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Automation Introduction

This section will cover the types of automations, how to setup automations, and help you understand which settings to use to optimize your automation.

What is an Automation?

Automations are tasks that are automatically accomplished by LoopSpark. Automations are all tied to Audience Segments, so before reading this article please make sure you understand how Filters and Segments work.

Automation Actions

There are currently 4 main Actions attached to automations:

  1. Send an email - Send an email to all clients in your chosen segment using the email address in the client's MINDBODY profile.
  2. Send an SMS - Send an SMS text message to all clients in your chosen segment using the phone number in their client profile. More Information on Texting
  3. Add a To-Do - Add a to-do /task list item for all the clients in your chosen segment. Learn more about to-do / tasks
  4. Tag - Automatically add or remove tags from client profiles. To learn more about using tags in client profiles, please read the following help documents: Client Profile - Tags and Filters - Client Tags

SMS vs Email - Which is best to use?

Action Best Practices: Using the right communication channel is just as important as targeting the right users with the right message, at the right time.

Action Type Best Use
Text Message Transactional
Email Marketing
To-Do Assign tasks to staff

We notice higher unsubscribe rates when using text messages for mass marketing. To best respect your customers and avoid the dreadful unsubscribe, we recommend only using texts for transactional communications or very targeted marketing. For more information on texting best practices, visit the help document for SMS Best Practices.

Automation Type

There are 2 types of automations, Continuous and One Time Only

Continuous Automations

Communications will be sent to users whenever their client data matches the filters in your selected audience segment. For to-do items, users will continuously be added to your to-do list as they match the audience segment filters.

Continuous Automations Example

First Visit follow-up - we want to send a follow-up text after anyone signs-in for their first visit.

Send this communication to any client after their first visit

How frequently will continuous automations trigger for the same client?

Continuous automations can be configured to trigger only one time per client, or multiple times for the same client.

When setting up an audience that does not contain any dates ranges (example: Club Count = 50), the automation will only trigger one time per client.

If a filter containing a date range (or multiple filters containing date ranges) is added to your audience, a client will be eligible to trigger a continuous automation at the cadence of the largest date range included in your audience segment.

Example audience segment for continuous triggering:

Rule 1:

  • Package Purchased = Monthly Unlimited
  • Package Purchase Date = in the last 30 days

Rule 2:

  • Booking Count = 0 bookings
  • Booking Status = attended
  • Booking Event Start Date = in the last 90 days

The above segment contains 2 date ranges: in the last 30 days and in the last 90 days. The above segment would trigger for the same client every 90 days (larger of the 2 date ranges included) as long as the client still meets all other audience criteria.

One Time Only

Communications are intended to be sent only once, such as a newsletter. For To-DO items, only users currently matching the segment filters will be added to your to-do list.

One Time Only Example

Black Friday Promotion - we want to notify all local clients of a promotion we are running on Black Friday.

Send email to everyone who lives within 10 miles with a promotion running this week only.

Delivery Window

Set additional scheduling parameters to define what time of the day your communications will be delivered.

Send Anytime

Use this scheduling for urgent messages that need to be delivered immediately, such as cancelled class notifications.

Set Delivery Window

Set a timeframe for when you want communications delivered (ie 6:00am - 8:00pm local time). In order to prevent users receiving messages too early in the morning or too late at night, we recommend setting a delivery window between your normal hours of operation.

IMPORTANT: Delivery Window can prevent messages from sending

Delivery window end time can prevent messages from being sent.

Example: Text Message sent after clients first visit

  • Delivery Window - 7:00am - 8:00pm
  • Trigger filter: Visit First = Today

  • Class Time - 7:00pm - 8:00pm

    Example client would NOT receive a text message in this scenario. Class sign-in is validated within an hour after a class ends to avoid late cancelation and absences from triggering communications. The above client would not receive a text message, as their first class would not be validated as signed-in until an hour after the delivery window.

TIP: End delivery window at least 1.5 hours after your last class ends

In order to ensure delivery window doesn't prevent clients from receiving messages, set you delivery window end time at least 1.5 hours after your final class ends.

Start Time

Set a start time for your automation to go live. One Time Only automations will become active after this time, Continuous automations will begin at this time and continue as new users enter the audience segment, until the automation is paused.

Start Time Options

  1. After date/time - Automated tasks will become active after selected date and time.
  2. Off - Automation will be disabled / paused until manually enabled.

TIP: Start time set to Off

For email and SMS automations, keep your start time set to off, this will give you one last chance to double check your segment before messaging your audience. If you double checked your segment and still do not feel 100% confident your audience segment is correct, please email, we're here to help!