ApptOnly's marketing tools let you email your client list directly. Used well, this is the highest-ROI marketing channel a solo practice has. Used carelessly, you can wear out a list fast or land in spam. This guide walks through the first send without either failure mode.
Before you start
Make sure these are in place:
- Marketing is on for your plan. Marketing campaigns require a paid tier with marketing tools enabled.
- You have at least 20 to 30 active clients on your list. A list this small is the right size for personal-feeling messages; if your list is fewer than 10, you can email them by hand and skip campaigns entirely.
- Your business name and reply-to email are set under Settings, Marketing. This is what shows up in the From line.
Step 1: Build the list
Go to Marketing, Campaigns, New campaign. The first screen asks you to pick a list:
- All active clients — anyone who has booked in the last 12 months.
- Active subset — a date-range filter (e.g., "last booked between 2 and 12 months ago" for a win-back campaign).
- By service — clients who have booked a specific service.
- By tag — if you have tagged clients ("VIP," "monthly regular," etc.).
ApptOnly automatically suppresses clients who have unsubscribed or whose email has hard-bounced. You do not need to filter for those manually.
Step 2: Write the message
The message has three required parts:
- Subject line — the most important piece. Keep it short (under 50 characters), specific, and personal. "Spring availability is open" beats "BIG NEWS for our amazing community!!!".
- Preview text — the snippet of preview text most email clients show below the subject. Use it for one extra hook.
- Body — your actual message. The editor supports basic formatting. Templates are available for common scenarios (rebooking nudge, seasonal offer, schedule change, announcement).
A few principles that work:
- One ask per email. Do not bundle "we have new hours" and "here's a spring promo" and "we changed our cancellation policy."
- A clear call to action. A button that says "Book your next session" beats a paragraph that invites them to "reach out anytime."
- Personal voice. You are not Mailchimp. Write like you are texting a regular.
Step 3: Preview and test
Send a test to yourself. Open it in Gmail and on your phone. Check:
- The subject reads well in your inbox preview.
- Images load.
- Links go to the right place.
- It does not look squashed on mobile.
Step 4: Send
You can send now or schedule for a specific time. Best times are typically Tuesday or Wednesday mornings, but your own client patterns matter more than any general rule.
After sending, the campaign report fills in over the next few days:
- Open rate (how many recipients opened the email).
- Click rate (how many clicked through).
- Booking attribution (how many recipients booked within 7 days of opening, or 14 days of clicking, the campaign).
Compliance
ApptOnly handles the legal compliance basics for you:
- CAN-SPAM — every campaign email includes an unsubscribe link, your business name, and a physical address (the one you configure under Settings, Business).
- Unsubscribes — one-click unsubscribes are tracked automatically. Once a client unsubscribes, they will not receive future marketing emails, but transactional emails (confirmations, reminders, receipts) still go through.
- Audit log — every send is recorded with the list, the message, and the timestamp. If a client complains they should not have received it, you can pull the record.
Frequency
Most solo practices send 1 to 2 marketing emails per month. More than 4 per month and unsubscribe rates climb. Less than once a quarter and the list goes cold.
A useful pattern: one monthly newsletter-ish email with a single ask, plus occasional one-off announcements when there is real news.