Emails Overview

About

Insightly Marketing enables users to create highly customizable and personalized emails. Emails and email templates are created with the Insightly Marketing Designer Tool; this tool allows users to customize their emails by selecting prefabricated templates or by designing new templates. Finish actions can be applied to emails to automate the process of updating a Prospect’s record based on their interaction with emails. 

Prior to creating and sending emails, users should configure their email settings. 

In this Article

How Do Emails Work?

Email Drops, Blocks, and Bounces

Email Throttling

Email Sending Limits

Tracking Signup Sources

Transactional Emails

Enable Transactional Emails

Create and Send and Email

Review a Sent Email

Email Actions

Edit a Draft Email

Clone an Email

Save an Existing Email as a Template

Send an Email to an Individual Prospect

Finish Actions

Use Cases

Add Finish Actions to an Email

How Do Emails Work? 

Once an email is created, it is designed via the Designer Tool. Existing prefabricated templates are available for use or custom email templates can be created; specific email templates can also be created for use in Journeys by enabling the template for Journey use.

Emails can be sent to any emailable Prospect within Insightly Marketing in order to send informational content to Prospects. Prospects are considerable emailable when the following conditions are met:

• The Prospect has a valid email address in their record
• The Prospect is not marked as Unsubscribe, Do Not Email, or Opted Out in their record
  • In the event that a Prospect chooses to unsubscribe, be marked as do not email, or opt out, it is imperative that their preference is respected in order to remain compliant with the following as applicable:
    • Americas: CAN-SPAM Act
    • Europe: General Data Protections Regulations (GDPR)

Email statistics within an email record can be reviewed for insight into how Prospects are interacting with emails. In addition to regular emails, test emails can be created to test email performance and identify where improvements can be made. Emails in Insightly Marketing are reported on individually and therefore emails cannot be deleted once they have been sent. The deletion of emails would result in skewed email statistics and email reporting which can have a negative impact on marketing goals. 

• False clicks and/or opens performed by a bot (non-human interaction) can result in users reviewing inaccurate statistics and reporting for emails. Insightly automatically identifies and excludes bot clicks from all email activity and statistics, prospect scoring, and journeys. This intervention and exclusion of bot clicks is performed without any intervention required of an Insightly Marketing user.

When an Insightly Marketing instance reaches 90% of the monthly email sending limit, a message will be displayed at the top of the instance (on every page) to indicate this percentage. This message will also appear when an account reaches 100% of the monthly email sending limit. These messages can be closed but it will reappear upon every page refresh and on any page visited.

Email Drops, Blocks, and Bounces

At times, due to various reasons, emails may be dropped, blocked, or bounced. 

Email Throttling

Email throttling is utilized as a way of controlling the amount of emails that are sent to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or remote server at one time. Throttling of emails can occur when a high volume is sent by one provider at one time due to the ISP being concerned that the emails are spam. If an email campaign has been sent and some emails are not sent/delivered, this could be due to email throttling. 

Staggering the delivery of emails to Prospects can benefit marketers by regulating how many emails are delivered during high traffic periods of time. This maximizes the response to email campaigns and therefore provides more accurate metrics for testing future sends of marking content. For example, if an email's call to action is a phone call, call center traffic can be more easily managed by staggering these emails. Throttling emails also assists in the management of website bandwidth in the event of an email campaign marketing a special promotion or sale(s). 

Since ISPs apply strict standards on emails that are suspected as spam, following an established email throttling strategy can make a large difference in how ISPs will treat email campaigns. There are no set rules regarding email throttling as rules will vary depending on the recipient list and email content. 

Email Sending Limits

Customers who have never had a paid invoice, will see a message on the Marketing app homepage indicating, "Low email sending limit in place for unpaid customers." They will be restricted to sending a maximum of 100 marketing emails to their prospects. Once this limit is reached, a message will appear in the email record stating, "Your email sending limit is reached," and the Email Status will display as Send Error.

Tracking Signup Sources

Replacing subscribers that lose interest in or unsubscribe from marketing campaigns ensures that marketing results are accurate and that campaigns are being directed at the right audience. Generally, the most beneficial subscribers are ones that frequent a companies website; to ensure the most active subscribers are reached, tactics such as implementing a basic signup form on a landing page or offering a product discount when signing up for an email list could be used as well as many other marketing tactics.  

When reviewing signup sources to decipher the best strategy for focusing marketing efforts, the following metrics can be important to track: 

• Unique open rate
• Hard bounce rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Spam complaint rate

It's important to review these metrics over the course of months rather than days as signup sources may not show promising results in the beginning. These metrics can help decipher which Prospects have lost interest in or unsubscribed from marketing campaigns; these Prospects can then be removed from the campaign(s) to ensure that marketing is directed at interested persons and results are accurate. Uninterested Prospects can also be removed from an Insightly Marketing account to ensure that account costs are maintained.

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are a specific type of email that allows users to send important information to prospects, even if those prospects have previously unsubscribed. Types of transactional emails include:

• Legal notices
• Shipping confirmations
• Internal company emails
• Invoices
• Password reset emails
• Critical system changes that require action
• Terms of service changes

To make this option appear when selecting the email’s Content Type, administrators will need to enable it through System Settings. If this setting is later disabled, it will not impact any emails already scheduled to be sent; disabling the setting will only remove the option from the Content Type dropdown.

Enable Transactional Emails

1. Navigate to System Settings > Transactional Emails.
2. Check the Enable Sending Transactional Emails checkbox.
3. A pop-up will appear warning users that improper use of this feature will result in account deactivation. 
   1. Check the I understand and agree to this policy. checkbox.
   2. Click Enable.
4. Click Save Settings.

Create and Send an Email 

1. Navigate to Emails located via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
   • By default, all emails will be displayed. The view can be customized by selecting a different list view via the list view drop-down.
     
2. To create a new email, click the New Email button in the upper right. Via the Setup step of the email creation process, enter the email details:

   Field	Details
   Email Name	Enter a unique name for the email.
   Folder	Assign the email to a folder. Efficient categorization of emails ensures that they are easy to locate.
   Subject Line	Enter a subject line for the email. Clicking the information bubble in this field will present the ability to use Merge Tags to add specific information from the Prospects record to the subject line. If a Merge Tag is selected that is blank on the Prospect record, nothing will be added to the subject line for the selected Merge Tag.
   Preview Text	Enter preview text for the email. This text will appear in the preview of the email next to the subject in the Prospect’s inbox. Clicking the information bubble in this field will present the ability to use Merge Tags to add specific information from the Prospects record to the preview text. If a Merge Tag is selected that is blank on the Prospect record, nothing will be added to the subject line for the selected Merge Tag.
   From	Select a user from the drop-down menu to display as who the email is from.
   From Fallback	If the original sender becomes unavailable for contact, a fallback sender can be selected.
   Custom Reply To	When sending an email through Insightly Marketing with Email Reply Management enabled, users can choose to enable or disable the Custom Reply To field.  When enabled, an email address can be entered that recipients of the email can use to contact a specific person.  When disabled, If a prospect replies back to the email, the reply will then be forwarded to the dynamic 'From' email address. If a From email address isn’t selected, the reply will be sent to the From Fallback email address.
   Reply Management	There are two options in this dropdown field, Use Insightly Email Reply Management and Forward All Email Replies to Reply To Address. Use Insightly Email Reply Management  Insightly will check all incoming email replies and identify manual and auto-response out of office and unsubscribe replies. Insightly will delete all out of office and unsubscribe replies. Insightly will forward all other email replies to the Reply To email address. Insightly will use the following list of terms to detect a manual unsubscribe request: Unsub Unsubscribe Remove Opt-Out Leave unsube unsu unsubscribed unsubsribe unsubscrabe unscribe unsubscribe... unsubscribe suscribir renove removed take me off delete me opt out optout laeve leaved Forward All Email Replies to Reply To Address  Sends all email replies to the Reply To email address.
   Recipient Lists	Search for and select the applicable recipient list(s).
   Suppression Lists	Search for and select the applicable suppression list(s). If a prospect is on both a recipient list and a suppression list, the suppression list takes precedence.

3. When the email details have been entered click Next. The next two steps in the email creation process are the Template and Design steps. These steps are where the Email Designer is utilized, and the email design can be customized.
   • For information regarding using the Email Designer please read the Using the Designer Tool article.
   • Text section (drag and drop) from the template presents the ability to use Merge Tags to add Recipient as well as Sender. Recipient merge tags will have prefix of Prospect (eg-Prospect: First Name) and Sender merge tags have prefix of Sender (eg-Sender: First Name). 
   • New Sender field values like First and Last Name, Phone, Email etc. would be populated by the contact record of the From User specified when sending the email.

   • If you have to use the From Fallback email address when sending, then the only Sender field values available are First Name and Email Address.

4. Once the Template and Design steps using the Designer Tool have been completed, the email details can be reviewed via the Summary step. Via this step, the following email data can be edited:
   • Plain Text Version
   • Recipient and Suppression List(s)
   • Custom Reply-To Address
5. Sending the email is configured during the Summary step as well:

   Option	Steps
   Send Immediately	Click the Send button in the upper right. A popup with basic information about the email will be displayed. Click Send Now to send the email immediately. The Finish step will be displayed, and Exit can be clicked to exit the email creation process. In the Email section of Insightly Marketing, sent emails can be viewed by changing the list view of emails to Sent Emails.
   Schedule Send	Click the drop-down arrow next to the Send button in the upper right. Select Schedule Send. Via the Email Scheduling popup, use the Email Delivery Schedule drop-down menu to determine when the email will be sent. Select one of the following options: As soon as possible, In 3 Hours, or At a specific Date and Time. The send date must be a future date; users will receive an error if they attempt to select a past date and will not be able to move forward. Use the Send Email in dropdown to select how many batches the email will be sent out in, up to 6 batches. If the list contains under 200 prospects, users will not be able to select more than 1 batch. This feature is available to users on Professional and Enterprise plans. If the more than one email batch is selected, a second dropdown will appear to the right of the field; select the number of minutes or hours in which the batches will be sent. Once a scheduled time has been set, click Save. To initiate sending the email at the scheduled time, click Scheduled in the upper right. The Finish step will be displayed, and Exit can be clicked to exit the email creation process. The email can still be edited as needed up to the scheduled send time. A scheduled email cannot be cancelled although it can be deleted up to the scheduled send time.  In the Email section of Insightly Marketing, scheduled emails can be viewed by changing the list view of emails to Scheduled Emails.
   Save & Exit	To save the email but not send it, click the drop-down arrow next to the Send button in the upper right. Select Save & Exit. This will create a draft email. In the Email section of Insightly Marketing, draft emails can be viewed by changing the list view of emails to Draft Emails.

   
   

Review a Sent Email

1. Navigate to Emails located via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing; locate and open a sent email record.
2. Sent emails have multiple tabs that can be reviewed for data pertaining to the email:
   
   • Details: This tab displays basic information regarding the email. Simple statistics can be reviewed via this tab although more in depth statistics can be reviewed via the Statistics tab.
     • Insightly identifies when opens and/or clicks are suspected as originating from a bot. These opens and/or clicks are filtered out and will not display in the Open Count or Click Count fields of this tab.
     • If an email is not sent for any reason (including the email sending limit or an error), the Email Status field will display Send Error.
   • Message: This tab displays how the sent email appeared to Prospects. Upon clicking on an email from the Emails List View and opening the details record, if the Message field contains content, then Message tab will be made active and visible by default instead of the Details tab.
   • Finish Actions: Via this tab, if finish actions were setup for the email prior to it being sent (while in Draft status), the applied finish actions can be reviewed here. Finish actions can also be added to a sent email via this tab although any finish actions that are added after the email has been sent will not initiate retroactively i.e., the finish actions will not apply to Prospects who have already performed the task that initiates the finish action. If a finish action is added that triggers based on an email open or click, Insightly will identify when opens and/or clicks are suspected as originating from a bot. These opens and/or clicks are filtered out and will not trigger the finish action to fire. 
   • Statistics: This tab displays information pertaining to how well the email performed. Insightly identifies when opens and/or clicks are suspected as originating from a bot. These opens and/or clicks are filtered out and will not display in the open or click statistics within this tab.The information below (as well as much more) can be reviewed to gain insight into email performance:
     1. Opens: Insightly adds an invisible, one pixel image (that acts as a tracker) at the end of all emails that are sent to Prospects – this tracks email opens.
        • If a Prospect has images enabled on their email client, a request is sent to Insightly’s server for the tracker to be executed. When the Prospect opens the email, an Open event is logged. These events are logged in the Prospect’s Timeline tab, Reports, and the Statistics tab of the email.
     2. Clicks: Clicks are the total number of times a user clicked on various links within the email.
     3. Unique Clicks: These clicks are the number of unique individuals that have clicked the links in the emails (if the email was sent to multiple Prospects).
        • To generate a report of all the clicks coming from an individual Prospect, an Email Performance report can be run and filtered by a specific Prospect. 
   • Related: This tab will list each email recipient and how they interacted with the email as well as information about whether the email was effectively sent (reached the Prospect’s inbox) or bounced (did not reach the Prospect’s inbox). Emails can bounce for multiple reasons such as an incorrect email address or the Prospect’s spam settings.

Email Actions

When editing a draft email, cloning an email, or saving an email as a template, these actions can be done via two different routes:

Route 1: Via the list view of emails, the three dots menu on the far right of an email can be clicked and the applicable function can be chosen from the expanded list.

Route 2: Via the list view of emails, an email record can be opened. Once opened, the Actions drop-down in the upper right corner can be clicked and the applicable function can be chosen from the drop-down list.

Edit a Draft Email 

Emails that have been created and not yet sent (even if they are scheduled to be sent) can be edited.

1. To edit a draft email, navigate to Emails via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
2. From the Emails screen, locate the email that requires editing.
   1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the email in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the email record. From the available options, select Edit This Email.
      • Only emails in that have not yet been sent can be edited. This includes emails that are scheduled to send but have not reached the scheduled date/time to send. 

Clone an Email 

Emails that have been created can be reused without compromising the original. This can be done by cloning the email.

1. To clone an email, navigate to Emails via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
2. From the Emails screen, locate the email that will be cloned.
   1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the email in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the email record. From the available options, select Clone This Email.
      • When cloning an email, the process is the same as creating a new email although since the email is a clone, it won’t have to be created from scratch and any necessary edits can be made.
      • When editing the clone, if a new email template is chosen, it will erase the design that was cloned from the original email. If a new email template is not necessary, the Template and Design steps of the Designer Tool can be skipped.

Save an Existing Email as a Template

If an email has been created/sent and a user wants to be able to reuse the email template for repeat emails, a template can be created from the original email. 

1. To save an existing email as a template, navigate to Emails via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing. 
2. From the Emails screen, locate the email that will be saved as a template.
   1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the email in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the email record. From the available options, select Save as Template.
      1. When saving an email as a template, the Add New Email Template popup will be displayed where template information can be entered, the type of template can be chosen, and permissions related to the visibility of the template can be applied as well. 
      2. Once the template information is entered, click Save. Insightly Marketing will load the new template where edits can be made. 

Send an Email to an Individual Prospect

1. Navigate to Prospects located via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
2. Select a Prospect record.
   1. From within the Prospect’s record, click Actions in the upper right and select Send Prospect an Email.
      
   2. The New Email screen will be displayed where an email can be created and sent to the Prospect. 

Finish Actions

When a Prospect opens an email, clicks a link in an email, or unsubscribes from within an email, Insightly Marketing users can configure a series of finish actions that will initiate after those events occur. Finish actions saves Insightly Marketing users time by automating the process of updating a Prospect’s records based on the Prospect’s activity.

• Users should be careful with notification and email actions when sending large volumes of email as many actions may be triggered based on the response.
• Finish actions don’t expire. For example, if a Prospect is cleaning out their inbox two months from now and they open an email and clicks on a link, the finish actions will still initiate.
• After an email is sent, the finish actions can still be edited and/or reordered. Any finish actions that are added after the email has been sent will not initiate retroactively i.e., the finish actions will not apply to Prospects who have already performed the task that initiates the finish action.
• Finish actions execute every time the action occurs, regardless of how many clicks occur in a given period.

Use Cases

Add Finish Actions to an Email

1. Navigate to the Emails section located via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
2. Locate the email that finish actions will be added to.
   • Drafts: Finish actions that are added to draft emails will initiate when the email is sent, and the Prospect performs the required task tied to the finish action.
   • Sent: Any finish actions that are added after the email has been sent will not initiate retroactively i.e., the finish actions will not apply to Prospects who have already performed the task that initiates the finish action.
   • Scheduled to be Sent: Finish actions that are added to emails that are scheduled to be sent and haven’t sent yet will initiate when the email is sent and the Prospect performs the required task tied to the finish action. 
3. Within the email record, select the Finish Actions tab.
   1. Finish actions can be added to initiate based on three different tasks that a Prospect can complete:
      1. Email Open: Finish actions that initiate when the email is opened.
      2. Email Click: Finish actions that initiate when a link is clicked in the email. Email click finish actions apply to both HTML and text version hyperlinks.
      3. Email Unsubscribe: Finish actions that initiate when a Prospect unsubscribes.
   2. To add a finish action for any of the three tasks that Prospects can complete, click the Add Finish Action drop-down menu.
   3. A menu of possible finish actions will display. Select the applicable finish action to add to the email. For definitions of each available finish action, please read the What are Finish Actions help article.  
   4. The finish action configuration popup will display where the action can be given a name and conditional criteria can be applied to define what the finish action will do.
      • In the example below a finish action of Send Email is being added to initiate when an unsubscribe link is clicked in an email. The finish action has been given a name so it’s easy to identify and conditional criteria has been setup to automatically change the Prospect’s Opted Out field to checked. Finally, a confirmation email will be sent to the Prospect notifying them that they have been successfully unsubscribed.
        
   5. Once the finish action has been configured, click Save Finish Action to apply the finish action to the email.