Skip to main content
Vagaro Support Help Center home page

Set Up Before-Visit Email Notifications & Reminders

Jamie B
Jamie B
• Updated

The Before Visit campaign type allows you to automatically send emails before a customer's appointment or class session. The email can include anything from advertising products to be purchased in-store, a pre-visit form, or instructions on where to park and how to get to your business. Configure before-visit campaigns to only apply to a specific service or class or your entire service/class menu, and configure your campaign to send from 1 to 30 days before the customer's visit. Customers will receive this campaign only if they are scheduled for the applicable service or class. For instance, if you set up a before-visit campaign that only applies to "Hair Coloring" appointments, your customers won't receive this campaign before, for example, a "men's haircut." This campaign will also not apply to appointments or classes booked before this campaign was created.

Before sending out an email campaign, keep the following in mind:

  • Before-visit campaigns will continue sending emails for as long as they remain active, so you only have to create one before-visit campaign and let it run continuously. If you need to change the campaign, you can edit and reannounce it later.

  • Campaigns will only be sent to customers with an email address associated with their Customer Profile.

  • Campaigns may be sent to the customer's spam folder, bounce, or fail to send to the customer. Vagaro will not refund emails that fail to be sent to customers.

  • Campaigns will not be sent to customers you have blocked from online booking.

  • Campaign recipient lists will not include customers who have opted out of marketing from Vagaro. However, this does not apply to customers who have blocked your email address. The system will attempt to send emails to these customers, resulting in a bounced email. Vagaro will not refund any of these emails.

  • Any customers with invalid email addresses will not receive this campaign.

Prerequisites: This feature requires an Email Marketing plan.

On a Phone

To create this campaign:

  1. Select More This is an icon used to go to the More initial navigation step on the Vagaro website and the Vagaro Pro app. → Email & Text Marketing → Create Campaign.

    create_campaign_vpro_2x.png

  2. Select Create Campaign.

    create_campaign_vpro_2x.png

  3. Under Select Delivery Method, select Email.

  4. Enter a Campaign Email Subject. This will appear in the subject line of the email your customer receives.

    write_campaign_subject_vpro_2x.png

    • Select the Vagaro AI CleanUpTime.png button to enhance your subject with AI.

    • Select Insert First Name or Insert First & Last. When the message is sent, the system automatically adds the customer's name to the subject.

    Note

    You can add emojis to your subject.

  5. Select the Before Visit campaign type.

    before_visit_selected_vpro_2x.png

    • A slider will appear to select how many days before a customer's appointment you want to send the message.

    • You'll also have to select the services or classes that apply to this campaign.

  6. Select Apply to continue.

  7. Specify the customers to include in the campaign by selecting the gender, customers of a specific employee, and age, then select Select Email Template.

    filters_vpro_2x.png

    You can select Reset to clear all filters.

  8. Choose a template category for your email campaign, such as Animated, Fitness, Fall, and more. Each category has different templates for your emails, so we recommend looking through all of them before choosing a template.

    template_category_vpro_2x.png

  9. Write the email heading and body content.

    write_content_vpro_2x.png

    When you're writing your content, you can:

    • Change your font.

    • Change your font size.

    • Bold, italicize, and underline your text.

    • Change your font color.

    • Change the text alignment.

    • Select the Vagaro AI CleanUpTime.png icon to enhance your content with AI.

    • Select Insert First Name and Insert First & Last to put the customer's name into the email automatically.

  10. Add an image to your email:

    add_image_vpro_2x.png

    1. Select Add Image.

    2. You can choose to upload an image from your Photo Library, take a photo with your Camera, or use a photo from your Business Gallery.

    3. Select your image.

  11. Modify the buttons on your email:

    editing_buttons_vpro_2x.png

    1. Select a button.

      edit_button_vpro_2x.png

    2. At the top of the screen, select a color for all your buttons.

    3. Optionally, toggle off any or all of the buttons to hide them.

    4. Under the button name, i.e., Button1, Button2, Button3, choose a button link. You can link to your forms, staff, service menu, classes, and so on.

      Note

      Adding links to your campaigns allows for tracking the click-through rate and how many customers booked through the link. These metrics are only tracked for Vagaro links; Vagaro will not track clicks to external websites outside of Vagaro.

      Repeat this step for all applicable buttons.

    5. Select Save.

  12. Modify your social links:

    social_links_vpro_2x.png

    1. Select the social links component.

      social_links_edit_vpro_2x.png

    2. Select a Social Link Style.

    3. The system will populate the social links that are attached to your business. You can edit them from this page; however, this won't update your social links on other pages.

    4. Select Save.

  13. After you finish designing your email, select Next at the bottom of the screen.

  14. Preview your campaign, then select Next to schedule your campaign.

    • Select Send Preview Email to send this preview to your email.

      Warning

      Sending an email preview will pull from your Email Marketing plan.

    • In the top-right corner of the screen, select Save to save a draft of this email.

  15. Schedule and announce your campaign:

    send_campaign_vpro_2x.png

    1. Schedule: Set a time for when this campaign will usually be sent out. By default, it is set to 8:00 a.m.

    2. Agree to the acknowledgment.

    3. Select Announce and confirm the Important Notice or Usage Alert that may appear.

On a Computer, Tablet, Pay Desk, or PayPro

To create this campaign:

  1. Go to Marketing megaphone_icon.png, then select Create Campaign under Email & Text Marketing.

  2. On the marketing dashboard, select Create Campaign.

    create_campaign_web_2x.png

  3. Next to Select Delivery Method, choose Email.

  4. Enter a Campaign Email Subject. This will appear in the subject line of the email your customer receives.

    email_subject_web_2x.png

    • Select the Vagaro AI CleanUpTime.png button to enhance your subject with AI.

    • Select the Emoji button to add emojis to the subject.

    • Select Insert Name, then select First Name or First & Last Name to auto-populate the customer's name in the subject.

  5. Select the Before Visit campaign type.

    before_visit_selected_email_web_2x.png

    • A slider will appear to select how many days before a customer's appointment you want to send the message.

    • You'll also have to select the services or classes that apply to this campaign.

  6. Select the recipients for this campaign:

    • All Customers: Send this campaign to all customers in your Customer List.

    • Filtered List: Send this campaign to a specific, filtered list of customers.

    • Specific Customers: Not available for this campaign type.

  7. Optionally, set a Schedule for when this campaign will be sent out to customers.

  8. Select Next to begin drafting your email campaign.

  9. Choose a template for your email. Each category has different templates, so we recommend looking through all of them before choosing one.

    email_templates_web_2x.png

  10. Optionally, in the top-right corner of the email editor, select Style to customize the colors and border of your campaign.

    style_web_2x.png

    • Select the box next to Page Background to change its color.

    • Select the box next to Body Background to change its color.

    • Select the box next to Border to change its color. You can also change the border thickness as well.

  11. By default, each template includes two images, buttons, and social links. You can optionally Move, Edit, or Delete them as needed.

    manage_component_web_2x.png

  12. To add a module to the message, drag and drop it from the sidebar onto the design window.

    drag_drop_module.png

    • The Style tab on every edit pop-up provides background and border colors, border size, and padding options. Changes to the background and border color won't take effect unless you select OK in that dialog.

      web_editor_style_tab.png

    • Text modules will open a text editor where you can enter and format text for your email, insert customer names, add hyperlinks, and style the text box with background and border colors.

      text_mod_edit.png

    • Image modules allow you to upload an image or select one from your business's Image Gallery. You can make any image function as a link by adding a URL in the Link to box.

      image_mod_edit.png

      Uploading an image will open the Vagaro Image Editor, where you can edit your image. You can also hover over or select an image selected from the gallery, then select Edit to open the editor.

      web_image_editor.png

    • The Buttons module allows you to create buttons that link to pages on your Vagaro Listing page and more. You can set button color, height, width, rounded corners, text color, font, and size and add preset or custom links. Each Button module can have up to three buttons, but only the ones you configure will show on the message.

      web_button_editor.png

      Note

      Adding links to your campaigns allows for tracking the click-through rate and how many customers booked through the link. These metrics are only tracked for Vagaro links; Vagaro will not track clicks to external websites outside of Vagaro.

    • The Social Buttons module lets you add links to social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

      theme_changed_2x.png

      The Themes drop-down list gives you six link style selections. Any change to the Theme is reflected in the links shown on the page and the preview.

      web_social_btn_themes.png

  13. Preview your campaign:

    • Select the desktop_icon.png Preview or phone_icon.png Preview tabs to view how this campaign will look like on a phone or computer.

    • Select Send Email Preview to send a preview of this campaign to your email.

      Warning

      Sending an email preview will pull from your Email Marketing plan.

    • Select Save for Later to save this campaign as a draft.

  14. Announce your campaign by agreeing to the acknowledgment at the bottom of the screen, then select Announce.

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

For every step.