Q: Is the Marketing Suite available on all plan types?
Yes, the Marketing Tab shows for all plan types (based on the user privileges/permissions)
Q: Who has access to create/edit Marketing Suite email campaigns?
Campaign creation/editing access can be managed from within the General Settings in Boulevard, in the Privilege Groups settings. Here, you can specify which team members/privilege groups can have access to create and edit email campaigns within your Marketing Suite.
Only users who have at least one Marketing Privilege set to Enabled are able to see and access the Marketing tab. To access, navigate to the Privilege Groups section of your Manage Business settings. Enable the privileges under the “Marketing” section.
Q: Who sees the Marketing tab?
Only users who have at least one Marketing Privilege set to Enabled are able to see and access the Marketing tab. To access, navigate to the Privilege Groups section of your Manage Business settings. Enable the privileges under the “Marketing” section.
Q: How do email campaign audiences work if it’s your first time using Marketing Suite?
Your eligible audience is based on recent appointments and product purchase history. If you’re new to Boulevard and did not migrate appointment or product history this does impact your eligible audience. If you have questions, reach out to support@blvd.co.
Q: Is a primary location required for campaigns?
Yes, in order to be eligible to receive automated campaigns, a client does require primary location assignment. Birthday campaigns are the exception.
Q: What determines the eligible audience for an automated campaign?
All automated campaigns require either a direct opt-in, appointment or purchase history, including the Birthday campaign. Check out our Marketing Consent FAQ for more details on how consent is captured.
The Basics
Q: What’s an automated campaign?
An automated email campaign is a type of campaign that, once set up, keeps running on its own based on intelligent built-in logic, data-based digital triggers, and a highly targeted strategy. While you can start and stop automated campaigns at any time, their set-and-forget nature of them makes them a powerful marketing tool because once configured, it requires minimal maintenance. An effective email marketing strategy can take require quite a bit of time, maintenance, and expertise–-Boulevard Marketing Suite’s Automated Campaigns do the hard part for you.
Q: What pain points do Boulevard's automated campaigns address?
Our automated email campaigns are built with client engagement and retention at the top of mind. We know it can sometimes be challenging to keep clients engaged with your business and keep them coming back again (and again) long after the first appointment. Our automated campaigns can help you drive bookings by engaging clients via email, who may not have booked otherwise. Email marketing is a vital channel in today’s digital age, and an effective email marketing strategy can be time-consuming, stressful, and challenging to create, set up, and maintain. Our quick-setup automated campaigns strive to take the guesswork out of email marketing, leaving you with more time and less stress.
Customization Options - Automated Campaign
*For information about automated campaign types and what they do please see this article.
Q: Can I customize the audience of an automated campaign?
Because Boulevard’s automated campaigns were carefully crafted with specific goals and functions in mind, they are already highly targeted based on email marketing best practices, industry standards, spam safeguards, and research. Figuring out which audience to send an email campaign to can be one of the biggest challenges when it comes to email automation, and we do this part for you. While you can customize some automated campaigns based on location, the actual audience filtration and targeting within our automated campaigns are pre-configured for you.
Q: Can I customize the messaging, look, and feel of an automated campaign?
Yes! We provide templates for you to start from if you’d like, or you can craft your own formatting using our template customization tools. You are able to edit the email messaging itself, as well as how it looks. We also offer the ability to preview your email campaign prior to launching it, to make sure everything is to your standards before you push it live. For more training materials on the marketing suite, take a look at our Academy, and as always feel free to reach out to Support with questions!
Q: In the Reminder to Book Campaign, can I tie the audience target segment to a specific service?
No, not at this time – but it’s on the product roadmap for future improvements.
Q: Is there a character limit for my emails or an image size limit?
There is not currently a limit on character count or image size, but generally, when it comes to email marketing, the best practice is to keep it relatively short and sweet – super text-heavy emails don’t typically get fully read, and don’t get quite as much engagement as visually enticing, succinct email communications.
Pricing - Automated Campaigns
Q: How are automated campaigns priced?
Automated campaigns are available as an add-on for Premier and Enterprise plans.
Boulevard uses a performance-based pricing model for our automated campaigns.
Automated campaigns are free to set up and start using, and you only pay when the campaigns successfully bring you completed appointments. Then, you’re paying $2 per completed appointment.
The details: if a client is sent an automated campaign email, then books within 7 days of that email having been sent to them – through any booking method – the appointment is attributed, and you will be charged the $2 fee when that attributed appointment is completed.
If you have an automated campaign running, and your client is sent a targeted email, then proceeds to book (via any source - online, call, in person, etc) - you will be charged $2 once the appointment is complete.
Q: Can I prepay for Automated Campaigns costs?
No, Automated Campaigns are performance-based pricing, so you are charged based on the performance of the automated campaigns (based on how many completed appointments they yield for you).
Q: What happens if a client books more than 7 days after they were sent an automated campaign email?
If a client gets an automated campaign email, then more than 7 days go by, then they book after the 7-day window – you are not charged for this booking. It is out of the 7-day window.
Q: What happens if a client books within 7 days of being sent an automated campaign email, then cancels or no shows their actual appointment?
Because we are charging the $2 attribution fee when an attributed appointment is successfully completed, you are not charged the $2 fee for appointments that are booked, but ultimately canceled.
Q: If the client was sent an email and didn't open it -- then still booked within 7 days, will I get charged?
Yes. If a client was in the target audience for an automated campaign send, was sent the email, then booked within 7 days of the email having been sent to them, the $2 is still charged when their appointment is completed. A client does not have to physically engage with the email for the booking to be charged.
Q: If the client was sent an email, opened it, but didn't click anything -- then still booked within 7 days, will I get charged?
Yes. If a client was in the target audience for an automated campaign send, was sent the email, then booked within 7 days of the email having been sent to them, the $2 is still charged when that appointment is complete. A client does not have to physically engage with the email for the booking to be charged.
Q: Does it matter how the client booked the appointment within 7 days of having received an automated campaign email?
No - any booking source counts. If a client is sent an automated campaign email, and they book within 7 days regardless of the booking source – it still counts as a booking and the $2 is charged when the appointment is complete. For example, the client could get the email, then call in to book, walk in to book, book on the website, etc – and it would still count.
Q: Am I billed the $2 for the booking if the client clicks on the email?
No. You are only billed the $2 if the client ends up booking (through any booking method) and completing their appointment – regardless of if they engaged via click within the email itself.
Q: What if a client books multiple appointments/services individually within that 7-day window?
There is a $2 charge per appointment booked in that 7-day window of the automated email being sent to the client. So if the client books 2 appointments, that will be two $2 attributions. It’s paying for the total performance of the campaign, not the per-client performance.
Q: What if a client gets an automated campaign email and then books a recurring appointment? How is the customer charged?
You are only charged for the first completed appointment of the recurring set.
Spam Concerns - Automated Campaign
Q: How do I know I’m not spamming or over-saturating my clients with email communications?
Boulevard’s automated campaigns are built with anti-spam safeguards in place. Not only are they hyper-targeted to only reach a very specific audience, but rest assured your clients do not receive more than 1 automated email within 7 days, at most. In addition to this, if a client wanted to stop getting emails, they have the option to unsubscribe at any time (from the footer of every email).
The exceptions:
An exception to this cadence is the Birthday message campaign.
Also, if you were to send a One-Time Blast, the client still receives your One-Time Blast regardless of whether or not they got automated campaign emails sent to them recently.
Marketing Suite Reporting
Q: What reporting is available to me to understand the effectiveness of campaigns run through Marketing Suite?
There are three places wherein you can view the results of your Marketing Suite campaigns.
The Summary page / Marketing Suite dashboard within your Marketing Suite (the Marketing Tab)
The automated campaign tab view shows you a high-level overview (in the metrics cards along the top) as well as a drill-down of each campaign in the table down below. In the top right, you can filter by date range. The metrics cards contain the following information:
Total emails Sent
Total Booked Appointments - total count of both scheduled appts from automated campaigns
Projected Sales - Projected sales from booked appointments
Completed Sales- calculated based on the appointment is completed and the order closed.
Completed Appointments - Appointments that were actually completed
The One-Time Blast tab view shows high-level metrics (listed below) as well as individual campaign drill-downs.
Total emails sent
Total emails delivered
Total clicks
Total unsubscribes
The Beta Reporting Tab within the main Boulevard dashboard.
Marketing Campaign Performance- can customize to measure by Campaign, Location, Client, and Sent Date. Columns show 14 options; Use Filter to view individual campaigns. This dissects the “performance” of the campaign.
Marketing Generated Appointments- focus more on a detailed list of “who” booked with “how much” within that 7-day window of receiving the campaign.
Example: you send a Fill Slow Days on Mon Jan 1, and the ROI is based on any client who booked who was sent an email Jan 1- Jan 8.
Unsubscribe Info
Q: Is it required to keep the unsubscribe link in the footer of every email?
Yes. Legally, clients must be given the option to unsubscribe from email communications, so this cannot be removed from the footer.
Q: What if a client unsubscribes, but didn't mean to? Is there a way to re-subscribe?
The ability to resubscribe does not currently exist through the dashboard, but if you have a client that you need to be resubscribed please reach out to Support via Help Chat or by emailing support@blvd.co. They need the client information (name, email address), and our Engineering team is able to get them resubscribed.
Q: Do Blocked Clients get email campaigns?
Blocked Clients are removed/filtered out from all Marketing Suite campaigns, both Automated and One-Time Blast.
Testing Info
Q: How do I send a test email?
In the template builder for both Automated Campaigns and One-Time Blasts, in the bottom left, there is an option to send a preview/test. You can send a test to an email address of your choosing to see what it will look like when the email campaign goes live in real-time.
Q: Is there a limit on how many test emails I can send?
No, at this time there is no limit on how many test emails you can send per campaign
Billing - General
Q: How will Marketing Suite Show up on invoices?
If there is a charge, it shows on the invoice as a line item that will be titled:
Automated Campaigns: Email Marketing
One-Time Blasts: Email Marketing
Q: Can you add a separate payment card for marketing costs (i.e. Franchises, Multi-locations)?
Currently, the card on file for monthly subscription fees is the card that will be used to bill for marketing as well.