MailerPress is an email marketing plugin for WordPress with an automation builder. HappenBoard Pro hands it five moments in the life of an event, such as a new sign-up or the day after the event, as triggers. You then build the emails, delays and sequences in MailerPress.
HappenBoard sends no email through this integration. Its own automatic emails keep going out as usual, so check them first to avoid sending the same thing twice.
The MailerPress integration needs HappenBoard Pro. See what Pro adds.
Before you start
- MailerPress installed and active on the same site.
- MailerPress Pro if you want to build an automation from scratch. In MailerPress 2.1, the free version only starts from MailerPress’s own templates, with one trigger and one action.
Turn on the integration
- Go to HappenBoard → Integrations.
- On the MailerPress (Pro) card, click Configure.
- Switch on Enable MailerPress automations.
- Switch on Sync RSVP attendees as MailerPress contacts (recommended), then choose a list and a status.
- Click Save.
If MailerPress is not active, the card shows Inactive and the panel only asks you to install and activate MailerPress.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable MailerPress automations | Sends the five event moments to MailerPress. Nothing fires while it is off. | Off |
| Sync RSVP attendees as MailerPress contacts | Creates or updates a MailerPress contact for each new sign-up, with the event details. Automations can then reach guests who have no WordPress account. | Off |
| Add synced attendees to list | The MailerPress list new contacts join. The choices are your MailerPress lists. | No list |
| Subscription status | Subscribed (single opt-in) adds them at once. With Pending (double opt-in), MailerPress asks them to confirm first. | Subscribed |
Only new sign-ups are synced. People who registered before you turned the sync on are not added. Ask for your audience’s consent before you add them to a marketing list.
The five triggers
In MailerPress, the names of the HappenBoard triggers start with “Event:”. They appear as soon as MailerPress is active, so you can prepare an automation before you switch the integration on.
| Trigger | Fires when | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Event: RSVP received | Someone signs up or buys a ticket and gets a seat, or moves from the waitlist to going. | A welcome, practical details, a pre-event sequence. |
| Event: RSVP cancelled | The attendee cancels with the link in their email, or a refund cancels their ticket. | Asking why, offering another date. |
| Event: Attendee checked in | Someone is checked in at the door with QR code check-in. | A same-day welcome or thank-you. |
| Event: Reminder due | The reminder email goes out. | A “see you tomorrow” email. |
| Event: After the event | Once a day, for each attendee of a date that ended in the past day. | A thank-you or a survey. |
A cancellation you make yourself on the Attendees screen does not fire RSVP cancelled.
Reminder due follows the reminder email. It needs Send reminder email before each event to be on in HappenBoard → Settings → Email, and fires at the time set in Send reminder hours before start (24 hours by default). It fires once per date, and only when the email goes out: not for a cancelled event or an attendee who is no longer going.
After the event also covers recurring events: each date fires it once, for the attendees of that date. An event saved without an end time fires it too. Only attendees marked as going are included.
Build an automation in MailerPress
- Go to MailerPress → Automations and click New automation.
- Start from scratch, then choose one of the HappenBoard triggers, such as Event: RSVP received.
- Add the steps that follow, for example a delay and then an email.
- In the email, insert the event details the trigger provides (see below).
- Save the automation and switch it on.
After the event fires during the day that follows the end of the event. To write later, add a delay before the email.
The details each trigger provides
Every HappenBoard trigger gives MailerPress the same fields: Attendee email, Attendee first name, Event title, Event date, Event URL, Venue and Seats (the number of seats booked).
- Attendee first name is the first word of the name the person typed.
- Event date uses your site’s date and time formats, without the time for an all-day event.
- On a recurring event, Event date is the date the attendee chose.
With contact sync on, the event title, date, link and venue are also saved on the contact as hp_event_title, hp_event_date, hp_event_url and hp_event_venue. Later emails in the same sequence can use them as merge tags.
For developers, each trigger is also a WordPress action whose name starts with happenboard_mp_. They are listed in the notification and email hooks.
If something goes wrong
- Guests without a WordPress account get nothing: turn on Sync RSVP attendees as MailerPress contacts.
- After the event never fires: check that the integration is on and that the attendees are marked as going.
- Reminder due never fires: check that reminder emails are on. Someone who signs up after the reminder time gets no reminder.
Next steps
- Automatic emails: see what HappenBoard already sends, and set the reminder time.
- QR code check-in: check people in so the check-in trigger fires.
- Outbound webhooks: send the same moments to another system.
- Managing attendees: see who is going before a follow-up goes out.