Before we start, a quick introduction to GDPR. 

Due to the regulations introduced in 2018, you can only market to people who want to be contacted. If you use ResDiary, we do most of this for you but make sure you don't ever buy mailing lists, and you always give people the option to unsubscribe or subscribe. 


Find out more about GDPR here. 


The guide below will cover:


  • How to create a marketing a list
  • How to create a marketing template
  • How to send the template to the your marketing list by creating a message


Customer Contact - Manage Marketing List (Beta Version)


To create a marketing list go to promote - customer contact - manage marketing list (beta version):


  • Create marketing list
  • List name - enter a name (the customer will not see this)
  • List type - select email or SMS (you need to sign up for SMS integration as this is an add-on to a diary. More information can be found here)
  • List date - this is an optional filter, you can filter customers by the date they booked or visited or keep as all dates.
  • List description - enter a description (the customer will not see this)
  • Venue level opt-in - here is where you select what you have ticked in your privacy settings, if you want to target customers who have opted into venue level tick individual venue level.
  • Include customers that DON'T comply with EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) - we've left this option for you to decide to continue marketing customers who opted into marketing BEFORE the GDPR law came into effect. We recommend you clear this with your lawyer first.
  • Filters - If you wish to filter customers you can continue to select any combination from the list and click 'add'
  • Press update to create the marketing list, the list will be created immediately






Create an email template

Customer Contact - Manage Templates


Our email templates are built using HTML code, if you are not familiar with HTML you can sign up for a Mailchimp account here free of charge to design your own mailers then copy the HTML code over to your diary by following the below guide:


Exporting a Mailer from Mailchimp to Resdiary

If you would like us to create a mailer for you this costs £45 plus vat. Please find the design form here. Designs can take up to 5 working days.


To create a marketing template go to promote - customer contact - manage templates - add:


  • Use the editor to add text, images, and links
  •  Make sure you have a clear call to action button - book a table, view the menu, etc
  •  Remember to add an unsubscribe token! 


Top Tip - At the foot of the template add in the {COUNTER} token, this will allow you to track how many opened the email and how many clicked through - see sent message here



Create an SMS template


Customer Contact - SMS Messaging


SMS can only be sent if you have signed up to send SMS, please view the guide here


The cost of each SMS message is roughly 3p per text and is limited to 160 characters, anything over this will incur the charge of an additional message.


Go to promote - customer contact - SMS messaging - add.


Remember and add a link to your website to book!


 





Customer Contact - Create Message 


Think about when your customers will want to receive emails and when you'll get the best open rates. 


There are peak times and non-peak times when sending an email campaign, our peak times are between 11am and 2pm, If you schedule a campaign to send between these times your list will join a queue to be sent. 


To create the message to send to your marketing list go to promote - customer contact - create message. 


  • List Type - select email or SMS
  • Subject - this is the subject line your customer will see when the mailer arrives in their inbox
  • From Email Address - this is the email address that is sending the mailer
  • Filter Type - dynamic or static list? 'Dynamic' will email on a rolling basis. It's something you might want to set up weekly if your filters are identifying customers' birthdays. 'Static' will email everyone on your list once.
  • Marketing List - select the marketing list you created in step 1
  • Template - select the template you created in step 2
  • Send On - select a date and time to send. 
  • Frequency - usually you'll only send once but if you're using a dynamic list, define how frequently you want to send this mailer. 
  • Send - before you hit send, do a test to yourself to see how it looks. (Note, it won't pull through any of your tokens as it isn't populating customer data.)