How to send an email

Step by step guide to sending an email in Airship's console

Georgina Doyle avatar
Written by Georgina Doyle
Updated over a week ago

Remember to build your email within the email builder before you start! You can find out how to do that here.

Step 1: Selecting the send criteria

  1. Go to the left side panel of the Airship console and click Email campaign > Broadcast > Create new

  2. This is where you can define your search. You can choose which folders you’d like to include, exclude, search by personal details or suppress contacts based on particular criteria e.g if they booked a table in the last 30 days. 

  3. Always remember to save your search so that you can target this group of customers again in the future. 

  4. Count results at the end to check that the group of contacts is around the size you expect. 

Tip: Quickly find groups that are under each location within include and exclude folders by using the search bar. Type the groups you want to target > click Select *group name* Groups.

Split test sends

Click the ‘Tick this box if this is a split test send’ if you’re planning on split testing 3 subject lines. We would always recommend this if you’re sending to over 3000 contacts. Click ‘Next’. Then select A/B/C if you’re using 3 subject lines and determine the amount of time given before a winning subject line is selected; we recommend one hour.

Step 2: Load up your saved email

Click "load previously saved email" and select your email from the dropdown list.

  1. Add in the subject lines (if you're split testing or haven't done this already)

  2. Click next at the bottom of the page.

Quick links:

Step 3: Adding link attributes

This is to enable google tag manager within the links of your emails so you can see where customers have clicked through from within your tag manager account.

The campaign name can be a word to describe the content of your email, e.g "Christmas"

Campaign medium should always be "Email"

Campaign source should always be "Airship"

Click apply to all & then next.

Step 4: Sending

At this point you will have either selected your send criteria or be carrying out a test send to yourself.

  1. Check that you are happy with all the details on this page.

  2. Add a tag (e.g “Christmas”) so that we can easily report on the performance of your email sends.

  3. Remember to tick the box for test send (if it is a test send) before continuing.

  4. When you are happy click send! 

Alternatively, you can select a time/date you would like the email to be sent in the ‘schedule’ section.

  1. As you get to the final page of sending your email there is the option to ‘Schedule email (optional)’. This allows you to pick a date and time in which you would like the email to be sent. You can then check any scheduled emails in Send > Email > Scheduled messages.

  2. It’s always a good idea to check your scheduled items once you have done this to double check everything looks correct.

Test send tip!
Always remember to complete a test send before selecting the final send criteria - you can do this by “Narrow by personal details” and entering your own email & anybody else you’d like to receive the test send - when you count results, make sure the result is correct.


Sending emails to guests who are not opted in to marketing

Sometimes you may need to contact your customers with some non-marketing related information. This could be an update on their loyalty points, a feedback request or another form of communication. You’ll need these emails to go to everyone regardless of their marketing consent status. Remember: these emails must not be marketing messages.  

How to include everyone in your email send 

Head to Email campaigns > Broadcast > Create new and select the contacts you want to include in your broadcast - this part is exactly the same as building a normal search. 

You will see an option called Narrow search by Opt-in. If you don’t see this, contact our support team to add this feature to your account. 

This is automatically set to send to “Opted in only” contacts. To send your email to everyone on your database, just select the “Everyone” option. 

This will send your email to every contact within your search criteria regardless of opt in status, meaning that customers who have not opted in to receive marketing materials will receive this email. If you’re unsure whether or not the email you are sending is suitable for non-opted in guests, check with your data protection officer before clicking send. 

You will then be asked to confirm that you’re happy to send this to these contacts. Select this box and move on to the template builder. 

Remember to split test

Many of these customers will have never received an email from you before, this means it’s even more important than ever to split test these emails. This will stagger the delivery of your email and encourage email providers to view your IP address in a positive way.

Checking sent emails

To quickly check the emails that have been sent, if you do not wish to run a full report, go to Email Campaigns > Broadcast > Sent.

You will then be able to select the criteria for your search including the date range for when the emails were sent.

***Please note: Airship do not provide legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on, for legal advice. You should also consult your own legal advisors.

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