Newsletters

Newsletters are rolling out in the next few days. Until then, the Newsletters page shows what's coming.

Got Christmas appointments opening up, a new service, or a few spare spots this week? Send your clients a newsletter about it, straight from TimeToBook. It comes from your business name, and when a client replies, it goes to your location's email address. If your location doesn't have one yet, the newsletter editor reminds you to add it in Settings.

Newsletters are part of TimeToBook Plus (included with Team plans). It's for paying accounts only, so it isn't available during the free trial.

Sending a newsletter

1. Click Newsletters in the menu.
2. Click New newsletter and pick a starting point: News update, Special offer, Spare spots this week, New service, Holiday hours or Start from scratch. You can change everything in it. The template's example text has a dashed outline until you change it, so nothing goes out saying something you didn't mean.
3. The newsletter opens, ready to edit, showing it just as clients will see it. Give it a Subject and choose who it goes to under Send to (see below).
4. Click anything in the email to change it, right where it is:
   • Headings and text: click and type. When you're in some text, a toolbar appears for bold, italic, underline, links and lists. Click + First name to greet each client by their first name.
   • Photos: click Upload a photo, or choose one from your portfolio photos. Tap a photo (or hover over it on a computer) to replace it or add a link and description.
   • Buttons: click a button to choose what it does. Book now opens your booking page. Manage my bookings takes each client to their own upcoming bookings. You can add more than one.
5. Tap a section (or hover over it on a computer) to see its controls: drag the handle to move it, use the arrows to nudge it up or down, or the bin to remove it. Removed something by mistake? Click Undo at the bottom of the screen. Click the + under a section to add a new one there: a heading, text, photo, button or divider. You can also add one at the bottom under Add a section.
6. Click Send me a test to see exactly what your clients will get. The test goes to your own email address.
7. Click Send…, check the number of clients and where replies will go, then click Send now.

Your email saves as you go, so you can leave and come back to it. Drafts are listed on the Newsletters page: click Edit to carry on, or Delete to bin one.

Changed your mind? For 10 seconds after you click Send now, the Newsletters page shows an Undo button that turns the email back into a draft. After that it's on its way and can't be stopped, so send yourself a test first.

Who gets it

Under Send to, pick one:

• All clients
• Some clients: narrow it down with a few simple questions. Use as many or as few as you like:
  • Last visit: in the last 3, 6 or 12 months, or over 3, 6 or 12 months ago (good for a "we miss you" email).
  • Has had: clients who've had a particular service, like a colour offer for your colour clients.
  • Has seen: clients of one of your team, like "Sam is back from leave". Shown when you have more than one person on the team.
  • Booking coming up: only clients with nothing booked yet, so you don't nudge people who are already coming in, or only those with a booking.
• Choose clients: search for clients and tick the ones you want.

Under the choices you'll see how many clients will get it. Click See who to check the names.

Some clients are always left out:

• Clients with no email address.
• Clients who have unsubscribed from your emails.
• Clients whose email address has bounced or isn't valid. These show up under Needs attention on the Clients page, so you can fix the address.

If two clients share an email address, they get the email once.

Unsubscribing

Every email has an Unsubscribe link at the bottom. Clients who unsubscribe stop getting your news and offers, but still get their booking confirmations and reminders. Clients can also tick Don't email me news or offers when they book online.

A client who has unsubscribed shows "Unsubscribed from your emails" on their client profile. You can't sign them back up yourself: they've asked not to be emailed, and that has to be respected.

How many emails you can send

Each account can send up to 1,000 emails a month and 2 newsletters a day (each one can go to all your clients). The Newsletters page shows how many you have left this month.

Seeing how it went

The Newsletters page lists every newsletter you've sent with how many clients it went to, how many were delivered, how many opened it, and how many people unsubscribed. The numbers update while an email is going out. Click View to see the full numbers and the email exactly as your clients got it.

Opens are a rough guide. Some email apps (Apple Mail in particular) load every email automatically, which counts as an open, and others block the check, so the real number can be higher or lower. Comparing one of your emails with another is more useful than the exact percentage.

Each newsletter you send also shows on the Messages page and on the client's profile, marked Newsletter, with whether it was delivered, opened or bounced.

If sending is paused

If a lot of emails bounce or get reported as spam, we pause sending on your account to protect everyone's emails from landing in spam folders. You'll see a message on the Newsletters page. We'll be in touch, or you can contact us to ask. Booking confirmations and reminders keep working either way.