Post to Slack
RadarSend can post a message to a Slack channel when something happens to a contact. A lead’s score crosses 80, someone submits the demo form, or a contact reaches a step in a sequence, and the channel you chose gets a message with their name, what happened, and a link to their page in RadarSend.
Messages go out from two places:
- An Automation with the Send a Slack message action.
- A sequence Action step set to Send a Slack message. See Sequence steps.
Before you begin#
- You need to be an admin in RadarSend to connect or disconnect Slack. Anyone who can edit an Automation or a sequence can use the connection once it’s there.
- You need permission to add apps to your Slack workspace. If your workspace requires approval for new apps, a Slack admin has to approve RadarSend first.
Connect Slack#
- Go to Settings→Integrations→Slack.
- Click Connect Slack.
- On Slack’s screen, check the workspace shown in the top right is the one you want, then click Allow.
You come back to RadarSend with the workspace shown under Connection. An account connects to one Slack workspace.
The RadarSend app can post messages and see the list of channels. It can’t read messages.
Post from an Automation#
- Go to Automations and click New Automation, or open one you have.
- Set up When this happens as usual. See Automations.
- Under Then do this, set Action to Send a Slack message.
- Pick the Channel.
- Write the Message, or keep the one that’s filled in. See Write the message.
- Click Send a test message to post it to the channel now with sample values.
- Save.
Post from a sequence#
- Open the sequence and add an Action step where you want the message to go out.
- Under What should happen?, choose Send a Slack message.
- Pick the Channel and write the Message.
The message is posted when a contact reaches the step, and the contact moves straight on to the next one.
Write the message#
A new action starts with a message that says who the contact is and what happened:
at Northwind Supply: Submitted Demo request Open in RadarSend
The Preview beside the box shows what the channel will get, filled in for a sample contact, and updates as you type.
- Start from offers a few ready-made messages. The first one fits the rule’s trigger: a form rule offers Form submitted, a score rule Score change. Picking one replaces the message, and asks first if you’ve written your own.
- Merge tags show as chips, such as Full name or Company. Click { } Merge tag to add one. Click a chip to choose what happens when a contact has no value: Leave it out (along with words before it, like “at”), Use another field, or Use these words.
- B, I and the link button format the words you’ve selected.
- Include a link to the contact adds “Open in RadarSend” under the message. It’s on by default.
- Edit as text shows the message as it’s stored, with merge tags written out as in an email (
{{ full_name | default: email }}). Use it for anything the chips don’t cover.
If a merge tag is broken, the box says so underneath, and the test button waits until it’s fixed.
Besides the contact’s own fields and your custom fields, a message can use:
| Tag | What it holds |
|---|---|
{{ contact_url }} | A link to the contact in RadarSend. |
{{ prospect_score }}, {{ customer_score }} | The contact’s scores. |
{{ account.name }} | Your RadarSend account’s name. |
{{ rule.name }} | The name of the Automation or sequence. |
{{ trigger.summary }} | What happened, as a sentence: “Submitted Demo request”, “Prospect score rose from 74 to 82”. |
{{ trigger.form_name }}, {{ trigger.source_url }} | The form submitted, and the page it was on. |
{{ trigger.fields.team_size }} | One answer from the form, by its field key. Works for any question on the form, including ones that aren’t contact fields. |
{{ trigger.score }}, {{ trigger.previous_score }} | The score after and before a threshold was crossed. |
{{ trigger.segment_name }} | The segment or list entered or left. |
{{ trigger.url }}, {{ trigger.event_name }} | The page viewed, or the custom event recorded. |
{{ trigger.new_value }}, {{ trigger.old_value }} | A changed field’s value after and before. |
{{ trigger.webinar_title }}, {{ trigger.starts_at }} | The webinar registered for, attended or missed, and when it starts. See Webinars. |
{{ trigger.attended_minutes }}, {{ trigger.join_url }} | How long an attendee stayed, and a registrant’s join link. |
account, rule and trigger are reserved here. If one of your custom fields has one of those keys, write it as {{ contact.account }}.
The trigger tags are filled in by Automations. A sequence step has no single event behind it, so they’re empty there. Give them a fallback, as the starting message does.
Values that come from a contact are always posted as plain text, so a name or a form answer can’t add formatting, links or mentions of its own. In Edit as text, Slack’s own formatting applies to what you write: *bold*, _italic_, and <https://example.com|a link>.
Common issues#
- The channel isn’t in the list. Public channels are all listed. A private channel appears only after the app is invited to it: in that channel, type
/invite @RadarSend, then click Refresh list. - A message didn’t arrive. Check the delivery log under Settings→Developer→Webhooks. Slack messages are listed there with the channel and, when one failed, the reason.
- “Slack isn’t accepting this connection any more”. The app was removed from the Slack workspace, or its access was revoked. An admin can click Reconnect under Settings→Integrations→Slack. Messages fail until then.
- Some messages weren’t posted. The delivery log lists each one with the reason: the channel was too far behind (see the limit below), or the message came out empty once its merge tags were filled in.
Good to know#
- A channel gets about one message a second. That’s Slack’s limit. When a rule matches many contacts at once, RadarSend spaces the messages out. If a channel is already booked more than 15 minutes ahead (about 800 messages), further messages are left out and listed in the delivery log as not posted. A rule that can match thousands of contacts at a time is better as a webhook to your own system than as a message per contact.
- Several RadarSend accounts can post to one Slack workspace. Connect each account separately. They all post as the same RadarSend app, so give each its own channel, or start the message with
{{ account.name }}to say which account it came from. - Failed messages are retried. If Slack is unreachable or asks RadarSend to slow down, the message is tried again, up to three times.
- Disconnecting doesn’t remove the app from Slack. It stops RadarSend posting. To remove the app, do that in Slack.
- Contacts waiting in a release pool don’t post. Like every Automation action, the message waits until the contact is released. See Release pools.