Automatic mailing. Automation of mailing lists

Mailing lists are one of the most inexpensive and at the same time effective ways of transmitting commercial offers to potential customers, as well as familiarizing them with company news and changes in the price list, informing them about software updates and promotions, etc. However, often the usual distribution of messages with relevant information by means of Microsoft Outlook (which in most cases is used to organize corporate mail) may not bring the expected effect, since it will not be personalized. In addition, such a distribution may be difficult due to the lack of tools in Outlook for effective management of subscriber lists, as well as due to possible problems with the mail server when sending a large number of messages.

To achieve the maximum effect from mass email distribution, you should create lists of subscribers, automate their processing (for relevance, elimination of duplicate addresses, etc.), prepare personalized letters based on these lists and send them to recipients. If you plan to conduct such mailings on a regular basis, you will have to provide customers with the opportunity to independently regulate the status of the subscription. It takes a very long time (or even impossible) to perform all of the above actions using only the built-in Outlook tools - it is much more efficient to use third-party solutions, with which it is relatively easy to automate the process of working with mailing lists. The simplest and most affordable way is to install a set of Outlook plugins that allow you to carry out all operations with mailing lists in a familiar environment. However, you can go the other way - use standalone solutions. We will consider both options.

As for Outlook plug-ins, the most famous software products are from Western companies Sperry Software and Genius Connect and Russian MAPILab. In terms of their functionality, they are approximately the same, but packages from Western developers do not have Russian-language versions and are more expensive, so they are less attractive to Russian users.

Among the standalone solutions for Russian users, in terms of price/availability of Russian-language localization, the programs of Russian companies Tweak Marketing and Business Software Products seem to be the most interesting. The first offers a set of programs designed to solve various email marketing tasks, and the second is a comprehensive AMS Enterprise solution that covers almost all aspects of working with mailing lists (see table).

Preparation of personalized mailings

As a rule, when sending many identical letters from the Outlook mail client, it is customary to create distribution groups, which is really convenient. However, there is one “but” here - in this case, it is not possible to create personal letters, that is, letters with an appeal. But this is very important, since the recipient is much more pleasant when they are addressed by name, and not as a faceless “respected client”. In addition, a personalized letter may contain specific information that is of interest to a particular client - for example, data on the conditions for the provision of services or the delivery of goods, depending on the region in which the client is located. It is also important that in personal letters the final recipient in the "To" field will not see information about all other recipients (but only his name and email address), which would be inevitable when forming a regular mailing list.

When creating personalized mailing lists, you can limit yourself to built-in Outlook features, using the contact list and mail merge technology. In this case, at the first stage, it is required to determine the list of contacts to whose addresses the correspondence will be sent, which is easiest to do through categories (for this, all contacts must first be categorized). Then you need to apply the command Service ® merger ® Only selected contacts, enter the general (unchanged) text of the letter and supplement it with the required appeals by inserting the appropriate merge fields, and when finished, click on the button Merge and choosing from the dropdown list Purpose option Email, configure message settings. After that in the folder outgoing personal letters will appear to all selected contacts, in which, unlike the option of sending letters to a distribution group from Address Book, there will be a personal appeal, and the addresses of other correspondents will not be displayed (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Preparing a personalized mailing list
built-in Microsoft Outlook
and one of the ready mailing messages

From the foregoing, it is clear that the built-in capabilities of Outlook allow you to automate the process of preparing personal correspondence, but may not be convenient enough for regular mass mailings. Specialized solutions are much more effective in this regard, thanks to which the preparation of personal messages will be both easier and faster.

The easiest way to create personalized correspondence is to use the Outlook plugin Send Personally. It is an alternative way to prepare and send the same type of letters from Outlook, in which a separate message is generated for each recipient (with their own name in the "To" field). At the same time, thanks to the support of basic macros (%USERNAME%, %USEREMAIL%, %LIST%, etc.), which are replaced when sending a message with the data of a specific recipient, the text of sent letters can contain not only constant, but also variable information (Fig. 2) , although complex mergers are out of the question.

Rice. 2. Personal letter prepared for sending
via Send Personally (in its original form - on the left, received
user - right)

Greater opportunities in terms of embedding variable information in personal messages open up with the use of solutions such as Mail Merge Toolkit and AMS Enterprise.

Mail Merge Toolkit extends the built-in mail merge capabilities in Microsoft Office, allowing you to merge not only from Microsoft Word, but also from Microsoft Publisher, with the ability to send created messages directly from these programs. At the same time, personal information can be embedded not only in the content (a full set of built-in macros is supported), but also in the subject of the letter, insert hyperlinks into HTML messages (which are embedded in Microsoft Office tools, but do not work in mailing lists) and attach files to messages (Fig. 3). In addition, when sending from Microsoft Publisher in GIF format, you can set different HTML links for individual sections of the image (image map). Moreover, merging using the Mail Merge Toolkit is practically the same as the standard one, since you need to perform the same set of actions, except that in the last step ( Merge Completion) you need to select the item in the merge tasks pane Mail Merge Toolkit(instead of paragraph Email).

An even higher level of personalization of mailings is achieved in the case of using a comprehensive solution AMS Enterprise, which can not only automatically substitute data from any mailing list fields into the body of the letter and into the subject of the letter, but also dynamically change the content of the letter depending on the state of certain fields of the list (Fig. 4). The latter is implemented using MailMerge rules, due to which the information sent in different mailing messages turns out to be different. For example, the program can substitute information about various goods and services in the letter, depending on the interests or area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe recipient. In addition, AMS Enterprise (as well as Mail Merge Toolkit) allows you to use hyperlinks in HTML messages and attach files to messages.

Rice. 4. Personal letter prepared in the environment
AMS Enterprise (in its original form - on the left and with preliminary
view - right)

Mailing list management

Using the built-in Outlook tools, it is generally not difficult to create the desired set of mailing lists, but you will have to spend a lot of time, since adding each new contact to the list is done manually. With a large number of respondents, this happens quite slowly, moreover, it often leads to numerous errors, since the same address can be entered twice, and some, on the contrary, missed. In addition, mailing list management is not limited to their initial preparation - it is required to keep the lists up to date (since some of the addresses become outdated), and this is not provided for in the functions of the Microsoft mail client at all.

Therefore, when actively working with mailing lists, specialized solutions are indispensable. They will allow you to quickly import email addresses into mailing lists, check the latter for duplicate addresses and keep the lists up to date, thereby significantly reducing the volume of returned mail that could not be delivered due to invalid addresses. In addition, they may provide additional features for processing lists, allowing you to combine lists, compare them, remove the contents of other lists from one list, segment them for best mailing results, etc.

List building

To form large mailing lists, Russian users should pay attention to such specialized solutions as Mailing List Service, Mailing List Wizard and AMS Enterprise.

Program Mailing List Service, included in the MAPILab Toolbox utility package, allows you to quickly export contacts and mailing lists from the Outlook address book or sender/recipient addresses from inbox/outbox folders to text files, as well as import contacts from a text file or sender/recipient addresses from inbox/outbox folders. outgoing messages to the Outlook address book, including in the form of a distribution list (Fig. 5).

The Mailing List Wizard utility will help you process and convert mailing lists. Most importantly, she knows how to exclude duplicate addresses from the lists (Fig. 6). In addition, the program can be used to merge lists and exclude them (when the addresses of the additional list are excluded from the main one), remove the names of the owners of addresses from mailing lists, filter lists by various criteria, sort addresses, etc.

Rice. 6. Removing duplicate addresses from lists using
Mailing List Wizard

Functionality AMS Enterprise wider (Figure 7) than the Mailing List Wizard. The built-in list manager in AMS Enterprise allows you to import existing mailing lists from text files of various formats and CSV files, Windows and Outlook Express address books, as well as from other sources (Excel, Access, FoxPro, MySQL, etc.) via ADO/ ODBC. At the same time, during the import of lists, all duplicate addresses are automatically filtered out and addresses with incorrect syntax are ignored. Diverse processing is provided for imported lists - you can merge lists, remove the contents of others from one list, compare and sort lists, change their structure as required, remove addresses from lists that meet specified criteria, etc. It is also possible to exclude entire lists of recipients from mailing lists.

Rice. 7. Working with lists in AMS Enterprise

Checking list addresses for relevance

To check the existence of an e-mail address programmatically, you should perform the same actions that the mail server performs when delivering a letter to the addressee. First, you need to determine the address of the server that receives mail for this addressee (for this, a request is sent to the DNS service) - if one could not be found, then the address can be immediately filtered out as non-existent. And secondly, you need to connect to the identified mail server and send him a request on whether he can accept a letter for a user with such and such an email address. In case of a positive response from the server, the address is considered valid. This approach of checking addresses for relevance allows you to identify about two-thirds of non-existent addresses. The remaining non-existent addresses cannot be detected by the program method, since some mail servers are configured in such a way that they accept all messages for their mail domain (including letters with non-existent mail addresses). And only after receiving letters to a valid address, the server informs the sender that the letter cannot be delivered.

According to statistics, about 30% of the addresses that are recognized as non-existent during a program check are detected at the first stage of the check, and 70% - at the second. At the same time, the second stage of verification requires on average 10 times more time and five times more network traffic than the first. Therefore, for multi-million lists, such a thorough check is not always appropriate - in such cases, it is often more reasonable to limit yourself to only the first stage of verification - a request to the DNS.

You can check mailing list addresses and identify non-existent ones using solutions such as Advanced Maillist Verify, Mail List Validator, High Speed ​​Verifier or Actual Contacts. The first two carry out the check in two stages, which allows to achieve a higher accuracy of the check, but takes a lot of time. At the same time, the Advanced Maillist Verify program (Fig. 8) can process only small (no more than 50-100 thousand addresses) mailing lists. And here Mail List Validator(Fig. 9) is designed to work with lists of any size (including multi-million ones) and is free, although not all options for exporting lists work correctly in it.

Rice. 8. Checking addresses for relevance in the program
Advanced Maillist Verify

Rice. 9. Checking Addresses for Relevance Using the Mail List Validator

Utility High Speed ​​Verifier(Figure 10) is positioned as a high-speed mailing list checker and can process up to several thousand addresses per second. It copes well with mailing lists of several tens of millions of addresses, and thanks to the built-in caching, it is on lists of this size that the maximum performance of the program is achieved. But High Speed ​​Verifier performs only the first stage of verification (that is, it determines the validity of the DNS server address, which means that it can determine only those of the broken addresses whose domains no longer exist), and therefore the percentage of detection of non-existent addresses by this utility is much lower than that of the above-considered solutions. For this reason, the program is effective as a solution for quickly removing garbage from multi-million lists, when a thorough check is not practical due to the time and network traffic. At the same time, it should be noted that the Mail List Validator, if necessary, can be limited to a quick DNS check.

Rice. 10. Checking addresses for relevance in the program
High Speed ​​Verifier

Concerning Actual Contacts, then its possibilities are somewhat wider. The program can directly check mailing lists (DNS and SMTP) - fig. 11, and also knows how to perform a similar check in merge mode. It harmoniously complements the Mail Merge Toolkit solution, although it can also be used with a regular mail merge using the built-in Outlook tools. True, the percentage of identified working and non-working addresses using Actual Contacts is much lower than in other solutions considered (a considerable number of addresses remain in question), and the program works noticeably slower.

Rice. 11. Checking addresses for relevance in the Actual Contacts program

Automation of subscription and unsubscription from mailing lists

If it is assumed that the mailing list will be reusable (for example, a mailing list with company news), then the recipient should be able to unsubscribe or, conversely, subscribe to it. It is better to automate this process, especially if you have more than one thematic mailing, because otherwise manual processing of subscribers' wishes can turn into a nightmare. This can be done in various ways - in particular, using the Outlook plugin Subscription Manager included in the MAPILab Toolbox utility package (Fig. 12), or the already mentioned package AMS Enterprise. Both solutions allow subscribers to independently subscribe and unsubscribe from mailing lists, for which they only need to create and send you a special type of mail message (request), which is a regular mail message, in the "Subject" field of which the request command is indicated. Programs analyze incoming correspondence and if messages meet certain criteria (for example, when the keywords subscribe, unsubscribe, etc. are found in their subject), they update the mailing lists accordingly and inform the user about the state of his subscription. As a result, you no longer have to be distracted from work by constant requests to add / remove a subscriber from the mailing list. If there are problems with unsubscribing/subscribing (for example, if the request specifies a mailing list that does not exist or is not currently available), just like in the case of a subscription, a message is sent to the subscriber with information about the error that has occurred. All messages automatically created by these programs are formed on the basis of built-in editable templates.

Rice. 12. Setting up automatic subscription/unsubscription
Subscription Manager

In AMS Enterprise (Fig. 13), subscription/unsubscription automation is implemented through an additional Input Mail Processor utility, which is designed to solve all tasks related to mailing subscription automation. And the possibilities it provides in terms of subscription management are somewhat wider, since it provides for self-configuring rules (Fig. 14) for deciding whether to add or remove an address in mailing lists; detailed statistics on the operation of each of the rules is maintained.

Rice. 13. Setting up automatic subscription/unsubscription
with AMS Enterprise

Rice. 14. Adjustment of subscription/unsubscription rules in AMS Enterprise

Starting mailings on a schedule

Many mailing lists are periodic (for example, price lists updated on Thursdays, company news published at the beginning of the week, etc.). And some mailings that may not be periodic, just for certain reasons, it is more profitable to launch at a certain time of the day (for example, at night, so as not to interfere with company employees working on the Internet). In this case, mailing schedulers will come to the rescue, allowing you to automate the process of sending emails on a schedule. The role of such a scheduler can be played by the component Email Scheduler from the MAPILab Toolbox utility package or the utility AMS Scheduler, which is part of the AMS Enterprise solution.

The principle of operation of these schedulers is almost the same - it is enough to prepare a mailing list and set up a schedule for its launch in the scheduler (Fig. 15 and 16), after which the mailing list will be launched and performed automatically at the specified time. The only difference between the solutions is that AMS Scheduler has more options in terms of scheduling, although in most cases the functionality of Email Scheduler is sufficient. In turn, Email Scheduler allows you to attach files to scheduled messages, however, this functionality is also implemented in AMS Enterprise (which includes AMS Scheduler).

Rice. 15. Setting up a schedule for launching mailing lists using
Email Scheduler

Rice. 16. Setting the schedule for the distribution in the environment
AMS Scheduler

Fast mailing

Some mail servers have limits on the number and volume of messages sent during any period of time - this is done to prevent the spread of spam. Alas, such restrictions create certain problems not only for spammers, but also for those users who have to send a large amount of electronic correspondence daily to legitimate subscribers of certain corporate mailing lists. However, with the help of specialized software solutions, you can bypass such restrictions and thereby save yourself from having to resend correspondence.

So, using the component Batch Mail from the Mail Merge Toolkit package will help organize the sending of letters, taking into account that their number does not exceed the maximum allowed for a particular mail server. You can, for example, send a fixed amount of correspondence within an hour (Fig. 17) or send successive letters not immediately, but at some interval. Of course, this is not a solution when dealing with millions of mailings, but for small mailings it is quite reasonable.

Rice. 17. Regulation of sending letters through Batched Mail

In the case of large mailings, you will have to resort to solutions such as, for example, Advanced Direct Remailer or AMS Enterprise(fig. 18 and 19). Both solutions deliver outgoing mail directly to the recipient's mail server, bypassing the provider's server, thereby eliminating the restrictions set on the provider's server. At the same time, they deliver in several streams, the number of which can reach 399 for Advanced Direct Remailer, and 500 for AMS Enterprise. about 250 thousand letters per hour. The process of sending emails automatically detects bad (non-existent) and malformed email addresses based on a series of rules. It is possible to carry out mailings through proxy servers.

When using Advanced Direct Remailer, you can create mailing letters in a familiar mail program (for example, in Microsoft Outlook or The Bat!), which must first be configured to work correctly with this package. In the case of AMS Enterprise, the preparation of correspondence is carried out in the built-in html editor, while it provides the ability to preview the created letters in the Microsoft Outlook emulation mode.

Briefly about products

Actual Contacts 1.16

Developer: MAPILab

Distribution size: 3.28 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista

Distribution method: http://www.mapilab.com/files/actual_contacts.zip)

Price:

Actual Contacts is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook XP/2003/2007 designed to keep addresses and other contact information in the address book up to date. It allows you to automatically update the information in the address book by sending messages with the form to all contacts and processing the updated data received from the respondents. In addition, the plugin can be used to check addresses for relevance.

Advanced Direct Remailer (ADR) 2.2

Developer: Tweak Marketing

Websiteprograms: http://www. massmail.ru/adr/

Distribution size: 1.88 MB

Work under control: Windows NT4/2000/XP

Distribution method: shareware (15 day feature-limited demo - http://www.mailutilities.com/adr/adr.zip)

Price:

ADR is a utility designed for mass sending of e-mail bypassing the provider's server (that is, directly to the mail servers of correspondents). It uses multi-threaded sending (which allows you to increase the speed of delivery of correspondence by an order of magnitude) and, unlike many competing programs, is tightly integrated with well-known mail clients (Microsoft Outlook Express, The Bat!, Eudora, Pegasus Mail, etc.), which allows you to use them to prepare correspondence. ADR supports distribution lists of any format (including those imported from Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, or Microsoft SQL Server) and Windows Address Books.

Advanced Maillist Verify (AMV) 4.27

Developer: Tweak Marketing

Websiteprograms: http://www. massmail.ru/amv/

Distribution size: 1.44 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000/XP

Distribution method: http://www.mailutilities.com/amv/amv.zip)

Price: 59.95 dollars, for Russian-speaking users - 700 rubles.

AMV is a program for checking the validity of email addresses in mailing lists, databases (via ODBC SQL - from Microsoft Excel to Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle) and Outlook address books, TheBat! and Eudora. It performs a thorough check of addresses (DNS and SMTP), but is recommended only for checking relatively small (no more than 50-100 thousand) lists.

AMS Enterprise 2.7

Developer: Business Software Products

Websiteprograms: http://www. bspdev.ru/index.php?ams20

Distribution size: 8.22 MB

Work under control: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Distribution method: shareware (20 day demo - http://www.bspdev.com/down_load/AMS272e.zip)

Price:$ 289, for Russian-speaking users: when paying via WebMoney, Yandex-Money, Sberbank - 8250 rubles, for cashless payments - 8980 rubles.

AMS Enterprise is an effective email marketing tool that provides a solution to almost the entire range of email marketing tasks. This package allows you to manage mailing lists, prepare personalized messages based on them using MailMerge templates in the built-in Html editor, and quickly send mail to recipients. In addition, with the help of AMS Enterprise, you can organize automatic subscription / unsubscription of email addresses to mailing lists and set schedules for automatic launch of mailing lists at the right time, as well as receive detailed information on the results of the mailing list (the number of delivered / undelivered letters, the number of open letters and the number of clicks on the specified in letters to links).

High Speed ​​Verifier (HSV) 1.21

Developer: Tweak Marketing

Websiteprograms: http://www. massmail.ru/hsv/

Distribution size: 1.51 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000/XP

Distribution method: shareware (functionally limited demo - http://www.mailutilities.com/hsv/hsv.zip)

Price: 59.95 dollars, for Russian-speaking users - 700 rubles.

The HSV program is designed to quickly check email addresses for their existence (DNS only). It copes well with mailing lists of tens of millions of addresses and is very fast, but only detects about 20-30% of non-existent addresses, while competing solutions that perform two-level verification (DNS and SMTP) can detect up to 60- 70% of similar addresses.

Mail Merge Toolkit 2.5

Developer: MAPILab

Websiteprograms: http://www.mapilab. com/ru/outlook/mail_merge/

Distribution size: 5.93 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Distribution method: shareware (30 day demo - http://www.mapilab.com/files/mail_merge_toolkit.zip)

Price: 24 dollars, for Russian-speaking users - 700 rubles.

Mail Merge Toolkit is an add-on for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Outlook that provides mailing lists from Microsoft Publisher in HTML, RTF and GIF formats and from Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook in HTML and RTF formats while maintaining Internet links, as well as allows you to substitute data fields in the subject of the letter (sending letters with personalized not only content, but also the subject) and attach one or more files to the sent letters.

Mailing List Wizard (MLW) 1.32

Developer: Tweak Marketing

Distribution size: 1.81 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000/XP

Distribution method: shareware (functionally limited demo - http://www.mailutilities.com/mlw/mlw.zip)

Price:$40, for Russian-speaking users - 500 rubles.

MLW is intended for complex processing and transformation of mailing lists and allows you to exclude duplicate addresses from lists, filter lists by various criteria, merge two lists into one, exclude addresses from an additional list, etc.

Mail List Validator 2.1

Developer: Business Software Products

Distribution size: 2.2 MB

Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000/XP

Distribution method: freeware (http://www.bspdev.ru/down_load/MLVLD21.zip)

Price: for free

The Mail List Validator utility is designed to check email addresses for their existence. It performs a thorough check of addresses (DNS and SMTP) and can work even with lists containing several million addresses (however, the database size should not exceed 4 GB). At the same time, if necessary, the program can only perform a DNS check to quickly clear the lists of those addresses whose domains no longer exist.

MAPILab Toolbox 3.0

Developer: MAPILab

Websiteprograms: http://www.mapilab.com/en/outlook/toolbox

Distribution size: 2.66 MB

Work under control: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista

Distribution method: shareware (30 day demo - http://www.mapilab.com/files/toolbox.zip)

Price: 24 dollars, for Russian-speaking users - 700 rubles.

The MAPILab Toolbox package combines 18 add-on plugins for Microsoft Outlook 2000/2002/XP/2003/2007, including the components discussed in the article:

• Batched Mail - is used to schedule the distribution of letters, taking into account the restrictions imposed by the mail server;
• Email Scheduler - designed to automate the process of sending individual letters or launching mailing lists on a schedule;
• Mailing List Services - used to quickly generate lists from the desired addresses, including mailing lists (the source of addresses can be letters, contacts, files on disk), and also allows you to search for contact addresses in Microsoft Outlook folders and text files stored on your hard drive ;
• Subscription Manager - automates the process of processing requests to add and remove addresses from mailing lists, and can also be used to add and remove mailing lists available to subscribers.

If the owner of a web resource has an extensive list of email addresses, then the standard type of notification when emails are sent manually will not work. Firstly, this is a rather laborious process, and secondly, many electronic mail services have a limit on the number of messages sent during the day.

What is mass mailing

For mass sending of letters in automatic mode, it is customary to use programs for sending letters to email addresses. In addition to performing the main task, they provide the ability to create an individual design and personalize each message.

The medium of mass communication, group communication and advertising is actively used in all aspects of traditional marketing on the Internet. The essence of this tool is to provide the maximum possible number of recipients from a pre-prepared list with any information as soon as possible.

Any owner of an Internet project, be it a store, a blog or another type of commercial resource, understands that it is necessary to keep the attention and loyalty of the audience with standard marketing tools. These include various promotions, prize draws, discounts, interesting entertainment material, news and other business and socially useful content.

To inform a wide group of subscribers to the e-mail address specified by the user during registration, mailing programs are most often used. Their main advantage lies in the possibility of simultaneously informing hundreds and thousands of people, regardless of their location.

Today, few people doubt the effectiveness of this tool. According to experts, in online sales, this type of communication gives more reliable results than search engine optimization or buying ads on third-party sites: in some cases, the return on investment can be up to several thousand percent.

Benefits of email marketing programs

When a person wants to deliver one message to several addresses, he just needs to open one of the popular mail services, write and format the text, select recipients and click on the "Send" button. This process becomes somewhat more complicated if this person is the owner of an online store or other commercial project, and he needs to notify not ten people, but ten thousand about something. In this case, the issue of sending letters to multiple addresses at the same time is quite relevant.

To solve the problem, it is customary to use programs for mailing mail. They allow you to correspond simultaneously with an audience of many thousands, delivering the same information to them, thereby saving time.

Today, users are offered a huge amount of different software for communicating with respondents: some are provided free of charge, others are available only after a paid subscription. For a novice webmaster, the question of which software is suitable for performing specific tasks is difficult. To do this, you need to find out what types and versions exist, what are their differences, advantages and disadvantages.

As already noted, unlike other marketing tools, whether it be search engine optimization or direct advertising on web resources, media and social networks, email programs are a more cost-effective and effective option to increase the level of sales of goods or services. In Russia and the CIS countries, this method has become an effective method of communicating with the target audience. This is due to the following factors:

1. Sending messages is carried out exclusively by the interested part of users who voluntarily left contact details by subscribing to the project and agreeing to receive notifications.
2. Gradually, a base of potential customers is being formed with whom you can keep in constant contact, informing them about the availability of promotions, sales, holding draws, arranging surveys and encouraging them with various prizes (free subscriptions, useful material, etc.).
3. If the user is not interested in the proposed communication format, he can unsubscribe or mark messages as spam, as a result of which he will not receive notifications. The remaining truly interested people will gain loyalty and trust, which will lead the company to increase the level of direct sales.
4. In email marketing software, you can check the activity of recipients, collect relevant data, and based on this, optimize the process, making it even more attractive.
5. It is beneficial for owners of Internet projects to use the software, thanks to the fast delivery of letters to a large number of addresses at the lowest possible cost.

In addition to the need to download a program for sending letters to an email address and install it, the user must have ready-made message templates. They should be easy to read, visually well designed, and have their own style so that recipients can easily recognize who the sender is. The functionality of the software should provide the ability to analyze the behavior of recipients and provide the latter with the opportunity to provide feedback, whether it is gratitude or complaints about spam.

Mail program rating

Every person doing business on the Internet knows that having your own database of email addresses is the easiest and surest way to achieve success in advertising. This tool brings in most of the income. Therefore, each owner of an Internet project should think about collecting his own client base. To successfully deliver information to consumers, you should use paid or free mailing programs.

email mailer

This is a whole package of services for mass alerts. In the market of marketing tools, ePochta Mailer is ahead of its competitors due to the availability of software for various types of user notification: via SMS, mobile messengers, etc.

Software for personalized mass sending of messages to an email address is included in the ePochta Studio service package. It allows you to import addresses from various sources, verify their authenticity, group them into categories, remove duplicates, compose original texts and check the result of your work.

• By installing the mail distribution program on the computer, the user will not need additional utilities: ePochta Mailer is a full-fledged tool that has everything you need.
• There is a network protocol designed for sending e-mail over TCP/IP networks. It ensures uninterrupted operation of the software, regardless of the provider. Therefore, sending letters will be carried out at exactly the appointed time.
• The multi-threaded mode of operation does not create problems with the queue of messages to be sent.

To use the software, you need to download the program on the official website, install it on a PC or laptop, import addresses from your own database, compose the text of the letter and format it accordingly, and then start sending.

It is easy to manage the work process, thanks to an intuitive interface - even an inexperienced user can figure out the functions. For specialists, there are various types of settings to help optimize the delivery process.

Advanced Direct Remailer (ADR)

If sending is carried out from ordinary software in a single copy, the delivery process occurs as follows: the mail client sends a message, after which it gets to the provider's server. He queues it up with other letters and waits for his turn to come. Only after that the correspondent will receive a delivery notification.

As a rule, the wait lasts no more than 2-3 seconds. If there are several thousand letters, the process can take 2-3 hours. There is no such thing in ADR. It uses direct multi-threaded sending, which significantly reduces the delivery time.

Advanced Direct Remailer allows you to run several projects at the same time, set up a schedule for sending emails, and collect and analyze information about overall performance and the number of clicks in particular.

Send Safe Enterprise

This mailing program consists of several parts: a set of tools for managing mail and the software itself, which ensures the establishment of a communication session and the exchange of mail packages. With mailer, you can perform a wide range of tasks. First, the user can create and manage campaigns. Each of them can contain thousands of messages that differ from each other in text content and design. Secondly, the available tools can be used to change settings at any stage of work.

Can programs be used to send spam

Any of the above software can be used to send bulk advertising correspondence to people who did not consent to receive it. Naturally, spam is one of the prohibited methods of conveying any information. Email marketing is constantly evolving, putting new demands on paid and free email marketing programs. However, it is not always possible to prevent an aggressive policy of advertising goods or services.

Automatic mailing has become an integral part of every effective marketing campaign. With automated emails, you can connect with your audience at exactly the right moment when the need arises and when a conversion is most likely to occur. (Learn more about the main email marketing metrics - )

If you're considering automated emails as part of your marketing campaigns, this article might give you some ideas.

What are automatic mailing lists?

Similar to your out-of-office messages, there is no need to manually send emails. Using autoresponders and marketing automation processes, you can send emails at specific times or respond to subscriber behavior with a newsletter.

Automatic emails will be sent as an individual message or as part of an advanced drip marketing campaign. For example, in order to greet new subscribers, you can refuse to send a single email letter, and instead use a welcome chain, acquainting subscribers with all the details of your product.

If you have already determined the time when the Email will be sent to subscribers, you can click on the "publish" button. From now on, whenever the subscriber fulfills certain conditions, he will receive pre-prepared letters.

Automatic mailing of letters - types

The way you communicate with your subscribers depends on many factors. Industry, target audience, campaign mission - these and other elements affect the way you communicate with potential and existing subscribers.

To make your life as a marketer easier, we have created a list that includes more than 20 types automatic emails with examples that you can use in your marketing campaigns.

1. Thank you email

As a marketer, you are constantly asking your followers to do something for you. Signing up for a newsletter, downloading an e-book, filling out a survey - sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Now imagine a similar situation offline. If you constantly ask that something be done for you, then at least you will thank, and, most likely, will return the courtesy.

The best way is to behave similarly online. All you need to do is send an automatic email immediately after the action taken by the subscriber. To make your thank you letter more enjoyable, you can offer a discount, a loyalty credit, or free shipping. Subscribers will notice that their efforts are appreciated.

2. Welcome letters

Suppose you decide to organize a party. What will you do when someone accepts an invitation and comes to you? Without a doubt, you will meet the guest with joyful greetings and take a short tour.

Even if the subscription is more comparable to a business meeting than a party, one should not forget about good manners. Thank new subscribers for subscribing to the newsletter and explain how often subscribers will receive your newsletters and what topics are discussed.

Do your best to make the subscriber feel like a special guest and show how much their trust means to you. See how Coursera uses welcome emails and guides new users on how they should proceed by suggesting the most important pages to them.

If you are looking for inspiration, be helpful.

3. Get to know the team members

There will come a time when you really want to connect with your audience. Not on a business-to-customer or business-to-business level, but on a simple human level. In this case, you can introduce the team and people who are associated with the brand.

An email introducing the team is a great start to communication. You can use this type of email when communicating with employees through an internal mailing list, or when you are trying to convince your regular subscribers to support a common cause.

These types of emails are a great way to show that there is an ordinary person behind the brand. He or she does his or her best to provide the subscriber with added value, but can sometimes make mistakes or need the subscribers' help. It's much easier to ask for a favor if your subscribers know you. Below are examples of welcome letters representing the Andrew and Pete team.

4. Download the app and stay up to date

Regardless of whether you are working on the development of an online store project, a news resource or a SaaS platform, you need subscribers to return to you as often as possible. Is there a better solution than giving them an app?

Let your fans know that they have access to their favorite information and products even when they are driving to work or just killing time playing on their smartphone. If you can't offer them apps, then just make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices and the audience knows they can take advantage of it.

This type of email pairs well with welcome emails when subscribers read your offer. In addition, from time to time it is also worth reminding about the application to those subscribers who do not use it yet. After all, you want your followers to interact with your brand as often as possible.

5. Your order is in progress

Order and transaction confirmation letters are very popular in e-business. However, other types of mailings related to the ordered product are not as common.

Customers who are waiting to order are more likely to feel excited and sometimes anxious. If you can provide useful content, such as the best ways to use the ordered product, advice on how to care for and pair with other items in the wardrobe, how to change, etc., their anticipation will become even more enthusiastic.

Explain why they made the right decision, share feedback from other buyers, and let them join the discussion on social platforms too. In this way, brands build effective communication.

6. Share your opinion

If you ever wanted to know more about your target audience, who would you ask first? Your customer support department, sales department or perhaps marketing department staff? Why not go directly to the source and just chat with customers?

If you want to learn more about your audience, just sit down and chat with them. Send them an email with a questionnaire and ask them to respond to your message. In this way, you will quickly get information about their needs, problems, preferences, goals and be able to improve the product and communication.

The examples below demonstrate that brands like Timberland and Adidas see the benefit of having knowledge of their customers' opinions.

7. Product Review Letters

Marketing is not just about selling. It is participation and customer satisfaction. Profit takes the following places.

You shouldn't only care about your audience when customers place an order and then forget about them. On the contrary, you must remain in contact with subscribers even after receiving the ordered goods from them.

If you want to build a meaningful relationship, you should ask them how happy they feel after receiving the ordered products, what was their first impression and if it has changed over time. Only then can you really say that you care about their opinion, which helps you improve the product.

Asking for product feedback has another benefit. You can use the information you receive to create more compelling marketing messages. Social Evaluation Works Wonders!

8. Most popular products

Showcasing the most popular products has its benefits. First, you can convince new buyers to make their first purchase and get a conversion right away. You will also find out what categories of goods customers are interested in, and you can use this information in the future.

This type of email can be used at various stages of the buyer-brand cycle: at the beginning of the cycle, when buyers are still considering whether to place an order, or later, when they have already decided that they will make a purchase.
Emails containing customer ratings are also a useful tool, which we have already covered earlier. It should be taken into account that 88% of customers trust online reviews as well as personal recommendations. No doubt you will use evaluations in communication to make communication more effective.

The most important goal of modern marketing is to provide value and relevant offer. This means that products or services should not only solve customer problems. Customers must be willing to associate themselves with these products or services.

If you really want to provide value to customers, you must pay special attention to how they interact with the brand, what products they look at, what they order, and what products they enjoy. You need to get the full picture and create recommendations that meet individual customer needs.

Don't force users to scroll through pages for inspiration. Show them the products they will love right away. Save subscribers time by using recommendation messages, and they'll be grateful for the time saved they can spend with family or friends. And this is a real advantage that only a few can provide.

10. New information on the blog

If you're interested in content marketing or e-business, you'll probably run a blog that aims to generate new customers. If you can answer questions that your audience is interested in, solve their problems, your blog will gain popularity.

If you're going to blog, discuss new products or topics that will be useful to your followers. Make sure you send automatic emails about the publication of new material (rss emails).

Why? It is loyal subscribers who should be the first to know about the publication of new materials. They will be the first to get access to new offers, and you will be able to understand how your audience reacts. This situation is beneficial for both parties, and if you make it clear enough, many will want to get into your subscriber base.

11. Invitation to webinars

Webinars are one of the best ways to build effective relationships. Webinars help build trust, build credibility, and above all, show the audience that the purpose of a business is to help customers, not just sell.

The success of a webinar will often be related to the number of registered users. In order to make sure that you attract the maximum number of subscribers, you will use various channels and techniques, including paid advertising and email marketing.

Emails are especially important when hosting webinars, as you can auto-send emails to all those who are interested in attending. Whether you host weekly educational webinars or monthly meetings to discuss more advanced topics, automatic webinar invitations are a useful tool.

Another benefit of webinars or product demo invitations is that your potential buyers will finally get to know your product. Perhaps they postponed the acquaintance until some point. However, you explain that there is no good reason for this. Webinar attendees can also only listen to the webinar and try the product later.

12. Event reminder

If you really want to convert leads, invite subscribers to take part in the event. Just like in everyday life, it is worth sending an automatic reminder email with information about the start of the event with an explanation of how participants can quickly gain access.

If this is an offline event, send an email a few days before the start. If it is an online event, please send a reminder letter on the day of the event. Make sure participants reserve time to chat with you and ask questions if they have any. As soon as they receive some value from you, your chances of realizing business projects will increase significantly.

13. Subscriber Reactivation

Even if something is important, people tend to often lose sight of the work they have started. They stop exercising, eating right, or watching their favorite TV shows.

This also goes for tracking their favorite brand. They may stop being active subscribers due to some changes or stop visiting your website or reading your email newsletter. Don't be offended.

However, that doesn't mean you have to put up with it. You must take appropriate action and launch a reactivation campaign. Send reactivation emails as soon as the subscriber stops opening your emails for a certain period of time. Remind subscribers that they are subscribed to your newsletter and take care of a special incentive that will win their hearts again.

14. Your discount code will soon become unavailable

Many e-business owners try to attract customers with discount codes. The business value is beyond doubt.

However, in the case of using promotional codes and other incentives, a problem may arise. If you use these tools very often, it will lead not only to a decrease in profits, but also to a decrease in customer receptivity. Sometimes this behavior can cause your customers not to buy items at the standard price because they know they will most likely be offered a discount soon.

Therefore, it is necessary to use promo codes very smartly. If the codes represent value, you cannot offer them as brochures or takeaways from your local pizzeria. Therefore, offer promo codes infrequently, but remind subscribers that the promo code expiration date will soon expire. Show them that their chances are diminishing, and if they want to purchase the hottest items, they must act immediately.

15. Content emails after visiting the site

With marketing automation, you can also track audience actions and use the data in the right way. Sometimes such a task can seem overwhelming, but sometimes a simple solution can bring great results.

According to the results of the study, one of these techniques is to track the behavior of customers who visit your site. If you notice that they only view certain pages, such as those that describe a product feature, you can send them a reaction email about their behavior that is directly related to this topic.

There are several ways how to implement this. For example, a visitor viewing a pricing page can be automatically offered help from sales staff. Or send a case study of the tools they've been looking at. Give it a try and see how you can deliver value and achieve significant business results at the same time with relevant trigger emails.

16. Letters after attending an event

After hosting an event or conference, you may be thinking about ways to have fun and relax. If you have ever been involved in sales, you know perfectly well that this is not the right moment. You must manage the game by reaching out to everyone who takes the time to attend your event.

Some tasks can be automated. An automatic email poisoned after attending an event can reveal all the nuances you are thinking about at the moment. A thank you note, a demo offer, a report you promised, a question about the audience's experience, are great opportunities to start a conversation.

Most importantly, this way of communication is not intrusive. If someone wishes, he will answer, also because he is interested in the implementation of joint projects or simply wants to ask something.

17. Anniversary or birthday emails

For us, birthday means gifts. If you have a more practical approach to money, there are still chances that you enjoy receiving gifts.

Even if we are not very happy, as another year flies by, we still expect to be pleased. Such a gift can be presented by family, friends or ourselves. When we are in a festive mood, we often say to ourselves, “I think I deserve this. I should/should get it"

What marketers can do is streamline the process and draw the customer's attention to the offer. For example, send a message of congratulations saying that you wish you all the best and offer an attractive incentive so they can indulge in shopping.

All you need to do is just find out the date of birth of subscribers and set automatic sending of emails. Offer a special offer and show them the products they miss.

18. Automated Email for Abandoned Carts

According to the SaleCycle study, over 68% of shoppers leave a store without making a purchase. For many online stores, this is a serious problem, but nothing is impossible.

In addition to using retargeting, you can win back customers with abandoned cart emails. These automated emails are sent shortly after the visitor has left the site without placing an order. Abandoned cart emails act as a reminder and can increase conversions, especially if shoppers were genuinely interested in the offer.

Abandoned cart emails work great because they are timely and relevant. If you want to increase their influence, you can include free shipping in your emails or provide a promo code, and then you will notice that some customers return with pleasure.

If you're looking to implement automated abandoned cart emails, you might like Pam Neely's article (in English, translation coming soon), which describes the best examples of effective abandoned cart email campaigns.

19. Letter of thanks for testing

Let's say you're running an online course that offers a free demo that allows users to try the product without incurring any obligation. During the course, you may send several emails trying to convince clients to upgrade to a plan. However, what happens to those users whose test subscription ends before they make a final decision.

The most obvious answer is to contact them. Give them a final offer (for example, pairing with a 10% discount if a decision is made within 24 hours) or ask them to answer a few questions about the product, what is done well, what needs to be improved, or what they liked the most .

And you will see that offers of last resort will not only add value and provide additional information about customers, but also bring in profits that you might not have considered.

20. Upsell emails

Marketers always strive for a higher result. They want customers to buy more, place more orders, spend more time on the site. This is not surprising, since we are all striving to achieve a higher return on investment.

Upselling is a successful method of generating higher checkouts. Most often, upselling is carried out using additional elements that are displayed on the landing page. However, you can use these elements in email campaigns too. All you need to do is send the letter at the right time.

Upsell emails are very popular with booking sites like Booking.com or Airbnb. Their goal is to convince users to devote more time to their services. To this end, these sites use various techniques, for example, by giving the client the opportunity to stay in a room of a higher class, but for a longer period. Thus, commissions increase, and customers are given the opportunity to extend their vacation.

21. Join the community

Who can be more desirable than a loyal and dedicated customer. A true brand advocate. However, such faces do not just appear. You need to find them.

When engaging users, you want them to spend as much time as possible on the brand. You will be able to achieve your goal using all available channels and tools.

In order to increase the number of buyers, it is necessary to take care of increasing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. One of the ways is to invite subscribers not only to visit your site, but also to become a member of groups on social networks, for example, on Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Pinterest or Instagram.

Invite users to become part of your community, not only to buy products, but also to become part of your brand.

Who knows, maybe your subscribers will become such loyal customers as Harley Davidson customers.

Automatic mailing - your actions

You just checked out over 20 ideas on how to create an automated email campaign. And now it's time to act! Analyze your communication with customers, what you are doing well and what nuances can be improved. Assign to this list inspiration To create email campaigns in the future, use marketing automation to send relevant email messages that your audience will appreciate in a timely manner.

What types of emails do you use in your campaigns? What results are you getting? Do Email Marketing Help You Build Close Relationships With Your Target Audience? Write in the comments and share your experience with our readers.

Automatic mailing has become an integral part of every effective marketing campaign. With automated emails, you can connect with your audience at exactly the right moment when the need arises and when a conversion is most likely to occur. (Learn more about the main email marketing metrics - )

If you're considering automated emails as part of your marketing campaigns, this article might give you some ideas.

What are automatic mailing lists?

Similar to your out-of-office messages, there is no need to manually send emails. Using autoresponders and marketing automation processes, you can send emails at specific times or respond to subscriber behavior with a newsletter.

Automatic emails will be sent as an individual message or as part of an advanced drip marketing campaign. For example, in order to greet new subscribers, you can refuse to send a single email letter, and instead use a welcome chain, acquainting subscribers with all the details of your product.

If you have already determined the time when the Email will be sent to subscribers, you can click on the "publish" button. From now on, whenever the subscriber fulfills certain conditions, he will receive pre-prepared letters.

Automatic mailing of letters - types

The way you communicate with your subscribers depends on many factors. Industry, target audience, campaign mission - these and other elements affect the way you communicate with potential and existing subscribers.

To make your life as a marketer easier, we have created a list that includes more than 20 types automatic emails with examples that you can use in your marketing campaigns.

1. Thank you email

As a marketer, you are constantly asking your followers to do something for you. Signing up for a newsletter, downloading an e-book, filling out a survey - sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Now imagine a similar situation offline. If you constantly ask that something be done for you, then at least you will thank, and, most likely, will return the courtesy.

The best way is to behave similarly online. All you need to do is send an automatic email immediately after the action taken by the subscriber. To make your thank you letter more enjoyable, you can offer a discount, a loyalty credit, or free shipping. Subscribers will notice that their efforts are appreciated.

2. Welcome letters

Suppose you decide to organize a party. What will you do when someone accepts an invitation and comes to you? Without a doubt, you will meet the guest with joyful greetings and take a short tour.

Even if the subscription is more comparable to a business meeting than a party, one should not forget about good manners. Thank new subscribers for subscribing to the newsletter and explain how often subscribers will receive your newsletters and what topics are discussed.

Do your best to make the subscriber feel like a special guest and show how much their trust means to you. See how Coursera uses welcome emails and guides new users on how they should proceed by suggesting the most important pages to them.

If you are looking for inspiration, be helpful.

3. Get to know the team members

There will come a time when you really want to connect with your audience. Not on a business-to-customer or business-to-business level, but on a simple human level. In this case, you can introduce the team and people who are associated with the brand.

An email introducing the team is a great start to communication. You can use this type of email when communicating with employees through an internal mailing list, or when you are trying to convince your regular subscribers to support a common cause.

These types of emails are a great way to show that there is an ordinary person behind the brand. He or she does his or her best to provide the subscriber with added value, but can sometimes make mistakes or need the subscribers' help. It's much easier to ask for a favor if your subscribers know you. Below are examples of welcome letters representing the Andrew and Pete team.

4. Download the app and stay up to date

Regardless of whether you are working on the development of an online store project, a news resource or a SaaS platform, you need subscribers to return to you as often as possible. Is there a better solution than giving them an app?

Let your fans know that they have access to their favorite information and products even when they are driving to work or just killing time playing on their smartphone. If you can't offer them apps, then just make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices and the audience knows they can take advantage of it.

This type of email pairs well with welcome emails when subscribers read your offer. In addition, from time to time it is also worth reminding about the application to those subscribers who do not use it yet. After all, you want your followers to interact with your brand as often as possible.

5. Your order is in progress

Order and transaction confirmation letters are very popular in e-business. However, other types of mailings related to the ordered product are not as common.

Customers who are waiting to order are more likely to feel excited and sometimes anxious. If you can provide useful content, such as the best ways to use the ordered product, advice on how to care for and pair with other items in the wardrobe, how to change, etc., their anticipation will become even more enthusiastic.

Explain why they made the right decision, share feedback from other buyers, and let them join the discussion on social platforms too. In this way, brands build effective communication.

6. Share your opinion

If you ever wanted to know more about your target audience, who would you ask first? Your customer support department, sales department or perhaps marketing department staff? Why not go directly to the source and just chat with customers?

If you want to learn more about your audience, just sit down and chat with them. Send them an email with a questionnaire and ask them to respond to your message. In this way, you will quickly get information about their needs, problems, preferences, goals and be able to improve the product and communication.

The examples below demonstrate that brands like Timberland and Adidas see the benefit of having knowledge of their customers' opinions.

7. Product Review Letters

Marketing is not just about selling. It is participation and customer satisfaction. Profit takes the following places.

You shouldn't only care about your audience when customers place an order and then forget about them. On the contrary, you must remain in contact with subscribers even after receiving the ordered goods from them.

If you want to build a meaningful relationship, you should ask them how happy they feel after receiving the ordered products, what was their first impression and if it has changed over time. Only then can you really say that you care about their opinion, which helps you improve the product.

Asking for product feedback has another benefit. You can use the information you receive to create more compelling marketing messages. Social Evaluation Works Wonders!

8. Most popular products

Showcasing the most popular products has its benefits. First, you can convince new buyers to make their first purchase and get a conversion right away. You will also find out what categories of goods customers are interested in, and you can use this information in the future.

This type of email can be used at various stages of the buyer-brand cycle: at the beginning of the cycle, when buyers are still considering whether to place an order, or later, when they have already decided that they will make a purchase.
Emails containing customer ratings are also a useful tool, which we have already covered earlier. It should be taken into account that 88% of customers trust online reviews as well as personal recommendations. No doubt you will use evaluations in communication to make communication more effective.

The most important goal of modern marketing is to provide value and relevant offer. This means that products or services should not only solve customer problems. Customers must be willing to associate themselves with these products or services.

If you really want to provide value to customers, you must pay special attention to how they interact with the brand, what products they look at, what they order, and what products they enjoy. You need to get the full picture and create recommendations that meet individual customer needs.

Don't force users to scroll through pages for inspiration. Show them the products they will love right away. Save subscribers time by using recommendation messages, and they'll be grateful for the time saved they can spend with family or friends. And this is a real advantage that only a few can provide.

10. New information on the blog

If you're interested in content marketing or e-business, you'll probably run a blog that aims to generate new customers. If you can answer questions that your audience is interested in, solve their problems, your blog will gain popularity.

If you're going to blog, discuss new products or topics that will be useful to your followers. Make sure you send automatic emails about the publication of new material (rss emails).

Why? It is loyal subscribers who should be the first to know about the publication of new materials. They will be the first to get access to new offers, and you will be able to understand how your audience reacts. This situation is beneficial for both parties, and if you make it clear enough, many will want to get into your subscriber base.

11. Invitation to webinars

Webinars are one of the best ways to build effective relationships. Webinars help build trust, build credibility, and above all, show the audience that the purpose of a business is to help customers, not just sell.

The success of a webinar will often be related to the number of registered users. In order to make sure that you attract the maximum number of subscribers, you will use various channels and techniques, including paid advertising and email marketing.

Emails are especially important when hosting webinars, as you can auto-send emails to all those who are interested in attending. Whether you host weekly educational webinars or monthly meetings to discuss more advanced topics, automatic webinar invitations are a useful tool.

Another benefit of webinars or product demo invitations is that your potential buyers will finally get to know your product. Perhaps they postponed the acquaintance until some point. However, you explain that there is no good reason for this. Webinar attendees can also only listen to the webinar and try the product later.

12. Event reminder

If you really want to convert leads, invite subscribers to take part in the event. Just like in everyday life, it is worth sending an automatic reminder email with information about the start of the event with an explanation of how participants can quickly gain access.

If this is an offline event, send an email a few days before the start. If it is an online event, please send a reminder letter on the day of the event. Make sure participants reserve time to chat with you and ask questions if they have any. As soon as they receive some value from you, your chances of realizing business projects will increase significantly.

13. Subscriber Reactivation

Even if something is important, people tend to often lose sight of the work they have started. They stop exercising, eating right, or watching their favorite TV shows.

This also goes for tracking their favorite brand. They may stop being active subscribers due to some changes or stop visiting your website or reading your email newsletter. Don't be offended.

However, that doesn't mean you have to put up with it. You must take appropriate action and launch a reactivation campaign. Send reactivation emails as soon as the subscriber stops opening your emails for a certain period of time. Remind subscribers that they are subscribed to your newsletter and take care of a special incentive that will win their hearts again.

14. Your discount code will soon become unavailable

Many e-business owners try to attract customers with discount codes. The business value is beyond doubt.

However, in the case of using promotional codes and other incentives, a problem may arise. If you use these tools very often, it will lead not only to a decrease in profits, but also to a decrease in customer receptivity. Sometimes this behavior can cause your customers not to buy items at the standard price because they know they will most likely be offered a discount soon.

Therefore, it is necessary to use promo codes very smartly. If the codes represent value, you cannot offer them as brochures or takeaways from your local pizzeria. Therefore, offer promo codes infrequently, but remind subscribers that the promo code expiration date will soon expire. Show them that their chances are diminishing, and if they want to purchase the hottest items, they must act immediately.

15. Content emails after visiting the site

With marketing automation, you can also track audience actions and use the data in the right way. Sometimes such a task can seem overwhelming, but sometimes a simple solution can bring great results.

According to the results of the study, one of these techniques is to track the behavior of customers who visit your site. If you notice that they only view certain pages, such as those that describe a product feature, you can send them a reaction email about their behavior that is directly related to this topic.

There are several ways how to implement this. For example, a visitor viewing a pricing page can be automatically offered help from sales staff. Or send a case study of the tools they've been looking at. Give it a try and see how you can deliver value and achieve significant business results at the same time with relevant trigger emails.

16. Letters after attending an event

After hosting an event or conference, you may be thinking about ways to have fun and relax. If you have ever been involved in sales, you know perfectly well that this is not the right moment. You must manage the game by reaching out to everyone who takes the time to attend your event.

Some tasks can be automated. An automatic email poisoned after attending an event can reveal all the nuances you are thinking about at the moment. A thank you note, a demo offer, a report you promised, a question about the audience's experience, are great opportunities to start a conversation.

Most importantly, this way of communication is not intrusive. If someone wishes, he will answer, also because he is interested in the implementation of joint projects or simply wants to ask something.

17. Anniversary or birthday emails

For us, birthday means gifts. If you have a more practical approach to money, there are still chances that you enjoy receiving gifts.

Even if we are not very happy, as another year flies by, we still expect to be pleased. Such a gift can be presented by family, friends or ourselves. When we are in a festive mood, we often say to ourselves, “I think I deserve this. I should/should get it"

What marketers can do is streamline the process and draw the customer's attention to the offer. For example, send a message of congratulations saying that you wish you all the best and offer an attractive incentive so they can indulge in shopping.

All you need to do is just find out the date of birth of subscribers and set automatic sending of emails. Offer a special offer and show them the products they miss.

18. Automated Email for Abandoned Carts

According to the SaleCycle study, over 68% of shoppers leave a store without making a purchase. For many online stores, this is a serious problem, but nothing is impossible.

In addition to using retargeting, you can win back customers with abandoned cart emails. These automated emails are sent shortly after the visitor has left the site without placing an order. Abandoned cart emails act as a reminder and can increase conversions, especially if shoppers were genuinely interested in the offer.

Abandoned cart emails work great because they are timely and relevant. If you want to increase their influence, you can include free shipping in your emails or provide a promo code, and then you will notice that some customers return with pleasure.

If you're looking to implement automated abandoned cart emails, you might like Pam Neely's article (in English, translation coming soon), which describes the best examples of effective abandoned cart email campaigns.

19. Letter of thanks for testing

Let's say you're running an online course that offers a free demo that allows users to try the product without incurring any obligation. During the course, you may send several emails trying to convince clients to upgrade to a plan. However, what happens to those users whose test subscription ends before they make a final decision.

The most obvious answer is to contact them. Give them a final offer (for example, pairing with a 10% discount if a decision is made within 24 hours) or ask them to answer a few questions about the product, what is done well, what needs to be improved, or what they liked the most .

And you will see that offers of last resort will not only add value and provide additional information about customers, but also bring in profits that you might not have considered.

20. Upsell emails

Marketers always strive for a higher result. They want customers to buy more, place more orders, spend more time on the site. This is not surprising, since we are all striving to achieve a higher return on investment.

Upselling is a successful method of generating higher checkouts. Most often, upselling is carried out using additional elements that are displayed on the landing page. However, you can use these elements in email campaigns too. All you need to do is send the letter at the right time.

Upsell emails are very popular with booking sites like Booking.com or Airbnb. Their goal is to convince users to devote more time to their services. To this end, these sites use various techniques, for example, by giving the client the opportunity to stay in a room of a higher class, but for a longer period. Thus, commissions increase, and customers are given the opportunity to extend their vacation.

21. Join the community

Who can be more desirable than a loyal and dedicated customer. A true brand advocate. However, such faces do not just appear. You need to find them.

When engaging users, you want them to spend as much time as possible on the brand. You will be able to achieve your goal using all available channels and tools.

In order to increase the number of buyers, it is necessary to take care of increasing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. One of the ways is to invite subscribers not only to visit your site, but also to become a member of groups on social networks, for example, on Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Pinterest or Instagram.

Invite users to become part of your community, not only to buy products, but also to become part of your brand.

Who knows, maybe your subscribers will become such loyal customers as Harley Davidson customers.

Automatic mailing - your actions

You just checked out over 20 ideas on how to create an automated email campaign. And now it's time to act! Analyze your communication with customers, what you are doing well and what nuances can be improved. Assign to this list inspiration To create email campaigns in the future, use marketing automation to send relevant email messages that your audience will appreciate in a timely manner.

What types of emails do you use in your campaigns? What results are you getting? Do Email Marketing Help You Build Close Relationships With Your Target Audience? Write in the comments and share your experience with our readers.

The Exiland Assistant organizer for Windows (windows) allows you to conveniently store all your contacts in a structured way (contacts of clients, partners, friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc.). The same software is email sending program(by e-mail) and has a special built-in module that allows you to send e-mail messages via .

There can be many reasons for sending an e-mail:

• Congratulation;
• Invitation;
• Price list delivery;
• Commercial offer (information about promotions, discounts);
• Notification;
• Announcement;
• Reminder of something, etc.;

Bulk emails in Exiland Assistant

In the diary there is a function of automatic bulk sending e-mail, which allows you to send letters to many recipients:

• your contacts stored in the Exiland Assistant database;
• custom list of email addresses, which you store, for example, in Excel;

Thus, you can carry out bulk emails of the same type, created according to the template, to any recipients of their base. A separate email is sent to each recipient.

The program supports 2 letter formats:

• Plain text (Plain Text);
• Formatted text (HTML) for creating colorful messages;

Formatted text (HTML) allows you to insert images, logos, photos directly into the body of the message, as well as highlight text bold, in italics, underline , center text, insert tables, choose a background color or background images, and much more - all this makes messages more structured and attractive. The Exiland Assistant bulk email program has a built-in editor that allows you to create beautiful templates.

The template text may contain tags (variables), instead of which, during sending field values ​​from the database (DB) will be substituted. Example: <Наименование организации> to which you are sending the email. In the simplest case, the text may not contain any tags.

How to do mass mailing?

When you click on the "Create" button, the following window will appear on the screen:

Specify the name of the mailing, in the "From" and "Template" drop-down lists, select the sender's settings (SMTP profile) and the letter template.
On first use, the dropdown lists are empty. You must click the "..." button located to the right of the corresponding drop-down list.

Step 1. Create an SMTP profile for sending emails

The SMTP profile is the sender's settings, that is, from which mailbox and name letters will be sent. You can send e-mail messages from any of your mailboxes created on gmail.com, mail.ru, yandex.ru, ukr.net, etc. servers. One specific SMTP profile that you create can later be used for multiple mailings. You can create any number of profiles.

Click on the button with three dots "..." and you will see a window with a list of SMTP profiles.

To create a new SMTP profile, click "Create" and fill out the form.

Fill out the form, specifying the sender's mailbox and click "Check". If the settings are correct, click Save. In the list of SMTP profiles, select the created profile and click the "Select" button.

Step 2. Creating a mail template - letter text

To select a template, click on the button with three dots "...", to the right of the drop-down list of templates, and a window with a list of mail templates will open in front of you.
As with SMTP profiles, to create a new template, click "Create" and fill out the form.

If you plan to insert tags in the body of the letter, select from the list which section the template is intended for. Specify the subject, format, as well as the body of the message and insert tags into it, if necessary. The format is switched in the "Format" drop-down list, above the text. You can attach files (attachments) to the letter.

To insert a tag, place the cursor in the desired position in the text and click "Insert tag" on the left, selecting the required field from the database.

Step 3. Selecting the recipients of your e-mails (to whom to send)

Being in the settings editing window, click "Add" and select the appropriate item.

Selecting recipients from the Exiland Assistant database

Select the entire group or section on the left. On the right, specify the recipients of this group. By default, "All, including subgroups".

Choice of arbitrary e-mail addresses

If you have a list of addresses in Excel, Word or a text file, you can copy it via the clipboard (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) and paste it into the list of recipients.

After selecting the corresponding menu item, the e-mail list entry field will appear on the screen. Each line contains one address. The address can be entered in the format: " [email protected]"or" Ivanov Ivan ".

How to start sending emails?

In the window with the mailing list, select the one you need and click the preview and send button.

Since e-mail addresses can be stored in several fields of the Contacts or Organizations card, when you start sending, the program will ask you from which fields it should take the e-mail address.

Above - the theme and text of the template. At the bottom is a list of recipients. For each recipient in the list, you can see to which addresses the letter will be sent, as well as from which fields of the recipient it is taken. If the recipient does not have an e-mail address, then the "E-mail" column will be empty and such a recipient will be skipped by the program when sending a message.

Viewing letters. By placing the cursor on the line with the recipient, values ​​from the base are substituted instead of tags at the top of the template, unless, of course, there are tags in the body of the template. Thus, even before the launch of the mailing, you can see in what form the message will be sent to each recipient.

Sending check. You can send a test email to your e-mail to make sure that the sending works and see the final look of the message in your mailbox. To do this, in the bottom panel in the "E-mail" field, enter your address and click "Send test".

Delay in N seconds between sending letters is necessary if the mail server from which you send letters does not allow sending too often. Usually a delay of 3-5 seconds is sufficient.

Request a read receipt. This option includes a request to send a read receipt in the header of each message. This request will be made in the form of a dialog box at the moment when the recipient opens the letter for reading.

Launch. By default, the program offers to send correspondence to all recipients, starting with the first one. However, you can tick the recipients selectively and send emails only to them.

For each recipient in the list, the time of sending and the result are indicated. If the message could not be sent, the error text will be displayed in red.

During the distribution, you can cancel the process by clicking on the "Stop" button, and later - continue.
During this time, task alerts and automatic database backups will not be triggered if configured.

Newsletter history

A nice utility addition to send letters in Russian Exiland Assistant is the ability to view the history of sending (when, to whom and what was sent), as well as the ability to resending, for example, those to whom the letter was not sent for some reason or the process was interrupted (the computer was restarted, the program crashed, etc.). Also, stop send is useful if you need to go somewhere and need to turn off your computer, and later you would like to continue.

To view the history, you need to be in the window with the mailing list, select the desired one and click the history button.

Viewing the history, you can repeat sending either to all recipients, or only to those to whom the letter was not sent last time for any reason. If the last send was interrupted user, you can continue to send to those to whom the letter was not sent.

Conclusion

Automatic distribution of e-mail letters is available only in paid low-cost versions of Exiland Assistant Personal and Exiland Assistant Enterprise. You can download the mailing program for free on the official website, but in the free version of Free you can only set up a mailing list, but you can only send a test letter to the address you specified. This is enough to check the sending and correct delivery and display of the message.

Mikhail, developer of Exiland Assistant