With Sequences, you can reach and engage prospects more effectively by sending a series of automated outreach and follow-up emails.

Sequences are multi-stage email campaigns that can be sent to many recipients - either at once or over a longer period of time. Similar to a mail merge, Sequences can be personalized for each recipient using variables, and each recipient will receive a unique copy of the message.

If you're a Premium or Enterprise user, you can send unlimited sequences with up to 20 stages each.

You will find Sequences in Polymail Web and our Desktop app by clicking your name in the bottom left menu bar, and clicking Sequences in the menu that appears. Note: Sequences is not currently available in our iOS apps.

 

Creating A Sequence

  • To get started, click either the blue "Create Sequence" button or the blue "+ New Sequence" button in the top right corner:

 

 

  • You'll see a New Sequence page:

  • To give your Sequence a name or edit its existing name, click into the Sequence:

 

Recipients & Variables

  • Once your Sequence has a name, you can go ahead and add recipients and custom variables to it by clicking the blue + Add Recipients button in the top right corner of the Sequence page.

You can add recipients a number of ways. If you're a Premium user, you can use CSVs or manually add recipients individually (or a combination of the two). If you're an Enterprise user, you can add recipients through our Salesforce integration as well! To add custom variables to your Sequence, you will either upload them in your CSV or you'll use the Add from Salesforce option. For tips on variables in CSVs, click here.  

 

To add recipients individually, simply click the + Click to add a recipient field. You'll enter their email address, first, and last name. Note: Your Sequence will not have variables available if you only add recipients individually and you do not use a CSV. 

  • If you want to add your recipients through a CSV, you can either click the "Add from CSV" button, which will launch a file picker window. Alternatively, you can drag a CSV to the Add Recipients window to upload it that way. CSVs must be separated by commas rather than semi-colons. 

  • Once we've uploaded your CSV, we will ask you which fields we should import as variables and how we should map your recipients' email addresses and names. This will ensure that your variables are properly inserted: 

  • If you are an Enterprise user and want to add recipients from Salesforce, you can click on the "Add from Salesforce" button to choose whether to select from Contacts or Leads:

Once you've selected your list of contacts to use, we'll ask you which fields you would like to import as variables in your Sequence:

  • Now that you've added your recipients, you will see them with any variables that were imported through CSV or Salesforce:

  • You can now click into any row to manually edit these fields and fill in blank variables like First Name and Last Name above. If there is a conflict with any of your recipients (e.g. they have unsubscribed from your messages), you will see a small warning sign next to their name. You can hover over the sign to get more info. 

  • Once you're finished making any edits, you have the choice to add your recipients as paused (so they will need to be manually un-paused to receive your Sequence). 

  • Click "Add (number here) Recipients" in green to finish adding your recipients to your Sequence.

You can add new recipients at any time, even after your first batch of recipients have received your stage. 

 

 

Your Stages

Now that you have recipients, you can create your Sequence Stages. 

 

Each Stage is an email sent to a recipient. All of your recipients will start at Stage 1 and receive your Stage 1 email.

 

  • We automatically create a first Stage when you create a Sequence. To edit that Stage, simply click into it:

  • We will take you to your Stage page where you can compose your message with any variables you would like to use. Click the blue "Edit Stage" button in the top right to get started:

  • Here you will give your Stage a subject, which will be the subject of the email your recipients receive, and you will compose your message.

  • You can also add an Unsubscribe link at the bottom of your message. This will allow your recipients to opt out of future messages in all Sequences sent by you and your team.

  • If you have added your recipients through a CSV or Salesforce, you can use your variables in your message by clicking the "Variables" button that appears on the left edge of your message. Your variable will be inserted into your message body in yellow - our system will automatically populate that in the sending process.

Templates in Stages

You can also use Polymail Templates in your Sequence Stage. To do that:

 

  • Click the Message Templates button:

  • A list of your existing templates will pop up and you can select which you would like in your Stage. 

  • We will check your Template placeholders to match them with your Sequence variables uploaded through Salesforce or your CSV. 

  • If your placeholders and variables match, the placeholder text will be black. If they don't match, the text will be red. In the the screenshot below, I've boxed the conflicting placeholder in pink. The placeholder in my template is for "flavor," whereas my variable in my CSV is "ice cream flavor" - they do not match. My placeholders "name" and "place" do match my CSV variables and are boxed in green. 

  • We won't let you save your stage if your placeholders and variables are mismatched - you will need to resolve any conflicts by replacing the placeholder with a variable from your variable list or removing it altogether. 

Finishing and Sending your Stage

  • Once you've finished composing your Stage, you can send yourself a test email by clicking the blue "Send a test email" to the left of the Stage body. 

  • Click the blue "Save" button in the top right corner. We'll ask you to confirm that you want to make your changes if your Sequence is live. 

  • To navigate back to your specific Sequence page or your general Sequences dashboard, you can click on either at the top of the page towards the left:

  • You can check out your list of recipients of this Sequence by clicking on the Recipients tab:

We will only send your Sequence to recipients who are active. If you decided to add your recipients as paused, you will need to un-pause them by clicking the toggle to the left of their name. You will see their status change from "Paused" to "Active."

  • You can also adjust your Sequence's settings. Click the Settings tab to the right of the Recipients tab:

 

In Settings, you can choose the email account the Sequence will be sending from by selecting a connecting email address from the Send From drop down menu.

 

You will be able to select which days you want your Sequence sent and at which times. You can choose your own Delivery Window, so if you want your messages sent out only in the mornings (for example,) you can specify 6:00 am - 10:00 am. 

 

We will send your Sequence at the earliest available time in the time range you appoint. This can fluctuate a bit, though, since we spread out the sending process to avoid rate limit errors from your email provider. The time range guarantees that your email won't go out before your range begins or after your range ends. 

 

You can choose how your recipients exit the Sequence and stop by receiving messages by choosing a Stop Condition. If you want your recipients to stop receiving after a reply, you can choose After responding to a message. If you want your recipients to keep receiving all messages regardless if they have responded, you can choose Receive all messages.

 

Lastly, you can also set a Daily Send Limit for your Sequence. All email providers have their own rate limits that dictate how many messages you can send in a specific period of time. If you exceed that limit, your provider can throttle your account, which means that your emails will not be delivered. You could also lose other email functionality.  Click here for more on email provider rate limits.

 

When you're happy with your Sequence, you will click the green "Set Live" button in the top right corner of the Sequence page:

We will send your first Stage to all un-paused recipients according to the schedule you set up in your Sequence Settings.

 

 

Adding More Stages

You can create further Stages in your Sequence whenever you would like! To add a second or subsequent Stage, click on the blue + New Stage button within your Sequence page:

 

  • You will click into the new Stage you see to create it and edit the details.

  • You can adjust how many days between Stages you would like, as well as whether this Stage will be sent as a new thread or a reply to your last Stage:

 

Reactivating Recipients

If you have recipients marked complete and you want them to receive the new stages you just added, you can reactivate them whenever you would like! To re-activate recipient(s), click the recipient tab, select All or the recipients of choice and click the Reactivate button.

 

 

 

Sequence Engagement Report

 

We will show you the progress of your Sequence and summary of your stages in your specific Sequence page:

 

Important to Note

  • If you have a Stop Condition set to "After Responding To A Message", then once a recipient responds to one of your Stages, we will mark them as "Complete." They will not receive further Stages in that Sequence. 

  • Once a recipient has been sent all the stages in the Sequence, they will complete your Sequence and will not receive subsequent stages of your Sequence. You can add up to 20 Stages per Sequence.

  • Your recipient can fall under 6 possible statuses: 1. Active, 2. Paused, 3. Complete, 4. Bounced, 5. Failed, 6. Unsubscribed. 

  • Clicked and Downloaded metrics refer to the percentage of recipients who clicked on links embedded in your email or downloaded files attached to it.