A loyalty programme that only rewards customers silently isn’t doing half its job. The emails Perkie sends are the moments customers feel the programme: a congratulations when they reach a new tier, a nudge before points expire, a reward on a date that matters to them. There are fifteen, each one editable, and they send themselves once they’re set up.
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What It Is
Perkie has fifteen email templates, each sent by a loyalty event. Each one can be switched on or off, given your own subject line and wording, and sent as a test first. All fifteen start switched on.
Perkie’s emails need Tracksies HQ. They’re sent through HQ’s email system, so on a store running Perkie without HQ, no Perkie email is sent. Points, coupons and rewards are still issued, but the customer isn’t emailed about them.
With HQ, Perkie’s emails go out under each customer’s HQ record, with that customer’s own unsubscribe link and email preferences. A member with no HQ customer record gets no Perkie emails. Two kinds don’t need a record: the Share Referral Invite, which goes to a friend, and survey emails to someone who hasn’t joined.
All email settings live in Tracksies > Perkie > Emails tab.
A note on feature-gated templates. Perkie only shows email templates for features that are turned on. If Tiers is switched off, the Tier Achieved email won’t appear in the Emails tab, because the event that sends it never happens. The same goes for Referrals, Personal Dates, Redemption, Milestone Perks, Survey Perks and Share Perks. If you’re missing an email you expect to see, check Tracksies > Settings > Features and make sure the underlying feature is enabled.
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Why It Matters
Email is where your loyalty programme gets a personality. A customer who earns points and never hears about it forgets they’re in a programme at all. A customer who gets a warm, well-timed email saying “You’re now a Gold member!” feels like your store noticed. These moments build the emotional connection that keeps customers coming back, and the emails do that work for you.
The Points Expiring Soon email can bring customers back to your store without you doing anything. People don’t want to lose what they’ve earned, and a reminder is often what brings a quiet customer back.
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The Fifteen Email Types
The names below use “Points”. If you’ve renamed your points, the Emails tab uses your word.
Joining
Welcome to the Program: when a customer joins your rewards programme, whether at checkout, on the join screen, by accepting your terms, or by ticking the join box on a survey. It explains how your programme works using your programme terms, and includes their referral link when Referrals is on.
Points
Points Earned: after an order completes and its points land on the customer’s balance.
Points Redeemed: when a customer turns points into a discount coupon. It carries the coupon code, so they have it even if they leave before checking out.
Points Expiring Soon: before a batch of points reaches its expiry date, once per batch. This is for the “expire N months after they’re earned” rule. It uses the same number of days as the balance warning below, set on the General tab (30 to start with), and 0 sends neither.
Points Balance Expiring (Inactivity): before a customer’s whole balance expires for inactivity. Set how many days ahead on the General tab, under Point balance expiry, or 0 for no warning. A balance isn’t cleared until its warning has had that long. See Points Expiration.
Tiers and referrals
Tier Achieved: when a customer moves up to a new tier.
Referral Reward: when a referral is rewarded and the customer’s reward is ready.
Share Referral Invite: when a customer emails their link to a friend from the share block. This one goes to the friend. See Sharing Rewards.
Rewards for what customers do
Date Reward: when a special date’s reward is sent. One template covers every date and names it, and each date can have its own subject and wording instead. See Special Dates.
Milestone: when a customer reaches a review, photo-review or referral milestone that has a reward. One template covers all three. See Milestone Rewards.
HQ-Based Offer (Tag-Triggered): when Tracksies HQ applies a tag that has an active offer, and the customer is due one. It carries their coupon.
Surveys
Survey Submission Confirmation: when someone submits a survey.
Survey Winner, Survey Runner-up and Survey Winner Announcement: only when you click Send winner emails, Send runner-up emails or Send announcement to all entrants on the survey’s Responses page. Each is sent once. See Surveys & Prize Draws.
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How to Customise the Emails
- Go to Tracksies > Perkie > Emails tab in your WordPress admin.
- Each email type is shown as a card. Use the toggle on each card to turn it on or off without losing your customisations.
- Click Edit on the card for the email you want to customise.
- Update the subject line. Personal and specific works better than general: “Your points are about to expire” rather than “Loyalty programme update”.
- Write your email body in the TinyMCE editor. You can format text, add links, and use the available placeholders (see below).
- Click Preview to see the rendered email in a window in your browser. It uses the same Brand Hub email template as real sends, with placeholder tokens filled in with sample customer data. Great for iterating on copy without clogging your inbox. The preview uses your live unsaved edits, so you can tweak subject/body and re-click Preview to see the change instantly.
- When you’re happy, click Send Test to have it delivered to your admin email address so you can see how it looks in a real inbox as well as in the preview.
- Click Save Template to publish your changes.
The email is live from then on.
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Available Placeholders
Use these in your subject line or email body. Perkie replaces them with each customer’s real data when the email is sent. Not every placeholder applies to every email, and each email’s editor lists the ones it has.
| Placeholder | What it inserts |
|---|---|
{customer_first_name} | Customer’s first name |
{points} | The points in this email: earned, redeemed or rewarded |
{total_points} | The customer’s points balance |
{balance_value} | What that balance is worth, in your store’s currency |
{tier_name} | Customer’s current tier name |
{coupon_code} | The redemption coupon code (for Redeemed email) |
{account_perks_url} | Direct link to the customer’s Points & Rewards page |
{shop_url} | Your store’s shop page URL |
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Common Questions
What happens if a customer hasn’t added a date?
The Date Reward email won’t go to them, because there’s no date to send it on. Customers add their dates on the Points & Rewards tab in My Account.
Can I have different designs for different emails?
Each email has its own independent template, so yes, you can write entirely different copy, tone, and structure for each one. They all use the same base email styling (from your Brand Hub settings), but the content is completely separate.
What if I want to turn off one email type temporarily?
Use the toggle on the email card in Tracksies > Perkie > Emails tab. Toggling it off pauses sending without affecting your saved template. Toggle it back on whenever you’re ready.
One exception, and it’s worth knowing before you use it: switching off HQ-Based Offer (Tag-Triggered) stops the coupon being created as well as the email. Perkie treats a reward the customer never hears about as worse than no reward, so it issues nothing rather than something silent. Every other email on that tab behaves as described above.
How do I know the test email reflects what customers will actually receive?
The Send Test button sends the email to your admin email address using real placeholder values where available, and sample values where not. It’s the best way to check formatting, links, and how the email renders in your inbox before you go live.
Are the emails sent through WordPress or a third-party service?
They’re sent through Tracksies HQ, which uses WordPress’s standard wp_mail() function, which means they’ll use whatever mail setup your hosting has, including any SMTP plugin you’ve installed. For best deliverability, a transactional email service (like Postmark, Mailgun, or SendGrid) paired with a WordPress SMTP plugin is recommended.
What if a customer redeems points but closes the browser before checkout. Do they still get the Redeemed email?
Yes. The email fires when the redemption happens and the coupon is created, not when the order is completed. That means the customer will have their coupon code in their inbox even if they didn’t finish the purchase, giving them a reason to come back and use it.