Let's face it, people can be forgetful. They're excited when they register, but when event time comes around, the questions start rolling in. Where do I join? What time does it start? What's the address for the venue?
With Socio's Emails feature, you can stay ahead of the questions, keep excitement for your event simmering, and make sure people don't forget all the awesomeness when it's done!
⭐️ Keep in mind, Emails are only available to customers who use Socio Registration.
Creating an Email
On your Registration event, hover over the Promote tab, and click Emails. From there, click New Email.
In the window that appears, you can start creating your email. The Live View panel on the right side of the screen will update as you add information so you can see how it'll look to recipients.
Basics
Start by filling in the basic information for the email. It's all pretty straightforward, but here are a few helpful tips:
Email Name is only visible to you and others in your organization. Make sure the name is something that'll help everyone on your team understand the purpose of the email.
The From Name should be the name of a person in your organization or your organization's name. It tells the recipients who the email is from.
The Recipient Type field lets you choose which type of registrants will receive the email.
If you click Attendee, you can use the Recipient drop-down to search for individual recipients by name or email, or you can choose recipients based on Ticket or Registration Group, or simply send it to All Attendees. Emails go to both paid and unpaid attendees.
If you click Purchaser, you can use the Recipient drop-down to search for individual recipients by name or email, or you can choose All Purchasers, Invoice, or Check. For more on Invoice/Check payments, take a look at this.
Here are some important things to note:
- Emails are only sent to attendees who have completed Registration. If you've added attendees directly to your Socio Event, they won't get the emails unless you also add them to your registration attendee list.
- A Group can only be selected if 1) the Registration is linked to the Event where the Group was made, and 2) the group is assigned to at least one Ticket
- Only attendees automatically assigned to Registration Groups will receive the email
- The purchaser - the person paying for the ticket(s) - may not be the person who will be attending the event - the attendee.
Reply To should be the email address where recipients can email you back. Make sure you have someone minding the inbox!
The Subject is your chance to tell recipients what the email is all about. You know what to do. 😄
Write a Message
Now that you have the basic info done, it's time to start crafting a finely-worded message!
The Message editor offers standard text formatting options - text size presets, styles, coloring, and numbers and bullets. You can also insert hyperlinks and as many images as you'd like.
⚠️ Images must be no more than 600px wide.
⭐ Keep in mind, the editor doesn't support HTML tags and formatting.
Where things really get interesting is when you click Supported Variables. Clicking one of the Variables inserts a placeholder into your Message. For example, if you begin your email with "Hi " and then click the Attendee First Name variable, it inserts that placeholder into the message text. When someone named Joe Smith gets the email, it'll say "Hi Joe".
There are slightly different variables depending on if you select Attendee or Purchaser as the recipient type. Here's a list of the variables you can use:
Attendee recipient type | Purchaser recipient type |
Event Name | Event Name |
Event Link | Event Link |
Attendee Full Name | Purchaser Full Name |
Attendee First Name | Purchaser First Name |
Attendee Last Name | Purchaser Last Name |
Ticket Name | Amount Due |
Ticket Price | Venue Name |
Venue Name | Venue Address |
Venue Address |
As you use Variables, remember to keep referring to the Live View to see how they'll look after your email is sent!
Add to Calendar and CTA Buttons
If you want to give people another way to remember they registered for your event, you can click the Show add to calendar buttons toggle. This adds Google, Outlook, Apple, and Yahoo buttons that launch the relevant calendar app on the recipient's device.
⭐️ Keep in mind, if you change the date or time of your registration after attendees have added it to their calendar apps, their calendars won't automatically adjust. Attendees will need to either re-add the event to their calendar, or manually update their calendar app.
If you want to give your recipients something to do after they read the email, you can include Call to Action (CTA) buttons. You can choose between App Store Button, Play Store Button, or Custom.
If you add either of the Store buttons, you'll still have to supply a Button Link. It's easiest to get these by copying the URL from the buttons on the Promo Page for your event.
Custom CTA buttons can point to any URL you like. Remember to write Button Text that gives people a good idea of where you're taking them.
⭐️ Keep in mind, the color of the CTA buttons follows the color you choose in your registration event's Basics → Appearance page.
Saving, Scheduling, Testing, and Sending
Man, that email is lookin' fine! But before you spread the joy to all your recipients, it's a good idea to click the Send Test Email button first.
The test email will be sent to the email address you used to log into Socio. If you're not sure which address that is, you can click the user icon in the top right corner of the screen to check.
Once you've had a look, go ahead and click Send Now or Scheduled Time under the Send field. If you choose Send Now, you can scroll back to the top of the window and click Send Email. If you choose Scheduled Time, enter any date and time in the future, then click Schedule Email at the top. If you're not ready to send or schedule the email, you can click Save as Draft.
⭐️ Keep in mind, scheduled emails will be sent regardless of whether your Socio contract has expired.
Managing Emails
Once you've sent or scheduled an email, you'll see it on the Registration → Emails page with its current status. Sent emails will show counts for Delivered, Sent, Opened, and Link Clicks.
You can click the settings cog to edit, clone, cancel, or delete Scheduled emails at any time before they are sent. If you cancel a scheduled email, it sets it to draft mode.
If an email is In Progress, you can only view the email. The In Progress status means that the email is processing through our email provider. The time it takes for the status to transition to Sent will vary depending on the number of recipients.
Regardless of whether an email has been Sent or is In Progress or Scheduled, you can always clone an email to make a new one so you don't have to start from scratch!
Email exports
When you export an email, the export file contains three sheets: Email Metrics, Recipient Metrics, and Appendix. The Appendix contains information to help you understand the information in the other two sheets.
Regardless of whether an email has been Sent or is In Progress or Scheduled, you can always clone an email to make a new one so you don't have to start from scratch!
The Email Metrics sheet shows counts for:
Delivered
Sent
Opened
Link Clicks
Unsubscribed
Blocked
The Recipient Metrics sheet shows recipient-specific information and counts for:
Delivery Status
Opened
Link Clicks
Failure Message - The reason the email Delivery Status was Not Delivered or Bounced.
Now you know everything you need to start sending emails from Socio Registration. Go forth and email! 📄 🚀 📫
Questions? Chat Us or Email support@socio.events