📝 Overview
Marketing campaigns let you send email messages to all of your active clients or to a targeted list of clients, either one time or on a recurring basis. This article walks you through adding a marketing campaign and creating the email for your campaign.
⛔️ Stop-gap: Marketing tools must be accessed directly on the server computer where the software is installed. They are not available over a Remote Access connection.
📣 Add a Marketing Campaign
Name your campaign, decide when it sends, and choose which clients receive it. The steps below use a recurring happy birthday email as an example.
Click the Messaging & Marketing drop-down menu, then click Edit Marketing Campaigns.
Click Add Campaign.
Enter the campaign's name in the Campaign Name field.
Enter the campaign's description in the Detailed Description field.
Choose whether this campaign is a one-time email blast or if the message needs to be sent on a recurring basis. For a recurring campaign, choose Automatically send this email on a recurring basis, then add a starting date. If you do not choose a stopping date, the campaign keeps running until you stop it manually.
✍️Note: For example, to send a client an email with a happy birthday message on their birthday, choose Automatically send this email on a recurring basis, add a starting date, and do not choose a stopping date.
Choose how often you want the software to check whether any client matches the filter criteria. If no client matches the criteria, the message is not sent. In most cases, set this number to 1 Day(s).
Choose who receives a message from the campaign. To send the message to all clients, select Send to all active clients. In most cases, you want to send to a targeted list of clients, so click Send to a targeted list of clients.
Choose whether to base the filter criteria on pet or customer information.
Some of the most common filter criteria used to target clients for specific marketing campaigns are listed. Set up your filter criteria, then click Finish. For example, set up the filter criteria so the message is sent 3 days before your clients' birthdays.
A screen lists all clients that match the criteria you selected. Close this screen to continue.
✍️Note: To create a more advanced campaign, select Find pets / customers based on customized criteria using purchase history, personal information, and visit history.
The last step for setting up who receives this email is the Don't send to clients if they've received this e-mail campaign in the last ___ days option. For example, set this number to 3 so that the client only receives one happy birthday email during the three days that they match the campaign's filter criteria. Next, create an email.
When you are ready to start your campaign, click Turn on campaign.
✉️ Create an Email for Your Campaign
Choose a template, add your subject line and images, and personalize the message with placeholders.
🔔 Update: We have improved how email character counts are estimated by using your actual business name length and the full unsubscribe text. This gives you a more accurate view of your message length for better planning.
Click Select New Template.
Click Create New Template.
Choose whether to make an email from scratch or use a pre-designed template. We recommend using our templates, since they are designed to look great on both mobile phone screens and desktop or laptop computer screens.
Click Continue.
Choose the template that fits your campaign.
Enter a name for your template. Clients who receive the email do not see this name.
Enter a subject line.
Some templates have a predesignated section to add your logo. You can also add images to other parts of the email. To add an image:
Click where you want the image to be placed, then click the image icon.
When the insert image window opens, select browser.
Navigate through your computer's file system and choose the image you want to add.
To modify the height and width of your image, enter a new value in the Width or Height field.
Click OK.
Replace the example text with your message. When formatting your message, make sure to use the Custom Placeholder. Placeholders allow you to personalize the message for each of your clients. To add a placeholder:
Click where you want the placeholder inserted into the body of text.
Click the custom placeholder drop-down and select the one you want to use.
Click Insert.
Click Save Email Template.