Automatically welcome new customers

Automation for welcoming new users to your online shop or website is a campaign designed to establish a strong relationship with customers right from the start and the moment they begin actively using your website.

Automation goal

The objective of welcome automation is to automatically send an email to customers who have recently registered on your online shop. This allows you to establish an immediate connection with them as they actively engage with your website. This not only saves you time and boosts the chances of making a purchase, but also enhances the likelihood of future interactions with your online shop.

Welcome automation is triggered when a new contact is added to the mailing list, and the first email is then sent automatically. This email can contain a simple welcome message and an introduction to the online shop as well as a promo code. Subsequent messages can be scheduled to follow over time.

Therefore, there is no need to manually write and send welcome messages, thank-you notes, or promo codes; Boldem app takes care of all these actions for you automatically. This not only saves you time, but also enables you to establish a relationship with new customers right from the start.

Prerequisites

To create an automation, you will require:

• Activated Boldem Profi plan.
• Online shop or other kind of website integrated with your Boldem account.
• Fully verified sending domain.
• Mailing list where you want to save new recipients.
• Transactional template – the message you intend to send to the recipient.
• Subscription form (optional) – you do not need a subscription form if you want to automatically send messages only to recipients who newly register in your online shop integrated with Boldem. However, if you are collecting recipients for your newsletter through your blog or other sources outside of your online shop, using a subscription form becomes essential.
• Promo codes (optional) – if you decide to offer promo codes to customers as part of your welcome message, you will need to add them first.

See the sections below for details on each step.

Integrating website or online shop with your Boldem account

To ensure that Boldem can efficiently retrieve data from your website (online shop or other systems/apps) and make the most of its features including automation and subscription forms, you must first integrate your website with your Boldem account. The following options are available:

• Generic integration that enables you to embed a form on your website for data collection.
• Instant integration of your online shop running on Shoptet or Upgates platforms to seamlessly sync your contact database, shopping cart details, and order data.
• Advanced integration of any website or online shop on any platform allows you to display forms, synchronize contacts, orders or shopping cart data. However, such integration requires the intervention of a developer who will create a customized integration for you.

A Boldem account with the Profi plan or higher is required for full functionality of the integration (the Standard plan only allows synchronization of recipients with ready-made integrations). You can upgrade to the Profi plan at any time via Billing. If you encounter difficulties when upgrading to a higher plan, please contact your salesperson or our customer support via email, phone, or chat.

• Integrating your Shoptet store with Boldem.
• Integrating your Upgates store with Boldem.
• Integrating other websites with Boldem.

If you plan to use automation only to collect contacts via a subscription form, simply integrate your website with Boldem following the steps below:

1. Log into the Boldem app.
2. Select Settings from the left-hand menu and click Websites.
3. On the right side of the dialog, click Add website.

4. Enter the URL of your website’s domain and click Add website.

5. A code will be displayed, and you can copy it to your clipboard either by clicking the copy icon or by manually copying it.

6. Embed the code on your website’s pages where you want to track visitor activity or display forms. Ideally, you should place the code in the header of the page.

Mailing list

If you have not yet created a suitable mailing list to store newly registered customers, click Mailing lists/Create a mailing list to complete the creation of a new list. Remember the name of the list.

Transactional template

Only so-called transactional templates can be used in automations. You can set up any smart template as a transactional template. The prerequisite for a successful transactional template is a fully verified sending domain. You can manage the sending domain in Settings/Domains.

You can create a transactional template by following the procedures below. This method also allows you to modify an already existing smart template. If you wish to work with an existing template, open it and continue with step 4:

1. Log into Boldem and navigate to Templates.
2. Click Create a new template and select Create a smart template.
3. Choose whether you want to edit a ready-made template from the gallery, start working with a sample template, or start from scratch with a blank template.
4. Click the gear icon. The Information tab appears.

5. On the Information tab, fill in the template name, subject, and preheader.

6. Activate the transactional features by toggling on the Template is for transactional emails (automations and API) switch. This action will reveal additional transactional template fields.
7. Fill in Sender’s email, Sender’s name, and select your Domain router from the drop-down menu.

8. In the upper-right corner, click Done and select Save and leave.

Subscription form

The subscription form is used to store user data into the Boldem mailing list. You can use it if you want to subscribe the user to your newsletter or to reach unregistered users of your online shop.

If you have your online shop integrated with Boldem using a ready-made solution (Upgates, Shoptet), new customers are automatically saved to your selected mailing list, so you do not need a subscription form for this purpose.

In order for the subscription form to appear on your integrated website, you must first create it in your Boldem account:

1. Click Forms and select Create a new form.
2. Fill in the name of the form. This information is for your reference.
3. Select the list to which you want to save the recipients from the Primary mailing list drop-down menu.
4. From the Website drop-down menu, select the website that you have integrated with Boldem and on which you want to display forms.
5. Optionally, enter a description of the form for your reference and click Create a form.
6. The form editor is displayed. Click Insert content.
7. The left-hand menu will open, offering various elements that you can incorporate into your form. At the very least, you should include a text field for data entry and a button for form submission.
8. Drag the Text field block onto the editor canvas on the right.
9. Click inside the text box. Modification of the block appears on the left.
10. If you wish to use the form to collect email addresses, select Email from the Custom field where the data will be stored drop-down menu.
11. Edit the title and description of the text field to your suit your preferences.
12. Click the grid icon to view a list of content blocks.

13. Drag the Button block onto the canvas on the right. Typically, the button is placed below the text field.
14. To modify the button style, click on it and choose your preferred properties. You can also include extra content like images or additional text and make adjustments to colors, background, or add a close button to the form, etc.
15. Once you are happy with the changes, click the Enable button at the top of the page.
16. Save the form by clicking Done and selecting Save and leave.
    Note: The form background shows the page of the sending domain rather than the website where you plan to display the form. Your website address can be found in Settings/Websites.

By default, the subscription form is displayed to each visitor only once and immediately after all pages on the integrated website are loaded. Select Window configuration from the Settings tab to customize the behavior and display of the form:

• For testing purposes, it may be practical to temporarily display the form repeatedly. To do this, switch off the Show only once toggle. When testing is complete, make sure to revert the settings.
• By default, the form is displayed immediately after the page loads. In the Trigger type drop-down menu, you can choose when you want to display the form.
• If you want to display the form only on specific pages of your website, select the appropriate option in the Condition to show the form drop-down menu.
• If necessary, you can also restrict the form to certain IP addresses only.

Promo codes

If you decide to motivate your users to make purchases using promo codes, it is practical to assign a unique promo code to each user. Before incorporating promo codes into a template, you must input them into the system either through manual entry or by importing them from a file:

1. Go to Settings/Promo codes.
2. Click All groups and select Add group.
3. Enter the group name, select the group color, and confirm with Add.
4. Click New promo code.
5. Choose an expiry date in the Select expiry date drop-down menu. The date should match the date you have opted for in the online store, through which promo codes are being generated.
   • No expiration – all imported promo codes can be used for unlimited time.
   • Single expiry date – there is a set expiry date and time for all imported promo codes. Once selected, a field will appear and further request a date to be specified.
   • Individual expiry date – each imported promo code has a defined expiration date and time. To proceed with this option, two columns in the imported file must be filled in: one with the promo codes, and one with the expiry date(and time).
6. If you wish to import a file containing promo codes, click Select a file and confirm by clicking Create.

7. A small number of promo codes can also be imported manually by entering them into the Promo codes field. If this is the choice you opt for, make sure each promo code is written on a separate row. If you also wish to add an expiry date after the promo code, choose Individual expiry date from the Select expiry date drop-down menu and add a semicolon ;, or a vertical bar | after the promo code. Behind this special character, insert the date and time format set in your account (see the note above), e. g.:

PromoCode11;29.3.2028 11:38
PromoCode12|29.3.2028 12:00

8. Confirm the dialogue by clicking Create.

Using promo codes in templates

Promo codes can be sorted into groups, each of which can be assigned different colours and names. Every group carries a unique identifier, e.g., {{coupons.group_794}}. Copy and paste the string into the templates you plan to use in campaigns or automations.

In the template, paste the copied identifier into the area of your liking. After dispatching a campaign, triggering an automation, or dispatching transactional emails, these identifiers will then show as unique promo codes.

Personalized salutation in templates

When creating a template intended for your customers, always consider how the salutation at the beginning will appear to them.

Automatic declension of first names

Boldem offers automatic declension of first names into the 5th case – vocative. The variable Vocative is used to generate salutations. Use this variable by inserting the following string into the template:

{{ vokativ contact.name }}

After dispatching the message, this string will be replaced with the recipient’s first name in the correct vocative form. For example, if the recipient’s first name is Jana, the template will display Jano. Alternatively, if you want to choose a more familiar approach with Ahoj Jano (Hi Jana), use the following string:

Ahoj {{ vokativ contact.name }},

For example, if your goal is to express gratitude for registering, use the following string:

Thank you for your registration, {{ vokativ contact.name }}!

Automatic last name declension with gender distinction

In a vast number of personalized salutations, not only do you need to correctly spell both the first and last names, but also to change the salutation to match the person’s gender. Since Boldem allows you to enter the gender of recipients, using the designated variable should make this process a walk in the park.

If you have set the gender of your recipients, you can use the string below in the template instead of manually addressing recipients:

Thank you for your registration {{ if contact.sex != null }}{{ if contact.sex == 1 }}, Mr. {{ end }}{{ if contact.sex == 0 }}, Mrs. {{ end }}{{ vokativ contact.surname }}!{{ else }}!{{ end }}

This string is actually a script code that evaluates whether the recipient has the correct gender setting, thus applying the salutation accordingly:

• If the gender is set to Male and the recipient’s last name is Novák, the following salutation will be used: Thank you for your registration, Mr. Novák!
• If the gender is set to Female and the recipient’s last name is Svobodová, the following salutation will be used: Thank you for your registration, Mrs. Svobodová!
• If gender is not set, the following universal salutation will be used: Thank you for your registration!

Naturally, you can modify the text of the salutation (bold text in the example) to your liking. We recommend that you always test the salutation thoroughly on a small sample of test recipients using every possible variation (i.e. with both genders and a recipient without gender).

Automation scenarios

Before creating an automation scenario, define your objectives. Do you just want to thank recipients for signing up or subscribing to your newsletter? Motivate potential customers to make their first purchase? Or maybe you intend to send them a sequence of promotional, informative, or educational emails upon registration? There are many possibilities, and you have the freedom to tailor the automation to your preferences. Below, we have selected examples of welcome automations and their variations that you can set up in Boldem. The following list is by no means complete, and you are free to use your imagination to arrange the various automation blocks in any way that best suits your requirements:

• Welcoming users subscribed via subscription form
• Welcoming newly registered Shoptet and Upgates users

Automation scenario – welcoming users via subscription form

By sending a single email immediately after signing up to your newsletter or other content using a subscription form, this simple automated welcome campaign assists in welcoming visitors of your website.

Creating automation

1. Log into your Boldem account and navigate to Automations.
2. Click Create new automation.
3. Enter the Automation name and description. Both entries are for your reference and can be changed later on the Settings tab in the automation details.
4. Confirm your entry by clicking Create automation.

This will open the automation diagram, with an overview of the blocks you can use in the automation on the left and a canvas on the right where you will insert these blocks. To insert a block, simply drag and drop it onto the canvas.

When will the automation start?

The automation is triggered when a new recipient subscribes via the subscription form and is added to the selected mailing list.

Automation blocks

First, we need to add a trigger block to specify how the recipient will enter the automation:

1. Select the Triggers tab on the left, drag the Subscribes to a list block onto the canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the Mailing list drop-down menu select the list into which you want to save the recipients.
3. From the Select an action drop-down menu, select Recipient subscribed via a form.
4. Leave the other settings as default and click Save.

Now, add the block to dispatch the email:

1. Select the Actions tab on the left, drag the Send email block onto the automation canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the Template drop-down menu select the transactional template you want to send to the recipient.
3. Leave the other settings as default and click Save.

Connect the blocks.

You can further customize the automation to suit your specific requirements. For example, if you wish to send another email to the user after a different delay, simply follow the same steps as before: add the Wait and Send email blocks. You can adjust the delay duration over time and experiment to determine what works best for your customers. For additional ideas, you can explore the advanced automation for welcoming newly registered Shoptet and Upgates users below.

Once you are satisfied with the settings and number of blocks, save the automation by clicking Done/Save.

Test the automation thoroughly before starting! You can find the testing procedures in the Testing automation article. We recommend to take testing seriously and to start the automation only after proper testing.

Once you have completed the testing with a positive result, run the automation by clicking Run.

For general information on how to work with automations, see Working with automations in Boldem.

Welcoming newly registered Shoptet and Upgates users

This automated welcome campaign assists you in welcoming newly registered visitors to your Shoptet or Upgates online shopping platform. It starts by sending an email within 60 minutes of their registration, followed by a delay and dispatching of another email. These steps are optional, and it is completely up to you to choose how you wish to engage with your customers.

We will also show you a more advanced variation where you can target users based solely on their previous purchases. If they have not made a purchase yet, you can encourage them to do so.

Creating automation

1. Log into your Boldem account and navigate to Automations.
2. Click Create new automation.
3. Enter the Automation name and description. Both entries are for your reference and can be changed later on the Settings tab in the automation details.
4. Confirm your entry by clicking Create automation.

This will open the automation diagram, with an overview of the blocks you can use in the automation on the left and a canvas on the right where you will insert these blocks. To insert a block, simply drag and drop it onto the canvas.

When will the automation start?

The automation is triggered after a new recipient is saved to the mailing list you set up when you integrated your account with Shoptet or Upgates. Recipients are synced to the list every 60 minutes.

Automation blocks – dispatching emails with delays

First, we need to add a trigger block to specify how the recipient will enter the automation:

1. Select the Triggers tab on the left, drag the Subscribes to a list block onto the canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the Mailing list drop-down menu, select the list where your online shop customers are stored. This is the same mailing list you selected when you created the integration and can be found in Settings/Integrations.
3. From the Select an action drop-down menu, select Recipient subscribed via an integration.
4. Click Save.

Adding a block to send an email:

1. Select the Actions tab on the left, drag the Send email block onto the automation canvas and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. Select the transactional template you want to send to the recipient from the Template drop-down menu.
3. Leave the other settings as default and click Save.

Connect the blocks by dragging the mouse from the light point on the trigger block to the dark point on the action block.

Now, insert the block Wait to create a delay between dispatching the next email:

1. Select the Operators tab on the left, drag the Wait block onto the automation canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the drop-down menu, select Over a period of time and select a delay, e.g., 2 days.
3. Click Save.

4. Connect the Send email block to the newly added block.
5. Insert the Send email block again, but this time select a different template. The content of this template should vary from the previous email to provide additional motivation for the customer to read and respond.
6. Connect the blocks.

If you wish to send another email to the user after a different delay, simply follow the same steps as before: add the Wait and Send email blocks. You can adjust the delay duration over time and experiment to determine what works best for your customers.

Once you are satisfied with the settings and number of blocks, save the automation by clicking Done/Save.

Test the automation thoroughly before starting! You can find the testing procedures in the Testing automation article. We recommend to take testing seriously and to start the automation only after proper testing.

Once you have completed the testing with a positive result, run the automation by clicking Run.

Automation blocks – dispatching emails based on conditions

In many cases, you will want to approach your newly registered customers based on certain conditions, such as whether they have already made a purchase. Based on the results, you can then send them targeted messages with the necessary motivational content.

If you wish to add a delay and a condition to your automation to verify if a user has already made a purchase from your store and send different emails based on that, follow these steps:

Create a new automation and insert a trigger:

1. Select the Triggers tab on the left, drag the Subscribes to a list block onto the canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the Mailing list drop-down menu, select the list where your online shop customers are stored. This is the same mailing list you selected when you created the integration and can be found in Settings/Integrations.
3. From the Select an action drop-down menu, select Recipient subscribed via an integration.
4. Click Save.

The next step is to insert a delay block, specifically the Wait block, to introduce a delay between adding the recipient to the list and dispatching the email. You can adjust the delay duration in minutes, hours, or days. If you wish to reach the recipient quickly while they might still be active on their device, opt for a shorter delay in hours. However, if you want to provide the recipient with more time to consider, choose a delay of 1 day or more.

1. Select the Operators tab on the left, drag the Wait block onto the automation canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the drop-down menu, select Over a period of time and select a delay, e.g., 2 days, etc.
3. Click Save.

We shall insert a condition in this space to assess whether the recipient has previously made a purchase from your store. If they have, we shall send them a different email than to recipients who have not yet made a purchase.

1. Select the Operators tab on the left, drag the Condition block onto the automation canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. Click Select a new condition. A dialog will open to select the condition.
3. From the Source drop-down menu select Recipients’ activity on the web.
4. In the Select a website drop-down menu, select the previously integrated online shop. If you do not see the online shop in the menu, it may not have been integrated correctly. Verify the status in Settings/Integrations or integrate your online shop with Boldem.
5. From the Recipients’ activity on the web drop-down menu, select Completed a purchase in store.
6. In the Time limit drop-down menu, select either In the last X days or In the last X hours depending on how you want to reach your clients or what delay you selected in the previous block:
   • In the last X days – use it when you have added a delay before this condition, specifically with the Wait block set to a certain number of days. If your intention is to give the user some time to explore and decide, make sure the number of days in this condition matches the number of days you have set in the Wait block.
   • In the last X hours – use it if you have inserted the block Wait with a specific hour delay before this condition. Enter the same number here.

7. Click Save rule.
8. To save the entire block, click Save.

Now, add the block to dispatch the email:

1. Select the Actions tab on the left, drag the Send email block onto the automation canvas, and double-click it to display the block settings.
2. From the Template drop-down menu, select the transactional template for recipients who have not made a purchase within the specified time period.
3. Leave the other settings as default and click Save.
4. To connect the blocks, drag the link from No on the conditions block to the Send email block.

5. Repeat the insertion of the Send email block, but this time select a template to reach recipients who have made a purchase in our store during the specified time and choose a different message text.
6. To connect the blocks, drag the link from Yes on the conditions block to the Send email block.

You can further modify the automation to suit your preferences. If you wish to send another email to the user after a different delay, simply follow the same steps as before: add the Wait and Send email blocks. You can adjust the delay duration over time and experiment to determine what works best with your customers.

Once you are satisfied with the settings and number of blocks, save the automation by clicking Done/Save.

Test the automation thoroughly before starting! You can find the testing procedures in the Testing automation article. We recommend to take testing seriously and to start the automation only after proper testing.

Once you have completed the testing with a positive result, run the automation by clicking Run.