Start an email campaign with a specific reader need and a clear reason to contact that audience. Then check permission, write the message and test the route from the email to the enquiry. This gives the campaign a purpose you can evaluate after sending.
The process below concerns UK consumer email marketing for a commercial travel business. It is a practical planning aid, not a complete compliance assessment. Apply the current official guidance to your own activity and records.
Check why each person can receive the campaign
For unsolicited electronic marketing to individual subscribers, you need consent or an applicable exception. The ICO’s products and services soft opt-in requires all its conditions: details collected directly during a sale or sale negotiation, marketing your own similar services and a clear opt-out both at collection and in each message. A past booking alone is not enough. Source: ICO: planning direct marketing
Record the basis used for the audience and the evidence supporting it. If the original collection wording is missing, resolve that gap before assuming the exception applies. Read the soft opt-in entry alongside the ICO guidance for the full conditions.
Where you rely on consent, the ICO requires a freely given, specific, informed and affirmative choice that can be demonstrated and withdrawn. Its consent guidance is marked as under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, so check the current version when designing the process. Source: ICO: valid consent
Respect the preference across every connected tool
Screen the audience against the relevant opt-out records. The ICO recommends suppression lists so someone who objects is recognised if their details appear again later. Deleting an address without preserving the necessary preference record can undermine that process. Source: ICO: respecting marketing preferences
Use a fictional contact to test an unsubscribe through your normal import and sending workflow. Check which system owns the preference and how it reaches other tools. This gives you evidence of the behaviour instead of assuming connected systems always agree.
Give audience selection an owner. Keep the approved audience rules with the campaign so the team can explain why the message was sent to that group.
Choose one useful reason to open the email
Write the intended reader and decision in a sentence. For an illustrative campaign, the purpose might be to help subscribers compare two available family holiday options. Use only preferences that you are entitled to use. Avoid inferring personal circumstances from weak signals.
Select the information needed for that decision: the actual offer, relevant dates, inclusions, conditions and a clear next step. Verify any price or availability statement with the current source before sending. If the detail cannot be verified, remove it or resolve it before publication.
Explain why the offer is relevant without claiming it is perfect for everyone. A customer should be able to understand what is being offered and what they need to check next.
Test the whole route from message to enquiry
Send a test to the team and follow every link. Confirm that the destination page matches the offer, the enquiry form works and replies reach someone who can respond. These checks connect the campaign copy with the service the customer will actually receive.
Check the sender identity and unsubscribe route as part of the same review. ICO guidance requires appropriate sender information and a valid contact route for stopping marketing. Source: ICO: planning direct marketing
Travelgenix’s Luna Marketing email page describes audience segments, test sends and scheduling through your own Brevo account. Use those capabilities within an agreed permission and review process; a sending tool does not establish that a particular audience is suitable. Source: Travelgenix: Luna Marketing email
Keep booking administration under separate review
Do not add promotional content to a booking reminder without reconsidering the whole message. The ICO distinguishes purely administrative service messages from direct marketing. Promotional additions can change that treatment. Source: ICO: identifying direct marketing
Keep the campaign plan linked to its approved copy, audience rules and test result. This gives a colleague enough context to handle replies or investigate an unexpected send.
Review the outcome you intended
Before sending, choose a useful outcome such as relevant enquiries or replies about the featured offer. Afterward, review those outcomes alongside unsubscribes and any customer questions. Record what you will change and why so the next campaign builds on observed results.
Avoid turning one campaign into a universal claim about email performance. Use your own evidence to decide whether the message and audience were a good fit, then make a specific improvement for the next send.
Related reading
How to market a travel agency: place email within the wider marketing plan.
How to measure enquiries from travel marketing: define a useful outcome.
Suppression list: honour opt-outs across future lists.
Written and updated by Travelgenix. Sources checked on 16 October 2026. Worked examples and checklists are editorial illustrations and recommendations, not customer results.
Sources
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