Email campaigns
A campaign is one email to a group of customers - “leaf cleanup is booking up”, “we missed you this season” - aimed by who they are and what they’ve had done. You write it once, see how many people it reaches, send yourself a test, and send it now or at a time you pick. The results page shows who it reached and why anyone was skipped.
Email campaigns are Professional and up (emailCampaigns). Owners and
admins can use them; for anyone else the permissions are View Campaigns
and Manage Campaigns.
At a glance
- Where: Customers → Campaigns.
- Who gets it: only customers who have opted in to marketing email, with an email on file, minus anyone who has unsubscribed. The filters you pick narrow that list; they can never widen it.
- How it goes out: a few at a time, so a big list takes a while. Every email carries an unsubscribe link, and a mail app’s own unsubscribe button works too.
- Before you send: your business address must be set in Settings → Company → General - every marketing email has to carry one.
Who counts as “opted in”
Marketing email is off by default for every customer. A customer turns it on in their portal preferences, or you turn on OK to send marketing email on their page when they’ve told you they want to hear from you. Each change is recorded with who made it. A customer who hasn’t is never emailed by a campaign, whatever filters you pick.
When you aim a campaign, three numbers show where people drop out: how many customers match your filters, how many of those opted in, and how many are still reachable (the rest have unsubscribed from you). The last one is who will get it.
Write one
Start a draft
Customers → Campaigns → New campaign. Name it (only you see the name), then write the subject and the message. One paragraph per line. Your signature is added for you.
Fill in the names
{{customerName}}, {{firstName}} and {{companyName}} fill in for each customer - “Hi {{firstName}}, leaf cleanup is booking up.”
Add a Spanish version, if you like
Open Spanish version and write the Spanish subject and message. Customers whose language is Spanish get that one - but only when both the Spanish subject and the Spanish message are filled in. Otherwise they get the English.
Aim it
Pick tags, lead statuses and customer types, and say whether they should have had a visit recently, or haven’t had one lately (a win-back note). The count under the filters updates as you go. Asking for “had a visit” and “hasn’t had a visit” together makes no sense, so you pick one.
Check how it reads
What they’ll read shows the message as one customer will see it, with the names filled in.
Test it, then send it
Send me a test emails the campaign to your own address, with [Test] in the subject. It isn’t counted and nobody else gets it.
Send now asks you to confirm the number of customers, then starts. Schedule starts it at the time you pick - between five minutes and 90 days from now. The audience is worked out when it starts, not when you schedule it, so someone who unsubscribes in between is left off.
How it goes out, and what you see
A campaign sends 20 emails per business every 15 minutes - 80 an hour - so the invoices, reminders and receipts that share your sending limit never wait behind it. A list of 400 takes about five hours. You can leave; it carries on.
The results page shows the progress and, for each customer, Sent, Skipped (with the reason - they unsubscribed, or opted out since, or have no email) or Failed. It refreshes itself while the campaign is going.
Stop one
Cancel the rest on a scheduled or sending campaign stops it. Anyone it hasn’t reached yet is skipped; emails already sent can’t be recalled. A draft or a cancelled campaign can be deleted; one that has gone out stays as the record.
Good to know
Marketing email has rules. Send it only to people who asked to hear from you, say who you are, and honor an unsubscribe right away. LawnLedger enforces the last two for you - the address in the footer and a working unsubscribe link on every email - and only mails customers who opted in. What you say is yours.
Troubleshooting
“Nobody in this segment has opted in.” Your filters match customers, but none has marketing email turned on. Widen the filters, or ask customers to opt in.
“Add your business address.” Add it under Settings → Company → General, then send again.
“Nothing went out” and everyone shows Failed. Your business email isn’t connected - connect Gmail or Outlook in Settings, or ask support to confirm your sending address. The detail on each customer says why.
The count says 0 but I have lots of customers. The count is only customers with marketing email on and an email on file. The line under the filters shows how many matched before that.