1. Get unlimited email addresses
What this is: Most email services let you receive emails sent to certain variations of your email address. For example, if you send an email to support+1@hisawyer.com, we'll receive it at support@hisawyer.com. With Gmail and most other popular email services, a plus (+) and any other letter or number in front of the at (@) will be ignored. (Similarly, periods anywhere in the address will also be ignored. For example, sup.port@hisawyer.com will be sent to support@hisawyer.com.)
Why it's useful: Even though emails sent to these addresses ultimately go to the same inbox, they can still be used as separate accounts on Sawyer. For example, if you want to test the checkout experience from the perspective of a new user but you already have an account, you can open your Live View in a new private-browsing tab (where you're not signed in with your regular email) and create a new Sawyer account with a +1 variation of your regular email. That way you'll still get confirmation emails and reset-password emails at your regular email but you'll be recognized by Sawyer as two separate users. Or, if you have owner permissions to a Sawyer for Business account portal and you want to place an order as a parent with the same email address but using a different card, you can do the same thing (e.g. support@hisawyer.com and support+parent@hisawyer.com.) The great thing is that the emails you receive will be tagged with that email address. So if you tell people who are interested in parties to email you at youremail+parties@youremailservice.com, you can still receive them in your inbox and you'll immediately know what the email is about even before reading the subject!
How to set it up: Test it out! Email yourself or tell someone to email you with some variation of your email address and see if you get it.
2. Use filters!
What this is: Inbox filters let you automatically sort your inbox without looking at every single email as it comes in. That way, you can only look at the emails you need to look at and only when you need to look at them.
Why it's useful: Receiving a duplicate of every order confirmation email is helpful because you can reference them later if necessary. But it's also annoying to get that many emails. Create a filter in your inbox (using the subject of the email) to automatically archive, categorize, or forward them so they don't clutter your inbox. Filters are also a great way to automatically forward emails to the right people. For example, Sawyer doesn't have a feature that lets the person who runs your parties only receive party-specific emails. However, you can create a filter in your inbox that automatically sends all party-related emails to that person.
How to set it up: As an example, set up a filter that automatically forwards party emails in Gmail by
- Typing the generic part of the party confirmation email subject into the search bar ("New Party Request from")
- Clicking "Advanced"
- Clicking "Create Filter"
- Choosing "Forward to" and entering the email to which these emails should be sent
- Clicking "Create Filter"
3. Remind customers to sign up again!
What this is: Toward the end of their current enrollment, encourage your customers to register for whatever you have coming up next. This doesn't have to feel spammy! Believe it or not, many parents are thankful for these reminders.
Why it's useful: It's always going to be easier to collect registrations from your loyal customers than to acquire new ones. The best way to make sure your participation doesn't slow down is to make sure that students keep coming back.
How to set it up: As an example, you can use your Sawyer for Business portal to send an email to everyone who's enrolled in a particular semester by
- Going to Reports > Custom (https://www.hisawyer.com/portal/report_questions/list)
- Clicking "+ New Report" at the top right of the screen
- Asking for a list of "Members" "+ and" "Who've attended these Schedules"
- Selecting the schedule timeframe(s) you want to message from the dropdown
- Clicking "Get My Report"
- Clicking "Message" at the top right of the screen
For more on this feature, check out this help-center post in How to Message Customers from Custom Reports.
4. Automatically update mailing list
What this is: Sawyer has an integration that sends every new customer to a list in either Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
Why it's useful: Although there are certain instances in which you can send messages from within your Sawyer for Business portal, for flexible formatting and other useful features, you may want to use a service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. If you do, you can make sure that your mailing list is up to date by automatically sending every new client who doesn't opt-out of email and news updates to your Mailchimp or Constant Contact mailing list.
How to set it up: You can find setup instructions in our help article on Using your Mailchimp + Constant Contact Integration.
5. Use Zapier!
What this is: Zapier is an integration integration. (They do a better job explaining this than us: zapier.com/how-it-works.)
How to set it up: You can find setup instructions in our help article on Setting Up Your Sawyer and Zapier Integration.