Every golfer has one marketing preference. It covers marketing by email and on their wallet pass, including location messages. It is Opted in, Opted out or Not asked. Opted-out golfers never receive marketing.
What counts as marketing
Marketing, and follows the golfer's preference:
- Push campaigns, sent now or scheduled
- Automation "Send wallet message" steps, unless the step is set to Account message. Steps on a house-account balance trigger are account messages by default, such as a low-balance alert. Account messages are not for promotions.
- Bulk push from the Customers list
- Location messages on the lock screen
Account messages, and always go out:
- Pass delivery, sign-in links and signup confirmations
- Balance updates, statements, transfer codes and receipts
- A push you send to one golfer from their profile, and tee-time messages. Use these for messages about that golfer's account or booking, not for promotions.
If a golfer is left out of a message, the rest of an automation still runs for them, including credit and tags.
Add your postal address
Go to Settings > Marketing consent and add your postal address. It is required for sending marketing and appears at the bottom of marketing emails.
Accounts that existed before this feature have 30 days. After that, and straight away for new accounts, marketing stops until you add one: push campaigns show as failed with the reason, automation message steps are skipped (the rest of the flow still runs), and passes are signed without location messages. Account messages are not affected.
Golfers who haven't been asked
Settings > Marketing consent > Golfers who haven't been asked decides what "Not asked" means. An owner can change it.
- Opt-in required. Only golfers who said yes get marketing.
- Existing customers. Golfers get marketing unless they opt out.
Until you choose, US accounts start on Existing customers and every other country on Opt-in required. Without a country on file, accounts in US dollars count as US. This is a legal decision for your business, so check the rules where you and your golfers are. PocketPass can't give legal advice.
When this feature arrived, golfers who ticked the consent box on your signup page, or are marked as consenting in Lightspeed Golf, became Opted in. Golfers who left the box unticked became Opted out. Everyone else is Not asked. A golfer who had made different choices for email and wallet messages now has one preference: Opted out if they opted out of either, otherwise Opted in if they opted in to either.
Settings > Marketing consent also shows how many of your golfers are opted in, opted out and not asked.
How golfers opt out
Every way of opting out stops all marketing, by email and on the wallet pass.
- The link on their pass. The back of the wallet pass has a Marketing messages link that opens a page with no sign-in.
- The member portal. The Profile tab has one News and offers switch.
- Marketing emails. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link and supports the one-click unsubscribe button in Gmail and Apple Mail.
- Telling you. Open the customer's profile and edit Marketing.
Unsubscribe links only opt people out. To opt back in, a golfer signs in to the portal, or you record it on their profile. Only mark someone as opted in if they asked for it.
An opt-out also removes location messages from their pass, which can take a few minutes to reach their phone.
An opt-out here doesn't change Lightspeed Golf, so update it there too if you also market from Lightspeed.
Your signup page
Under Customer portal, marketing consent is either Off or Ask. Ask shows one optional box, covering email and the wallet pass. By default it reads "Send me news and offers from (your club) by email and on my wallet pass", and you can change the wording. Signing up never depends on ticking it, so any page that used Required now behaves as Ask. An unticked box records an opt-out. PocketPass keeps the wording each golfer saw as your proof of consent.
Bounces and complaints
If an email bounces permanently, PocketPass stops sending to that address, including account emails, for every club. If a golfer marks your email as spam, your club stops emailing them and their marketing preference becomes Opted out, so they also stop getting marketing on their pass.
If the address works again, open the customer's profile and choose Turn email back on. Their pass email then shows as sent rather than "suppressed" in their activity. If the address still bounces, it is suppressed again.
Keep promotions out of pass emails
Pass emails go to everyone regardless of preference, because they deliver the pass. Don't add offers to them. PocketPass warns you when you save wording that reads like a promotion.
Using the API
Customers return marketingStatus (unknown, opted_in or opted_out), the golfer's one marketing preference. Set it on create and update. marketingConsent still works as a true or false version of it. emailMarketingStatus and pushMarketingStatus are still returned and accepted for older integrations, but they are always equal to marketingStatus, and setting either one changes both. If you send more than one of these fields, they must agree.