Automated follow up emails are an incredibly powerful way to maximize the potential of each campaign. When you send your first email you may not get a reply because your recipient was busy and just happened to miss the message. Automated follow ups give you the ability to send a gentle reminder a few days later… and a few days after that if there is no reply.
If you’ve selected “Follow Up” for a campaign type during your campaign setup, then your email interface on step 2 will be appear slightly different with the following elements present:
- Week Parameters
- Primary Email
- Follow Up Email (#)
Week Parameters
You can select either Monday-Friday or Monday-Sunday for the sending and waiting periods. If you want to avoid sending follow up emails on the weekend, select Monday-Friday. When you define the waiting period between follow up emails, the system will not count the weekends with this selection.
Primary Email
This is where you write your first email. If you’ve already added your signature, you will see it pre-populated inside the editor.
At this point, you can begin typing your email message. We encourage you to make use of the dynamic variables for higher levels of customization and also use our writing effective emails guide.
To insert a variable, click the “Variables” drop down and select the desired data snippet. If you want to insert someones first name, just click on “First Name” and it will automatically be added to your message. Your variable list will grow depending on the custom fields defined in your account.
You may also add your inquiry link, donation link and survey links if applicable to your plan.
Follow Up Email 1
This is where you define the second follow up message to the recipient and the number of days the system should wait before sending it out. You want to give the recipient a little time and space out the first follow up appropriately depending on your particular campaign and use case.
The recipient will receive your email with a “Re:” preceding the original subject line to appear as if you manually followed up to their unanswered email. They will also see the original email below so there is no need to include your signature here.
Adding an Additional Follow Up
You may add additional follow ups by clicking on the “Add Another Follow Up” button below. You will want to space these out appropriately so that you don’t bombard your recipient with too many emails. Think along the lines of the frequency you would typically follow up to a single unanswered email manually and use that as a reference.
Stopping Email Follow Ups
The email follow ups will automatically stop if a person replies or answers a survey question.
Additional Information
We recommend you consult our writing effective emails guide to get the most out of the automated follow up feature.