Subscribers for newsletters

[Roxy222uk]

I want to use my 30 day free trial, I've imported all the customers that have signed up elsewhere for newsletters and I now need to make them into subscribers. However I can't do this without billing them? I set the plan as £0 but I have to charge them a minimum of £0.01? I tried to go back into my plan to see if I needed to change anything but I can't find how to edit that either. Also, I wanted to put myself in as the subscriber so I could experiment, and when I clicked Customer I could only scroll to part way through H and no further.

1) how to make it free to subscribe to my newsletter

2) how to edit a plan

3) how to access all of the customers in my directory to make into subscribers

Thanks

[Breffni]

Hi @Roxy222uk, thanks for your post! 

When you say you're being requested to charge your customers to send a campaign - can you send me a screenshot of what you're seeing? 

You can set the status of the email address to Subscribed, Unsubscribed or Unknown, by bulk editing them via CSV file, more information on that is here under Manage Subscribed Customers.
A reminder that per the article,  you are responsible for ensuring the customers on your list has given explicit permission to contact them and for compliance with all applicable GDPR laws.

I'll keep an eye out for your response. 

[Roxy222uk]

Sorry, I can't understand how to put an image on here so I can't share screen shots, but what happens is when I try to add a customer (all my customers were uploaded via a CSV file) to my subscriber's list ("Create A Subscription") it asks me to chose what plan they are on. I have a Newsletter Plan set up so I add them to that but the Plan Details demand that I define the Billing Cadence and it has to be at least £0.01 or I can't save their details. Then the table at the bottom - Billing Details - requires that I select a Payment Method.

So I can't include anyone in a campaign until they are a subscriber and I can't create any subscriptions without billing them. Unless I've done something wrong creating the plan, but I can't work out how to get back in and edit that.

Thanks.

[Breffni]

No worries, I'm wondering if you are accessing the wrong part of the Dashboard @Roxy222uk. 

So all of your customers should appear here in the Customer Directory. 

To send a Marketing Campaign you would need to go to Customers > Marketing 

It sounds like you may be in Payments > Subscriptions, which is used to collect payments, rather than sending campaigns,

You should be able to send out a free newsletter via  Marketing 

Let me know if this is looking familiar, it's hard to tell over the Community so thanks for bearing with me. 

[Roxy222uk]

Thank you, yes I was in the wrong part. I have found the right part of the Dashboard. I think I misunderstood the use of the word 'Subscriber'. I currently don't have the bar with the green logos 'Collect Customer Emails' 'Upload Your Email Lists' etc. Will they become visible once I start my free trial? Also, I have slightly over 500 email addresses in my list, will the free trial work?

Annoyingly I showed my husband that I couldn't understand how to upload an image and the system worked perfectly, much to his amusement. When I was typing before I kept getting boxes asking for text, such as 'Image Description' and nowhere to actually click to upload or drag and drop. Aah well.

[Laurie_]

Hey there @Roxy222uk,

Just jumping in here with some more information while @Breffni is out of the office!

I can confirm that those additional menu items (E.g. Collect Customer Emails) become available once you commence your free trial or subscription. 

So long as you have received your customers' consent and they are showing as 'subscribed' in your Customer Directory, my understanding is that there are no limits to the number of customers you select to send your campaigns to during the free trial period. Once the trial period has concluded, and you decide to proceed with your Square Marketing subscription, you will be charged based on the number of subscribed customers in your Customer Directory.

Don't hesitate to reach back out to us with any further questions here!

[Roxy222uk]

Thank you Laurie. I have created some campaign emails ready to go, but cannot see how to add an Unsubscribe button with working link? Could someone please explain how to do this?

[k_atie]

Hey @Roxy222uk, stepping in for Breffni and Laurie. 

The unsubscribe button is usually included in the footer of the marketing campaign automatically, so you wouldn't need to add it manually.  For your customers to unsubscribe from your email marketing, they can select Unsubscribe from the footer of the email they have received from you.

[Roxy222uk]

Hi Skyler, thank you for replying. So my first campaign was scheduled to go out today and it now says it's Completed but it didn't go to anyone! I selected Send to All Subscribers. Of course, as clarified above, I don't have any Subscribers, I just want it to go out to my customer list (who have all signed up for newsletters), but there's no option for that. Please can you tell me how I set up a campaign to go to my customer list?

[Roxy222uk]

[Roxy222uk]

"You can set the status of the email address to Subscribed, Unsubscribed or Unknown, by bulk editing them via CSV file" so sorry, I simply don't know how to do this. Or what it means, really.

[k_atie]

Hey @Roxy222uk, thanks for the reply. Happy to provide further context here. 

When sending marketing campaigns, a customer will be considered subscribed if they have opted in by scanning the QR code you printed, or if you obtained opt-in consent outside of Square and uploaded their information via CSV file. 

As for modifying their subscription status on the CSV file, follow the instructions on exporting your customer directory list below: 

1. Visit Customers in your online Square Dashboard.
2. Click Import / Export > Export Customers.
3. Select the groups you’d like to export customers from. If a customer exists in multiple groups, they will only be exported once.
4. Click Download.

A .CSV file will download to your computer, which you can open using Excel or other common spreadsheet software. The information available in the spreadsheet is for customers that have been manually assigned to a transaction or who have been manually imported via your dashboard. From there, you should be able to alter their subscription status. 

Learn more about Customer Directory in our Support Centre.

[Roxy222uk]

Will it be obvious how to do this? I just feel like I am going to export them and sit and stare at a spread sheet with no clue. And then when I upload my csv file again will Square now know they are all subscribed without me having to do anything else? (all my customers have legitimately chosen to sign up for newsletters, on paper)

[k_atie]

Once you have downloaded the CSV file, you should be able to view your customer's subscription status on the second last column, like in the last screenshot below. 

Then once you have them edited, you can re-import them by clicking the button like so below. 

[Roxy222uk]

Thank you, I will try that. Can I please ask how I subscribe each new customer that I add?

[k_atie]

No problem @Roxy222uk. A customer is considered subscribed if they have opted in to receive your marketing communication. The only way you can obtain opt-in consent for marketing communications through Square at this time is by printing the QR code from the Marketing tab in your Square Dashboard (under Settings). All other consent needs to be obtained outside of Square.

The customer will have to opt themselves in. 

[Roxy222uk]

Sorry, I didn't word the question correctly. My customers opt in by signing up on my stall, so that's all covered. What I mean is that I will bulk edit all the customers I have right now, but each weekend I get more, so do I have to export the entire list each time to edit the next 'intake' and the then import?

[k_atie]

Ahhhh okay, gotcha @Roxy222uk. Thank you for clarifying. 

No, if you bulk edit your current customers to change their subscription status, you will not need to bulk edit any future customers so long as they are explicitly opt-in to receiving marketing emails, such as they do now at your stall.