Marketing & Automation
HeyChief helps you stay in touch with customers without drowning in manual outreach. Campaigns let you reach many customers at once. Automations trigger messages based on events—so the right message goes to the right person at the right time.
Inbox vs. Marketing
An important distinction:
| Inbox | Marketing |
|---|---|
| Reactive | Proactive |
| 1-to-1 conversations | 1-to-many broadcasts |
| "They reached out" | "We're reaching out" |
| Reply to a message | Start a conversation |
When you send a marketing message and someone replies, that reply appears in your Inbox. The conversation continues there. Marketing starts the conversation; Inbox continues it.
Campaigns
A Campaign is a one-time message sent to a group of customers. Think newsletters, announcements, promotions.
Campaign types
| Type | Best for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Longer content, visuals, links | Monthly newsletter, holiday sale | |
| SMS | Short, urgent, high open rates | Flash sale, appointment reminder |
Both types support personalization (customer name, last service, etc.) and tracking (opens, clicks, replies).
Building a Campaign
1. Choose your audience
Target customers by:
- Segment – VIP, At Risk, New, etc.
- Tag – Custom tags you've applied
- Service – Customers who've used a specific service
- Date range – Last visit within/outside a timeframe
- Location – Customers in a specific area
Example audiences:
| Audience | Query |
|---|---|
| Win-back | Last visit > 60 days ago |
| Upsell | Used "Basic Cleaning" but not "Deep Clean" |
| Local promo | ZIP code starts with 92101 |
| Birthday | Birthday this month |
2. Write your message
Write it yourself, or ask Chief:
"Write an email for customers who haven't been in 60 days. Offer 15% off their next visit."
Chief drafts in your voice, using your business context. Edit as needed.
Personalization tokens:
| Token | Becomes |
|---|---|
{{first_name}} | Sarah |
{{last_service}} | "AC Tune-Up" |
{{days_since_visit}} | 45 |
3. Schedule or send
| Option | Use case |
|---|---|
| Send now | Time-sensitive message |
| Schedule | Optimize timing (Tuesday 10am, etc.) |
| Draft | Save for later |
Campaign lifecycle
Draft → Scheduled → Sending → Sent
Once sent, you can view:
- Delivered – How many messages were sent
- Opened – How many were opened (email)
- Clicked – How many clicked a link
- Replied – How many replied (triggers Inbox conversation)
- Unsubscribed – How many opted out
Best practices
- Segment tightly. A message to 50 relevant customers beats a message to 500 irrelevant ones.
- Respect opt-outs. HeyChief automatically removes unsubscribed customers from future campaigns.
- Don't overdo it. One email a month is plenty for most service businesses. More than that risks fatigue.
- Make it valuable. A discount, useful information, or genuine check-in. Not just "please come back."
Automation
An Automation is a rule that triggers messages based on events. Instead of manually sending a review request after every job, you set it up once and it runs forever.
How Automations work
Every automation has:
- Trigger – The event that starts it
- Conditions – Optional filters
- Delay – How long to wait
- Action – What happens
Example: Send a review request 24 hours after a job is completed.
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Job marked completed |
| Conditions | Customer has email or phone |
| Delay | 24 hours |
| Action | Send SMS: "Thanks for choosing us! Would you mind leaving a review?" |
Common automations
Post-service follow-up
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| Job completed | Send thank-you message (immediate) |
| Job completed | Send review request (24h delay) |
| Job completed | Send rebooking reminder (30 days later) |
Quote follow-up
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| Quote sent, not responded (3 days) | Send follow-up email |
| Quote sent, not responded (7 days) | Send "any questions?" SMS |
| Quote declined | Send "thanks anyway, here's a discount" email |
Payment reminders
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| Invoice due in 3 days | Send friendly reminder |
| Invoice overdue 7 days | Send firmer reminder |
| Invoice paid | Send thank-you |
Customer lifecycle
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| New customer created | Start welcome sequence |
| Customer hasn't visited in 60 days | Send win-back offer |
| Customer birthday | Send birthday discount |
Building automations
From the Marketing workspace:
- Go to Automation
- Click New Automation
- Choose a trigger (job completed, quote sent, customer created, etc.)
- Set conditions (optional)
- Set delay (optional)
- Choose action (send email, send SMS, create task)
- Write the message (or ask Chief)
- Activate
Sequences
For more complex flows, you can chain multiple actions into a Sequence:
New Customer Created
├── Immediately: Send welcome email
├── Day 3: Send "how to get the most out of our service" email
├── Day 7: Send review request
└── Day 30: Send rebooking reminder
If the customer takes an action (books again, leaves a review), you can exit them from the sequence.
Automation vs. Campaign
| Automation | Campaign |
|---|---|
| Runs continuously | One-time send |
| Triggered by events | Triggered by you |
| Personal (1 customer at a time) | Broadcast (many at once) |
| "When X happens, do Y" | "Right now, reach these people" |
Both are important. Automations handle the routine stuff so you don't forget. Campaigns let you make announcements and run promotions.
Chief and Marketing
Chief can help with:
- Audience building – "Find customers who've spent over $500 but haven't been in 2 months"
- Message drafting – "Write a win-back email for these customers"
- Timing suggestions – "Your customers tend to open emails on Tuesday mornings"
- Performance analysis – "How did my last campaign perform compared to previous ones?"
Tips
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Start with review requests. This single automation can transform your online reputation. 24h after job completion, every time.
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Don't automate everything. Some messages should be personal. Automations are for the predictable stuff.
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Test before activating. Send yourself a test message to make sure it looks right.
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Monitor and adjust. If an automation has low engagement, tweak the message or timing.
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Respect frequency. A customer who got a campaign yesterday shouldn't get an automation today. HeyChief can suppress overlapping messages.
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Keep messages short. Especially for SMS. Get to the point.