Moving your families to Campfront
Moving from another system is mostly a communication job. The data imports in a morning. The care goes into making sure families know what's coming and only have to do it once.
This article covers the order to work in, the two ways families arrive, and sample messages you can adapt.
Work in waves
Camps that move a few hundred families in one go end up answering a few hundred emails in one go. Send in waves a few days apart, and keep the first small enough to answer every reply the same day.
Returning families first - they know you, they're forgiving of a new link, and their questions surface anything confusing before it reaches everyone else
By camper group or age - the audience you'd write to anyway, and it lines up with your session dates
By priority - families holding a deposit, or the ones you most want to lock in for the season
Camper groups, sessions, and tags all work as the basis for a wave. If you want a group to enroll ahead of everyone else, a priority access code does that without keeping a separate list. See Priority access and early enrollment.
The order to work in
Set your camp up first: sessions, camper groups, forms, payment options, and Stripe. Families arriving before that is the one part you can't undo. See Getting started with Campfront
Bring your records in with a CSV import, or add them by hand if there are only a few. See Importing your data
Set your sender address and authenticate your sending domain, so your first email doesn't land in spam. See Broadcasts
Send a heads-up broadcast, from Campfront or from your old system, before any automated email reaches anyone
Send the first wave of invitations, wait a few days, then follow up with whoever hasn't acted
Two ways families arrive
Both are bulk actions on your Campers table. Select the rows you want, then pick the action.
Invite to enroll - builds each family a part-completed enrollment with the sessions you chose, and emails a link to review and pay. Use it when you already know what someone is signing up for, such as returning campers holding a place. See Inviting a camper to enroll
Invite to Campfront - sends parents an account creation link so they can sign in, see their camper, and work through forms and billing. Use it for families whose enrollment already exists after an import
Both emails carry an optional message from you, shown as a quoted box under a greeting that already names the family and the season. Write the part only you can write: why this is landing and what's changed. The expiry date is in the email already and merge tags don't work here, so keep it short.
Following up
Invitation status on the Campers table shows you who has been sent one, who has started, and who has finished. Resending an invitation and changing an expiry date are both bulk actions on the same menu.
Check your broadcast delivery report before assuming someone is ignoring you. An address that bounced once will bounce again, so those families are worth a phone call.
Sample messages
Patterns other camps have settled on. Adapt the wording, keep the structure. Square brackets mark what you fill in. Broadcasts can use merge tags such as {{recipient.first_name}}, {{camper.first_name}}, and {{camp.name}}. Invitation messages can't, and they don't need to repeat the expiry date, because the email states it for you.
The announcement
One email, sent before the first invitation lands rather than after it. Families mostly want to know three things: what is changing, why you chose it, and whether they have to do anything today.
Subject: {{camp.name}} is moving to Campfront
Dear {{recipient.first_name}},
We're pleased to share that {{camp.name}} is moving to Campfront, a camp management system made for summer camps.
We took our time choosing. Campfront won us over because of what it gives families: everything about camp in one place, forms that are quick to fill in, and payments and balances you can see at a glance. We think you'll find it easy to use for enrollment, forms, payments, and the rest of your year with us.
From [date] you'll enroll {{camper.first_name}}, complete forms, and make payments in Campfront. Your details and your history come across with you, so there's nothing for you to set up.
We'll email you a link when it's time to sign in for the first time. Until then, there's nothing you need to do.
We're looking forward to the change, and as always the office is happy to help with any questions.
Message on an invitation to enroll
We've moved to Campfront for the coming season, and your camper's place is already set up. This link opens your enrollment with the sessions we're holding, so check them over, complete the forms, and pay your deposit to confirm. It takes about 10 minutes.
If you get stuck at any point, call the office on [number] and we'll help.
Message on an invitation to create an account
Your Campfront account is ready. Setting it up takes a minute and gives you one place for forms, medical details, payments, and photos.
The link below is unique to you, so please don't forward it. If someone else in the family needs their own account, let us know and we'll send them one.
What to watch for
Send the heads-up before the invitations. The first email from a new sender should be one families recognize
Set an expiry you're happy to enforce. The invitation email states the date, so your message doesn't have to
Name one way to get help, and use the same one in every message
Bring your history across, not just this season. Past enrollments and historical transactions both import, so families and your team have one place to look rather than two