Why an email address is required for automated campaigns

Table of contents

• Overview
• Why is an email required for automated campaigns
• Recommendations for organizations without parent email addresses
• FAQs
• The takeaway

Overview

This article explains why an email address is necessary to create a customer account and run automated campaigns in our system. It also provides solutions for organizations that did not provide email addresses for their customers.

Why is an email required for automated campaigns?

For our automated campaigns to work correctly and notify your customers, our system requires an email address on file. A phone number alone is not sufficient to initiate the messages or create a complete customer profile.

If a name list is imported with only phone numbers and no emails, the automated campaign will not work as intended, and customers will not be informed. Specifically, your job will go to "Selling" with no customers being notified of the job being set to sale, as the system requires an email to notify your customers and create a customer profile.

Recommendations for organizations without parent email addresses

If your organization cannot share parent email addresses or if they were not collected, you have a few options to ensure a successful customer import and notification process.

You have three simple options:

1. Use dummy email addresses:
   1. For example, if a parent's name is Jane Doe, you can use a dummy email from a domain like example jane.doe@example.com. The domains example.com, example.org, and example.net are reserved specifically for documentation, examples, and training purposes. They are guaranteed not to send or receive real email, and no one can register them which makes them safe for you to use. 
   2. You would enter this placeholder email in the parent data columns alongside the correct phone numbers, ensuring that each customer email is different, as the same email cannot be reused. This process ensures your list of names including parent data, imports fully.
2. Use pre-registration for picture day: You can use our pre-registration for picture day feature ahead of picture day to collect student data. This method allows you to collect the required parent data, including an email address, directly from the customers.
3. Use the School portal: If your organization cannot share parent email addresses with you due to privacy concerns, you may want to use the School Portal. With this feature, the school imports all buyer information, and parent details remain hidden until an order is placed. Encrypted data is still used for automated campaigns and one-time messages, ensuring the workflow runs smoothly while maintaining privacy. Learn about the School Portal here: Upload Names List via School Portal (UK); Upload Names List via School Portal (US & CA)

FAQs

I understand that an email is needed to create a customer profile, but can I send automated campaign notifications only as text messages? 

Yes. As long as a customer profile has been created and both an email address and a phone number are present, you can choose to send notifications - and one-time messages - exclusively via text. The email is required for profile creation, but the actual communication can be SMS - only if preferred. 

The takeaway

An email address is a mandatory field for creating customer profiles and running any automated campaign in our system. If real emails are unavailable, using a placeholder email or utilizing the registration feature are the best ways to import your data and enable automated features. If you only provide phone numbers, your automated campaign will fail to notify customers.