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 or pay for a table order on your public pages (an untouched box counts as a soft opt-in; ticking it opts them out). Your public gift card page works the other way round: a gift card buyer joins your list only by ticking an optional "keep me posted" box — left unticked, buying a gift card records no marketing choice at all, and gift card recipients are never added to your list. You can also record consent manually from a customer's profile — with a typed consent confirmation — when someone has explicitly told you they want your emails. Each profile's Marketing email preferences section shows their current status (Marketing: opted in / opted out / not asked) and where the choice came from.

Who gets skipped

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

• Not opted in or opted out — never included, full stop.
• No email address on the profile.
• Permanently bounced addresses — if an address hard-bounces (it doesn't exist), ResoFlow automatically stops sending marketing to it, which protects your sender reputation.
• "News and offers" switched off — customers can turn off campaign emails (and the matching texts) in the Email preferences section of their account page while staying opted in to marketing overall; they're counted as skipped too.

Narrowing the audience with a segment

Switch Recipients from All opted-in to Custom segment 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). Criteria combine with AND — a customer must match every enabled one and be opted in. If you switch to segment mode but enable nothing, a warning reminds you it will send to all opted-in customers.

How customers unsubscribe

Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link. It opens a confirmation page — nothing happens until the customer clicks Unsubscribe — and takes effect immediately. 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.

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, 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 a Manage email preferences link beside Unsubscribe — 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 restaurant, it's treated as a global opt-out — the sender's address is unsubscribed from marketing at every restaurant on ResoFlow that has it on file, straight away, and they're sent one confirmation email listing each restaurant with a one-click Re-subscribe button per restaurant (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?