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Marketing emails

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Beta: Marketing emails is new and in early access, so you may spot the odd bug while we finish it off. We expect it to be fully ready within one to two weeks. If something doesn’t look right, email [email protected].

Plans: Marketing emails is free for everyone right now. In the new year we’re introducing Bronze, Silver and Gold plans, and email features will then be part of the Gold plan. If you’re an existing customer, you don’t have to change your plan. It’s your choice: if you want to keep using email features, you can upgrade to Gold.

What it is

Marketing emails let you send one-off campaigns and newsletters to your clients straight from ClassFit, such as a summer sale, a new timetable or a monthly newsletter. You choose who gets each campaign using audiences: all your clients, a list of clients you pick, or a list that updates itself based on rules.

You design your campaigns in a drag-and-drop email builder.

Before, you could only email a single class or a single client (see Emailing Your Class), or sync your clients to Mailchimp.

Where to find it

  • Campaigns: Tools > Marketing emails
  • Audiences: Tools > Audience

Your campaigns are shown in three tabs:

  • Active: campaigns scheduled to send.
  • Draft: campaigns you’ve saved but not sent or scheduled.
  • Sent: campaigns that have gone out.

For each campaign you can see its name and subject, its audience, when it’s scheduled, when it was sent and when it was last updated.

Who can use it: Admins and Managers, plus Custom roles that have this permission turned on, just like any other task permission.

The email builder works on computers only.

Step 1: Create an audience (optional)

If you want to send to everyone, skip this step. All clients means everyone on your current client list.

  1. Go to Tools > Audience and click Create audience.
  2. Enter a list name (3–50 characters) and, if you like, a description.

  3. Choose a list type:

    • Manual: pick specific clients. The list only changes when you add or remove people.

    • Dynamic: set up to 3 rules. Clients are matched against the rules at the time the campaign is sent, so the list keeps itself up to date.

    • Click Create audience to save it.

To change an audience later, open it, make your changes and click Edit audience.

Dynamic audience rules

  • Last attended anything within the last [X] days (90 days by default).
  • Has a package: any package, or a specific class pack, recurring membership, course or standing reservation (or any of each type).

If you add more than one rule, choose whether clients must match All of the rules or Any of them.

You can have up to 50 audiences. You can duplicate an audience, and the copy is called “[name] Copy”. If you delete an audience that’s used by a draft or scheduled campaign, you’ll be asked to choose a replacement audience for those campaigns. The campaigns themselves aren’t deleted.

Step 2: Design your campaign

  1. Go to Tools > Marketing emails and click Create campaign.
  2. Enter a campaign name (3–50 characters). Clients don’t see this.
  3. Add a subject line (up to 150 characters and up to 4 tags).
  4. Add preview text if you like (up to 200 characters and up to 4 tags). If you leave it empty, the start of your email is shown.
  5. Choose an audience. It’s set to All clients to start with, so change it if you only want to email some of your clients.
  6. Design your email in the drag-and-drop builder (see Using the email builder).
  7. Click Test send to send a test campaign to yourself.
  8. Click Save design to save your work. The campaign is saved in the Draft tab.
  9. Click Next to go to the send step.

If you leave the page with unsaved changes, you’ll be asked whether to Discard them or Save email.

Step 3: Send or schedule

  1. Choose Send now or Schedule for later.
  2. If you’re scheduling, pick a date and time. Scheduled times use your own local time zone, not your clients’.
  3. Click Send now or Schedule send. To make changes first, click Back to design.
  4. If you chose Send now, you’ll be asked Ready to send? Click Send now to confirm, or Back to go back.

Tip: check the audience before you send. New campaigns go to All clients unless you choose a different audience.

Using the email builder

Campaigns are designed in a drag-and-drop builder. Drag blocks such as text, buttons, images, dividers, spacers and tables into your email, then click a block to change it.

  • The header shows your logo and the footer is added automatically. You can’t edit these.
  • Change fonts, sizes, colours, alignment and spacing.
  • Hide a block on desktop or on mobile if you want different content on each.
  • Switch between desktop and mobile view to check your email.
  • Limits: up to 30 rows. Tables can have up to 3 labels and 30 values, and rows with 3 or 4 columns can’t contain a table.

Managing campaigns

From the three-dots menu on a campaign you can:

  • Edit a draft or scheduled campaign. Sent campaigns can’t be edited.
  • Duplicate a campaign. The copy has “(copy)” after its name. This is the easiest way to send a similar email again.
  • Delete a draft or scheduled campaign. Sent campaigns can’t be deleted.

What your clients see

Campaigns look as though they come from you, with your business name, logo and brand colours. ClassFit sends them on your behalf. If a client replies, the reply comes to you.

Marketing emails are in beta and don’t include an unsubscribe link yet. We’re adding one before the full release. Until then, only email clients who have agreed to receive marketing from you, and respect any opt-outs yourself. For example, if clients have unsubscribed in Mailchimp, leave them out of your ClassFit audiences.

FAQs

Who can send marketing emails? Admins and Managers, plus Custom roles that have this permission.

Can I email just some of my clients? Yes. Create a Manual audience with the clients you want, or a Dynamic audience based on rules, and choose it when you create your campaign.

Who is in “All clients”? Everyone on your current client list.

If I change a dynamic audience’s rules, does a scheduled campaign use the new rules? Yes. Dynamic audiences are worked out at the time the campaign is sent.

If I add people to an audience after a campaign has been sent, will they get it? No. Each campaign is sent once, to the people in the audience at the time. To send it to new people, duplicate the campaign and send it again.

How do I save a campaign without sending it? Click Save design. It’s saved in the Draft tab.

Which time zone are scheduled campaigns sent in? Yours, the time zone of the person scheduling the campaign.

Can I send myself a test? Yes. Click Test send in the design step.

Can I edit or delete a campaign after it’s sent? No. Duplicate it if you want to send something similar.

Is there a limit on how many emails I can send? Not at the moment, but fair usage applies.

Should I still use Mailchimp? You can carry on using the Mailchimp integration if you prefer. Clients who have unsubscribed in Mailchimp aren’t unsubscribed in ClassFit, so make sure you don’t send them ClassFit campaigns.

Does this cost anything? Not right now. It’s free for everyone. In the new year we’re introducing Bronze, Silver and Gold plans, and email features will then be part of the Gold plan. Existing customers don’t have to change plan. You can choose whether to upgrade to Gold to keep using email features.