Communicating with customers and publishing content

Choosing the right communication tool

Bookelio distinguishes emails linked to an operation — a booking confirmation, registration, invoice or certificate — from campaigns sent to list subscribers. Campaigns are prepared in the email campaigns section. Articles are managed in Blog, while Contact Requests brings together messages received through the contact forms of connected websites.

A customer record and a mailing list subscription are not the same thing. Do not assume that someone who has made a booking automatically appears among a campaign's recipients. Before importing or sending, check that the people concerned should receive this communication under your organisation's practices.

Creating and maintaining subscriber lists

From the campaigns page, create a list with a clear name, such as “Training news”. Open it to view its subscribers and add or edit their details: email address, first name and surname where available.

A subscriber can be copied or moved to another list in the same organisation. Copying keeps their subscription in the source list; moving removes it from the source. If the target list already contains that email address, the subscriber's details are updated rather than deliberately creating another identical entry.

Example: a person only wants news about a different subject. Use a move if they should no longer remain in the original list. Use a copy if they should receive both types of news.

Importing subscribers from a CSV file

1. Open the target list and start the subscriber import.
2. Select your CSV file. Commas, semicolons and tabs are recognised as separators.
3. Indicate whether the first row contains headings. If this setting is wrong, a data row may be treated as a heading, or the reverse.
4. Map the columns to the email address, first name and surname. Their order in the file does not matter; only the email address is required.
5. Examine the preview and reported issues: missing or invalid email addresses, duplicates, names that are too long or an exceeded limit.
6. Correct the file if needed, then confirm the import of valid data and read the results.

The import accepts a maximum of 5,000 valid subscribers per batch. Email addresses are normalised to lower case. An address already in the list is matched without regard to case; supplied names are updated. Empty name fields are not used to erase existing information.

The results distinguish new entries, updates and duplicates. Read them before running the same file again: fewer new entries than rows does not necessarily indicate an error.

Composing a campaign with the editor

1. Open the email composer and select one or more lists.
2. Enter a clear subject, then write the message body in the editor.
3. Add the necessary links and images, checking their destinations.
4. Choose the organisation's theme or a theme specifically for this campaign.
5. Use the preview to check the final appearance, then review the recipients and subject before sending.

The editor preview applies the theme and branding used for sending. Its personalisation values are examples, not proof that every subscriber has a first name entered. Prefer wording that remains understandable when a piece of information is missing.

Lists can overlap. Sending combines identical email addresses present in the selected lists; the actual number sent may therefore be lower than the sum of the displayed list sizes. Clicking Send starts the send, not a draft to confirm later. To check an actual inbox, use a test list containing only the intended test recipients.

Personalising and reusing templates

Available variables include {{firstName}}, {{lastName}}, {{fullName}} and {{email}}. They are replaced for each subscriber. The variables {{unsubscribeUrl}} and {{unsubscribeLink}} support the unsubscribe mechanism.

You can save the subject and body in a template, load an existing template to prefill the composer, then update or delete it. Templates belong to the active organisation. Loading a template replaces the affected fields: save anything you want to keep before making that change.

A template is not a scheduled campaign. Do not treat an unsent, unsaved composition as a permanently stored draft; save a template if you want to reuse its content.

Using raw HTML and respecting unsubscribes

Raw HTML mode is intended for people who already have a complete HTML email. Its content is not recoloured by Bookelio's themes. Use the preview for that mode and check its appearance in your test email clients.

Raw HTML content must include the expected unsubscribe variable. In editor mode, Bookelio adds the unsubscribe mechanism to the campaign's rendered output, after the business footer.

The link is specific to the recipient. When used, unsubscribing removes that address from all lists in the same organisation, not only the list used for the last send. Do not copy a subscriber's personal link into a shared template or automatically reimport someone who has unsubscribed.

Reading email history

The history offers search and a status filter: Queued, Sent or Failed. Queued means that sending is still pending. Open the details to examine the relevant message. The Sent status describes the sending outcome known to Bookelio; it does not prove that the message was opened or read, and does not guarantee that it reached the recipient's main inbox.

If sending fails, check the sending configuration and error message before trying again. An interrupted attempt may require checking which recipients have already been processed; avoid immediately sending to everyone again, which could produce duplicates.

Publishing articles and handling contact requests

In Blog, create an article, write its content, add a cover image and excerpt, then assign suitable categories. The form also provides the slug, SEO title and description, keywords and Draft or Published status. A draft lets you prepare the content; choose Published when it is ready. Its public display depends on the connected website that uses these articles.

In Contact Requests, view the name, contact details, message, optional place and date. The email link opens your email application; Mark as Read changes the tracking status in Bookelio but does not send a reply to the visitor. Treat replying and updating the status as two separate steps.