Messaging attendees
The Messaging tab lets you reach the people coming to your event, and your door staff, with push notifications and text messages. Send a message right away, or schedule it ahead of time.
Here are a few ways organizers use it:
- Remind ticket holders that doors open in an hour
- Tell everyone who's interested that tickets are almost gone
- Let VIP ticket holders know where their entrance is
- Give your ticket scanners a heads-up about a change at the door
Automatic reminders
When you create an event, Jambo schedules two reminders for you:
- 24 hours before the event starts: "Reminder: Your event starts tomorrow at" followed by the start time
- 3 hours before the event starts: "Reminder: Your event starts soon at" followed by the start time
They're sent as push notifications to everyone interested in your event. They appear in the messages list with the Transactional type, and you can't edit or delete them. If you change the event's start time, they move with it.
A reminder is only created if its time is still in the future when you create the event. For example, an event created 10 hours before it starts only gets the 3-hour reminder.
Send a message
- Open your event in the Jambo Dash and go to the Messaging tab
- Click New Message
- Write your message and choose who gets it and how (each option is explained below)
- To send it right away, click Send Now and confirm. To send it later, open Schedule Message, pick a time, and click Schedule Message.
Messages are only sent once your event is published. While the event is a draft, Send Now is turned off, so you can only schedule messages. If a scheduled message's time arrives while the event is still a draft, it's marked Skipped and nobody receives it, even after you publish. See the Publishing and sharing an event guide.
Message Content
Up to 160 characters. Keep it short and give people a reason to act.
Type {event.start} anywhere in your message and it's replaced with the event's start time, like "8:00 PM". If you later change the start time, your message uses the new time.
Target Audience
- All Interested: anyone who has expressed interest in the event. Everyone who gets a ticket is included automatically.
- Ticket Holders: people who have tickets to the event. Use Target Ticket Type to reach only holders of one ticket type, like VIP. Leave it on All Ticket Types to reach everyone with a ticket.
- Ticket Scanners: staff who can scan tickets for the event. This includes scanners added on the event, on its host, and on its venue.
Delivery Methods
Choose one or both:
- Push Notification: shows up on the person's phone through the Jambo app. The notification's title is your event's name. People only get push notifications if they have the app installed with notifications turned on.
- Text Message (SMS): a text that starts with your event's name, followed by your message and a link.
Text messages only go to people who opted in to promotional texts for your event. Attendees can opt in by checking Send me promotional texts about this event when they get tickets, in the app or on the web. It's unchecked by default, so people who didn't check it won't get your texts, even if they're in the audience you picked.
Link Destination
Where people go when they tap the notification or the link in the text. By default, it's this event.
You can also choose Another Event or Another Host or Venue, then pick which one. This is handy for promoting your next event to this event's crowd.
Schedule Message
Open Schedule Message to send the message later instead of right away. There are two ways to set the time:
- Relative to Event Time: pick Before Event Start or After Event Start, then how long, up to 24 hours, in 15-minute steps. If the event's start time changes, the message moves with it.
- Specific Date & Time: pick an exact date and time. Times are local to the event's timezone.
The time must be in the future. To go back to sending right away, click the trash icon on the Schedule Message section.
Managing your messages
All messages for the event are listed on the Messaging tab with their Type, Message, Status, Time, Delivery Methods and Target Audience.
The Status shows where each message is:
- Waiting: scheduled and not sent yet
- Sending: going out now
- Sent: sent to the audience
- Skipped: not sent, because the event was still a draft when the message's time arrived
Once a message has been sent, Total Reach shows how many people were in its audience at that moment.
Edit, duplicate or delete a message
You can change a message until it's sent. Open the actions menu next to a Waiting message and choose:
- Edit to change its content, audience, delivery methods, link or time, then click Save
- Duplicate to start a new message with the same settings
- Delete to cancel it. Confirm, and it won't be sent.
Sent messages can't be edited or deleted. You also can't add, edit or delete messages once the event is finalized.
Limits
Each event can have up to 25 messages that include text messages. If you reach the limit, you'll see "SMS notification limit reached for this event. Please contact support for help." Contact us at [email protected] if you need more.
There's no limit on push-only messages.