Overview
When customers complete various actions in your program, you have the option to notify them of the completion as well as let them know of the benefit they’ve obtained by performing the action.
This guide explains why email notifications are important to be used, as well as what customization options you have at your disposal to brand them.
What are email notifications?
When you add an earning or spending action in your Points and Rewards program, one of the settings you should configure is whether to send an email notification to the customer notifying them that they’ve obtained points/rewards for completing the action.
If you wish to do this, check the “Yes, send an email notification” box and save your changes.
If you don't, you can disable program email notifications.
If enabled, Lootly will send a notification to the customer’s email address that they’ve completed an action and obtained points/rewards for it.
How do email notifications work?
It’s important to note that these are system notifications - they are triggered by an event performed in your program only, and can not be sent by a 3rd party software, such as your email marketing tool.
Why are email notifications important?
We highly recommend that email notifications are enabled for all actions (earning, spending, obtaining VIP tier) in your programs.
Notifications serve a purpose: to notify your customer of the benefit they obtained by engaging with your program and let them know of the assets they hold in your store. They also notify your customers of expiration dates for points and rewards.
Therefore, they have a huge impact on your program engagement rate as well as the point redemption rate.
Disabled notifications is not a recommended practice, as your customers will not know when they earn points or when they have a reward available.
Can email notifications be sent out from my domain?
Email notifications can be sent out from your domain. This is a customization option available in the platform if you wish to fully brand your program.
Learn how to do this in this guide: Custom sender domain
Customization options for email notifications
Lootly allows you to fully customize your email notifications and brand them to the tiniest detail including the design and the messaging of the notification.
To start customizing, navigate to Display -> Email notifications in your Lootly account.
Start with the general email settings:
“Reply to email” - enter here the email address where replies to the notifications can be sent. This is usually a customer support email address.
“Logo” - add your logo here to be displayed in all program notifications. Please make sure the logo format is .jpeg or .png
Save your changes.
Email Notifications templates
Below the General settings section in the platform, you’ll find several different email notifications templates divided into 2 groups: Points and Referrals.
These are the “master templates” for the different notifications that can be sent from the system. You can customize their design and messaging with several customization options.
“Subject line” - type in the subject line of the email
Body text formatting tools - format your text as you want
“<>” - tool for HTML editing. You can deploy your own custom template for the notification or revamp the existing design. NOTE: this requires knowledge of HTML.
Available variables - the “points earned” template will apply to all earning actions you enable in the program and for which you have enabled email notifications to be sent. To personalize them, you can use the available variables in your body text. The most important one will be the {points-earned-action} variable, which will display the text from the “Reward Email Text” box available in the configuration page of each earning action. More details on the following section in this guide.
NOTE: use only the variables that are displayed in this template. Do not use other variables from other templates or actions here.
Button text, button color and button URL - if you add the variable {button} in your email text, you can customize the text, color and the URL of where this button should take the customer who engages with it.
On the right side of the customization panel, you’ll be able to see a Preview of your email notification.
Once you’re happy with the customizations you made, save your changes.
Email notification customization per action
You will only have 1 template for points earned, 1 for points spent, but you can have multiple earning and spending actions enabled in your program. You may want to customize the messaging for each action, which is why you have the option to customize the notifications on the per action level.
To do this, open any earning/spending action and scroll down to the design box on the page.
You will customize the Reward Email Text:
Add your text and use only the available variables you see below. Do not use other variables in this customization box.
You can also format your text using the formatting tools and apply HTML for further revamping.
Once you’re done, save your changes.
This is what will go into the master points earned template, when you use the {points-earned-action} variable in the body text.
The same principle explained above applies to the points spent template and spending actions.
Email notifications customization tips
Here’re some best practices you can apply on customizing your email notifications.
Add a catchy subject line - the subject line of the email is the first thing your customers will see. Make it clickable and exciting. You can use the available variables for the subject line as for the body text in the template.
Convey a message - your program’s email notifications serve a purpose: to motivate customers to check their point balance, to check the rewards available to them and to plan their next purchase with you. Make sure the message is clear and motivating; work with your marketing and support team to learn more about how customers think and communicate about your program.
Customize the design of the email - make a special template for your program email notifications. This can be the same or similar to your other email marketing campaigns template you use or completely new. Brand the program emails and give them their own identity to allow customers to instantly recognize what type of communication they’re receiving.