Member letters and the weekly digest: keep paying members close, for free

When Mosey earns on your membership, communication with your members comes free: up to four letters a month from your business, one of them a month also as an immediate push, plus the weekly "Your places" digest that members get. A letter is a short note with a headline, a photo and a sign-off, read inside the app and in the digest, not pushed at people by default. Write one good letter a week and your members stay close.

What is a member letter?

A letter is a short, personal piece you write to your members: a new dish, a story about the farm, an event only members are invited to, a thank you. It has a headline, a note, up to a few photos, an optional portrait of the person writing, cards that point to a real dish, special, event or perk of your business, and a sign-off. It is read in the Letters section of the app, on your page for members, and in the weekly digest. Members can heart it, and they can reply privately; the reply arrives in your Messages like any other, and is never public.

What is free and what is not?

Free, optional and never required: the weekly digest that members get, up to four letters a month per place, and one of those as an immediate push each month. Service messages about the member's own membership (renewal, a failed payment, a price change, credit about to expire) are always free and do not count as letters.

More pushes, or reaching your followers and people who are not members, belong to the paid campaigns: Boost, member broadcast and win-back. Keep the two apart in your head: letters are for people who have paid you, campaigns are for finding new ones.

Who actually receives a letter?

Only members who said yes to marketing from your business. A member who switched marketing off still gets the service messages about their own membership, but no letters, nothing in the digest, and nothing on your page. For Canada the rule is stricter again, with express consent. Letters are marketing to the member, so they follow consent, and the audience count you see when you send is the people who may actually read it.

A letter is checked like anything else you publish: the words go through the content filter, and a member can report one. A sent letter cannot be edited, though you can take it down.

How do you write a letter that gets read?

Short wins. Write the way you would speak across the counter.

• One idea. The new autumn menu, or the cheese delivery, or Saturday's supper club. Not all three.
• A real photo. The dish on the pass, not a stock image.
• A reason it is for members. A first taste, a seat held for them, an extra something.
• One thing to do. Book the supper, try the dish, reply with a favourite.
• A person at the bottom. Sign it with a first name and a face.

A good rhythm for a small place is a weekly letter on a Friday, because the default time is the next Friday at 10:00 in your own time zone. Use the live preview in the composer to read it as a member would before you send. Drafts are free and do not count towards the month.

How does the digest work?

Each Sunday, a member who belongs to places gets a digest in the app, with one card: credit and when it runs out, rewards waiting, perks that changed on their plan, and, where marketing consent allows, member-only items, events, offers and your letters. A week with nothing to say sends nothing. The email version is off unless the member turns it on, and only shows a place's own words where the member has said yes to marketing by email as well.

You do not send the digest; it gathers what you have already done. That is a reason to keep your events, perks and letters up to date.

What does a month of letters look like?

A small cafe might send four letters in a month. Week one: the new autumn menu, with a photograph of the dish and a card pointing to it. Week two: a thank you to members for a busy month, with a photograph of the team and the Saturday opening hours for the holiday weekend. Week three: an invitation to a members-only tasting, with a card for the event. Week four: a short note from the baker about why the sourdough changed, with a reply invitation. Only one of those needs to go out as a push; the rest sit in the app and the digest and are read when members want them. Keep the push for the thing that has a date on it.

What should you measure?

The letters panel shows opens, hearts and replies. Replies are the signal that matters. One member replying with a request ("could you do that again?") is worth ten hearts. Check them every week and answer within a day.

Compare what you send with what members spend, and use the membership overview to decide what to offer next. If you want to reach people who are not members yet, the customer messages guide and the notifications overview cover the paid tools. The full list of rates is on the pricing page.