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Using the Mass Message Tool

Mitchell Ivany Updated by Mitchell Ivany

Read Time: 6 mins

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When to Use a Mass Message

The Mass Message tool lets you send Email or SMS messages to many customers at once, saving time compared to selecting each recipient manually. Messages are sent based on filters you choose — only accounts that match all selected filters will receive the message.

Mass Messages are often used to share:

  1. Network updates like maintenance or outages.
  2. Promotions or limited-time offers.
  3. Service price increases.
Mass Messages are limited to 3,000 email addresses. You can add more in the UI, but only the first 3,000 will be delivered.

Creation Fields

Mass SMS messages have more limitations — for details on how to use them, refer to this article.

Mass email messages are more flexible, letting you customize fields freely. The “From Name” and “From Email Address” are what recipients will see and can be changed anytime while creating the message. You can also add an attachment in the Files section.

File attachments are limited to 500 MB.

More information on setting up the message and filters is covered in the sections below.

Creating the Message Content

For a complete overview of Sonar's rich text editor and examples of how it can be used, refer to the documentation for it here.

The message content uses the same tools as Saved Messages, letting you include variables to personalize messages for many contacts at once.

Here are the variables you can use in a Mass Message:

  1. Amount Due: Shows how much the customer owes on unpaid invoices — helpful for messaging delinquent accounts.
  2. Autopay Enabled: Lets you show or hide parts of the message based on whether the account uses auto-pay.
  3. Account Name: Adds the customer’s account name to the message.
  4. Account Number: Adds the customer’s account number.
  5. Company Name: Adds your company’s name.
  6. Contact Name: Adds the full name of the contact receiving the message.
  7. First Name / Last Name: Inserts the contact’s first and last name from their profile.

Common Mass Messages

Network Outage

Subject: Network Outage A-002 Tower

Body:

Hello *|FNAME|*,
This message is to let you know that we are aware of a network site issue that is affecting your services. We are presently dispatching technicians to remedy the issue and have an estimated time of repair for 2:00 PM. We will send you another message to let you know when services are restored, or we will provide a status update at 2:00 PM.Thank you for your understanding

Using Account Filters

Filters let you choose which accounts or contacts will receive your mass message. You can add multiple filters to narrow down your audience.

To add a filter, click “Add Filter”, select a filter from the dropdown, and set its value.

The table below lists all available filters and what they do.

Account has IP from Pool

This filter lets you choose one or more IP Pools to target only the accounts linked to them.

Account has IP from Subnet

This filter shows all subnets, so you can select one or more to target only accounts linked to them.

Account has Service

This filter lets you pick one or more Services from your instance to target only accounts using them.

Account has Status

This filter shows all account statuses in your instance, so you can select one or more to target accounts with those statuses.

Account is Associated with Item

This filter shows all Inventory Items in your instance, letting you select one or more to target accounts linked to them.

Account is Connected to Network Site

This filter shows all active Network Sites, so you can select one or more to target accounts connected to them.

Account is Delinquent

This filter targets all accounts marked as delinquent in your instance.

Account is in Group

This filter lets you message accounts in a specific Group. It shows all active groups in your instance.

Account is of Type

This filter shows all account types in your instance, so you can select one or more to target.

Contact has Messaging Category Set

This filter lets you target specific account contacts by choosing a Messaging Category from the list.

Contact has Preferred Language set

This filter lets you target customers based on the Preferred Language set in their contact settings.

Example Use Case
In this example, we’ll send a mass message to notify customers about maintenance on a specific access point (AP). First, make sure the Poller is connected to Sonar - note that it might not detect all customers on the AP.

1. Go to Communications → Messages → New Message → Mass.
2. Fill in the message details about the scheduled maintenance.
3. To target only the customers on the AP, click Add Filter.
4. In the first dropdown, choose Account is Associated with item.
5. In the second dropdown, select the AP that’s affected.

This ensures only customers connected to that AP receive the message.



To check which customers the Poller sees on the AP, go to the Network Site and click on Connected Devices for that AP.

Testing Mass Messages Before Sending

Sometimes you may want to test your message before sending it to customers. While there’s no built-in preview button, you can still test it by following a few simple steps.

Before starting, make sure you have these 3 things set up:

  1. An account group for testing purposes (for example, “Mass Message Testing”).
    Expand here for help creating an account group.
    To create the account group to test with:

    1. Go to Settings → Accounts → Account Groups.
    2. Click Create Account Group at the top.
    3. Enter a name (for example, Mass Message Testing).
    4. Click Create.
  2. A fake customer account that can be used for testing purposes.
    Expand here for help creating a test account.
    To create a test customer account:

    1. Go to the Accounts screen.
    2. Click Create Account.
    3. On the first page, fill in the required fields. For Groups, choose the test group you created earlier.
    4. On the second page, enter a name and your email as the primary contact.
    5. Click Create.

    Note: If you have required custom fields, you’ll need to complete them on the third page before you can finish.
  3. A contact on the fake customer account that has your email address.
    Expand for help creating the account contact.
    If you're creating a new account, this is already covered in step 2 above.

    If you’re using an existing test account and skipped that step, follow these steps to add your email:

    1. Open the test account.
    2. Go to the Contacts tab.
    3. Click Create at the top.
    4. Enter a name and your email in the Email Address field.
    5. Click Create.

Once everything is set up, create the mass message you want to send. Add the filter “Account is in Group” and select your test group (from step 3). Make sure only your test account appears, then click “Send Mass Message”. The message will be sent to the email on that test account.

After receiving the message, review it. If changes are needed, update it directly from the same screen. When you’re ready to send it to customers, remove the test group filter and add filters for your actual audience. Then click “Send Mass Message” to send it out.

How did we do?

Using Outbound SMS

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