The community digest is a weekly email that sends members a pick of your community's top posts from the past week, optionally with new members and upcoming events. It's sometimes called a weekly digest, weekly recap, or community newsletter. By default it goes to members who haven't been around lately, to bring them back.
Who can do this: Community owners and admins. · Where: Web, in the admin console. · Plan: The community digest, and sending it to all members, depend on your platform plan. Digest emails are counted separately from your marketing email allowance.
Turn on the community digest
- Go to Admin → Marketing → Community Digest.
- Turn on Send the weekly digest. The switch takes effect right away. The next issue is scheduled, and past weeks aren't sent.
- Click Manage digest to choose who gets it, when, and what goes in it.
The digest is off by default. If you turn it off, emails that hadn't started sending are stopped. Emails already handed to the mail provider can't be recalled.
The page shows whether the digest is Sending or Not sending, plus the Next scheduled issue, the Last successful send, Digest emails this month, and where Replies go to. If the switch is on but the digest is Not sending, the reason appears below it, for example that your plan doesn't include the digest or that no usable reply address is configured.
Choose who receives the community digest
In Manage digest, open Who receives it:
- Members who have not been around: only members with no activity for the number of Days without activity you set, between 7 and 90 days. Activity counts both site visits and sessions. Accounts created in the last 3 days are never included.
- All members: everyone who hasn't opted out, active or not. This option depends on your platform plan and usually increases how many emails go out.
If your plan stops including All members, the digest pauses instead of switching audience. Click Send to inactive members instead to start sending again.
Each issue is filtered by the recipient's own permissions, so members only see posts, members, and events from spaces they can access.
Choose when the community digest is sent
In When it is sent, pick the Day of the week, the Hour, and the Time zone. One issue goes out each week at that local time. Until you change it, the schedule is Tuesday at 09:00 UTC.
Changing the schedule only affects the next issue that hasn't been generated yet, so it may land later than you expect. A missed week is never sent later.
Choose what goes in the community digest
In What goes in it, top posts of the week are always included: up to 5 posts the recipient can see. Two blocks are optional:
- New members: members who joined in the past week.
- Coming up: events and live sessions in the next week.
A member only receives an issue when there are at least 3 top posts they can see that week. Otherwise that member is skipped for the week.
Click Save changes at the top of the dialog to save your audience, schedule, and content settings.
Preview and test the community digest
Open Preview & test:
- Build preview creates a sample from the current settings, built for you as the recipient. It doesn't save your settings or create a real issue. Members in scope counts members before their permissions are applied, so it isn't the number of emails that will go out.
- Send test email sends one real email to your own account address. It uses the saved settings, so save your changes first. You can send up to 3 tests per hour, and your community up to 20 per day. Test status shows whether it was Sent or Failed.
Check how the last community digest issue went
Open Last issue breakdown to see Members in scope, Emails prepared, Delivery states, and Skipped members with the reason, such as Recently active, Joined too recently, Unsubscribed, or Marketing email off. The Open rate, Click rate, and Return rate within 7 days show how members responded. Communities that send through their own SMTP server have no open or click tracking.
Where replies to the community digest go
Replies go to shows the address that receives members' replies. To change it, click Email settings and set the Reply-To Address under Admin → Settings → Email & Notifications. If no usable reply address is available, the digest can't be sent.
How members control the community digest
Members receive the digest unless they turn it off. On the web, they go to Settings → Notifications and use Community Digest under Email Digest. In the app, it's Settings and privacy → Notifications → Community weekly email.
- Turning off Marketing Emails also pauses the digest.
- The digest pauses on its own for a member after several unopened issues in a row, or after a long time with no activity. Members can turn it back on with Resume digest.
The community digest is different from Email Digest Frequency, which only batches a member's own notification emails.
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