buttons.

• Body Settings - Configure the color, alignment and spacing of the body.
• Background Settings - Change your background color or upload an image to alter your email's backdrop.
• Text Styling - Edit text font, size and color globally, or refine styling for each heading.
• Button Styling - Globally alter button color, font, padding, size and even corner radius.
• Divider Styling - Change the style, color, alignment and size of each divider.

Templates

You can now save your built email as a template, no more HTML coding! Communication is rinse and repeat, when you save this template it will take a screenshot as a thumbnail, and you can access this layout in the future with ease. To start, select the ellipsis in the top right (), then "Save As Template" to open the "Save As Template" screen.

1. Category - When you have a lot of templates, categories simplify the search process. To add a new one, navigate to Settings > Communications > Communication Template Categories and click ti ti-plus.
2. Starter - Starter Pins the saved template to the top of the selection screen for the chosen Category. We suggest you only make your most used templates a starter, the 20% of the templates that you use 80% of the time.

Preview As

By selecting the ti ti-eye icon, you can preview any communication in Rock. To add a personal touch, you can even view it as a specific person in your database, or even a segment, giving you the opportunity to test personalization features such as Lava or Adaptive Messages.

Preview As Person

Select an individual with the handy picker and see exactly how it will look in their inbox.

Preview As Segment

When a segment is selected, the system will display a preview using a random person from that segment. Note that this individual may not be an actual email recipient. They may also belong to multiple segments, which could influence how personalization appears in your preview depending on your settings.

Emailing a Login Link

As you're crafting your communication you may find it necessary to include a link that will automatically log the person in to your website. This is easy to do using the PersonTokenCreate Lava filter.

Simply add ?rckipid={{ Person | PersonTokenCreate }} to the URL of the page you want the person to visit.

The example pictured below will log the person in and take them to the external site's homepage using a URL of https://yoursite.org/page/1?rckipid={{ Person | PersonTokenCreate }}.

A link like the one pictured above can be added to your email by using the  button near the top of the editor. Unlike the example above, you'll want to provide friendly text for the link (e.g., "Click Here") instead of the URL itself. Using the URL as pictured above would result in a very long and ugly looking link in the recipient's email.

You can optionally add parameters to your PersonTokenCreate filter, to control:

• How long the token is valid
• How many times it can be used
• Which page it should be used for

Check out our PersonTokenCreate Lava documentation for full details.

Depending on your Security Settings a tokenized link may not be able to be generated for all of your recipients. Out of the box, a person token can't be created for people with an Extreme level Account Protection Profile.

When everything is set up and looks the way you want, click Next to go to the SMS Editor screen. If your communication will be sent by email only, the wizard will skip this screen. The SMS Editor is similar to the Email Editor. This is where you design how your SMS message will appear.

When everything is set up and looks the way you want, click Next to go to the SMS Editor screen. If your communication will be sent by email only, the wizard will skip this screen. The SMS Editor is similar to the Email Editor. This is where you design how your SMS message will appear.

SMS

1. Save - Select the SMS phone number from which the text message will be sent. Unless specified in the block’s settings, this list will contain all active SMS phone numbers you have configured.
2. Preview As - View your SMS as a user
   1. Person: Select a person to preview the message using their data.
   2. Segment: Choose a personalization segment to preview with a sample person from that group. If the segment has no people, a warning appears. The previewed person’s name shows in the Previewing As field but may not be an actual recipient.
3. From Number - Personalization has never been easier. Use the list here to populate your message with the Lava you’ll need to truly customize and personalize content for each recipient.
4. Message - This area is where you’ll compose the actual content of your message. Personalize any message using lava, create a shortlink, add emojis or check your character count.
5. Attachments - Upload files that will be sent with the message as an attachment.

Click Next  when you are ready to move on. If you're sending the communication via a Push Notification, then you'll see the Push Notification Editor screen instead of the Email and SMS screens described above.

Push Notifications

1. Save - Click this to save a draft of your Push Notification.
2. Application - Select which mobile app to send this notification from, if you have multiple. For more on configuring applications, see the Creating an App section of our Mobile Docs.  
3. Preview As - View the Push Notification as a user:
   1. Person: Select a person to preview the message using their data.
   2. Segment: Choose a personalization segment to preview with a sample person from that group. If the segment has no people, a warning appears. The previewed person’s name shows in the Previewing As field but may not be an actual recipient.
4. Title - This will be the title of the push notification and will be seen by the person receiving it.
5. Push Message - This is the main content that the person will see. Personalize notifications with merge fields, add emojis and check your character count.
6. Open Action - When Link to Mobile Page is selected then you can set which page the person will be taken to, including any query string parameters you might add. These two features require Rock Mobile and require that Rock Mobile is configured correctly to receive these details.

With the last of the communication methods configured, click Next to go to the Confirmation screen. This is the last stage in the process before we actually send the communication.

Sending a Communication

This screen will give a snapshot of your communication's final look, when it is getting sent, and who will see it.

After clicking Send, the communication is on its way to your faithful audience, but it doesn't stop there.

1. Email Performance Analytics To Me - If you want to see how your communication is performing.
2. View Communication - If you want to immediately see the communication's analytics. See the Viewing Analytics section to learn more.
3. Create New Communication - To reset and spend some more time with the Wizard.

Pretty cool, right? With the Communication Wizard, you’re going to be rocking email and SMS messages in no time.

Communication Templates

Communication Templates make it easy to send polished, on-brand messages every time. They help your team stay consistent and efficient—so you can focus on what really matters. Instead of rewriting the same message for the hundredth time, just use a template and give your fingers a break.

As you build your template collection, finding the right one can get tricky. That’s where categories come in. By filtering templates by Category, you can zero in on exactly what you need.

To begin, go to Admin Tools > Settings > Communication Templates, then press the ti ti-circle-plus button to create a new template.

1. Is Starter - Check Is Starter to pin your template to the top of the Choose Template page. Use this for the 20% of templates you rely on 80% of the time.
2. Category - Set a Category to group templates by theme or purpose for easier organization. More on this below.
3. Version - Select which block version you prefer:
   1. Legacy only lets you code email templates in HTML. SMS and Push don’t support emojis.
   2. Beta includes the drag-and-drop email builder, emojis and more.
4. Template Preview Image - Select a thumbnail image to preview your template visually on the Choose Template page.
5. Email - Create reusable subjects and attachments. Then use the Email Builder to design polished emails quickly with drag-and-drop tools.
6. SMS - Structure your SMS message, add Lava or emojis and save it as a reusable template.
7. Push - Set up a Push Notification, add Lava or emojis and save it for future use.

Once you click Save, your template is ready for use.

Organizing and Securing Templates

Categories help you group templates by theme—like General, Children's Ministry or Finance—so it’s easier to find what you need.

If certain templates are especially important, you can restrict access using security settings. From the Communication Template List page, click the ti ti-lock icon to choose who can View, Edit or Administrate each template.

Keep in mind: you'll only see templates you have Edit permission for on your My Settings page.