Sending e-mails to one or more constituents
CiviCRM provides tools for sending e-mails directly from the system, both to small sets of contacts (a single constituent or small group of constituents) as well as to large volumes of contacts. The former is handled through activity records, the latter using bulk e-mailing tools. Later in this chapter, we will look at broadcast e-mail and SMS messaging using CiviMail in more detail. Our attention at this point will focus on single or small group e-mails using the activity tools.
However, by introducing the two different methods of e-mail, the question arises of when to use one or the other. The line dividing easier, simpler, lower-volume e-mailing and bulk, mass, or broadcast e-mailing is not always clear. Broadcast e-mailing is clearly appropriate when you are sending messages to thousands of recipients regularly as you need to know the open and click-through rates and segment based on that behavior (which activity e-mails do not support), and...