Email Campaigns

Overview

Email Campaigns let you send broadcast emails to your customer list to promote services, announce specials, or stay in touch. Instead of a template builder, you type a one-line prompt and AI drafts both subject and body for you - then you edit and send to a filtered audience of existing customers.

Requirements

• Active paid plan required - Free trial users can't send campaigns
• Monthly send limits based on your tier:
  • FREE: 500 emails/month
  • PRO: 5,000 emails/month
  • HIGH: 25,000 emails/month
• Per-send cap: 1,000 recipients maximum per campaign

Creating a Campaign

Step 1: Access Email Campaigns

1. Click "Finance" in the sidebar
2. Select "Email Campaigns" from the flyout menu
3. Click "New Campaign"

Step 2: Describe Your Email

1. Type a one-line prompt describing what you want to send
   • Example: "Announce 20% off HVAC tune-ups this month"
   • Example: "Remind customers about fall gutter cleaning"
2. Click "Generate Draft"
3. AI writes both subject and body based on your prompt

Step 3: Review and Edit

1. Review the generated subject line - edit if needed
2. Review the email body - edit text, adjust tone, or rewrite sections
3. Preview how it will look to recipients

Step 4: Choose Recipients

1. Filter your audience:
   • All customers
   • By customer type (Homeowner, Business, Builder)
   • By location (city, state)
   • By tags or custom criteria
2. See recipient count before sending
3. Maximum 1,000 recipients per campaign

Step 5: Send

1. Review your monthly send limit and remaining sends
2. Click "Send Campaign"
3. Confirm when prompted
4. Emails go out immediately via AWS SES

Safety Guardrails

Bounce and Complaint Handling

When marketing emails bounce or customers mark them as spam, BlueClerk automatically updates your suppression list:

• Hard bounces (invalid addresses, domain doesn't exist) are suppressed permanently
• Soft bounces (full inbox, temporary issues) are logged but not suppressed
• Complaints (spam reports) are suppressed immediately
• Suppressed emails are automatically excluded from future campaigns

How It Works

1. SES sends campaign → email bounces or customer clicks "Report Spam"
2. SES notifies SNS topic → SNS posts to BlueClerk webhook
3. BlueClerk processes event:
   • Looks up the originating company via CampaignRecipient
   • Adds email to your EmailSuppression table (scoped to your company)
   • Marks the recipient row as FAILED in campaign history
4. Future campaigns automatically skip suppressed emails

What Gets Suppressed

• Permanent bounces only - Hard bounces like "address doesn't exist"
• Complaints - Spam reports from recipients
• Soft bounces are ignored - Temporary issues like full inboxes don't get suppressed

Multi-Tenant Safety

• Each suppression is scoped to the company that sent the email
• Your suppressions don't affect other BlueClerk users
• Other companies' suppressions don't affect you

Best Practices

• Send relevant content - Target customers who would benefit from your message
• Don't over-send - Respect monthly limits and customer inboxes
• Use clear subject lines - Avoid spammy language
• Include value - Offers, tips, or useful information
• Proofread before sending - You can't unsend a campaign

Tracking Results

After sending, you can view:

• Total sent - How many emails were delivered
• Bounce rate - Emails that failed to deliver
• Complaint rate - Customers who marked as spam
• Opens (if tracking enabled)
• Clicks (if tracking enabled)

Questions

Q: What happens if I hit my monthly limit? A: You can't send more campaigns until next month, or upgrade to a higher tier for more sends.

Q: Can I schedule campaigns for later? A: Not yet - campaigns send immediately. This feature is coming soon.

Q: What if a customer wants to unsubscribe? A: All campaigns include an unsubscribe link automatically. Unsubscribed customers are added to your suppression list.

Q: Can I resend a campaign to people who didn't open it? A: Yes - create a new campaign and filter to recipients who didn't open the first one.

Q: Will suppressed emails be automatically removed from my customer list? A: No - suppressions only prevent future campaign emails. The customer record stays in your system for invoicing and job management.