Who receives my campaigns — and who is skipped?

Campaigns only reach opted-in customers; learn who gets skipped, how segments narrow the audience, and how unsubscribing works.

Marketing campaigns only ever go to customers who have opted in to marketing — that's a legal requirement (UK GDPR and PECR), and ResoFlow enforces it for you on every send.

How customers opt in

Customers choose whether to receive marketing when they book, join the waitlist, buy event tickets, buy a gift card or pay for a table order on your public pages (an untouched box counts as a soft opt-in; ticking it opts them out). Gift card recipients are never added to your list. You can also record consent manually from a customer's profile (Confirm marketing consent in its … menu) — with a typed consent confirmation — when someone has explicitly told you they want your emails. With Your website, you can also add a Get our news card to its home page (switch it on under Your website → Home): a visitor types their email on your site, you send them a link, and they join your list only once they open it and press Yes, send me news — their profile then says "Yes — signed up for your news on your website and confirmed from the email". Your free venue page can carry the same card too: switch on Show "Get our news" in the Your free venue page card on the Your website page (it's off until you do) — the same email link and Yes, send me news, and the profile says "Yes — signed up for your news on your venue page and confirmed from the email". Each profile's What they agreed to section (in its details) shows their current status (Marketing: opted in / opted out / not asked) and how and when they chose ("Yes — didn't tick "No thanks to offers" when booking online, 2 Apr").

Who gets skipped

When you compose, the Recipients step shows a live count — "Will send to 143 customers (12 skipped)". Skipped means:

Narrowing the audience

The Recipients step starts with Send to — one group, each card showing how many customers it reaches: Everyone opted in, Haven’t visited in 3+ months (or 2, 6 or 12 months — picked under it), Birthdays this month and, if you run a loyalty scheme, Loyalty members. Under the cards, Narrow it down (optional) trims the group you picked: Spent £100 or more, Held an event ticket and Bought a gift card — each is one of the criteria below at that value, and a customer must match every one you tick.

For anything else, pick Build my own group and tick any of the criteria: Last booked BEFORE, Last booked AFTER, Bookings made is at least, Booked but never visited (all bookings cancelled or a no-show), On your list but has never booked (such as imported contacts, gift cards or the waitlist), Birthday in (a month), Joined in the last (days), Joined more than (days ago) and Has tag(s). If you run a loyalty scheme, there's one more: Loyalty scheme members only — it narrows the send to active scheme members (customers whose membership is still awaiting email confirmation aren't included). And if you've switched on member groups (students, NHS & care staff, your own groups), Member groups lets you pick one or more of them: the campaign goes only to members confirmed in a group you picked — a confirmation that has run out (after its 12 months) no longer counts — so a "students" offer reaches this year's students and nobody else. Criteria combine with AND — a customer must match every enabled one and be opted in. If you pick Build my own group but tick nothing, a warning reminds you it will send to all opted-in customers.

When a customer was last in counts a booking or a paid order: at a venue that takes orders, the Haven’t visited group and the date rows look at their last order too, and the rows then say "Last booked or ordered" (or "Last ordered" where the venue takes orders but not bookings; "Last got a ticket" at a venue that only sells event tickets). Groups, chips and rows that can't match anyone at your venue aren't offered — for example a venue that doesn't take bookings doesn't see Bookings made is at least or the two "never booked" rows, a venue without event tickets doesn't see Held an event ticket, and Birthdays this month only shows where something collects birthdays (Pro, Complete or a loyalty scheme). A filter you saved earlier keeps showing every row it uses, so you can see it and take it off.

Three more criteria narrow by what people have bought. Has spent at least (a pounds box — the helper text under it reads "across bookings, orders, tickets and gift cards") keeps customers who have spent at least that much with you, counting paid bookings, orders, event tickets and gift cards — the lifetime figures on their profile. Has held an event ticket keeps anyone who has been issued a ticket to one of your events — paid or complimentary, it makes no difference — as long as the ticket wasn't cancelled. Has bought a gift card keeps customers who have paid for one: "bought" means paid for here, so complimentary or fully refunded gift cards don't count, and a gift card sold at the venue only counts when the buyer's email was taken at the sale. Like every criterion, these only ever narrow the opted-in list — nobody who hasn't opted in is ever added.

How customers unsubscribe

Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link. It opens a confirmation page — nothing happens until the customer presses Yes, stop them — and takes effect immediately: it stops your marketing emails and texts to them. Unsubscribing affects marketing only: booking confirmations, reminders and cancellation notices still send, because those are part of how the booking works. The customer's profile badge flips to Marketing: opted out. The page then offers Changed your mind? Start them again, and Choose what to keep for a customer who only wanted to stop some of it. If the link doesn't work (say it was copied only in part), the page offers to email the customer a new one — it goes only to an address you already hold for them.

An unsubscribe like this sticks: booking again does not quietly re-subscribe the customer, even if they leave the marketing box untouched on the booking form. They come back onto your list only through a deliberate act — the Re-subscribe link in the confirmation email or Changed your mind? Start them again on the unsubscribe page, switching Marketing emails and texts back on from their preferences page or account, or you recording their consent with the typed confirmation if they ask you directly.

Marketing emails also carry an Email preferences link beside Unsubscribe in the footer — on every plan. It opens a small preferences page (no sign-in needed) where the customer can turn individual email types on or off — news and offers, loyalty updates — or use the master Marketing emails and texts switch to stop everything marketing, including texts.

Customers can also unsubscribe by email: many mail apps show their own unsubscribe button at the top of a marketing email, and that works the same way as the link. If a customer's emailed opt-out request doesn't identify one venue, it's treated as a global opt-out — the sender's address is unsubscribed from marketing at every venue on ResoFlow that has it on file, straight away, and they're sent one confirmation email listing each venue with a one-click Re-subscribe button per venue (valid for 30 days) in case that wasn't what they wanted. A re-subscribe click shows in your activity log as the customer opting back in.

One more thing that can shrink a send: while your sending reputation is new, a daily ramp-up cap may limit how many go out that day — see the FAQ below.

Related: How do I send a marketing email? · Why did my campaign reach fewer people than expected? · How do I handle a customer's data request?