Note: The Sendgrid integration is available on our Standard, Premium, and Ultimate plans.
Twilio's Sendgrid is an email provider for sending both marketing and transactional emails.
Beacon's integration connects to Sendgrid's transactional email, so that you can email people in bulk, or send payment acknowledgements in bulk - without having to leave the Beacon interface. The Sendgrid app lets you send these transactional emails through your Sendgrid account directly from Beacon.
Note: Currently, you can only send emails from People and Payments, but we will be potentially rolling this out to other record types in the future.
How it works
Beacon integrates with dynamic templates that you set up in your Sendgrid account. You can design your HTML email however you like in Sendgrid.
In your email, you can add parameters like {{{name.first}}}, {{{amount}}} or {{{payment_date}}}, which Beacon will automatically substitute when you send your email, like so:
Install guide
Sign up for a new Sendgrid account at sendgrid.com
Open up the Sendgrid app in the Beacon, and click Install:
Click Connect with Sendgrid. You'll be prompted to enter your API key, which you can create in your Sendgrid account settings (Settings > API keys).
Note: make sure the API key you create for Beacon has full access to your Sendgrid account.
Once you've connected, enter the default "From" information in the app settings. This will be the default email sender.
Click Save integration
Note: You might need to verify your email address if you have yet to do this with SendGrid directly. More info on further steps can be found within the FAQ down below 👇
Usage
Open the Payments or People list, and select the records that you'd like to send emails for
Click the bulk actions menu, and then click Send emails with Sendgrid:
Choose the dynamic template you'd like to send through Sendgrid:
Review the other settings to make sure you're happy, and then click Send Now.
Beacon will then send the emails through Sendgrid - one for each record selected. When all emails have been sent, you'll see the following success message. That's it!
Template parameters
The parameters you have available to you are the same you would have when using Beacon's email templates feature.
For convenience, here are some of the most commonly used ones:
Sending from people
{{{name.first}}}: the person's first name{{{name.last}}}: the person's last name{{{name.full}}}: the person's full name
Sending from payments
{{{amount}}}: the amount{{{payment_date}}}: the payment date{{{customer.name.first}}}the supporter's first name{{{customer.name.last}}}the supporter's last name{{{customer.name.full}}}the supporter's full name
Tip: use the above parameters instead of those suggested by Sendgrid in their interface.
Frequently asked questions
Do emails sent through Sendgrid get logged to the timeline?
Yes - these are logged to the Person's timeline.
What if I don't have enough "Sendgrid credits" to send an email?
We check the number of credits you have available before sending. If you don't have enough, then Beacon won't let you send an email.
Does Beacon check that all parameters are correct before sending the email?
No. We strongly recommend that you check this yourself before sending an email.
Can the Sendgrid app be used to send emails from other records as well?
Currently, only People and Payments are supported. However, if this is something that would be useful to you, please let us know!
Does the Sendgrid app integrate with Sendgrid's marketing product, or is it just their API product?
The API product. We do not integrate with Sendgrid's marketing product.
We built the Sendgrid integration specifically to make it possible to bulk-send transactional emails. If you'd like to use a marketing email provider well integrated with Beacon, we recommend Mailchimp.
Why isn't my Sendgrid email sending from Beacon?
There are a couple of points to verify if you're having some struggles getting emails out:
To start, verify that your Beacon email matches your Sendgrid verified email
You'll need to ensure your Beacon uses for your "From email address" field is populated with your Sendgrid validated email. The email that is in use can be double checked within your Beacon user settings, so please check that these match before trying again.
What if I don't have a Sendgrid verified email?
To maintain legitimate sending behaviour, Sendgrid as a platform require you to either have a verified Single Sender (essentially, a verified email address!) or a validated domain. We've gone ahead included some Sendgrid documentation on how to do both of these verifications - so you can double check which suits best if this has yet to be completed!
Verifying a Single Sender with Sendgrid
Verifying an email domain with Sendgrid
Once your verification of your email or domain has gone through, and if the email verified matches your Beacon settings, you should be all set to get those emails over and out. Happy days! 🎉