Mass email to clients

Here is the answer I received from Procentive - basically we would need to change all preferred way to receive notification in every patients profile...  

For emails, there isn't a character limit. For texts, this is a limit that we can't override.

The notification goes out to whatever is designated as their preferred way to receive notifications, per their profile > Phone tab > Send appointment reminders to: field.

Thank you.  Seems like a lot of work. Does anyone use anything outside of Procentive like constant contact?

That does seem like a lot of work. I tried to send mass notification and it will send to whichever method was identified; however, it is character limited, regardless.

We set our clients up to receive appointment reminders as part of the intake process.  Most clients prefer text reminders. This allows us then to use that same setup to send mass notifications when needed - if a provider is absent and appointments need to be canceled, or with the current situation we are able to send our message regarding COVID-19 to all clients with appointments for the upcoming week.  One note of caution from our experience with mass notices: make sure to select "Normal" status appointments (if appropriate) - otherwise the system will send the message to all clients with appointments even if their appointment is marked Canceled or Rescheduled.