Build and Send Your First WiFi Re-Engagement Campaign

Why Re-Engagement Campaigns Work

Guests who joined your WiFi already chose your venue once. A re-engagement email does not have to persuade a stranger. It reminds a past guest that you exist and gives them a reason to come back. Because the list is made of people who were physically in your venue and agreed to hear from you, the message can be personal in a way an ad cannot.

Before you start: campaigns go to guests recorded as opted in to marketing. On VoqadoWiFi "opted in" means the guest ticked the separate, unticked marketing box on the login. Email campaigns are a Growth plan feature and are not live yet: you can write, save and schedule campaigns today, and sending starts once guest email is live at your venue.

Step 1: Choose Your Segment: Lapsed Guests

Open Campaigns in the sidebar and click New Campaign. In the audience choice, pick At-Risk: guests with at least two visits and none in the last 30 days, the same definition the Guests screen and the Analytics segments use. If you run more than one venue, use the venue picker so guests only hear about the place they visited. The other ready-made audiences are All Guests, New Visitors, Returning, Regular, VIP and Birthday Month.

Step 2: Name Your Campaign and Pick a Template

Give the campaign a clear internal name such as "Lapsed 30 days, October". Start from the Win-Back or Welcome Back template rather than a blank page; you will rewrite most of it, but the layout is a sensible start.

Step 3: Write Your Subject Line

The subject line decides whether the email is opened. For a lapsed guest, warm and personal works better than a discount shouted in capitals: "We haven't seen you in a while, {first_name}" or "Your table at {venue_name} is waiting". `{first_name}` and `{venue_name}` are the merge tags the editor supports. Avoid leading with the discount ("20% off, come back!"), which teaches guests to wait for offers. Keep it short, because phones cut long subject lines off.

Step 4: Write the Email Body

The Email Builder is a drag-and-drop block editor. A re-engagement email needs three parts:

• Opening: acknowledge the gap warmly, not apologetically. "It's been a while since we saw you."
• Middle: a genuine reason to return: a new dish, a seasonal special, an event, or simply that you would like to see them.
• One call to action: "Book a table", "See this week's menu" or "Come and say hello". One link, not five.

Keep it under about 120 words. Write it as the person who runs the venue would say it.

Step 5: Set the Send Time

Choose Schedule rather than sending immediately, and pick a time when your guests are likely to be planning their week, such as a weekday morning. The time you enter is in your browser's local time, so check it if you are scheduling from another time zone. There is no universal best hour; try two different send times over two campaigns and compare.

Step 6: Preview on Mobile

Open the Inbox Preview and switch to mobile. Check that the subject line does not cut off mid-word, images load, the button is easy to tap, and the text is readable without zooming. Most guests will read this on the phone they used to join your WiFi.

Step 7: Schedule vs Send Now

If you have something happening in the next day or two, such as an event or a limited dish, send now. Otherwise schedule it. Once saved, the campaign appears under the Scheduled filter on the Campaigns page, alongside Draft, Sent and Failed.

Step 8: Read Your Post-Send Analytics

A day or two after sending, open the campaign from the Sent filter to see its open and click rates. Opens are an imperfect signal, because some mail apps load images automatically.

The number that matters is how many recipients came back, and the email report does not show it. Check it yourself: two weeks after sending, export your guest list from CRM and look at the Last visit column for the people who were in the At-Risk audience. Better still, hold back a small group of lapsed guests who do not get the email and compare the two. If opens are good but nobody returns, the offer or the call to action needs work. If opens are poor, test a different subject line next time.