This article is designed to give you a high-level overview of the various setup tasks and settings associated with readying the Campaigns module before you start creating your first campaign email.
⬆️ Import your existing subscribers to Guest Engagement's Campaigns module
It's most likely that you will already have subscribers in another marketing system. Obviously, you will need to bring these subscribers into Guest Engagement.
To do this, go to Campaigns > Subscribers and then click the View subcribers tab.
From there, you will see the Import button on the far right:
A new dialogue box appears:
You can create your own CSV or XLSX file, but you need to provide your data in a particular format. There is a Sample file you can download here so that you know exactly how the data should be formatted. Existing tags from other platforms can be imported for each guest. If you will have multiple tags per guest, just use a comma (no spaces) to separate each tag, eg. leisure,vip,summer etc
In the case where your file contains a subscriber that is already in Guest Engagement, you can choose whether the tags in your import file will be added to their existing ones with the Append option, or, choose Replace if you want the tags in your import file to override what is already in Guest Engagement for each subscriber.
Click the Choose file button to find the CSV or XLSX file on your computer that you want to import
Click the Confirm button to begin the import process. Depending on how many subscribers you are importing, this can take a few minutes. You will see a new job listed below in the table:
As mentioned, if you are importing thousands of subscribers, please wait a few minutes for the job to complete. Refresh your page to check when the imported subscribers are visible.
📧 Set up your campaign email address
Obviously, one of the key factors in sending campaign emails successfully is ensuring that your emails are not marked as spam - or at least, doing everything possible to minimise the chance of that happening.
With that in mind, this is the one setup task that is technical in any way, but it is a crucial task that must be done before sending out your first "real" emails.
Step one: Verification
First you will need to choose one of your existing emails addresses, eg. info@myhotel.com. This will be used as the From address when your email is sent.
Next, go to Settings > Emails and scroll down to the Custom "From" email addresses section:
Click the Verify an email address button to begin the process.
A new dialog appears:
Enter the email address you want to use for campaigns and then click the Send verification email button.
You will then see that your email address has been added to the list.
After a minute or so, an email will be sent to the email address you've chosen. It will be from Amazon Web Services:
All you need to do is click the large link in this email, and the verification process is complete.
Refresh the email settings page and you will see that it's done.
Step two: Modifying your SPF record
This is a technical change that must be completed in your domain's SPF record.
If you don't know what that means, you will need to have your IT team, or whoever controls/has access to your website address and website management console do this next step.
Basically what we are doing is adding a new provider that can send emails using your address as the "From" address without being marked as spam.
Though this is a technical step, the actual process takes two minutes.
Once the status under the Address and SPF columns read Verified, and in the Status column it says Ready, you can move on to the next task.
⚙️ Set all default Campaign settings
Now that you have a verified campaign email address, it's time to decide on the default settings for the Campaigns module.
This must be done before you can send a real campaign.
Start by going to Campaigns > Subscribers. On the far right is an Edit button:
Clicking that button reveals the settings:
Choose which verified email address should be used as the From address when your emails are sent. You can have multiple options here, but if you only have one verified email address, this is automatically selected
Define what the From name should be for your emails.
Try to avoid anything that might be considered spammy; this includes ALL CAPS and exclamation marks; so don't put something like "NEWS FROM PALACE HOTEL!!!".
Also, you may wish to use a persona to humanise the experience.
Finally, don't use any unnecessary punctuation, eg. >>Palace Hotel<<
Some good examples include:The Palace Hotel Newsletter
The Palace Hotel
Offers from the Palace Hotel
Andrew from Palace Hotel - or - Andrew @ Palace Hotel
In the case where a subscriber replies to the email you send them, set the address you want those replies to be sent to at your property
Set the subject line of emails that come to you when a subscriber replies
✅ Collect new subscribers from Guest Engagement's other modules
Now you can start collecting subscribers from Guest Engagement's other modules.
Go to Campaigns > Settings:
The switch enables the opt-in function elsewhere in Guest Engagement. You will need to provide the opt-in text in each language active in your system
Be mindful that guests need to know how they will benefit from opting in, so make sure your opt-in message is friendly and informative.
For example:
Check this box to join our mailing list. Receive occasional special offers and news about our property. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Here is how the opt-in question looks in:
Check-in form
Upsell
When a guest opts in on one of these pages, they will be added as a subscriber.
They will automatically be given the tag guestjoy, so that you can identify where the subscriber came from.