Run a Marketing Blast
Sending a campaign to your clients: choosing the audience, writing something they will read, and measuring whether it worked.
A blast is a message to a group of your clients. It is the cheapest marketing a shop has, and the easiest to ruin by sending too often.
Before you send anythingCopy a link to this section
Two things have to be true or the blast is wasted:
- Your client records have contact details. Requiring a client on every ticket (Require Client Details in Ticket) is what builds this.
- You have something worth saying. A quiet Tuesday, a new service, a cancellation slot this afternoon. "Hi, we exist" is not a campaign.
Choose the audienceCopy a link to this section
Narrow beats broad. A message to everybody is a message to nobody, and it costs you unsubscribes you cannot get back.
Good audiences:
- Clients who have not been in for three months.
- Clients of one stylist who is quiet this week.
- Clients who have had a service you have a new version of.
- New clients, in the two weeks after their first visit.
Write itCopy a link to this section
Short, one idea, one action. If it needs a promo code, create the discount first so the code exists (see Apply discounts and promo codes), and cap its total uses before you put it in a message that can be forwarded.
Include the booking link. A campaign without a way to act on it is an advertisement, not a campaign. You do not have to paste it: next to the client details you can drop into the message, the Links group inserts your Personal Booking Link, the Booking Page Link or the Website Link, on the web and in the staff app. When more than one member can take bookings, Personal booking link member picks whose personal link it is.
An email blast is marketing email, and the law wants your postal address in its footer. If the business has none on file, the composer says so; Add Business Address opens the business information settings where you set it.
Send itCopy a link to this section
Blasts are sent from the messaging area. Depending on your plan and permissions, they can go by text, by email, or both.
Text blasts need a messaging number; until the shop has one, the Blasts page says "Get a messaging number before sending SMS blasts." If you are allowed to add numbers, New Blast on the web opens the number purchase first, and in the staff app Add Number takes you to Numbers. Email blasts go out without one.
Whoever can navigate as other staff picks, under Credits & blasts apply to:, whether a blast is charged to the business or to one member, with that pool's balance beside it. Blast History lists every campaign; in the staff app, the status chips narrow it (Scheduled, Sending, Sent, Partially Failed, Failed, Canceled) and the sort chip orders it by when it was made or when it is scheduled for, the two dates the web table sorts on.
Blasts need a paid plan, as do all text messages to clients. Every text a blast sends is billed by the carrier, so on a free trial, or while a payment is behind, Send stays off and the composer says "Blasts are available once your subscription is active and paid." A blast you scheduled earlier does not go out if the plan stops being paid before it comes due; it shows "The subscription was not active when it came due." and you are told why. On a trial, the owner can end it from Business Settings → Billing → Skip Trial & Pay Now (see Your plan and add-ons).
Measure itCopy a link to this section
- If you used a promo code, its usage count is your conversion.
- If you sent a custom booking link, its Bookings column under Business Settings → Booking Links counts the appointments it brought in. See Create Custom Booking Links.
- Client Growth and Client Retention show the slower effects.
- The appointment and revenue reports for the days after will show whether the quiet Tuesday filled.
Track the code. It is the only honest measurement most shops can get.
The rulesCopy a link to this section
- Message people who gave you their details for this, and honour opt-outs immediately.
- Text is regulated in most places, and the rules are stricter than email.
- Do not send at night. Ever.
FrequencyCopy a link to this section
Once a month is plenty for most shops. Twice a month is the upper bound. Weekly is how a list dies, and a burned list cannot be rebuilt, because the same people will not opt in twice.