Practice management

Outreach campaigns: condition-triggered, multi-channel, continuous

How an outreach campaign finds the patients who match its filters and texts or emails them on a cadence you set.

Updated: Updated April 21, 2026
Reading time: 5 min read
Tags: outreachcampaignsrecallsmsemail

A bulk message from the Patients list is a one-time send to patients you select. An outreach campaign is a standing rule: it texts or emails the patients who match its filters, and keeps reaching patients as they begin to match. Both are in EnWella; this article is the campaign side. Until you create one, the Outreach page shows **No campaigns yet** and a **New campaign** button.

When a campaign beats a bulk message

Use a bulk message for a one-off send to patients you pick (for example, everyone you filtered for a flu shot reminder, today). Use a campaign when the audience is open-ended and changes over time (for example, anyone overdue for a visit, until they are seen). A campaign reaches each patient as they begin to match its filters; a bulk message reaches only the patients you selected when you sent it.

Trigger, audience and cadence

A campaign has a Trigger condition and an Audience, which are plain-language notes shown on its card, and Audience filters, which decide who is messaged: each filter narrows the audience, and you choose whether a patient must match all of them or any. Cadence (days) is the minimum number of days between messages to the same patient. A patient who stops matching the filters, for example because they now have a visit booked and your filter excludes them, drops out of the audience and is not messaged again.

Channels: SMS and email

Pick one or more channels. A patient who is due gets the message on every channel you picked. SMS needs a mobile number on the chart. Email needs an email address and a patient account. A patient missing the one a channel needs cannot be reached on it. The channel list also offers Phone call, but EnWella cannot place a call for a campaign, so pick SMS or email. A patient who replied STOP to a text gets no more texts.

Message template

Write the message once in the Message template box; the same text goes out on every channel. One token is filled in: {{patient.first_name}} becomes the patient's first name. No other token is replaced, so write anything else out in full. EnWella sends the text you wrote and does not draft or change it.

Draft, running and paused

A new campaign starts as a Draft and sends nothing. Activate asks you to confirm first and shows how many patients match today, which channels it will use and the message. A Running campaign checks its audience every hour and messages whoever is due; Run now on its card runs that check straight away. Pause stops the messages and Resume starts them again, with the same cadence.

What the Outreach page shows

The tiles at the top show your active campaigns, the touchpoints sent in the last 30 days and the average response rate. Each campaign card shows its status, trigger, audience, channels, Reach (30d) (messages sent in the last 30 days) and Cadence. When some patients opted out or were held back, a Last 30 days outcome line says how many, for example "2 opted out · 3 not sent: do not contact". There is no per-patient list, per-channel breakdown or weekly chart.

Opt-outs

A patient who replies STOP to a text gets no more texts from EnWella, from any campaign. A patient's chart can also be set to Do not contact for outreach, in the chart settings or from the patient's own Notifications page: every campaign skips that patient at your clinic and counts them as "not sent: do not contact". That setting does not stop appointment reminders, results or messages from the care team.

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