What Announcements Help You Do
An announcement is one plain-text email that you send to a group of members at the same time. Use it for news that many members need: a schedule change, a holiday closure, a seminar, or a reminder about a belt test.
Every announcement shows your gym's name as the sender, followed by "via MatAdmin". When a member replies, the reply goes to your gym's Reply-To address, not to MatAdmin.
You can send an announcement to:
- Everyone, or only adults, or only kids.
- The members in one program, such as Kids BJJ. This means members who have a rank in that program.
- The members on one membership plan.
For each group, you also choose which membership statuses to include.
Before You Start
Announcements come with a paid MatAdmin subscription, or with complimentary access from MatAdmin. Gyms on the free plan or in a free trial do not see New announcement or Sent announcements. If the subscription ends, you can still open Sent announcements and stop an announcement that is still sending, but you cannot write a new one. An announcement that was already sent keeps going to its recipients.
Owners and staff can write and send announcements. Two settings must be in place before the first announcement, and only the gym owner can change them.
- Add your mailing address. Open Settings and find the Mailing address card. Enter your gym's business mailing address, in up to 4 lines, and select Save mailing address. MatAdmin prints this address at the bottom of every announcement, because bulk email must include a postal address. Members, and anyone they forward the email to, can see it. You can also add it from the announcement form: select Add mailing address above the form.
- Set the Reply-To address. Open New announcement (see the next section). At the top of the form, select Set Reply-To, enter one email address with no name, and select Save Reply-To. Use an inbox that someone at your gym reads. To change it later, select Change next to the address.
If one of these is missing, a Finish setup box at the top of the announcement form lists what to add, and Preview recipients names what is missing. Staff see a message to ask the gym owner.
Write an Announcement
- Open Members from the sidebar.
- Select the More member actions menu (the three dots next to Add Member).
- Select New announcement.
- In Who, choose Everyone, Adults, Kids, One program, or One plan. If you choose a program or a plan, pick it from the list that appears.
- In Membership status, choose Active members, Active and trial members, or All membership statuses.
- Enter a Subject, up to 150 characters. MatAdmin sends the subject exactly as you write it.
- Enter the Message, up to 10,000 characters and at most 10 links. The message is plain text. MatAdmin keeps your paragraphs, and most mail apps make the links clickable.
- Select Preview recipients.
You do not need to write a footer. MatAdmin adds one to every email with your gym's name and mailing address, the reason the member gets the email, and an unsubscribe link.
Check the Preview
The preview shows exactly who gets the email before anything is sent. Nothing goes out at this step.
At the top, four numbers summarize the audience:
- Recipients: the email addresses on the list.
- Will receive: the addresses that get the email.
- Will be skipped: addresses on the list that do not get the email, because the person unsubscribed or the address is blocked.
- Excluded: members in the group that MatAdmin cannot reach by email.
Below the numbers, a table shows each recipient, the email address, how MatAdmin found it (Own email or Guardian contact), and the status.
Some things to know about the list:
- One email per address. When two or more members share an email address, such as a parent with two kids, MatAdmin sends one email to that address. The preview tells you how many duplicate addresses it merged.
- Skipped addresses stay visible. A skipped row shows Unsubscribed or Address blocked by the email provider. An address is usually blocked when earlier email to it bounced or the person marked it as spam. MatAdmin checks again at send time and never sends to an unsubscribed or blocked address.
- Excluded members. The Excluded list names each member MatAdmin cannot reach and the reason. For example, a member with no email address and no linked guardian. MatAdmin never takes an email address from a member's notes.
At the bottom, Footer added to every email shows the footer text your members will see.
To change the subject, message, or audience, select Back to edit, make the change, and select Preview recipients again.
Reach Kids Through a Guardian
A child often has no email address of their own. If a parent or guardian is linked to the child in MatAdmin, you can send the child's announcements to that guardian. MatAdmin never picks a guardian for you. A staff member chooses one.
- Link the guardian to the child first. See Family and Linked Members.
- Prepare an announcement that includes the child.
- In the Excluded list, find the child. The reason reads "No email address. Choose which linked guardian hears from the gym."
- Select Set [guardian name] as contact for the guardian who should get the gym's announcements.
MatAdmin saves the choice and updates the preview. The child leaves the Excluded list. Usually the child appears in the table with Guardian contact. When the guardian already gets the announcement, MatAdmin sends one email to that address, so the child can share the guardian's row instead. MatAdmin uses the same guardian for that child in later announcements.
Each child has one guardian contact. A guardian with no email address shows (no email), and you cannot choose them until you add their email address. A child who has their own email address gets the announcement at that address.
Send Yourself a Test
From the preview, select Send me a test to see the email in your own inbox before your members do. The test goes only to the email address you use to sign in to MatAdmin. It uses the message you wrote and the same footer. The subject starts with "[Test]" so you can tell it apart. You can send up to 5 tests per hour.
Send the Announcement
- In the preview, select Send to [number] recipients.
- Read the confirmation and select Send.
MatAdmin starts sending and opens Sent announcements, where you can follow the progress.
If Will receive is 0, there is nobody to send to, and the send button stays off.
Check Sent Announcements and Stop Sending
To see past announcements, open Members, select More member actions, and select Sent announcements. Each announcement shows its subject, date, a status, and a short count such as "42 sent, 1 bounced, 2 skipped".
Common statuses:
- Sending: MatAdmin is still sending the emails.
- Stopping: you selected Stop sending, and MatAdmin is finishing up. If sending is paused for your gym, the row says it finishes when sending resumes.
- Sent: the emails went out. The count shows how many were sent, bounced, or skipped.
- Sent, some not confirmed: some emails went out, but MatAdmin could not confirm others.
- Cancelled: you stopped the announcement before any email went out.
- Nothing sent or Not sent: no emails went out.
While an announcement shows Sending, you can select Stop sending. MatAdmin does not send the emails that have not gone out yet. Emails that MatAdmin already handed off for delivery still arrive. You cannot take back an email that is already on its way. If some emails went out before you stopped, the status shows Sent and the count shows the rest as skipped.
Unsubscribes
Every announcement has an unsubscribe link in the footer. When a member uses it, they stop getting announcements from your gym. MatAdmin skips that address in every later announcement, and the preview shows it as Unsubscribed.
Staff cannot turn announcements back on for an address that unsubscribed.
Common Issues
I do not see New announcement. Announcements need a paid MatAdmin subscription or complimentary access. The gym owner can check the plan in Billing, on the Subscription tab. If the subscription is active and you still do not see New announcement, contact support.
The form says no Reply-To address is set. The gym owner must set it. The owner sees Set Reply-To at the top of the announcement form.
The form asks for the gym's mailing address. The gym owner must add it. The owner sees Add mailing address at the top of the announcement form, or can use the Mailing address card in Settings. Preview recipients stays unavailable until both the mailing address and the Reply-To address are set.
"Nobody in this audience has an email address to send to." No member in the group has an email address or a guardian contact. Check the Excluded list, set a guardian contact where you can, or choose a different group.
"The roster changed since the preview. Prepare it again." A member was added, removed, or changed after you prepared the preview. Select Back to edit, then Preview recipients again, and check the new list.
"This preview expired. Prepare it again." A preview is valid for a short time. Prepare it again and send.
"An announcement with the same subject and message was sent in the last 10 minutes." MatAdmin stops this to protect your members from a double send. Check Sent announcements first. If you really need to send it again, change the subject or message.
A member says they did not get the email. Check the email address on their member profile. Ask them to look in their spam folder. Then prepare a new preview that includes them and look at their row: it shows if the address is Unsubscribed or blocked.
When To Contact Support
Contact support if:
- An announcement stays on Sending for a long time.
- You see a message that announcements are turned off for your gym.
- A member unsubscribed by mistake and wants to get announcements again.
Need help? Contact support at support@matadmin.app and include your academy name, the announcement subject, and a short description of the issue.