The Communicate Planner is a comprehensive visualization tool for GuideSpark’s Communicate Journeys. It provides a high-level view of scheduled messages across all account journeys, allowing users to see message distribution, details, and recipient counts.

The planner consists of three main sections: the calendar panel for monthly views, the filter panel for customizing displayed information, and the heads-up panel for a week-long preview. This tool enhances visibility and collaboration in employee communications, with access levels varying based on team membership.

Note: This feature is currently in the Beta stage. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact support.

Introduction

The Communicate Planner is a high-level visualizer where you can see the scheduled messages for all of your account’s Communicate Journeys. All CXI users can see what messages will be sent month by month, along with the details of a particular message.

This allows everyone to see how many messages are going out and on what specific days. The Communicate Planner provides visibility for all involved to consider the traffic of upcoming campaign messages, creating a more balanced and collaborative system for your company’s employee communications.

Only team members will be able to see the details for messages in Communicate Journeys. Those who are not part of a team will still see the high-level view of a message being sent out on a specific day and the set number of recipients.

There are three different sections within the Communicate Planner: The calendar panel, the filter panel, and the heads-up panel.

Calendar panel

The calendar panel allows you to view the messages sent via Communicate Journeys on a month-by-month basis. Navigate using the arrows above the calendar to view previous and upcoming months. Click the Today button to return to the current month. You can also click the calendar icon to go to a specific month. Each message will show on the day it is scheduled, represented by its message type icon. Messages that are ready to be sent will be in black font, while messages that need attention will be in red font.

Each message has a number indicating how many messages will be sent by message type or how many audience members are being reached. Toggle these numbers in the filter panel.

Note

Only messages being sent via automated messaging can display the number of people reached.

Daily digest

If you click on a day within the calendar, a pop-up daily digest will appear showing you what is scheduled to be sent on that day. Each message in the daily digest has a drop-down that expands to include the message’s audience name, number of audience members, and the message type icon. If the message is not ready to be sent, there will be an alert icon to notify you that it will be unable to send in its current state. You can hover over the alert and click on it, to go directly to the Communicate Journey that it is linked to.

Basic audiences will show differently than Targeted audiences in the daily digest. Basic audiences will not include the set amount of audience members and instead will show as (Basic) instead of the amount that was set to be forwarded to.

Note

If you click on a day that doesn’t have a scheduled message, it will not open to a daily digest.

If you are not on a Communicate Journey team, the messages for that team will show only as Restricted Access. You won’t be able to see the specific Communicate Journey the message is linked to, or any of the message’s details (message notes, message body, audience name). If you click the arrow icon to the right of a Restricted Access message, it will take you to a Help page. This page will notify you of the Team permissions and why you don’t have access. You will need to be added to the Communicate Journey team by an Owner of that specific team to have more insight into that message. Read the Team Access article for more information on permissions.

Filter panel

The filter panel includes all of the Communicate Journeys, Audiences, Channels, Notifications, and Reminders for this account.

If you make a change in the filter panel, you will need to click the refresh button in the top-right corner before it will update. It’s a real-time update once the refresh button has been clicked. If you make a change outside of the filter panel, in a Communicate Journey, you will need to click the refresh button for the Communicate Planner to update. For example, if you add/remove members from an audience, you will need to click the refresh button in the filter panel before those changes will track in the Communicate Planner.

If you click By Messages, the calendar panel will show the number of messages being sent for that month. If you click By Recipients, the calendar panel will show the number of recipients for each message, for that month.

Similar to the daily digest in the calendar panel, Basic audiences in the filter panel will not show the placeholder number of audience members it will be forwarded to. Since there is not an actual set audience, it will show as (Basic) rather than the specific number that was included with it.

Similar to the daily digest, if you are not part of a Communicate Journey team, your view of that Communicate Journey will be shown as Restricted Access. You will need to be added by an Owner of that specific team to view that particular Communicate Journey. Read the Team Access article for more information.

Heads-up panel

The heads-up panel highlights seven days of messages. The default is for today’s date and the six days from that date, including weekends. Click on the calendar icon in the heads-up panel header to select another date on the calendar. The heads-up panel will adjust to that day and the six days that follow. Changing this date will not change the date in the calendar panel.

Messages sent via a Communicate Journey will have the stacked tile icon and the Communicate Journey’s name. Under each message’s details, the first visible space is the message’s notes. If you click Details you can see the audience the message is being sent to, the icon for that message type, and the message body. The arrow icon to the right of each message will open a new tab, taking you to that specific message’s campaign page within the appropriate Communicate Journey.

If a message is not ready to be sent it will show in red. The most common cause of this is if a message is not approved to be sent, or if its related content is not published. If a message is ready to go out/has been approved, it will show in black.

Note

You can’t edit in the heads-up panel. To change anything, you will need to click the arrow icon to go directly to the Communicate Journey to make the necessary changes. You must have the appropriate level of team access for that specific Communicate Journey in order to make changes to messages, content, or approvals.

Similar to the daily digest panel, if you are not part of a Communicate Journey team, your view of an upcoming message from that team will be shown as Restricted Access. You will need to be added by an Owner of that specific team to view the message details (message notes, message body, and audience name). If you click on the arrow icon to the right of the Restricted Access message, you are taken to a Help page. This page notifies you of the team permissions and why you don’t have access. Read the Team Access article for more information.

Best practices

• Don’t forget to update your message title and subject line from the original defaults. Otherwise, the defaulted title and/or subject line will appear on the Communicate Planner.
• Be mindful that any notes you include for a message will be shown in the Communicate Planner for anyone who is a part of the team that message was sent from.
• Avoid scheduling multiple messages for the same day, especially if the audiences overlap.

FAQ

How can I differentiate recurring campaign messages from one-time campaign messages?

Recurring campaign messages can be identified by their campaign content or audience name if following Tivian’s recommended naming convention (e.g., 2.9.21 audience). Hovering over audiences in the campaign timeline of a recurring campaign will show the specific date.

Why does my message have an alert?

An alert indicates that the message is not ready to be sent. Possible reasons include: the message needs approval, linked content is not published, no active audience is set, or there may be another issue requiring support assistance. Consider the following to resolve this issue:

• Check to see if your message needs to be approved in the Campaign section of the Communicate Journey.
• Check to see if the content linked to the message is published.
• Check to see if you have an active audience set.

Can I make changes directly in the Communicate Planner?

No, changes cannot be made directly in the Communicate Planner. You need to go into the specific Communicate Journey to make any necessary changes to messages, content, or approvals.

What if I’ve made a change to a message or audience but it doesn’t reflect in the Communicate Planner?

After you have made any changes within a Communicate Journey, you will need to click the refresh button in the filter panel, in order to update the calendar with the most recent changes.