This section will demonstrate how to build an automated email on crowdEngage.
Now you can automate your pre and post-show emails through crowdEngage. If you are already sending a customer a text, it will not cost any more to add on an email to flow.
The set up is very similar to creating an SMS. Open a new email flow template by creating a flow and clicking “add step”
Then choose which customers you would like to send this to. There is the flexibility to include/exclude customers with certain ticket types or other criteria
Then specify the sending time in relation to the time the performance starts. Whether this is before the instance start time or after.
When clicking on “new email template” it will look like this. The tools are all along the left hand side and in the bottom right you can change the view to see how the email design would appear on a laptop or a phone.
Then simply drag and drop the tools (headings, images, text boxes etc). over to the right hand side where they can be moved around and edited. The tools with green stars have AI which can be used to create unique copy.
Merge tags can be found as per the image below. All merge tags are pulled from the ticketing system directly and work in the same way as the coding within the SMS messages. This means you can send the same message to various customers and but automatically populate the event details so that one email fits all.
Remember to link the mobile ticket to your email using the tag - {{ your_visit_url }} This can also be found in the special links drop down
Once the main body of the email is created then it can be edited to the same standard as regular company emails. Images, logos etc. can be uploaded so that everything looks like the venue branding. There are also stock images that can be used if needed.
Remember to change the width to around 600 0r 650 as this will look better on a laptop and is standard for email templates.
"Blocks" can be saved so that they can be used later on. Just click on the background and the save icon will appear, as per below. Then whenever you click on the Blocks tool bar on the left hand side, the sections you have saved will be there ready to drag and drop into another template.
If your venue also uses Activity Stream then all blocks will be available on both platforms so essentially they can be built on one and then transferred over to the other, saving time.
Once the email template is complete and the flow step is saved, Add your entire flow to an event by going to the event page, selecting the event you want to amend and hitting the edit button.
This can be filtered by the events by start-time if, for example, only the matinee performances were to be updated. All the instances selected with a tick will be included. Click on the boxes to untick in order to amend this. After the "Update Instances" button is selected the flow will be updated and the email templates will be scheduled to go out to customers.
If you need any further help you can get in touch with us at support@crowdengage.com