Email campaigns & SMS

Campaigns are how your chamber of commerce reaches members and subscribers on ChamberBuilder — newsletters, event promotions, dues reminders, and more. This guide walks you click-by-click through building an email campaign, choosing exactly who receives it, sending a test, scheduling or sending, and reading the results. It ends with SMS, which has its own opt-in rules. Every button and field name below matches what you'll see on screen.

Build an email campaign
Choose who receives it
Send or schedule
Track performance
SMS messaging

Build an email campaign

Campaigns follow a clear path: create → design the email → choose the audience → review, test, and send. ChamberBuilder moves you through these screens in order.

Step 1 — Create the campaign

In the admin sidebar, open Campaigns. You land on the campaigns list.
Click New campaign (top right). The "New campaign" form opens.
Name — Type an internal name for the campaign (members never see this). Required.
Channel — Radio buttons: Email, SMS, or Email + SMS. Leave it on Email for a standard email campaign. (SMS options are greyed out until SMS is set up — there's a "Set up SMS" link if you need it. See the SMS messaging section.)
Subject line — What recipients see in their inbox.
Start from template (optional) — If you've saved reusable templates, pick one here to copy its design into this campaign. Leave it on "— blank email —" to start fresh.
Click Build email →. ChamberBuilder creates the campaign and opens the email editor.

Gotcha: There's no separate "save draft" step — clicking Build email → already creates the campaign. If you change your mind, you can delete it from the campaign's page later.

Step 2 — Design the email with blocks

The email editor opens with a Blocks panel on the left and a live canvas on the right. You build the email by adding blocks — no HTML required. The left rail has two buttons: Blocks (add content) and Styles (global colors and fonts).

To add content, click a block button under Blocks:

Text — Formatted copy, with control over font, size, color, background, borders, and padding.
Image — An uploaded or linked image, with alt text and an optional link.
Button — A call-to-action button with a label, URL, and styling.
Video — A thumbnail with a play overlay that links to a video.
Divider — A horizontal rule.
Spacer — Vertical spacing between blocks.

Under a separate Columns heading you can add a column container (two to four columns, in ratios like 50-50 or 33-67) and drop text, image, or button cells inside.

Click any block on the canvas to open its settings on the left and edit it. Click the Styles rail button to set global styles — page and content background, text and link colors, button colors, and font — plus your header and footer regions with your logo.

If you'll send similar emails often, save the design as a reusable email template so you can start future campaigns from it (that's the "Start from template" option back on the New campaign form). One template can be marked as your organization's default.

Screenshot needed: The email editor with the Blocks panel and a few blocks added to the canvas. Save at public/help-images/campaigns/email-editor.png.

Tips

Keep one clear call-to-action per email using a Button block.
Use the Styles rail to set your brand colors once — they apply across all blocks.

Choose who receives it

After designing, you set the audience and sending details. From the campaign's page click Edit to reach the Audience & details screen (this is also where you land after building the email).

Set the audience and category

Campaign name — Edit the internal name if needed.
Audience — A dropdown grouped into two sections:
- Newsletter → All newsletter subscribers (with the current count in parentheses). This sends to your active email subscribers who aren't suppressed (bounced or unsubscribed).
- Member segments → each saved segment you've built. Pick one to target a defined group of members.
- The helper note reminds you: build segments under the Audiences tab.
Category — A dropdown: Newsletter, Events, or Dues reminders. The category matters — members choose which categories they want, so a member who opted out of newsletters but stayed on dues reminders will still get a dues email. Pick the category that matches the email's purpose.
Subject line, From name, From email — Confirm how the email appears in the inbox. If you type a From email on a domain you haven't verified, a warning appears with a "Reset to org default" button.
Click Review & send. You're taken to the campaign's page to review, test, and send.

Build a segment (targeting specific members)

Segments are saved groups of members. To create one, go to the Audiences tab (under Communication) and click to add a new audience. Segments can filter by:

Status — active, pending, or lapsed members.
Membership tier.
Business category.
Join date.
Subscription preference — for example, members opted into the newsletter by email.

ChamberBuilder ships with presets such as All active members, Pending applications, Lapsed members, and Members opted into newsletter. Save the segments you reuse (e.g. "active members in the retail category") so you don't rebuild them each time.

Check exactly who will receive it

Before sending, confirm the actual recipient list:

On the campaign's page, in the Details card, click View recipients →.
The Recipients screen lists every member in the audience with a per-channel decision:
- Will send (green badge) — passes every check.
- Skipped (grey badge) — with the reason shown beneath, such as no email, unsubscribed from this category, no phone, or no SMS opt-in.
Review this so there are no surprises, then click ← Back to campaign.

Screenshot needed: The Recipients screen showing Will send / Skipped rows with reasons. Save at public/help-images/campaigns/recipients.png.

Tips

Narrow the segment to the people who'll actually care — relevance beats reach.
If the campaign says "No one will receive this," open View recipients to see the per-row reason (often no opt-in or no address).

Send or schedule

The campaign's page has a "Ready to send?" card that walks you through two numbered steps.

1. Send a test

Under "1. Send a test," click Send test to me. ChamberBuilder emails a copy to your own address (and, for SMS campaigns, texts your profile number).
Check the test in your inbox — and on your phone — before going any further. A "Last test sent…" note confirms it went out.

You can also click Preview (top of the campaign page) to open a full rendered preview in a new tab, with live values filled in.

2. Send

Under "2. Send" you choose one of three modes with radio buttons:

Send now — Click the green Send now button. You'll confirm the recipient count, then delivery starts immediately.
Schedule for later — Pick a Date & time (shown in your organization's timezone), then click Schedule.
Recurring — Also pick a date/time, then a Repeat frequency (Every day, Every week, or Every month), and an Ends rule: Never, On a date, or After a number of sends. Click Schedule.

A scheduled campaign moves through draft → scheduled → sending → sent. For a recurring campaign, a Stop recurring button appears so you can end the series after the next send.

Gotcha: ChamberBuilder only lets you schedule or send once the campaign is complete (audience, subject, and content all set). If something's missing, you'll get a message listing exactly what to finish first.

Track performance

Once a campaign starts sending, its page shows a stats card. For email:

Sent — How many emails went out.
Opened — How many recipients opened it.
Clicked — How many clicked a link.
Unsubscribed — Recipients who opted out from this send.
Bounced — Deliveries that failed.

Each figure shows a percentage of sent. Hard bounces and spam complaints are handled automatically, so future campaigns skip those addresses. Recurring campaigns keep these figures per run: a Send history table lists each occurrence so you can compare them, and a Recent messages table shows the most recent individual sends with their delivery, open, and click times.

Screenshot needed: A sent campaign's stats card (opens, clicks, bounces). Save at public/help-images/campaigns/stats.png.

SMS messaging

Alongside email, ChamberBuilder can send SMS for the same categories — newsletters, event reminders, and dues notices. SMS is a regulated channel, so it works differently from email: a member must actively opt in, and can opt out at any time. The platform enforces this for you — no SMS is ever sent to someone who hasn't opted in.

Turning SMS on for your organization

SMS must be set up before you can use it. On the New campaign form, the SMS and Email + SMS channel options are greyed out until it's ready, with a "Set up SMS" link. Once SMS is active, choose SMS or Email + SMS as the channel when creating a campaign.

For an SMS (or Email + SMS) campaign, the Audience & details screen shows an SMS section with an SMS message field. As you type, a live counter shows characters, segment count, and encoding (e.g. "120 / 160 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7"). You can personalize it with the member and organization variables shown beneath the field (for example, the member's first name and your organization's name).

How members opt in

SMS is never on by default. A member opts in one of two places, and in both cases they check an explicit consent box that reads:

I agree to receive SMS messages from your organization. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.

The two places this appears:

On the membership application form. When applying, the applicant fills in the Mobile number (optional) field and ticks the SMS consent checkbox (right below the email opt-in box). Both link to your Privacy Policy & Terms.
In their Message preferences. A member visits Message preferences in their portal at any time. On the SMS settings card they enter or update their Mobile number, tick the same consent box, and click Save SMS settings. Once opted in, a green banner confirms "You are opted in to SMS. Reply STOP to any message to opt out."

When a member opts in, ChamberBuilder records the moment of consent, its source, and the IP address as an audit trail. Before any message can go out, all three must be true: a valid mobile number, a recorded opt-in, and no later opt-out.

Screenshot needed: The SMS settings card in Message preferences with the mobile number and consent checkbox. Save at public/help-images/campaigns/sms-opt-in.png.

Per-category SMS preferences

Once opted in, a member controls SMS per category in Message preferences. Below the SMS settings card is a table with a row for each category (Newsletter, Events, Dues reminders) and an Email and an SMS checkbox in each row. The SMS checkboxes only appear for members who are opted in. A campaign only sends by SMS to members who allow that category, then they click Save preferences.

Opting out: STOP, START, and HELP

Every opted-in member can text back to control their messages. ChamberBuilder handles these automatically:

STOP (also unsubscribe, cancel, quit, end, stopall) records an opt-out immediately and suppresses their number, so future campaigns skip them.
START (also unstop, yes) opts them back in.
HELP returns help information.

A member can also simply untick the SMS consent box in Message preferences and save to opt out — no texting required.

SMS terms

The full SMS terms — what messages members may receive, that message and data rates may apply, and how to opt out — are published at chamberbuilder.com/sms. The consent box links members to your Privacy Policy & Terms when they opt in.

Tips

Keep SMS for time-sensitive, high-value messages — event reminders and dues notices — not routine newsletters.
Check the campaign's Recipients screen: members without a phone, without an opt-in, or opted out show as Skipped with the reason, so you know before you send.
Point members to Message preferences if they want to change channels or opt out without texting STOP.

If you have questions about campaigns or SMS setup, reach out at [email protected].