Broadcasts

Managing Email Senders

Before launching your first email broadcast, verify at least one sender email address:

1. Navigate to Broadcasts > Email senders

2. Select Add email sender

3. Complete verification through the confirmation email

You may add multiple verified sender addresses and resend verification emails as needed.

Authenticating Your Domain

Once a sender is verified, you'll see "Verified (domain pending)" on its row. This is your prompt to set up DNS authentication for the sending domain.

Why this matters

Modern inbox providers can treat unauthenticated email with suspicion - even from verified senders. Without DNS authentication, your broadcasts are sometimes likely to:

• Land in spam or promotions tabs

• Show a "via pm.mtasv.net" tag next to your camp's name

• Fail outright if your domain has a strict DMARC policy

Adding two DNS records signs your messages with your camp's domain so providers can confirm they really came from you.

Setting up DNS records

1. From the email sender's row, open the ⋮ and select Set up domain

2. The drawer shows two records to add at your DNS provider:

   • DKIM — a TXT record that signs each message

   • Return-Path — a CNAME record so bounce handling uses your domain

3. Add the records at your DNS provider (e.g., Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Route 53). Each record has a Host and a Value you can copy.

4. Once the records are saved, return to the drawer and click Verify DKIM and Verify Return-Path

Each record can be verified independently, so you can come back to finish later if your DNS provider takes time to propagate.

What happens next

• DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate. Campfront rechecks every 10 minutes automatically - you don't have to keep clicking Verify.

• Once both records are verified, the sender row shows "Verified".

• Multiple sender addresses on the same domain (e.g., hello@yourcamp.com and staff@yourcamp.com) share the same DNS records - you only need to set this up once per domain.

Creating a broadcast

To get started, click Send broadcast and choose your channel:

• Email - for rich or simple email messages

• SMS - for short text messages

Then select your verified sender address (for email), and set the Subject and Preview text.

Choosing your audience

Select who should receive your broadcast:

• Families - parents and guardians, with the option to include all parents and/or emergency contacts

• Staff - staff members, with the option to include emergency contacts

Next, select the season and choose your audience scope:

• All - every recipient in the selected group

• View - recipients from a saved Datatable view (see Using Datatables for more on saved views)

• Custom - build a filtered audience using conditions like Stage, Role, or Department with is/is not logic. You can combine multiple filter groups for precise targeting.

Composing an email

Choose between two email formats:

• Styled - a visually rich layout with headlines, images, and your camp's branding

• Simple - a clean, text-focused format

You can start from a saved template or build from scratch. Styled emails support:

• Header image - recommended size 1200x400px

• Headline - a prominent title for your message

• Content - rich text with formatting options

• Button - an optional call-to-action with custom text and link

• Attachments - attach files to include with your email

Use Preview to see how your email will look, and Send Test to send yourself a test copy before going live.

Composing an SMS

Type your message content directly in the editor.

Sending your broadcast

Review your broadcast details, then choose how to send:

• Send now - deliver immediately

• Schedule send - pick a specific date and time for delivery

Opt-out and delivery tracking

Campfront tracks opt-outs and delivery issues for both email and SMS:

• Email - tracks undeliverable addresses, bounces, and spam reports

• SMS - tracks opt-outs from recipients

Delivery status is surfaced on individual contact profiles so you can see who has opted out or had delivery issues.

Tracking sent broadcasts

The Broadcasts dashboard shows all sent and drafted messages. You can:

• Filter by Email, SMS, or All

• View details including type, audience, recipient count, sender, and status

• Search for specific broadcasts

• Export broadcast data

Templates

Create reusable templates for email and SMS broadcasts to save time on recurring communications:

• Draft or Published - keep templates in draft while you refine them, then publish when ready

• Apply to broadcasts - select a template when creating a new broadcast

• Use for individual sends - templates are also available when sending messages to individual contacts