Mailing list and announcements

When you put on a new night, you can email it to everyone on your mailing list from the event itself: its picture, date, venue, prices and a Get tickets button, under a few words of your own.

Who is on the list

People join in three ways:

• At checkout. Buyers see Tell me about future events … by email (unsubscribe any time) under their details. It starts unticked, so they choose. They join once their order is paid; an order that is never paid adds nobody.
• On your website. A theme's sign-up form (such as an email box in the footer) adds them straight away.
• Added by you. People who agreed to hear from you elsewhere, such as a list exported from another ticket website with their marketing agreement (below).

To see the list, go to Events → Mailing list. It shows everyone on it, how they joined and since when. Find someone searches it, and Download the list (spreadsheet) gives you a copy.

To switch the checkout tick box off, go to Settings → Tickets → Mailing list and turn off Offer “Tell me about future events” at checkout.

Announcing an event

1. Open the event (Events → Events, then the event) and make sure it's published.
2. In Announce this event, on the right, check the Subject. It starts as “Just announced: event, date”.
3. Under Your message, write a few words if you like, with a blank line between paragraphs. Leave it empty for “A new date is on. Tickets are available now.”
4. Click Send a test to me. The test goes to your own email address. Check it looks right on your phone. Your subject and message stay in the box.
5. Tick Yes, email … people, then click Announce to your list.

The emails go out a few each minute, because email accounts limit how many emails they can send an hour. The box shows how many have gone, and you can leave the page meanwhile. Once it finishes, the box says when the event was announced and to how many people. Only one announcement is sent at a time.

How fast. Settings → Tickets → Mailing list → Announcement emails a minute starts at 10 (600 an hour). Check your email provider's sending limit before raising it. A large list is best sent through a sending service; ask Gradespace about connecting one.

Get tickets in the email goes to the event's tickets. If the event's tickets are sold on another website and your theme supports that, the button goes there.

Unsubscribing

Every announcement ends with an Unsubscribe link, and email apps such as Gmail show their own Unsubscribe button that works in one click. Someone who unsubscribes gets no more announcements. Their tickets, and the emails that come with tickets, aren't affected.

To take someone off yourself, for example when they ask you by email, click Remove beside them on Events → Mailing list.

People who unsubscribe stay on the list, hidden, so they can never be added back by mistake. They come back only by choosing to: signing up again on your website, or ticking the box when they buy.

Adding people who agreed

Under Add people on Events → Mailing list, paste one email address per line, optionally followed by a comma and the person's name, tick These people agreed to get event emails from us, and click Add to the list. Anyone who has unsubscribed is skipped.

The law

In the UK, you may email people about your events only if they agreed to it, or if they bought from you, were offered a clear way to say no when they bought, and every email lets them unsubscribe. The checkout tick box and the unsubscribe link in every email take care of this for people who join on your website. For anyone you add yourself, keep a note of when and how they agreed.

This means people who bought tickets before the tick box existed, or on another ticket website, can't be added unless they agreed to hear from you.

Your privacy policy should say that you send event emails to people who join the list, and that anyone can unsubscribe at any time.

Under Tools → Export Personal Data and Erase Personal Data, someone's mailing list entry is included with the rest of their details.