Scheduling a follow-up scenario often requires setting up a new email campaign. This means configuring all the settings of your campaign again, then programming the message to be sent to a portion of the contact list from a previous campaign that you have segmented according to your criteria (opened/clicked/did not open/did not click, etc.). With Mailify, you can create automatic follow-up scenarios in just a few clicks and send them to the recipients of your campaign depending on their behavior thanks to the new «received campaign» trigger. It’s sure to save time and make your campaigns more effective!

5 tips to make your automatic follow-up scenario a success

Don’t send a follow-up every time

If you systematically follow-up with your subscribers for each campaign, there’s a risk you’ll over-solicit them and can be viewed as being too intrusive. For example, there’s no need send a message to people who haven’t opened your monthly newsletter, which is mainly intended to inform your subscribers, not to incite them to interact with your services. We recommend that you only follow up on some of your campaigns, in particular those that require a reply or an action on the part of the user: webinar registration, event participation, online questionnaire, etc. For follow-ups that are strictly sales-oriented, you need to be careful not to appear too pushy or aggressive. Send only one follow-up and choose your words carefully. Used properly, follow-ups will help you develop a better relationship with your customers (acquisition/loyalty).

Modify the content

It’s often not a good idea to re-send the exact same campaign to your recipients. This could even irritate them and cause them to unsubscribe. If you want to send more or less the same message, you’ll want to at least change the subject and the preheader of your message and use more attractive images, for example…

Choose the right frequency

Give your contacts time to open your first email before sending a follow-up. The standard is to wait at least 3 days before sending a second message. In B2B, also take into account the fact that your recipients don’t always check their email on weekends.

Test and analyze the results of your follow-up scenarios

Make sure you track key performance indicators. Everyone reacts differently when they receive a follow-up message. Start by following up with the recipients of a specific campaign and see how your base reacts. IF the feedback is positive, you can use this scenario with other email campaigns. If there is an increase in complaints and unsubscriptions, then you’ll need to rethink your strategy.

Don’t forget your active contacts

Of course, when we talk about follow-ups, we immediately think about inactive recipients (people who don’t open or don’t click on the message). But don’t forget that there are two types of follow-ups you can automate, and one is designed for active recipients of your campaign. Remember to focus on this part of the scenario as well by sending them a tailored message.
With a well-designed scenario, marketing automation can be a fantastic tool to help improve customer relations, conversion rates and the qualifying and segmenting your contact lists.

Who should you send your follow-up scenario to, and why?

Why?

Most of the time, an email campaign aims to reach a specific conversion goal. The first campaign is not usually enough in itself to garner you enough clicks (and therefore conversions). That’s where follow-up emails come in. For example: when you create an email campaign with a special offer, some recipients will subscribe, others will read your email without making a conversion, and others won’t even open your email. These are the three types of recipient profiles. The goal is course to have a maximum number of them make a conversion depending on the call to action: purchase, registration, answering a questionnaire, etc. A follow-up email allows you to reach out to contacts who have simply read the email without taking action and those who have not opened the email to encourage them to perform the action you want.

Who?

Openers or non-openers, clickers or non-clickers, that is the question. And the answer can be different, depending on the point of view. Generally, the segment where you will have the best open, click and conversion rates, will be with the openers and clickers. That makes sense, right? Even though the volume of this target is relatively small, these recipients clearly show an interest in your brand. That’s why you can’t afford to ignore this segment. Of course, it is common to route follow-ups to non-openers or non-clickers to be able to hit a wider target and generate more conversions. Remember, however, that following up with recipients who didn’t want to open your first email can cause dissatisfaction and generate unsubscriptions and complaints. Similarly, you must also keep in mind your reputation as a sender with ISPs and webmail, which prefer that you send your email campaigns to recipients who have clearly expressed an interest in hearing from you… You must take care to use follow-ups with inactive users only sparingly and in specific cases.

Example of an automatic follow-up scenario

Let’s assume that you are holding an event in New York and want to invite your contacts to sign up.

You send a first email to encourage recipients to register for your event.

You analyze the results of your first email campaign to identify the various profiles among your recipients and send them a customized message. There are several segments:

• Non-openers
• Openers who do not sign up for your event
• Openers who sign up for your event

Case #1: Follow-up scenario for non-openers

Three days after you send your first campaign, you send out a follow-up to recipients who have not opened the email to encourage them to sign up. You send them essentially the same message, but change the subject line, preheader and images of your campaign. These are the elements that could convince them to open your email campaign and potentially sign up.

If they open your second campaign email but still do not sign up, they will join the opener segment of your scenario (case #2).

If they sign up, they will be moved to another scenario dedicated to participants who have signed up (case #3).

If they still don’t sign up, despite your efforts, you can send them an email campaign after the event with an overview of the highlights and announce your upcoming events.

Case #2: Follow-up scenario for openers who have not signed up

These contacts demonstrated their interest in your message, since they opened it. However, the message was not convincing enough for them to decide to sign up. So you send them a different message, taking care to include elements that could reassure them, such as:

• Testimonials from participants from previous years
• Benefits for participants
• Guarantees offered

Also remember to emphasize your contact information so that they can easily contact you if they have any questions.

If they still don’t sign up, despite your efforts, you can also send them an email campaign after the event with an overview of the highlights and announce your upcoming events.

Case #3: Follow-up scenario for openers who signed up

You send registration confirmation with the complete program to those who have signed up by including them in a «Welcome»-type automatic scenario.

A few days before the seminar, they will receive a reminder email with an overview of key information.

After the event, you’ll send them a thank you email.

Create a follow-up scenario with Mailify

Create an automatic campaign

To create an automatic follow-up scenario for contacts who have received one of your standard campaigns, create a new campaign. Select «Automatic campaign».
Then choose «Received Campaign» as scenario type.

Set up the «Received Campaign» Trigger

Original campaign: select the campaign whose sending will trigger the activation of your scenario.

Trigger event: Specify the type of behaviour that will trigger your scenario.

Here are the different options available to you:

• Opened / did not open
• Clicked / did not click
  • At least one of the selected links
  • All selected links
  • At least one of the selected categories
  • All selected categories
• Bounced / did not bounce

Observation period: in this section, specify the time span after which the contact must switch to the inactive branch of the automation tree, and thus trigger the sequence of the scenario planned for the inactive contacts who have not performed the indicated action (opening, click, etc.).

Unsubscription list: the contacts being part of this (or these) list(s) will be automatically excluded from your mailings by Mailify in order to avoid any unsolicited communication.

Unsubscription method: by default, the unsubscription method defined in the parameters of your account is applied. However, you can select a different method for this campaign if you wish. You can choose between opening the standard unsubscription page of Mailify, or redirect your contacts to your site to manage your unsubscriptions yourself.

Build your follow-up scenario

For each branch of the scenario, you will be able to carry out two types of actions:

• Add a message
• Insert contacts in a list of your choice

Add a message

To create your first follow-up email from the automatic campaign creation interface, click on the «Add a message» button in the action menu related to the chosen trigger event (depending on what you have configured: opened or did not open / clicked or did not click / bounced or did not bounce).

Select the Email Builder as creation mode to choose a template or create your message from scratch. Once you have set up and edited your email as you want, you can validate it. You will then be automatically redirected to the automatic campaign creation tool.

You can set the waiting time to be observed for each follow-up message by using the green button above the message.

You can also add other messages to your scenario according to the behaviour of your recipients (opened, clicked, bounced) thanks to the «Add a condition» button.

You can also choose to add a message without adding any condition. In this case, all recipients will receive this second message regardless of their behavior (inactive, openers, clickers).

Insert a contact in a list

Instead of adding a message to your scenario, you may decide to add your contacts to a list according to their behavior.

To do so, click on the «Add to a list» button in the action menu related to the chosen Trigger Event (depending on what you have configured: has opened or has not opened / has clicked or has not clicked / bounced or did not bounce).

You will be able to add your contacts to the contact list or to the black list of your choice depending on the behaviour of your recipients.

You can set the waiting time to be observed before inserting contacts in the select list by using the green button above the action.

You can then continue the creation of your scenario by using the action menu under the insert action.

Now you have everything you need to know to maximize the performance of your campaigns by easily programming automatic follow-up messages that are tailored to your recipients’ behavior. As with all good things, be careful not to overdo it!