USER GUIDE

SimpleSend™ (Resident Messaging)

SimpleSend is how you reach residents directly. It has two sides: Email Newsletters, included free with your site, and Text Messaging (SMS), an optional paid module for urgent alerts.

Before you begin

SimpleSend sends to Topics — named lists that residents subscribe to (Resident Alerts, Road Closures, Council News). Before your first send, set up at least one topic and give residents a way to subscribe. Every message, email or text, goes out to a topic, so this is the first thing to build.

Residents can subscribe two ways: your ready-made public sign-up page on your website, and the Embed Widget you can drop onto any page. Both are covered below.

Open the app from Apps › SimpleSend at the top of the admin. The two sides — Email Newsletters and Text Messaging — each have their own set of menu items.

Email Newsletters (free)

Email newsletters are included with your site at no extra cost. Use them for regular updates, event announcements, and community news. You work with three things: Email Topics (who you send to), Newsletters (what you send), and the Newsletter Report (how it did).

1 Set up Email Topics

Open SimpleSend › Email Topics. A topic is a named audience residents can subscribe to. Add one topic per subject area you send about, and mark the ones you want residents to be able to choose so they appear on your public sign-up page.

Tip: Keep topics broad and few at first (for example "Community News" and "Emergency Alerts"). You can always add more later.

Text Messaging / SMS (paid module)

Optional module. Text messaging is a paid add-on. If you do not see the SMS menu items, contact EvoGov support to enable it. Text messaging also requires a one-time carrier registration before your first send (see the note at the end of this section).

Text messaging lets you send a short SMS to everyone subscribed to a topic — ideal for time-sensitive alerts like water-main breaks, road closures, and weather emergencies. You work with SMS Topics, SMS Messages, and optional Message Templates.

1 Set up SMS Topics and load subscribers

Open SimpleSend › SMS Topics. A topic is a named audience your residents can subscribe to (Resident Alerts, Road Closures). Mark a topic Show on public signup page and add a short public description so it appears on your website's sign-up page for residents to choose.

There are two ways to add subscribers to a topic:

CSV import (fastest). Open a topic and click Import. Upload a spreadsheet with at least a phone-number column. Optional columns: first name, last name, and any custom fields you want to merge into the message. Rows with invalid or duplicate numbers are skipped and reported back to you.
Add one subscriber at a time. Open the topic and click Add Subscriber. Handy for quick fixes.

Consent matters. Only import numbers that have given you express consent to receive texts. Numbers that already opted out are flagged automatically and will not receive future sends.

2 Create and send an SMS message

Open SimpleSend › New SMS Message. You will be asked for:

Name — an internal label so you can find this message later (for example "April water-main alert").
Topic — who the message goes to.
Message body — the actual text. Keep it under 160 characters to stay in a single SMS.
Schedule — send right away or pick a future date and time.

The message stays a Draft until you send it, so you can edit the text or change the topic as many times as you like. When ready, click Send Now (or leave a scheduled message alone and SimpleSend sends it on time). To find past messages, open SimpleSend › All SMS Messages.

After the send: the message page shows totals for delivered, failed, and opted-out, plus a per-subscriber log so you can spot specific delivery issues.

3 Save reusable Message Templates (optional)

If you send similar messages on a recurring basis — snow closures, meeting reminders, water-main notices — save the wording as a template so you do not have to retype it. Open SimpleSend › Message Templates › New Template, give it a short name, and write the body. You can use merge fields like first name if your topic has those columns. When you create a new message, choose the template from the dropdown to pre-fill the body — you can still edit it before sending.

4 Send a Test

Before a real send, it is smart to test. There are two ways:

On a message's detail page, use the Send Test form to send that exact message to one or more of your own numbers, so you can confirm the content lands correctly.
To confirm your site's SMS setup works at all — without creating a message first — use SimpleSend › Send a Test. It fires a single test text to any number you enter.

5 Grow your lists with the Embed Widget

Open SimpleSend › Embed Widget for a ready-made sign-up form you can drop onto any public page of your website. Visitors enter their contact details and choose the topics they want to hear about, and they are added to your lists automatically. Your site also has a ready-made public sign-up page on your website domain that works the same way.

Tip: Place the widget on your homepage and your alerts page. The easier it is to subscribe, the faster your lists grow.

About your text-message number: SimpleSend sends texts from a dedicated number assigned to your site. Before your first send, a one-time carrier registration must be approved — a review that can take up to 15 business days. Your EvoGov support team sets this up for you. Recipients can reply STOP at any time to opt out, and SimpleSend records the opt-out and excludes that number from every future send automatically.

Next steps

Start with topics: create one Email Topic and (if you have the SMS module) one SMS Topic, then place the Embed Widget on your website so residents can subscribe. Once you have a few subscribers, send a test to yourself, then send your first real newsletter or alert.

Related guides: see the User Guides index for SimpleAgendas (which can text and email your SMS subscribers when you publish an agenda) and Pages (where you place the Embed Widget).

Need a hand? Contact EvoGov support or visit help.evogov.com.