Transactional Email Overview

IMPORTANT! An account at Sendgrid is required to use the RGP transactional email system. www.sendgrid.com 

Transactional emails refer to the ability to send emails to customers based on specific actions to their accounts or memberships.

If you want to send newsletter-style emails, please use Constant Contact or MailChimp. Rock Gym Pro includes a convenient tool (Data Entry > Manage > Email List Management) to facilitate the periodic export of your mailing list into these services, as well as purging your database of bounced emails or unsubscribes.

The information below describes how to use the transactional email system in RGP.

Video Tutorials

• Email List Management Tool (ConstantContact and MailChimp import/export via text fields)
• Overview of the Transactional Email System
• Email System Settings
• Activating the Email System
• The Email Queue
• Understanding Email Actions
• Manual Emails (Invoices, Billing, and Reports)
• Running Simulations

Be Careful!
You need to be very thoughtful and careful when using the integrated email functionality. If you send your customers unwanted emails, you could be blacklisted for spamming.

Be sure every email is worth sending and when in doubt err on the side of being conservative. Certainly, customers want to be notified of credit card expiration, declined billing, and membership status changes. But, for example, do your members need a happy birthday email? Perhaps if there is a compelling offer in the birthday email it is worth sending, but a simple "happy birthday!", while a kind gesture, could be considered spam if there isn't an offer or benefit associated.

SendGrid
Rock Gym Pro offers an interface to manage the emails sent to your customers, but the actual emails are delivered through the SendGrid service.

To use the RGP transactional email functionality, you will need to signup for a SendGrid account. Please be aware that you are responsible for understanding the specific benefits and drawbacks of each SendGrid service level.

Multi-gym facilities can share a single SendGrid account if desired. Please direct SendGrid account questions directly to SendGrid Customer Support.

All questions regarding the deliverability of emails sent from RGP should be directed at SendGrid. RGP uses the SendGrid API to send an email, and once we initiate the request to SendGrid we have no control over how/if the email is delivered. For example, if your emails are being delivered to your customer's SPAM folder – that is a question for SendGrid, not RGP.

Basic Operational Steps

Setting Up your SendGrid Account

1. Go to www.sendgrid.com and create an account

2. In your Sendgrid account complete steps to Verify your Sender Identity go to Settings > Sender Authentication > Verify an Address (Get Started)

3. Create a SendGrid API Key go to Settings > API Keys click the Create API Key button. Give the key Full Access.

4. Enter API Key in RGP
In Rock Gym Pro, go to Data Entry → Manage → Email System → Settings → SendGrid API Key Integration. Enter the SendGrid API Key that you just created, and complete the other email settings in that window.

5. Data Entry > Manage > Email System

1. 1. Edit and activate the actions you want to utilize. Start slowly with things like expiring credit cards, etc.
   2. Be sure to customize the email subject and email body
   3. Use {{document fields}} where appropriate
   4. Decide if you want to include an unsubscribe link or not in each specific email
   5. Turn on the email system at Data Entry > Manage > Email System > Turn On
   6. Use the simulation feature to see your emails
   7. When you are completely satisfied, disable test mode at Data Entry > Manage > Email System > Settings

When Does RGP Send Email?
In the case of emailing invoices or reports, RGP sends the email immediately.

For all other triggers, RGP sends emails once a day. When RGP is started in the morning, it will analyze the previous day's activity and queue and send the emails required.

Marketing vs. Non-Marketing Emails
RGP can send two styles of emails based on customer actions.

If you check the “Send email regardless of customers DO NOT MAIL choice…” on a particular email action it means that the email is of the non-marketing variety. Typically this is used for critical billing, membership, and account-related emails. All other emails are considered “marketing” emails.

Marketing emails will automatically have an unsubscribe link in the footer. Non-marketing emails will not include the unsubscribe link.

If a customer clicks on this link, their customer record will be marked DO NOT MAIL within RGP. You can then export these changes to your third-party newsletter service to keep that list in sync. Use the Email List Management tool available at Data Entry > Manage > Email List Management to export these unsubscribes to your email newsletter service.