Email Best Practices

What You'll Learn

• Understanding the Relationship between GRIN and Your Email Carrier
• How to Avoid Emails from going into Spam
• Email Outreach Best Practices

Understanding the Relationship between GRIN and Your Email Carrier

Email Integration is a huge part of the GRIN platform. Once your email is integrated, you are able to send, receive, and create emails directly within GRIN without ever having to log in to your email account. The integration pulls in historic email interactions specifically with creators you have set as contacts within GRIN. Once your email is integrated, you are able to view the amount of opens, clicks, and replies to your email sequences and templates.

However, since GRIN is integrated through your email carrier, you are limited by your carrier's capabilities. Such as, email providers limit the number of messages you can send within a 24 hour period. (Gmail: 500, G Suite: 2000, Outlook: 1500, etc.). We do our best to schedule your emails so that this limit is never reached. However, you are able to track the amount of emails sent daily within your email dashboard.

Once your email is integrated, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that your emails do not get flagged for spam.

How to Avoid Emails from going into Spam

Once you understand the connection between GRIN and your email carrier, you'll be able to make better decisions on how to avoid emails from being directed to spam and increase your email engagement rate.

Too many GRIN first time users try to quickly outreach creators in mass and are surprised when their emails are returned with the message "There was a problem delivering your message to..." and "Your message to...has been blocked", which could be the beginning indications that your emails are being marked as spam.

The fact is, successful outreach is gained through pointed email outreach that is geared to creators that will fit with your brand. If you want to increase your outreach engagement rate, you will need to create more personality within your emails, which in turn decreases the chance of emails going into spam. Win-Win, right?

Use the following best practices to help build a reputation with your email address to improve deliverability:

Warm up your Email

The most essential way to avoid emails from being spammed is to "Warm up your Email" or gradually increase the amount of emails sent daily. We suggest that for the first 7 days try not to send mass emails. Instead, write one off emails to creators. This is also a great way to start testing your emails to see what will garner the best response rate.

Do Links really link us together?

Avoid putting links into your initial outreach email and instead encourage potential creators to respond and engage with your email. The primary objective of your first email should be to start a conversation between you and your potential creator. Not only does avoiding links prevent your emails from being marked as spam but, also, engagement will create a better first impression and will lead to a better relationship.

A Call to Action

Encourage response rates with a specific and clear "Call to Action". For example, “If you are interested, please reply.” Increased response rates will build the reputation of your email preventing larger batches of emails to be marked as spam.

However, a response is not only required on the creator's side. Make sure to respond when an influencer replies to your outreach. This ensures that you are indeed a human and not an automatic email sending machine. Remember the key is to create a lasting relationship with your creators.

Are you a Robot?

A void email language that sounds robotic or templated. Instead, use email variables that personalize initial communication. Variables can be added to templates and sequences that will automatically add in creators' details.

Subject Lines

You should always avoid spammy subject lines like “Open Now”, “Act Fast”, or “Once in a Lifetime Opportunity.” Emails with these subject lines are often sent directly to spam where the creator will never see them.

Try not to spend too much time writing your subject lines. In fact, simple, clear subject lines can get high response rates. For example, NinjaOutreach achieved an 87.5% reply rate by using “I’d love to feature you in my post!” as their subject line, and they achieved an 81.8% reply rate from “Headline [Guest Post].”

Sign Off

Add an email signature to show professionalism, especially if your brand is not yet recognized. An email signature will encourage the creators that they are working with a brand rather than an email to avoid.

Email Outreach Best Practices

The primary objective of your initial outreach email should be to start a conversation. Explain who you are and why you’re reaching out. You may want to mention the creator's work in the email, it shows that you’ve done your homework and value their time. This added touch will get them engaged and interested in working on your creator marketing program.

Once a reply is received agreeing to work with your brand, you can send the creator their Live URL or program details and add them to your Activation, Campaign, or Partnership.

Initial Outreach

The first email should capture the creator's attention and make it easy for them to respond. In order to maximize the chance that your email will get a response, emails should be concise, relevant, scannable, and include a clear call to action.

Subject: [Brand Name] + [First Name]

Hi [name],

My name is [your name] from [company]. I’ve been following your blog since 2013. Your recent post [blog topic] really resonated with me. I thought it was something my audience would appreciate, so I shared it with my social media and email subscribers.

I wanted to get in touch with you to discuss [topic] further and see if we can work on something similar together. If you’re interested, we can set up a phone call this week to discuss starting a collaboration that would bring value to both our audiences.

Best, [your name]

Email Response

Congratulations you received a reply! The first step is to celebrate the start of a relationship but also your increased email reputation. Second, respond to the creator to provide additional details and to again express your interest to work with them.

Subject: [Brand Name] + [First Name] - Excited to work with you!

Hi [First Name],

Excited to get you going. Please click on the following link to get access to your campaign brief. [LIVE URL link].

Let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

[Manager Name]
Signature”

For more information please see our blog post on How to Write an Effective Creator Collaboration Email.