Legacy Pre- and Post-Event Emails

Legacy Pre- and Post-Event emails refer to the method of using Data Fields (instead of Liquid Script) to dynamically generate information regarding your Events and Customers in your Pre- and Post-Event Emails.

TIP: The process for Pre- and Post-Event emails in this article is a legacy process. While the legacy process remains supported, using Liquid Script to set up Pre- and Post-Event Emails is recommended.

Pre- and Post- Event emails are Integrated Email Campaigns that are automatically sent to your Customers before or after one of your Event Instances.

What are Pre- and Post-Event emails?

Pre- and Post-Event emails are automatically sent to a Customer at a set amount of time before or after an Event Instance they have tickets for.

Using Pre- and Post-Event Emails is a way to remind your Customers about the Event they have Tickets for, provide information about your venue and can be an opportunity to upsell any Merchandise or secondary spend items.

The benefit of the Pre- and Post-Event email feature in Spektrix is that you can set up one Email Campaign which is automatically sent to Customers who have tickets for any of your Events.

Using Event Data Fields, you can dynamically include different information based on the Customer and the Event they have tickets for. This means you don’t have to create a new Pre- and Post-Event Email every time you create a new Event, and the content of the email will always be automatically up to date.

Pre-Event emails

Pre-Event Emails generally contain useful information such as:

The name, date and time of the Event Instance
Directions to the venue or instructions on how to access if the event is online
Content warnings
Access Information
Merchandise information
Running times
Available facilities at the Venue (such as food and drink)

Post-Event emails

Post-Event Emails generally contain information such as:

A thank you for visiting message
The name of the Event
A link to a feedback survey or form
An Offer for, or information about, upcoming Events or an invitation to return to the same Event again
Links to related content on your website
Donation or Membership ask

WARNING: If you choose to include marketing content in your Pre- or Post-Event Emails, you may need to consider including or excluding people with certain Contact Preferences. Always act in line with the regulations in your country and your organisation’s privacy policy.

How do Pre- and Post-Event emails work?

Pre- and Post-Event Emails are a type of Integrated Email Campaign. They are created in Dotdigital and sent through Spektrix.

A Customer List is not required for Pre- and Post-Event emails as this is automatically generated based on each Event Instance.

In Dotdigital:

You’ll need to create a draft Email Campaign. This campaign must remain unsent; they will be replicated and delivered every time your Pre- and Post-Event emails are sent out.

Within your email design, you can use Event Data Fields to personalise your emails and dynamically include information about your Events. These Event Data Fields can only be used in Pre- and Post-Event emails, and are not available in any other type of email.

In Spektrix:

You’ll need to set up the Global Customer Criteria and a Send Rule.

Pre-Event emails are queued in Dotdigital the night before they're scheduled to be sent. This means that any Customers who purchase tickets after 11pm local time the night before an Event won't receive a Pre-Event Email.

Send Rules

Your Send Rule informs:

When: The time that the Pre- or Post-Event Email should be sent.
Instances: In the Event Criteria section of your Send Rule you can choose which Instances will receive your email.
Customers: In the Customer Criteria of your Send Rule, you can choose which Customers will receive your email.
Email: For each Send Rule, you will need to assign a draft Email Campaign.

You can select one Email Campaign per Send Rule. If you need to share different information for different Instances, we recommend setting up separate Email Campaigns and separate Send Rules.

Only one Pre- and Post-Event Email can be sent out per Instance. This means that you can’t send two different email campaigns for a single Instance.

TIP: You can use Dynamic Content and Personalisation to include information that is only specifically relevant to certain customers. For example, you could use a Dynamic Content block to include a personalised message for Members that other customers won’t see.

When working with multiple Send Rules, if an Instance is included in the Event Criteria of more than one rule, the Send Rule with the highest priority will apply.

How to set up Pre- and Post-Event Emails

There are five steps involved in setting up Pre- and Post-Event Emails:

Sync Event Data Fields
Set up your Pre- and Post-Event email Campaigns in Dotdigital
Apply Pre- and Post-Event email Settings
Set up your Send Rules
Preview and test your email

1. Sync Event Data Fields

Event Data Fields are similar to other Customer Data Fields in Dotdigital, but they can only be used in Pre- and Post-Event Emails.

Click through the carousel below to learn how to set up the required Event Data Fields.

Log into your Dotdigital account
Click on your name in the bottom left corner
Choose Settings from the menu

Click Contacts

Choose Contact Data Fields
Go to the Custom data fields tab

To set up a new Data Field in Dotdigital, click the New Data Field button.

Then complete the details, as required in the form:

Name: Enter the name of the Data Field exactly as listed in the section below.

WARNING: If you do not enter the name of the Data Field exactly as it is listed below, it will not sync with your Spektrix system.

Data type: Choose the Data type as listed by each Data Field below.
Default Value: You can add a default value if there’s no data in the Customer Record. For example, if there’s no data to populate the FORMALSALUTATION field, you can add a default value such as ‘Patron’ or ‘friend’. You can also choose to leave this field blank.
Access: Always set this to Private.
Folder: You can choose to store your Data Field in a folder.

Once you have completed the information, click CREATE.

The Data Field will then be synced at 7am each day (if you have a synced address book) or when you send or schedule an Integrated Mailing to an included Customer.

For organisations in the UK and Ireland:

Name	Type	What is it?
EVENTNAME	Text	The name of the Event in Spektrix.
EVENTDATESHORT	Text	The date of the Event Instance in the form 18/4/2026.
EVENTDATELONG	Text	The date of the Event Instance, in the form 18th April 2026.
EVENTDAYOFWEEK	Text	The day of the week the Event Instance will take place. For example, Tuesday.
EVENTTIME	Text	The time of the Instance written in 24 hour format. For example, 14:00.

For organisations in the US and Canada:

Name	Type	What is it?
EVENTNAME	Text	The name of the Event in Spektrix.
EVENTDATESHORT	Text	The date of the Event Instance in the format 4/18/2026.
EVENTDATELONG	Text	The date of the Event Instance, in the format Friday, April 18, 2026.
EVENTDAYOFWEEK	Text	The day of the week the Event Instance will take place. For example, Tuesday.
EVENTTIME	Text	The time of the Instance. For example, 2:00PM.

Once set up, you can use these fields as Personalisation in your Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns.

REMINDER: Event Data fields can only be used in Pre- and Post-Event Emails. This means they cannot be used as Personalisation in any other type of email.

2. How to set up Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns

Next, we’ll go through the steps you need to follow to set up your Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns.

Click through the steps below to learn how to set up a Pre- or Post-Event Email Campaign.

To create a new Email Campaign, you’ll first need to log into Dotdigital.

Click on the + button next to Email under the Campaigns heading to create a new Email Campaign:

You’ll then be prompted to choose a template or copy a previously sent email campaign.
Give your Email Campaign a memorable and descriptive name which follows your organisation’s naming or reporting conventions:

Complete the Campaign Details:

TIP: You can use Event Data Fields to add Personalisation into your Subject line. For example: “Your upcoming visit to see @EVENTNAME@”. However, this will not work with Subject Lines which use Dynamic Content.

Design your Email Campaign using the EasyEditor. Add your organisation’s branding and messaging.
You can use Event Data Fields to add Personalisation the body of your email:

You can use Dynamic Content to include information targeted at specific Customers. For example, you may add a Dynamic Content block powered by an Access Tag to include information specific to Access Customers. Dynamic Content will not work with rules based on Event Data Fields.

For users in the US and Canada, you will need to include the $SENDERADDRESS$ field in both your HTML and Plain Text versions of your email.

This field adds your Sender Address to your emails to help with CAN-SPAM compliance:

Save the Email Campaign by clicking SAVE in the top right hand corner.

WARNING: Pre- and Post-Event Email campaigns must remain unsent. This also means they can't be used in Customer List schedules. You should never delete your Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns if they are still in use. If you do delete them, you can recover them from the Dotdigital recycle bin.

Using Personalisation in Pre- and Post-Event Emails

You can use the Event Data Fields you have set up to add Personalisation to your Pre- and Post-Event emails. This means that you can automatically include information related to the event that the customer has tickets for. For example, the Event Name, Date and Time.

You can add Personalisation to your Email Campaign as you would with any other Email Campaign by following the steps in the article on Personalisation.

REMINDER: Event Data Fields are only available to use in Pre- and Post-Event Emails. Event Data Fields cannot be used in any other type of Email Campaign.

Using Dynamic Content in Pre- and Post-Event Emails

Dynamic Content can be used to add extra information for certain Customers.

For example, Customers who have Access needs, are Members or are making their first visit to your Venue.

You can follow the steps in the Dynamic Content article to learn how to set up Dynamic Content.

WARNING: You cannot use Event Data fields as personalisation within any Dynamic Content blocks in the main body of your emails or subject lines. You also cannot use Event Data Fields as Contact Data fields to set up Dynamic Content Variations. To learn about how to create more bespoke Pre- and Post-Event emails, read our article on using Liquid Script for Pre- and Post-Event emails.

Setting up more than one Pre- or Post-Event Email Campaign

Although it is most efficient to only use one Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaign across all of your Events, it is possible to use different Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns for different Events.

For example, you may want to use two different Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaigns if your organisation has two different Venues or hosts different types of Events such as festivals or film screenings.

Setting this up will require you to create a new Email Campaign and an additional Send Rule for each version of the Pre- and Post-Event Email Campaign you want to send.

REMINDER: You can only have one Email Campaign per Instance. If you want to send different information to different Customers with tickets for the same Instance, use Dynamic Content and Personalisation to tailor the email to each Customer.

3. Pre- and Post-Event email settings

Pre and Post-Event email settings can be applied in the Insights & Mailings Interface > Mailings > Pre- and Post-Event emails. To make changes, click the Edit button.

There are two global settings you can apply related to Pre- and Post-Event emails:

Email Addresses for confirmation

Enter one or multiple email addresses to receive sent notifications. This should be the email address of someone in your organisation who can monitor your Pre- and Post-Event emails. You can add multiple addresses separated by commas.
Global Customer Criteria

Set Global Customer Criteria to decide which customers will receive your Pre- and Post-Event emails. Customers you choose to exclude will not receive your Pre- and Post-Event Emails.

You might want to use the Global Customer Criteria to exclude customers based on certain Tags, Attributes or Contact Preferences.

For example, if you include marketing content in your emails, you may wish to exclude Customers you don’t have permission to email.

Similarly, you may want to exclude any Customers with the Tag ‘Major Donor’ if your fundraising team prefers to send out personalised communications.

To set your Global Customer Criteria, drag and drop Metrics into the Drop criteria here box.

Customers who meet the conditions of the Criteria will be included in your Pre- and Post-Event emails. This means that if you want to exclude a certain Tag group you will need to check the Not box.

For example, if you add into the criteria Customers who have the Tag: Staff and check the Not box, customers with this Tag will be excluded from Pre- and Post-Event Emails.

TIP: If you do not set any Global Customer Criteria, your Pre- and Post-Event emails will be sent to all Customers attending the Instances selected. You can also set Customer Criteria for each Send Rule.

For more detailed information on how to set Customer Criteria, read our article on Customer Eligibility.

4. How to set up your Send Rule

To send out a Pre- or Post-Event email, you’ll need to create a Send Rule.

Send Rules dictate when and which email will be sent to which customers for your selected Instances.

Click through the steps below to learn how to set up a Send Rule for a Pre- or Post-Event email.

Go to the Pre-Event or Post-Event tab.

pre event tab.png

Click the Edit button and then click Add Rule:

Complete the information required in the Basic details tab:

Name: Enter a descriptive name for your rule. For example, Pre-Event Email 2026.
Days before the Instance to send the email: Enter the number of days before the Instance you want to send your Pre-Event Email. For example, 1 day before the date of the Instance.

REMINDER: Pre- and Post-Event Emails are queued in Dotdigital at 11pm the night before they're scheduled to send. Any Customers who purchase Tickets after that time won't receive a Pre-Event Email, as they send as a batch all at once.

Time of day to send: Enter the time of day you’d like the email to send in a 24 hour format. For example, 14:00.
Email campaign: Select the Email Campaign from the list of draft Email Campaigns.
Click Next.
Next, set the Event criteria.

The Event Criteria will dictate which Instances Pre- or Post-Event Emails are sent for. You must have Event Criteria set to send Pre- and Post-Event Emails.

Drag and drop the Metrics into the Drop criteria here box to add criteria and set parameters.

TIP: Uncheck the Only show commonly used criteria box to see the full range of Metrics available. For more information on all available metrics and how to specify them, read Metrics Description in the article Event Criteria.

You can add multiple Metrics using the AND or OR rules.

Using the AND logic, add the Cancelled metric and leave the box unchecked so that you'll always exclude cancelled Events from both your Pre- and Post-Event Emails.
Once you have completed your criteria, click Next.

TIP: Consider using an Event Attribute to capture whether you’d like to include or exclude certain Events in the Pre- or Post-Event Email Send Rules. This means that you can automatically include or exclude Events from these emails when you are setting up a new Event without needing to edit the Send Rule.

Next, set the Customer criteria.

The Customer Criteria specifies which Customers will receive the email. This works in the same way as other Customer Eligibility in Spektrix.

You can use Customer Criteria to include or exclude certain Customers from receiving the email. If you leave this section blank, then Pre- and Post-Event Emails will be sent to all Customers with Tickets to the eligible Instances.

REMINDER: For UK Organisations, you will need to exclude Customers from your Post-Event Emails that you don’t have permission to email.

Drag and drop the Metrics into the Drop criteria here box to add criteria:

Click OK when you have completed your Customer Criteria.
Click Save to save your Rule.

REMINDER: Only one email is ever sent per Instance. This means that you can’t use Customer Criteria to segment Customers to send two different Pre-Event Emails to different sets of Customers for the same Instance. Instead, you can use Dynamic Content to achieve this.

Once your Rule is created, you can preview which Instances are included by clicking the Preview button.

Included Instances will appear in this list. You will see a blue information icon next to any Instances which won’t receive or already have received the email:

Hover your mouse over the blue information icon to read the message:

In this example, the message reads “This event instance matches, however it is too late to send the desired email.”

Managing multiple Send Rules

If an Instance falls into multiple Rules, the Send Rule with the highest priority will apply. For example, you may have separate Pre-Event Email Campaigns for live streamed Events, Events that are part of a family festival and a standard Pre-Event Email for everything else.

You can re-order the priority of your Rules using the yellow up and down arrows:

Preview buttons.png

In this example, if an Event Instance fell into both Send Rules, for the Family Festival and the Live Stream, the customers attending the Instance would receive the Live Stream Pre-Event email, as this Rule has priority.

When managing multiple Send Rules to send out different Pre- and Post-Event Emails, you should consider using Event Attributes to power the Event Criteria.

This is more efficient than manually including or excluding certain Instances from a Send Rule. Without using Event Attributes to power Event Criteria, this would require you to update the Send Rule every time you add a new Event or Instance.

TIP: For inspiration on creating Pre- and Post-Event Emails, readCreating great pre- and post-event emails: Our best ideas and examples.

5. How to preview Legacy Pre- and Post-Event Emails

To preview your Pre- or Post-Event email campaign, you can use the Preview function in Dotdigital:

To check any Personalisation, you can go to your own customer record in Dotdigital and add the relevant Event Data Fields to your account.

- In Dotdigital, navigate to Audience > Contacts
- Search for your own email address:
- Click into your customer and go to the Data Fields tab
- Add or change the value of the Data Fields you want to assign to yourself
TIP: Use the search bar next to the NEW DATA FIELD button to narrow down your results.

Then, within the Email campaign editor, click the personalisation icon and enter your email address:

To preview Dynamic Content, click the dynamic content icon and select the variations you’d like to see:

How to test your Pre- or Post-Event emails

If you want to receive a test of your Pre- or Post-Event email, follow these steps:

Set up a hidden test Event or Instance at least one day in the future.
Make sure your Send Rule is set up to include your test Instance.
Purchase a ticket for yourself.
When the time dictated in your Send Rule arrives, you should receive the Pre- or Post-Event email.

Sent notifications

Each time a Pre or Post-Event Email is sent, you will receive a sent notification to the email address you have specified during setup.

If the email isn’t sent for any reason, you’ll receive an email failure notification.

Some reasons that an email may fail to send include:

A deleted Attribute that is being used in the Event or Customer Criteria.
A deleted Tag or Auto Tag that is being used in the Customer Criteria.

For more information on failed emails, take a look at our article on Troubleshooting errors when sending Dotdigital emails.

Reporting on Pre- and Post-Event Emails

You can report on Pre- and Post-Event Emails in the same way you can report on other Integrated Emails. However, because you cannot set Target Events for Pre- and Post-Event Emails, it’s not possible to report on ROI.

To learn more about reporting and Dotdigital, take a look at our article Reporting on Email Campaigns.