Send a follow-up to people who did not click
Set an automatic follow-up on a campaign before you send it: the same email with a new subject goes to the recipients who did not click or did not open, a set number of days later or at a chosen time.
A follow-up sends your campaign once more, with a new subject, to the recipients who did not click it (or did not open it). You set it on the campaign before sending; after the campaign goes out, Zanfia creates and schedules the follow-up on its own. Newsletter issues and campaigns imported from another tool have no follow-up.
Plan
Follow-ups are part of email campaigns, available on Growth and above.
Set up a follow-up
Open the Send step of a draft campaign
Open a draft in Email campaigns under Marketing (/marketing/broadcasts) and go to the
Send step. Open the Follow-up section there and switch on Send a follow-up.
Check that measurement is on
A follow-up needs to know who clicked or opened, so Measure opens and clicks in the Measurement section must be on. With measurement off, the follow-up switch cannot be turned on and the section asks you to switch measurement on first. If you switch measurement off after setting a follow-up, the campaign cannot be sent until you switch measurement back on or the follow-up off.
Choose who gets it
Under To whom pick one option:
- Did not click (the default and the recommended choice). Apple Mail opens emails on its own, so opens read high and clicks are the more reliable signal.
- Did not open. Some Apple Mail users look like openers and will not get the follow-up.
Choose when it goes out
Under When pick one option:
- A few days later: 1 to 14 days after the campaign is sent (7 by default), at the same hour as the campaign. The section shows the exact date and the time zone.
- On a set date: pick a day and time within 30 days after the campaign goes out. The date field accepts dates up to 60 days ahead, but a campaign can be scheduled at most 30 days ahead, so a later follow-up cannot be scheduled and does not go out. If the moment you pick comes before the campaign finishes sending, the follow-up goes out an hour after the send ends.
A follow-up never goes out sooner than one hour after the campaign finishes sending.
Write the new subject
Fill in Follow-up subject. It is required: the same subject twice reads like a duplicate. A common pattern is "In case you missed it: [original subject]". Preview text (optional) stays as in the campaign when left empty. The content of the follow-up is the campaign's own content.
Send the campaign
The section saves on its own. In Before you send the follow-up shows as Follow-up: [subject]. A problem with it, such as a missing subject, a day count outside 1 to 14 or a date that has passed, shows there instead and blocks the send until you fix it. Send or schedule the campaign as usual.
What happens after the send
Once the campaign has finished sending, the follow-up is created as a new campaign named [campaign name] (follow-up) and scheduled for its time. It shows in the campaign list as a scheduled campaign: open it there to change its content, like any scheduled campaign. Its page says "This is the automatic follow-up of another campaign." with the link Open that campaign.
Recipients are picked when the follow-up goes out, not when the campaign is sent, so whoever clicks or opens in the meantime does not get it.
Follow-up states on the campaign page
The campaign's page shows a Follow-up card with its state, the subject and, once it exists, an Open follow-up button.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| waiting for the campaign to go out | The campaign has not finished sending yet. The card says when the follow-up will go and to whom. |
| scheduled | The follow-up campaign exists and is scheduled for the date shown. |
| sent | It went out; the card shows how many recipients got it. |
| cancelled | It will not go out. |
| did not go out | Something stopped it; the card gives the reason (see below). |
Cancel a follow-up
While the follow-up is waiting or scheduled, click Cancel follow-up on the campaign's page and confirm Cancel the follow-up? It will not go out. If the follow-up campaign was already created, it stays in the list as a draft, so you can still edit and send it by hand. Once the follow-up is sending or sent, it can no longer be cancelled here.
If you stop the campaign itself while it is sending (Stop campaign), its follow-up is cancelled too, because the send never finishes. If you take a scheduled campaign back to a draft (Unschedule), the follow-up settings stay and apply when you send it again.
Why a follow-up did not go out
| Reason shown | What it means |
|---|---|
| "there was no open and click data to pick its recipients" | Measurement was off for the campaign, so there is no way to tell who clicked or opened. |
| "it would go over what is left of your monthly e-mails" | Scheduling it would use more emails than are left of your monthly allowance. Its draft stays: open it with Open follow-up and send it later. |
| "its send time could not be scheduled" | The chosen date was more than 30 days after the campaign finished sending. Its draft stays: open it with Open follow-up and schedule it. |
| "it could not be prepared" | Something else was missing, for example the content. Open the campaign and check it. |
Good to know
The public Workspace API returns the follow-up of a campaign as followUp (who, when, subject,
state and the follow-up campaign's id), and a follow-up campaign carries followUpOf with the id
of the campaign it follows up. The campaign routes are in Email campaigns &
segments.
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