Email Marketing

Getting Started

CAPTURE includes a full email marketing suite — create, send, and track campaigns without needing a separate tool like Mailchimp. You can send one-off broadcasts, schedule campaigns in advance, and set up automated sequences that run on their own.

Before sending your first campaign, make sure you've:

1. Set up your sending domain — authenticate with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records (see Deliverability below)
2. Imported your contacts — see Data Imports
3. Tagged and segmented your contacts so you can target the right people (see Tags)

Creating a Campaign

1. Go to Marketing > Emails > Campaigns
2. Click New and select a template (or start from scratch)
3. Configure the send settings:
   • Sender name — the name recipients will see (e.g., "The Oaks Golf Club" or "James at The Oaks")
   • Sender email — your authenticated sending address
   • Subject line — keep it under 50 characters for mobile
   • Preview text — the snippet that appears after the subject in the inbox
4. Select your recipients — by Smart List, tags, or custom segment
5. Design your email in the drag-and-drop builder
6. Preview and send a test email to yourself
7. Send immediately or schedule for later

Campaign types

• Regular (Broadcast) — one-time send to your selected audience. Use for newsletters, announcements, event invitations.
• Batch Scheduled — emails sent in timed batches rather than all at once. Reduces load and improves deliverability for large lists.
• Smart Send — CAPTURE recommends the optimal delivery time for each recipient based on their engagement patterns.

The Email Builder

The drag-and-drop builder lets you design professional emails without any coding. Available elements include:

Personalisation

Use merge fields to personalise emails with contact data:

• {{contact.first_name}} — first name
• {{contact.last_name}} — last name
• {{contact.email}} — email address
• Any custom field you've created (e.g., membership type, handicap)

When a merge field has no data for a contact, it renders blank. Keep this in mind for subject lines — "Hi {{contact.first_name}}" becomes "Hi " if the name is missing. Consider using a fallback like "Hi there" in those cases.

Conditional content

You can show or hide sections based on contact tags or custom fields. For example:

• Show a "Members Only" offer to contacts tagged as members
• Show different renewal pricing to different membership types
• Hide irrelevant content from prospects who aren't members yet

Templates

Templates are reusable email designs you can save and use again.

Using templates

1. Go to Marketing > Emails > Templates
2. Browse the template library (350+ pre-built designs) or create your own
3. Click on a template to use it as the starting point for a campaign

Building a template library for your club

Create and save templates for your most common emails:

• Monthly newsletter — club news, upcoming events, course update
• Event invitation — with date, details, and booking button
• Membership offer — pricing, benefits, call to action
• Seasonal update — winter rules, summer hours, course conditions
• Competition results — leaderboard, photos, next event

Consistent branding across all templates (logo, colours, footer with address and social links) builds recognition and trust.

Targeting the Right People

Sending the right message to the right people is what separates effective email marketing from spam.

The golden rule: GDPR tags

Before targeting anyone, remember: a contact must have the GDPR-Marketing-Yes tag to receive marketing emails. This tag is applied automatically when someone ticks the marketing consent checkbox on your web forms.

For newsletters specifically, contacts also need the Newsletter-Subscriber tag. This is applied when someone uses the Newsletter Sign Up form on your website.

To send a newsletter, target contacts with both GDPR-Marketing-Yes and Newsletter-Subscriber. We recommend creating a Smart List called "Newsletter Recipients" with both conditions — see Smart Lists for how.

Three ways to target recipients

Tags — select one or more tags when setting up a campaign. For example, send to all contacts with the Interest-Membership tag who also have GDPR-Marketing-Yes.

Smart Lists — saved dynamic filters that auto-update. For example, a Smart List of newsletter subscribers, or members due for renewal in the next 30 days. See Smart Lists for how to create these.

Segments — built directly in the campaign send screen using AND/OR filter logic. Segments are dynamic and update automatically.

Excluding contacts

Use exclude filters to prevent certain groups from receiving a campaign. For example, send a membership offer to all prospects tagged Interest-Membership but exclude anyone already tagged Data-Existing-Member.

Example targeting for golf clubs

Automated Email Sequences

Workflows let you send emails automatically based on triggers — no manual work after setup.

Common automations for golf clubs

How to set up a workflow

1. Go to Automations > Workflows
2. Click Create Workflow
3. Add a trigger (e.g., "Contact Tag Added")
4. Add actions (Send Email, Wait, Send SMS, Create Task, etc.)
5. Use If/Else branching to create different paths based on conditions
6. Activate the workflow

See the Member Retention Playbook for a complete 90-day onboarding sequence with email templates.

Tracking Results

Every campaign shows detailed analytics:

What good looks like

Per-link click tracking

CAPTURE tracks clicks on every individual link in your email. This tells you exactly which content and CTAs drive the most engagement — useful for understanding what your members actually care about.

Deliverability

Deliverability is whether your emails reach the inbox or end up in spam. Get this right before you start sending.

Domain authentication

You need three DNS records on your sending domain:

Gmail and Yahoo require DKIM and DMARC. Without them, your emails will increasingly land in spam or be rejected entirely.

Use a subdomain (e.g., mail.yourgolfclub.co.uk) rather than your root domain. This protects your main domain's reputation.

Warming up

New sending domains need a warm-up period of 2-4 weeks:

• Week 1-2: Maximum 100 emails per hour, 1,000 per day
• Week 3-4: Maximum 300 emails per hour, 2,500 per day

Don't blast your full member list on day one. Start with your most engaged contacts (those who regularly open emails) and gradually increase volume.

Staying out of spam

• Clean your list regularly — remove hard bounces and long-term non-openers
• Don't use URL shorteners (bit.ly, etc.) in emails
• Keep a good text-to-image ratio — don't send image-only emails
• Avoid spam trigger words in all caps (FREE, GUARANTEED, ACT NOW)
• Keep spam complaint rate below 0.1% (1 per 1,000 emails)
• Monitor your domain reputation with Google Postmaster Tools

Email and SMS Together

Email and SMS work best as a pair. Email for detailed content, SMS for time-sensitive alerts.

A common workflow: send the email first, wait 24-48 hours, then send an SMS only to those who didn't open the email.

What to Send

Here's a practical content calendar for golf clubs:

Frequency

1-2 emails per week maximum. A monthly newsletter is the minimum to maintain engagement. Always provide value — never send for the sake of sending.

Subject line tips

• Keep under 50 characters for mobile
• Use the member's name: "Your March tee times, {{contact.first_name}}"
• Be specific: "Saturday Stableford — 5 spots left" beats "Club Newsletter"
• Create urgency where appropriate
• Avoid all-caps and excessive punctuation

Timing

• Early mornings (6-8 AM) or weekday mid-mornings tend to work well for golfers
• Pre-weekend (Thursday/Friday) for weekend event promotions
• Use Smart Send to let CAPTURE optimise delivery time per recipient

GDPR Compliance

UK golf clubs must follow GDPR rules for marketing emails:

• Get explicit opt-in consent — use a clear, unchecked checkbox on forms. Pre-ticked boxes are not valid.
• Include an unsubscribe link in every marketing email — CAPTURE's footer element handles this automatically.
• Honour unsubscribes promptly — CAPTURE processes these automatically.
• Keep records of consent — when, how, and what they consented to.
• Distinguish marketing from operational — booking confirmations are operational. Newsletters are marketing and require consent.

See the GDPR section in Contacts and Leads and Tags for more detail.

Quick Reference

Do

• Authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before sending
• Warm up gradually over 2-4 weeks
• Segment your audience — don't blast everyone with the same email
• Personalise with merge fields
• Test every campaign before sending
• Track results and learn what works
• Pair email with SMS for time-sensitive messages

Don't

• Send to your full list on day one
• Use all-caps or spam trigger words
• Send without an unsubscribe link
• Ignore bounce rates and spam complaints
• Send more than 1-2 emails per week
• Send marketing emails without GDPR consent
• Use image-only emails with no text