⚠️ IMPORTANT: The new Email Digest feature is currently in Beta. Learn more.
The Email Digest feature automatically sends weekly email messages of "personalized content" to subscribers in your Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community. The Digest contains summaries of and links to community posts (discussions, comments, questions, etc.) over the prior week.
There are three scenarios under which the Digest is sent to subscribers:
- When a subscriber is following categories, the Digest is "personalized" to include content from those followed categories.
- If a subscriber isn't following any categories, then: - The Digest comprises the Default Followed Categories that an Admin has configured for the community with the "Include in Email Digest" option.
- If there are no Default categories configured, then: - The Digest contains only the top 5 trending posts (positive reactions, comments, views, etc.) across the entire community.
📝 NOTE: The top-5 trending Digest will not send if the following setting is toggled off in Category settings:
Digest content scenarios
The sections that follow provide additional details on each of the Digest-send scenarios.
Digest content - Users following categories
✔️ TIP: Admins should encourage users to follow categories so that they stay more engaged and get content in the Digest that is more tailored to their interests.
When users subscribe to the Digest, by default all of the categories that they are following are included in the Digest.
📝 NOTE: How to follow a category is described in the Category Following & Notifications article.
Users can self-manage which of their followed categories are included in the Digest, thereby truly "personalizing" it. To exclude a followed category from the Digest, a subscriber can either:
- navigate to the category, click the bell icon, and uncheck the Include in Email Digest option, as shown below, OR...
- click the Hide category link in the Digest email.
Users not following categories
Remember that for each scenario, there is a contingent for ensuring that the Digest has content.
If a user is not following any categories, the Digest is populated with content from the default categories that are configured for the community, as described in the next section.
Digest content - Default categories
Admins can configure at least a few default categories to be included in the Digest in order to ensure that users get some content even if they are not following any categories.
To manage the community's default categories:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Membership > User Preferences.
- Click Edit Default Categories.
- Check the boxes for the categories to be included in the Digest.
📝 NOTE: See Set default Followed Categories for your users.
Default categories not configured
Remember that for each scenario, there is a contingent for ensuring that the Digest has content.
If a user is not following any categories and there aren't any default categories configured, the Digest gets populated with the top 5 posts that are trending in the community, as described in the next section.
Digest content - Top 5 trending posts
As the final fallback to ensure Digest subscribers get content in the Digest, Vanilla compiles the top 5 trending posts from across the entire community and populates the Digest with links to those posts.
✔️ TIP: Posts include discussions, comments, questions, and other user-generated content, as described in Create Posts & Comments.
Enable the Email Digest
- While Email Digest is in Beta, Vanilla's Product team has to turn on the feature for your community.
- To request the feature be turned on, visit our Email Digest discussion and post your request in the Leave a Comment section.
- Then, access your Dashboard and follow the instructions in the sections below.
Access Email Digest settings
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Emails > Digest Settings.
Enable Email Digest
In the EMAIL DIGEST section, check the Use weekly community email digest box, if it's not already checked. The section expands as shown below.
- Check the Include featured images… box to have posts' featured images included in the Digest email.
- Decide the maximum number of posts to include in the Digest (up to 20).
- Click the Delivery Date dropdown to select which day of the week on which to send the digest emails.
📝 NOTE: By default, the Digest sends at 9:00 a.m. ET on the selected delivery day. This setting cannot be reconfigured.
✔️ TIP: The next three scheduled digests display below the field.
Change the Digest send day
You can change the Digest send day but it's important to note that there is a 24-hours notice built into the process. This means that the system needs 24 hours to reset the Digest scheduling. For example:
- If your current send day is Tuesday and, at 11:00 a.m., you change the send day to Wednesday, the change will not take affect until Wednesday of the following week. This is because your 11:00 a.m. change is not at least 24 hours before the default send time of 9:00 a.m. for the next Wednesday that occurs.
If the delivery day is changed with more than 24 hours notice, the change immediately takes affect. For example:
- If your current send day is Tuesday and, at 11:00 a.m., you change the send day to Thursday, the change takes affect two days later and the Digest sends on Thursday.
Digest send history
The EMAIL DIGEST section also displays a history of Digest sends, by date. Note that:
- the send days (days of the week) will vary if it has been changed, as shown;
- the subscriber count is the number of subscribers to whom each Digest was sent; and
- the subscriber counts are only from when the Digest was enabled in your account.
Email Digest notes
- The Email Digest template cannot be customized. Digest emails inherit the various Color settings that are set in the EMAIL STYLES section at the top of the Email Settings page.
- The Email Digest template automatically includes an Unsubscribe link in the digest emails; you do not have to add one.
- Our best practices recommend that you add your physical address in the Email Footer setting under the OUTGOING EMAILS section of the Email Settings page.
Disable the Email Digest
You can disable your Digest in your Email Settings.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Emails > Digest Settings.
- Uncheck the Use weekly community email digest box.
- At the top of the page, click Save.
Test your Email Digest
It's a good idea to test your Digest before it is sent to your community users. This is the only way to preview it to ensure that it:
- displays as you expect (colors, layout, etc.) and
- is populated with the expected content (followed categories and/or default categories).
To test the Digest from the Email Settings page:
1. Click the ellipsis (…) icon in the section header, and click Send Test Digest to configure the test.
2. In the Community Member Content field, type a few characters and select a community user. The test Digest will include content that the selected user would be sent.
3. In the Recipient field, specify an email address for the test Digest to be sent to. As this is a test, this should be your own email address so that you can see the Digest.
4. Click Send; a confirmation displays in the lower left.
5. Check your email; open and preview the test message.
Make any necessary changes (e.g., default categories) and re-test as necessary.
Subscribe to the Email Digest
⚠️ IMPORTANT: In accordance with various email-compliance standards and laws that require explicit user consent before adding them to such an email list, Email Digest does not (and will not) have a mechanism by which Admins can auto-subscribe community users to Email Digests.
After you have enabled and configured Email Digest, it's a good idea to let your community users know about it — and inform them that they can self-manage their subscribing to it on their Notification Preferences page.
- Scroll to the bottom and check the box under Weekly Email Digest.
Digest-based management options for users
As users receive the weekly Digest, there are options for managing the content in their unique Digest email and whether they want to receive the Digest.
- Hide - Users can click Hide category to hide a specific category from the Digest. The affected category is listed to the left of each "hide" option. The Digest will continue to be sent, but it will no longer include items from a hidden category.
- Unsubscribe - Users can click Unsubscribe from the email digest to immediately stop receiving the Digest.
- Preferences - Users can click Manage your notification preferences to access their Notification Preferences page (/profile/preferences) where they can uncheck the "Send me…" box to stop receiving the Digest or click Manage Followed Categories to manage which of their followed categories to include in the Digest.
Email Digest example
The image below is an example of how the Digest email message displays.
✔️ TIP: Click the image to open a larger preview in a new tab.
Digest-based page views in Vanilla analytics
You can use Vanilla's analytics Dashboard to generate a report on which webpage views resulted from a link being clicked in Email Digest. This will give you some insight into the impact and effectiveness of your Digest.
To learn how to use the Page Views data source to gather analytics on Digest-based page views, see:
Email Digest Beta product discussion
Join the discussion about Email Digest!
