Whether your pet-care business is just getting started or looking to refine your messaging strategy, our recent webinar, Unleash Pawsome Marketing with with Gingr's Email Campaign Tools delivered practical guidance and in-app demonstrations to help you improve your client communications.
If you weren't able to join us live or want to revisit the material covered in the session, here's a recap of the key topics and takeaways so you can up level your pet-care marketing and build customers for life!
Creating an email campaign in Gingr is designed to be intuitive and accessible, even for those without design experience. During the live walkthrough, we looked at how to use Gingr's built-in drag-and-drop editor to construct professional-looking messages. Users can insert elements like images, text blocks, and buttons onto a blank canvas, giving complete control over layout and design.
In addition to the blank editor, Gingr offers a selection of pre-made templates. For example, the Customer Portal Introduction template includes space to plug in your portal link and app information, making it easy to encourage clients to engage digitally. For users who prefer full customization, any created email can be saved as a template for future use.
Before diving into campaign creation, you should verify your system email settings. Navigating to Admin > System Email ensures your account is properly configured. Additionally, each location listed under Location Info must have a designated email address, as this is where outgoing messages will be sent.
Smart targeting is essential for effective email marketing, and Gingr provides several ways to tailor your messaging. Users can segment audiences by choosing from pre-set groups, such as all owners, owners with no reservations, or owners with just one prior reservation. Further refinement is available by specifying reservation types, such as daycare or boarding, allowing for highly targeted outreach.
For users looking to create custom audiences, Gingr makes it easy to generate lists using dashboards or reports. For instance, if you want to re-engage clients who boarded their pets last week, you can run a report filtered for boarding reservations during a specific timeframe. From there, those clients can be added to a new campaign directly.
In emergency scenarios, such as unexpected facility closures, Gingr allows for fast communication. Using the dashboard to view current check-ins or upcoming arrivals, users can quickly add affected clients to a new campaign and send out a timely message.
Once a campaign is built, sending or scheduling it is straightforward. Users can choose to send existing campaigns immediately or schedule a future delivery. The system requires a minimum of 15 minutes lead time for scheduled messages, though an hour or more is recommended to ensure proper delivery.
Before committing to a send, users are encouraged to preview their messages using Gingr's desktop and mobile views. A test email can also be sent to any email address to confirm the layout and content. This ensures everything looks professional before reaching your clients.
It's worth noting that emojis currently do not render properly in email subject lines or body content (they may appear as question marks) so it's best to avoid them altogether for now.
Tracking how your email campaigns perform is just as important as sending them. After a campaign is delivered, users can view general statistics such as the number of recipients and how many emails were delivered, opened, clicked, or bounced. These insights are accessible from the Marketing section in Gingr.
Users can visit the Outgoing Email Log under Reports > History for more detailed tracking. This log provides delivery metrics for each individual message sent, giving a deeper look at engagement. Additionally, individual client profiles contain a Communications tab, where all emails and SMS messages—whether marketing-related or not—are stored along with status details and a preview of each message.
Several insightful questions came up during the webinar, including how to schedule birthday campaigns. While automated birthday messages aren't currently supported, users can manually filter by birthday using the View All Animals report and add relevant contacts to a campaign.
Support assistance makes it possible to import emails for prospective clients who are not yet in the system. This process allows users to import contact lists from other platforms, such as MailerLite.
Regarding automation, Gingr currently allows for scheduling but not full marketing automation. However, system-generated messages (such as appointment confirmations) can be configured through System Email and SMS settings.
Another important clarification: only owners already in the Gingr system can be added to email campaigns. If a user is unsubscribed, they will not receive marketing messages, even if those users are in a selected campaign group.
Finally, while Gingr does not currently track whether a rebooking directly resulted from a campaign email, you can make inferences based on the email opening and clicking data available in campaign stats and compare that with rebooking trends.
Gingr's email marketing tools are an invaluable resource for pet-care businesses looking to communicate more effectively with their clients. From building polished campaigns to targeting the right audience and tracking performance, the tools are robust yet easy to use. With Gingr, you've got everything you need to craft targeted, effective campaigns that deliver results!
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Missed the webinar? Watch the full recording here.
For more step-by-step guidance, check out our additional support resources: