Send a communication

Content and events wait to be found. A communication goes and finds people — a push to their phone, an email to their inbox, or both. This guide covers choosing the channel, writing it, scheduling it safely, and knowing afterwards whether anyone read it.

Before you start

Decide	Notes
Push, email, or both?	See the table below. When in doubt, both — push for attention, email for the detail and for people who've turned notifications off.
Who it's for	Defaults to everyone in the building. Narrower audiences exist if you need them.
When it should land	Schedule it rather than sending immediately — see Step 3.
What it links to	Most communications should point somewhere: a tile, an event, a booking page.

Your sender name and Send from address are configured for you. If the dropdown is empty or wrong, see Communications settings or ask your Customer Success Manager.

Which channel

Channel	Best for	Keep in mind
Push notification	Nudging people to do something now — an event goes live, a deal ends today, the lobby's closed this afternoon	35-character title, 110-character body. Only reaches people who've allowed notifications.
Email — Basic text	Something people need to keep or read properly — a policy change, a monthly program, a big announcement	Doesn't replace push; pair them for anything important.
Email — Custom builder	A newsletter or a designed piece — images, columns, multiple stories	More effort; save it as a draft and reuse the layout.

Step 1: Write it

1. Go to Experience → Communications and click Schedule communication.
2. On Details, tick Email, Push notification, or both.
3. For push: write the Push notification title (≤35 characters) and Push notification body (≤110). Lead with the point — the first few words are all that shows on a locked screen. An emoji up front earns attention; two is noise. To open a tile when the push is tapped, pick it under Linked content.
4. For email: set the Display name tenants see as the sender, pick the Send from address, and write the Email subject — this doubles as the communication's title in your lists. Then choose an editor mode:
   • Basic text — an Email title and an Email body with headings, bold, lists and links. Right for most emails.
   • Custom builder — see Step 2.

Step 2: Build a designed email (optional)

In Custom builder mode, click Open email editor. The editor's right-hand panel has two tabs:

1. Blocks — the layout. Drag a one-, two-, three- or four-column block into the canvas.
2. Content — what goes in them. Drag an image, text, button or divider into a column.
3. Click any element on the canvas to move it, duplicate it, delete it, or style it.
4. Click Save to keep the design and close the editor; Edit reopens it.

💡 Build the layout once. When you have a newsletter template you like, Save as draft and leave it in the Draft tab. Next month, Duplicate it from the ⋮ menu and swap the content.

Step 3: Schedule it

On Schedule, choose Send now or Schedule communication with a date and time.

Schedule it, even if you want it to go soon. A scheduled communication can still be opened, edited or deleted from the Scheduled tab right up to the send time. A sent one can't be recalled. Ten minutes' distance catches most typos and wrong links.

Large sends take a few minutes to go out; that's normal.

Step 4: Target it

On Target, pick the Audience. Your building's automated All Users audience is the default and right for most sends. If you've ticked both channels, a Same audience for email and push communications checkbox appears; untick it to split them — an email to everyone, say, and a push only to one tenant.

Step 5: Preview, test, schedule

1. On Preview, read both renderings — the email with its footer and unsubscribe link, the push as it'll appear on a phone.
2. Click Send test communication, select yourself, and open it on your own phone and inbox. Check the links.
3. Click Schedule. It appears on the Scheduled tab. (If you chose Send now, confirm with Send now in the dialog instead.)

Option: attach a notification to a tile or event instead

If the whole point of the message is one piece of content, you don't need a standalone communication. The Target tab of any content tile or event has a Notifications section with Connect a notification to this content (or Connect a notification to this event). Write the push there and pick when it sends, no earlier than the item's publish date; it's already linked to the item. Use Communications for anything that isn't about a single tile.

FAQ

I need to stop a scheduled send. Scheduled tab → ⋮ on the row → Delete. Do it before the send time; after that it's gone out.

Can I change something after scheduling? Yes, until it sends. Click the title on the Scheduled tab and edit content, timing or audience.

Not everyone got the push. They won't — push only reaches tenants who've allowed notifications for the HqO app on their phone. That's why the important things go by email as well. The Recipient list on the sent communication shows who was delivered.

A communication shows Failed in the Sent tab. A failed communication has no Analytics tab. To try again, Duplicate it from the ⋮ menu and schedule the copy; if that fails too, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Can I send to more than one building at once? Yes — on the Target tab, pick an audience that covers all of those buildings; an audience can apply to more than one building (see Audiences). The Portfolio switch in the top bar doesn't change who receives a communication; it only changes which ones your lists show.

How do I reuse something I sent before? ⋮ → Duplicate, on any tab. It opens as a new communication with the content and audience filled in; set the schedule again.

Where to find the analytics

• Per communication — open it from the Sent tab. Analytics shows Total sent, Delivered and Bounced, then Bounce rate, Open rate and (for email) Click rate, with an Email / Push notification switch if you sent both. The Recipient list underneath shows every person's delivery status and exports to CSV. Figures aren't live; Last updated shows how fresh they are.
• At a glance — the 30-day communication performance card on the HqO Admin home page: total sent, reach rate, open rate and email click-through rate (Email CTR).
• Over time — in Intelligence → My Portfolio Analytics, opening a communication counts toward Awareness. If Awareness is low, it's rarely that people don't care — it's usually that pushes are going to people who've turned them off, and there's no email behind them.

Related

• Communications — every field, the settings page, and sender configuration
• Create content — the tile a communication usually points at
• Run an event — attaching a notification to an event
• Audiences — when the default audience isn't the right one