Email Blasts
You can send Email Blasts to your customers, directly through Swift! You'll be able to customize the blasts, choose a subset of clients, and view analytics on the sent emails.
You can visit the Email Blasts page by navigating to Marketing > Email Blasts (opens in a new tab) in the Swift Admin Dashboard.
Some important notes:
- Email Blasts are a paid add-on. If you don't see this page, please reach out to us to add it to your plan.
- To send an email blast, you need to add a verified sender so that emails are coming from your domain, not ours
When to Use Email Blasts
Email Blasts in Swift are perfect anytime you want to get in touch with your customers.
This can happen in many cases, but some examples include:
- Promoting a new camp, clinic, or program
- Letting everyone know that the facility is closed for a snow-day
- Announcing a new instructor or trainer that's joining the business
- and the list goes on!
View All Email Blasts
To view the existing email blasts that have been sent, just navigate to Marketing > Email Blasts (opens in a new tab) in your Swift Admin Dashboard. There, you'll see a list of the various email blasts that have already been created. If you've never sent an email blast before, you should see a card that prompts you to create one.
Email Analytics
On existing emails, you should see the following metrics:
- Sent: The number of emails the blast was sent to
- Delivered: The number of emails that were delivered. This can be lower than the sent number if your emails are bouncing, getting blocked by firewall, or going to spam.
- Opened: The number of emails that were opened.
- Open Rate: The percentage of emails that were opened relative to the number of emails sent. Benchmarks for open rates are typically around 35 - 40%. Anything above 40% is great!
You can click into an individual email blast, and view specific per-person metrics on the sent emails & whether customers have opened the emails or not.
Create A New Email Blast
To create a new email blast, click on the "+ New" button on the top right.
Transactional vs Marketing Emails
The most important decision to make before creating your email blast is determining the type of messaging you're about to send.
They are:
- Transactional Emails: Transactional emails are for important updates like cancellations, reschedules, a change in hours, etc. They are updates that your clients cannot opt out of, so don't use this for marketing purposes or your email domain may get marked as spam.
- Marketing Emails: Marketing emails are for opportunties to grow your business - like promoting new camps, clinics, a new coach, etc. They are updates that your clients will be able to opt out of.
US and Canadian spam laws require this distinction, so be sure to select the right type for the communication you're looking to send.
To Field
You can use the "To" field to choose who to send emails to. For transactional emails, you'll be able to send an email to all your customers or just a subset.
For marketing emails, you can only send an email to clients that have opted in to your marketing list. Learn more about the opt in/out process here.
Previewing & Testing Email Blasts
As you fill out the email subject and body, you'll be able to see a live preview of the email on the right. Use this live preview to inform the design & look of your email.
Once you're ready, you can click "Send test email" to send a sample email to your inbox.
Marketing Opt-In
Whenever a customer creates an account at your facility, they will be asked if they'd like to opt-in to your marketing list. They'll be asked this once during account creation, and their response will be saved going forward (they won't be prompted every time).
For existing clients that have been using Swift prior to the launch of the email blasts feature (December 2023), they will be asked to opt-in on their next booking or purchase at your facility.
Opt Customers In Manually to Marketing
To add a customer to the marketing list manually, visit their customer profile on the Customers page (opens in a new tab).
Then, on the Marketing tab, you can turn the "Opt-In" toggle to manually add them to your marketing list. Be sure to get their permission first, as not doing so is in violation of spam laws.
Bulk Opt-In
We often get the question whether facility owners can mass/bulk opt-in their clients into their marketing list. The answer is: it depends on your location.
For American businesses, bulk opting customers into marketing is actually a valid action - so if you'd like this for your facility, please reach out us, and we'll make this happen for you.
For Canadian businesess, doing this is a violation of Canadian spam laws, and it isn't possible unfortunately. You can prompt your customers in-person to opt-in, and try to maximize coverage in that way.
Unsubscribes & Opt-Out
When sending a marketing email blast, Swift will generate a unique unsubscribe link for each customer, and automatically insert it into the email blast. This is a requirement of the law, and will help prevent your marketing blasts from being flagged as spam.
Customers will be able to click on that link, and opt-out of marketing emails from your facility if they'd like. They can also do this from their own profile, under the Marketing tab.