Email and SMS Opt-In & Opt-Out

Marketing opt-in is how a Customer agrees to receive your Club's promotional emails and text messages. Use this when you need to collect consent, look up a Customer's current preference, or turn marketing email or SMS on or off for them.

These preferences apply only to marketing messages from your Club (newsletters, promotions, announcements). They do not control automated PodPlay emails such as booking confirmations, login codes, or receipts. See Automated Emails.

Turn on marketing opt-in for your Club

The checkboxes and switches in this guide appear only after the matching channel is turned on for your Club.

1. Navigate to Company Settings
2. Open the Email tab
3. Scroll to Marketing Settings

Marketing Settings includes:

• Show email marketing opt-in — shows the email consent checkbox at signup and the Email switch on Profiles
• Email marketing opt-in by default — starts the email checkbox checked during signup (only available after email opt-in is shown)
• Email permission text — the sentence Customers read next to the email checkbox
• Show SMS marketing opt-in — shows the SMS consent checkbox when a Customer adds a phone number and the Phone switch on Profiles
• SMS permission text — the sentence Customers read next to the SMS checkbox

If neither Show email marketing opt-in nor Show SMS marketing opt-in is on:

• Customers do not see Contact Preferences in the App
• Staff do not see Marketing permissions on the Customer's Profile

Only a PodPlay Admin can change Marketing Settings. If you want this turned on, or you want different permission wording, contact your PodPlay CSM.

Default permission text, if your Club has not customized it:

• Email: "I want to receive email updates about events and announcements"
• SMS: "I want to receive updates about events and announcements via SMS"

How a Customer opts in

Email, during Profile creation

When Show email marketing opt-in is on, a checkbox appears on the signup form with your Club's Email permission text.

• If Email marketing opt-in by default is off, the box starts unchecked. The Customer must check it to opt in.
• If Email marketing opt-in by default is on, the box starts checked. The Customer can uncheck it to opt out.

SMS, when adding a phone number

When Show SMS marketing opt-in is on, a checkbox appears when the Customer adds or verifies a phone number — during signup if a phone number is required, or later from Account Info.

• The SMS box always starts unchecked. There is no "opt in by default" setting for SMS.
• The Customer must check the box to opt in to marketing texts.

If staff create a Profile from the Dashboard, the Customer starts opted out of both email and SMS. Adding a phone number from the Dashboard does not opt the Customer into SMS. Either the Customer or staff can turn the switches on later.

How a Customer changes their preference later

A Customer can turn marketing email or SMS on or off at any time:

1. Open the App
2. Go to the More tab
3. Click Account
4. Click Preferences
5. Under Contact Preferences, toggle Email marketing communications and/or SMS marketing communications

The description under each toggle is the same permission text configured in Marketing Settings.

How staff change a Customer's preference

Staff who can open a Customer Profile can view the same preferences there, without asking the Customer to open the App.

1. Navigate to Customers
2. Search for and open the Customer
3. Expand Contact Info
4. In Marketing permissions, toggle Email and/or Phone

Changes save immediately. There is no separate Save step for these switches.

A confirmation message appears when the update succeeds. If the update fails, the switch returns to the previous value.

Email is the Customer's email marketing opt-in. Phone is the Customer's SMS marketing opt-in. These are the same values the Customer sees under Contact Preferences in the App.

Owner, Admin, Manager, and PodPlay Admin roles can change these switches. Front Desk roles can see them but cannot change them. Viewer roles cannot open the Customer Profile drawer.

Review opt-in status in an export

If your role can export Customers, use Export on the All Customers tab. The CSV includes:

• Email Marketing OptIn (Yes or No)
• Email Marketing OptIn Last Updated
• SMS Marketing OptIn (Yes or No)
• SMS Marketing OptIn Last Updated

Use this when you need a list of who has consented, or when you are checking a marketing list against PodPlay.

How preferences reach your marketing tools

When a Customer or staff member changes a marketing preference, PodPlay records it and sends the update to connected marketing tools.

• GrowMyClub pulls email and SMS opt-in status from PodPlay. If a Customer unsubscribes in GrowMyClub, or replies STOP to a text, that opt-out is pushed back to PodPlay.
• Tools connected through Segment (MailChimp, ActiveCampaign) receive email and SMS opt-in as Customer traits, plus a marketing_preferences_updated event when the preference changes.

Opt-outs are always honored and are not silently turned back on.

Tips

• Opting out of marketing does not stop booking confirmations, login codes, password resets, or other automated system emails. If a Customer is upset about those, see Automated Emails.
• A Customer who never checked the box, and whose Profile was created by staff, is opted out until someone turns the switch on.
• SMS consent is first offered when a phone number is added. After that, the Customer or staff can change it anytime. A Customer with no phone number cannot receive marketing texts even if email marketing is on.
• If Marketing permissions is missing from a Profile, the Club-level Show email marketing opt-in and Show SMS marketing opt-in settings are both off.
• After you change a preference in the Dashboard, connected marketing tools update on their normal sync schedule (for GrowMyClub, about every 15 minutes).