Customers ask how to send email marketing campaigns such as newsletters and promotions. Petboost does not send marketing campaigns. It exports your customer list, puts your clients in BCC for an email from your own address, and writes personalised templates from your own data. For hosted sending, use a purpose-built marketing tool alongside it.
What you're trying to do
You want to send promotional or informational emails to your customers, such as:
A monthly grooming tips newsletter
Seasonal promotions, such as Christmas specials or summer coat care
New service announcements
Customer appreciation messages
Educational content, such as training tips or pet health information
Birthday wishes and special offers
What Petboost does offer
Before you look at other tools, this is what Petboost already does:
What | Where |
A booking confirmation email with your business details, when a booking is made and Email the customer: booking updates is on | Notifications in Settings |
Reminder emails at the time you set, such as 2, 24 or 48 hours before, and a Friday email about the week ahead | Email the customer: reminders and Email the customer: Friday reminder on Notifications |
A receipt email when a payment is taken, and a PDF receipt to download from the booking | Every booking's invoice |
An enrolment email when a customer is enrolled in a course, listing each lesson's name, date and time | Every course enrolment |
Personalised email templates worked out from your own customers, pets and bookings, such as win-back, VIP thank-you, senior pet care, puppy welcome and rebooking, which open in your own email client for you to review, edit and send | Ready-to-Use Email Templates on the Marketing Ideas tab of Reporting & Intelligence |
A campaign URL builder, to see which booking links bring bookings | Campaign URL Builder on the same tab |
Customer lists by segment, such as clients who have not visited in 60 days, birthdays coming up or vaccinations expiring, exported as a CSV | Smart Export on Customers & Pets |
One email to many clients from your own address, with every client in BCC | Send bulk email on Customers & Pets |
For promotions by text, Bulk Send on Messages sends a marketing message to the customers who have opted in to marketing. It needs Communications Booster. See Bulk SMS and Pet Owner Communications.
Export your customer list
Do this to load your customers into a mailing tool, or to pick a segment to email.
Open Customers & Pets and open the gear menu beside New.
Select Smart Export.
On Export Type, choose Customers, then select Next.
On Segment, choose any Quick Segments, such as No Visit in 60+ Days, then select Next.
On Preview, check Columns to include, then select Download CSV. The button shows how many customers the file holds.
Quick Export: Pet Owners, in the same menu, downloads every owner's name, phone and email without the steps.
Email your clients from your own email app
Send bulk email is the BCC method many businesses use by hand, done for you. Petboost does not send the email: it opens a message in your own email app, with your business address in To and the clients you choose in BCC, so clients do not see each other's addresses.
Open Customers & Pets and open the gear menu beside New.
Select Send bulk email.
Choose the clients, or use Select All.
Select Open Default Email, then write and send the email in your email app.
Copy BCC List to Clipboard copies the addresses instead. With more than 400 addresses, it offers batches of 400 for Outlook, which struggles with large BCC lists. To email one segment, open Smart Export, choose the segment, and select Send bulk email under Bulk communication on Preview.
Trap: Send bulk email and Smart Export do not check a customer's Marketing & Special Promotions preference. For a promotion, email only customers who have opted in to marketing. See Communication Preferences and Consent.
Send a ready-to-use email template
Do this for a targeted email, such as a win-back to clients who have not visited in 90 days.
Open Reporting & Intelligence and select the Marketing Ideas tab.
If the tab shows Generate Marketing Ideas, select it.
Under Ready-to-Use Email Templates, select View Details on a template. The button shows how many customers it covers.
Choose Bulk Draft (BCC) for one email to all of them, or Personalised for an email to each client with their name, pets and details.
With Bulk Draft (BCC), select Open Email Client (BCC All). With Personalised, select Draft beside each client.
Each email opens in your own email client, where you review it, edit it and send it.
What Petboost doesn't offer
Petboost does not include:
Hosted email sending. Emails are composed in your own email client, not sent from Petboost
Drip email sequences or multi-step automation workflows
A drag-and-drop email campaign builder with design tools
A/B testing for email campaigns
Campaign analytics, such as open rates, click rates and conversions for marketing emails
Subscriber list management for email, with unsubscribe links. Petboost records each customer's marketing preference, but it does not run an email subscriber list
Scheduled email broadcasts at scale
Petboost builds the list and the message so you can do targeted outreach from your own inbox. For full-scale email marketing with hosted sending, design tools, automation workflows and campaign analytics, purpose-built platforms such as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor and HubSpot are the better choice.
Recommended alternatives
Use a purpose-built tool alongside Petboost. Each option below starts from a Smart Export of your customers.
Option 1: Mailchimp
Recommended for small and medium businesses. Mailchimp has a drag-and-drop email builder, templates for newsletters, promotions and announcements, audience segmentation, automation workflows such as a welcome series or birthday emails, campaign analytics, and unsubscribe and GDPR compliance management.
Mailchimp's plans are Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium. Their contact limits and prices are on Mailchimp's pricing page.
To use it with Petboost:
Export your customer list from Petboost each month or quarter.
Import it into your Mailchimp audience.
Create campaigns from Mailchimp's templates.
Send them to all customers or to specific segments.
Petboost keeps sending the booking emails on its own. See mailchimp.com.
For example, a grooming business could export its customer list from Petboost each quarter and use Mailchimp for a monthly "Grooming Tips" newsletter and seasonal promotions, such as 10% off summer grooming. Petboost keeps sending the booking confirmations and reminders you have switched on, so customers get both the marketing emails and the booking messages.
Option 2: Campaign Monitor
An email marketing platform with a drag-and-drop builder, segmentation, automation journeys, campaign analytics and reporting, and customer support. It suits businesses that want more design choice in templates. Its plans and prices are on Campaign Monitor's pricing page.
To use it with Petboost:
Export your customer emails from Petboost.
Import them into Campaign Monitor.
Design campaigns in its visual builder.
Schedule them or send them straight away.
Track the results in its analytics dashboard.
See campaignmonitor.com.
Option 3: HubSpot
For growing businesses. HubSpot is a marketing automation platform with email campaigns, forms, landing pages and a CRM, lead nurturing, automation workflows, and analytics and attribution. It suits businesses that want to invest in marketing and have dedicated marketing staff.
Its Marketing Hub comes in Free, Starter, Professional and Enterprise tiers, and the Free tier includes basic email marketing, with limits. The prices are on HubSpot's pricing page.
To use it with Petboost:
Set HubSpot up as your marketing hub.
Export your Petboost customer data to HubSpot each month.
Create campaigns and automations in HubSpot.
Track your marketing in HubSpot.
Petboost stays your operational system for bookings, payments and pet records. See hubspot.com.
Option 4: Your own email, with Send bulk email
If you do not want another tool, Send bulk email is the manual BCC method built in: see Email your clients from your own email app. For mail merge instead, export your customers with Smart Export and use a mail merge tool, such as a Google Sheets add-on for Gmail.
It suits very small businesses, with under 50 customers, sending occasional campaigns. The limits: there are no design tools, no analytics or tracking and no automation, emails can be marked as spam, and you manage unsubscribes by hand.
Example set-ups
These set-ups illustrate how a business might pair Petboost with an email marketing tool. They are illustrations, not real businesses.
Example 1: A grooming business, with Mailchimp
A grooming business wants a monthly grooming tips newsletter for its regular customers. It uses Petboost for every booking, confirmation and reminder, and Mailchimp for the newsletter.
It exports customer emails from Petboost each quarter.
It imports them into Mailchimp.
It uses a Mailchimp template for a "Grooming Tips" newsletter.
It sends the newsletter on the first Monday of each month.
It reads Mailchimp's open rates to see which topics interest its customers.
Example 2: A multi-service pet business, with Campaign Monitor
A pet business wants separate campaigns for its grooming, daycare and training clients. It uses Petboost for bookings and operations, and Campaign Monitor for segmented campaigns.
It exports its customers from Petboost with Smart Export, with the Services Previously Booked column.
It creates three audience segments in Campaign Monitor: grooming customers get grooming tips, daycare customers get daycare updates and socialisation tips, and training customers get training advice and course announcements.
It sends targeted campaigns each month.
Example 3: A growing pet services brand, with HubSpot
A pet services brand wants marketing automation, including email campaigns, lead nurture and customer journey mapping. It uses Petboost for bookings, payments and pet records, and HubSpot for marketing automation.
HubSpot is its marketing hub.
It exports Petboost data to HubSpot each month.
New customers get an automated welcome series.
Seasonal campaigns run as workflows.
Inactive customers get re-engagement campaigns.
It reads the analytics for all its marketing in HubSpot.
Frequently asked questions
Will Petboost add email marketing features?
Not in the near term. Petboost focuses on the operational side of a pet business, such as bookings, pet profiles, packages, courses and resources, and email marketing is a mature field with dedicated platforms. Petboost builds the list and the message, and those platforms send, design and measure.
Is there a way to do this without external tools?
Yes, with limits. Send bulk email puts your clients in BCC on an email from your own address, and the Ready-to-Use Email Templates give you the words. You do without design tools, analytics, automation and compliance features, so for regular campaigns a dedicated tool saves time.
Which alternative should I choose?
Choose by what you send and who sends it:
Mailchimp has a Free plan and suits small and medium businesses sending newsletters and promotions
Campaign Monitor suits businesses that want more design choice in templates
HubSpot suits growing businesses with dedicated marketing staff who want automation and a CRM
Send bulk email in Petboost suits occasional campaigns to a small list, with no other tool
How often should I send campaigns?
For pet businesses:
Newsletter: monthly, such as the first Monday of the month
Seasonal promotions: 4 to 6 times a year, such as Christmas, summer and Easter
New service announcements: as needed
Tip: Avoid weekly emails. They are too frequent and lead to unsubscribes.
Will Petboost integrate directly with Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor?
There is no direct integration. Export your customers with Smart Export and import them into your marketing platform each quarter, or when you need to.
Next steps
To go ahead with Mailchimp (Option 1):
Sign up for free at mailchimp.com.
Export your customers from Petboost with Smart Export, from the gear menu on Customers & Pets, and select Download CSV.
Import them into your Mailchimp audience.
Create your first campaign from a template.
For help, use Mailchimp's tutorials and support.
To go ahead with Campaign Monitor (Option 2):
Sign up for a free trial at campaignmonitor.com.
Export your customer emails from Petboost with Smart Export.
Import them into Campaign Monitor.
Design a campaign in its visual builder.
Send a test campaign to yourself first.
To go ahead with HubSpot (Option 3):
Sign up for the free plan at hubspot.com.
Set up customer properties that match your Petboost data.
Export your customer data from Petboost and import it.
Use HubSpot Academy for training.
Consider the Starter plan when you are ready for automation.
Related guides
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