A Quick Guide to Send a New Campaign as Replies to a Previous Campaign<\/h2>\n
Before we dive into the scenario for using the \u201csend as replies\u201d feature, let\u2019s cover how to use it in GMass first. (It\u2019s very simple.)<\/p>\n
Step 1: Write your reply in the Gmail compose window<\/h3>\n
Compose your reply email in the Gmail compose window, just like you\u2019d write any email.<\/p>\n
Step 2: Go to the Advanced settings<\/h3>\n
Open the GMass settings box. Then, in the\u00a0Advanced<\/b>\u00a0area, look for the\u00a0Send as<\/b>\u00a0section.<\/p>\n Choose\u00a0Replies<\/b>.<\/p>\n Next you\u2019ll have an option of what you want to reply to. Your choices are:<\/p>\n The option you choose here really depends on the nature of your campaign. (Below, we\u2019ll cover scenarios that use each of the options.)<\/p>\n Your new campaign will now go out as replies to your last conversation with each contact or your last campaign to them, depending on the option you choose.<\/p>\n And if there are some people on your list who you\u2019ve never emailed before, that\u2019s no problem: Your campaign will just go out as a new message to them.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s cover some scenarios when you can use the \u201csend as replies\u201d feature.<\/p>\n We wanted to lead off with this scenario because it\u2019s one we\u2019ve even used ourselves here at GMass.<\/p>\n In this case, we sent a campaign to active users in the beat making community to ask them\u00a0what we could do to make GMass better<\/b>\u00a0for them.<\/p>\n Some people wrote back. Some people didn\u2019t. When people wrote back, we had one-on-one dialogues with them. (Using the regular Gmail send button to send normal email, not the GMass button to send them campaigns; one of the nice aspects about GMass living inside Gmail is you can go back and forth between campaigns and one-on-one messages so seamlessly).<\/p>\n The \u201csend as replies\u201d feature kicked in a few months later. We sent a new campaign to everyone (as a reply) to let them know what features were most requested.<\/p>\n We chose the GMass option to\u00a0send as replies to our last conversation<\/b>\u00a0with each recipient. That way, if we\u2019d had one-on-one back-and-forths with the person, our new campaign showed up as a reply to that; if the person never responded, our new campaign showed up as a reply to the email we initially sent. (In this email pictured, the person did not respond to the initial email.)<\/p>\n In either case, we were\u00a0using the \u201csend as replies\u201d feature to revive and further the conversation<\/b>. It was more logical to send this campaign as a reply to the same conversation thread than as a new campaign with a new subject line.<\/p>\n Finally, when we rolled out our new feature for beat makers after another couple of months, that could’ve been a reply to the previous campaign.<\/p>\n (Well\u2026 we wish it had been. We actually sent it as a new campaign with a new subject line because\u2026 well\u2026 we got so excited about the features we just blasted it out without remembering to send it as replies. Let that be a reassuring lesson: Even the people making<\/i>\u00a0these email platforms sometimes get too hyped up and send a campaign without getting every setting perfect.)<\/p>\n One more note: A week later, we sent another email as a reply to\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0thread sharing a requested tweak on the new feature.<\/p>\n The entire process here is\u00a0one extended conversation over several months<\/b>: Asking for product improvement requests, following up on the consensus picks, then following up again when the features launched.<\/p>\n By sending as replies, we kept the conversation in one thread. That way, each recipient can see the entire path (without having to try to remember the previous steps).<\/p>\n Also, because this was situation with a lot of valuable back-and-forth correspondence, it made even more sense to unify it all inside one thread.<\/p>\n So you built a great list of cold leads. You sent them a compelling email series with automated follow-ups. But in the end, only a few people wound up buying what you were selling. Some of them opened your emails\u2026 but they didn\u2019t reply and didn\u2019t turn into customers.<\/p>\n In this example, we\u2019ll\u00a0target the people who demonstrated some amount of interest in your initial campaign (by opening our emails) but didn\u2019t buy<\/b>. We\u2019ll send them a new campaign as a reply to the previous campaign with an updated offering.<\/p>\n For this hypothetical first campaign, we sent a three-email sequence trying to sell our service. The sequence would stop when a recipient replied; if they never replied, they\u2019d receive all three emails.<\/p>\n But now, a few months later, we have a new offer \u2014 so we\u2019re going to try reaching out again to see if we can spark more interest this time around.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll bring another hot GMass feature into the fold here, which is our\u00a0email list building<\/a>\u00a0feature.<\/p>\n With the email list builder, I can create a new mailing list out of the people who opened our prior campaign but didn\u2019t reply.<\/p>\n I wrote up an email with our new offer. Then I chose to send it as a reply to the previous campaign.<\/p>\n My new campaign also uses a few auto follow-ups; those will\u00a0also go out as replies<\/b>, continuing this one email thread with each recipient.<\/p>\n We wanted our new offer to feel very personal to each recipient. Had we sent our new offer with a new subject, some contacts might think, \u201cDid these people forget they already emailed me?\u00a0Are they just spamming me?<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\n By sending as a reply to the prior campaign, we made it clear we were following up to give the recipients a more enticing offer. There was no ambiguity as to whether we remembered we\u2019d emailed them before.<\/p>\n Plus, since we sent as replies, the\u00a0recipients could easily look back through the previous messages<\/b>\u00a0to get instant context for the new offer.<\/p>\n Managing a large group of job candidates through the\u00a0hiring process<\/a>\u00a0can be challenging. You need to send emails as they schedule interviews, complete sample projects, and advance (or don\u2019t advance) to the next round.<\/p>\n In each of those cases, it makes sense to send your emails as replies, rather than starting a new thread every time.<\/p>\n The first email to each of these job candidates asks them to schedule their preliminary interview and includes a Calendly link where they can do so. (Side note: You can do all sorts of fantastic things with\u00a0GMass + Calendly using Zapier<\/a>.)<\/p>\n We added a column in our candidate Google Sheet where we noted whether each candidate would move to the next stage (a sample project) \u2014 or if this was the end of the road.<\/p>\n We created two campaigns, the \u201cyes\u201d track and the \u201cno\u201d track. We used GMass\u2019s filtering options as we imported the spreadsheet to make sure the right candidates got the right emails. Below you can see the rejection email.<\/p>\n In both cases, we\u00a0sent our emails as replies to the initial campaign, *not* to the prior message<\/b>.<\/p>\n Why? Some candidates wrote thank you messages or corresponded after their interviews. We didn\u2019t want to make it look like our decision to move them forward or not was tied to that back-and-forth. So we replied to the campaign, not the last message, to help establish that separation.<\/p>\n We won\u2019t play out the rest of this hypothetical, but it will continue with the same pattern: Moving some candidates along and ending the process with others \u2014 and sending emails as replies. This method allows us to handle the large group at scale while making sure everything feels as personalized as it should during the hiring process.<\/p>\n While we covered these three scenarios in depth, there are endless ways you can use the GMass \u201csend as replies\u201d feature to keep a conversation going.<\/p>\n Sending an email campaign as a reply to a previous campaign and\/or your last correspondence with a recipient is a powerful way to\u00a0make your mass emails feel more personal, targeted and relevant<\/b>.<\/p>\n While it might not be right for every scenario, it\u2019s right for a lot of them \u2014 and GMass is one of the rare email platforms that gives you the ability to send new campaigns as replies.<\/p>\n Plus, GMass also has lots of other features designed to make your\u00a0mail merge Gmail<\/a>\u00a0messages\u00a0look and feel like they\u2019re one-on-one<\/b>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0advanced personalization<\/a>,\u00a0conditional merge logic<\/a>, tight control over\u00a0automated follow-up sequences<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/sendasreplies-settingsbox-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStep 3: Choose the email to which you want to reply<\/h3>\n
![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/sendasreplies-choosereplies-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Step 4: You\u2019re all set<\/h3>\n
Scenario 1: Asking Customers for Product Feature Improvements (Then Following Up)<\/h2>\n
The initial email<\/h3>\n
Sending a follow-up as replies a few months later<\/h3>\n
![\"Sending](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/beats-insamethread.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nClosing the loop with a final email<\/h3>\n
![\"Final](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/beats-finalemail.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhy sending as replies is valuable here<\/h3>\n
Scenario 2: Reigniting Interested Cold Leads with a New Offer<\/h2>\n
The initial emails<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cold-firstsequence-redone.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBuilding the list of people who opened our email but never replied<\/h3>\n
![\"Building](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cold-buildlist.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSending our new offer as a reply<\/h3>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cold-replycampaign.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhy sending as replies is valuable here<\/h3>\n
Scenario 3: Using One Email Thread for the Entire Interviewing and Hiring Process<\/h2>\n
The initial email<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/hiring-firstemail.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPost-interview follow-ups: Next stages or rejections<\/h3>\n
![\"Filtering](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/hiring-filter.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Rejection](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/hiring-reply.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhy sending as replies is valuable here<\/h3>\n
Bonus: 5 Other Scenarios to Send as Replies<\/h2>\n
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Sending Emails as Replies: Conclusion<\/h2>\n