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Sending Smart Mail

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Stephanie Stone
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Smart Mail is a one-off email tool that enables you to send directly to leads in SharpSpring. This sales-focused tool makes it easier for your team to send powerful and personalized emails directly through SharpSpring. With Smart Mail, it takes only three clicks and about ten seconds to send from the lead record. This article will detail how to send Smart Mail.


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Understanding Smart Mail and Mail Sync

Smart Mail facilitates a better hand-off from marketing teams to sales teams by ensuring a consistent, brand-oriented flow of information. This makes it easier for your sales team and business development team to quickly and efficiently locate the emails they need to send.

If a user has Mail Sync enabled, then any sent Smart Mail will be sent through their synced mailbox. This allows for better email delivery and personal, one-to-one communication. For example, if you are sending Smart Mail to emailuser2000@gmail.com, then the recipient will receive the email from your synced account—Gmail, in this case—and not a SharpSpring domain.


Creating Smart Mail

All Smart Mail are emails, but not all emails are Smart Mail. You must specifically designate a created email to be a Smart Mail.

Before you can create any kind of email, you must first start with a template. With SharpSpring's available email options, you can leverage various templates built in to the application, or build your own. Though using either a created template or an existing template is up to you, emails can only be created by using a template.

To create Smart Mail, do the following:

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Content > Emails.
  2. Click Create New Email.
  3. Click a template folder.
  4. Over the desired email, click + New Email from Template.
  5. Enter a name for your email.
  6. Click the Make Available as a Smart Mail in Contact Manager checkbox.
  7. Optionally, if you have Granular Unsubscribes enabled, select an unsubscribe category.
  8. Click Add Email.
  9. Click Save.
  
Click to enlarge.
Note: Do not click the view in browser checkbox. Smart Mails must use the merge variable instead.
 

Once you have created a Smart Mail, you will need to customize its look and features using the Email Designer. For more information on designing emails, refer to the following articles:


Smart Mail: Quick Send

To immediately send Smart Mail as-is, do the following:

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Contacts > Contact Manager.
  2. Click the desired lead.
  3. Click Smart Mail.
  4. Select the desired email to send.
  5. Click Quick Send.

For information on Smart Mail sending limits, refer to
Mail Sync Overview.

 

  


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Important: You may only send Smart Mail using a verified domain for the from address.
 


Smart Mail: Personalized

You can also add attachments to Smart Mail. However, only personalized Smart Mail can have attachments.

To add attachments to Smart Mail, do the following

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Contacts > Contact Manager.
  2. Click the desired lead.
  3. Click Smart Mail.
  4. Select the desired email to send.
  5. Click Personalize... to modify the email in a streamlined version of the email content editor.
  6. Optionally, click  attachment.png  Attachment to attach files.
  7. Click Schedule Email.
  8. Choose between sending as soon as possible or at a specific date and time.
  9. Click Send Email.

For information on Smart Mail sending limits, refer to
Mail Sync Overview.

            


Click to enlarge.
Important: You may only send Smart Mail using a verified domain for the from address.
 
Note: You may only send a maximum of 4 attachments.
 
Note: Personalized Smart Mail cannot be saved, but the exact version that was sent can be seen in that contact's Life of the Lead.
 


Smart Mail: Menu Features

When sending Smart Mail, there are many features available in the Smart Mail menu window.


View Recently Sent Emails

In the Smart Mail menu, the Recent Emails section shows you which emails you have recently sent. This way, you do not have to search for the same email every time.  


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Smart Mail Filtering

The Smart Mail menu offers different search filters to assist with your searches. The Filter by Name filter allows you to search for emails by name. The Filter by Tag filter allows you to search for emails based on tags.

With Smart Mails, marketing teams can tag each email. This way, sales teams can quickly select and send Smart Mails without needing to search for the appropriate emails.

  


Click to enlarge.

 

Contact Reception

The Smart Mail menu shows you when a contact has already received an email.
An  orange_dot.png  orange dot indicates if the contact you selected has already received an email. This allows you to avoid sending the same email to the same lead.



Email Preview

The Smart Mail menu allows you to preview an email before editing. When preparing to send a Smart Mail, you can see a preview of that email directly in the same window. This way, you have an idea of what the email looks like before quickly sending or personalizing the email.  

Click to enlarge.


Sending Smart Mails from Opportunities

You can send Smart Mails directly from opportunities. Certain tabs in opportunities have the option available. To send Smart Mails from an opportunity's Contacts tab, do the following:

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Sales > Opportunities.
  2. Select a pipeline to view.
  3. Click the desired opportunity.
  4. In the opportunity window, click the Contacts tab.
  5. Next to the desired contact, click
    cog.png  Options > Send Smart Mail.
  6. Send either a Quick Send or Personalized Smart Mail.

For information on Smart Mail sending limits, refer to
Mail Sync Overview.

  

Click to enlarge.
 
Note: You will not be able to send Smart Mails to contacts that have requested no future email or contact.
 


Adding Signatures

You can add a custom email signature to the end of Smart Mails that you send through the Smart Mail window, but only after you first create the custom email signature. To add a signature to your Smart Mail, do the following:

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Contacts > Contact Manager.
  2. Click the desired lead.
  3. Click Smart Mail.
  4. Select the desired email to send.
  5. Click Personalize...
  6. In the email body, click where the signature will go.
  7. In the email editor toolbar, click
    edit.png  Insert Your Email Signature.
  


Click to enlarge.

Once clicked, the Insert Your Email Signature tool will add your custom email signature to the bottom of your Smart Mail.


Sending to Multiple Recipients

You can send Smart Mails to multiple recipients as either copies (CC) or blind copies (BCC). To send to multiple recipients, do the following:

  1. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click
    Contacts > Contact Manager.
  2. Click the desired lead.
  3. Click Smart Mail.
  4. Select the desired email to send.
  5. Click Personalize.
  6. Click Add Recipients.
  7. Click either the CC: or BCC: field.
  8. Select the desired recipients from the drop-down menu that appears.
  9. If necessary, add recipients to the other field.
  10. Click Schedule Email.
  11. Choose between sending as soon as possible or at a specific date and time.
  12. Click Send Email.
  


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Important: You cannot have more than 20 recipients across either or both of the CC: or BCC: fields.
 

For information on Smart Mail sending limits, refer to Mail Sync Overview.


Merge Variables and Smart Mails

If the Smart Mail has multiple recipients in the To: field, then all those recipients receive one email. The merge variables populate for the primary To: field, which is the contact that you initiated the Smart Mail on. In addition, the Smart Mail will populate with everything from the contact whose profile initiated the Smart Mail send.


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I see Smart Mails in the Life of the Lead?
A: Yes. In a contact's Life of the Lead, click View Smart Mail to see the exact email they received.


Q: Can I see if the Smart Mail was opened?
A: Yes. In the contact's Life of the Lead, click the
AutomatedEmailSent.png  Smart Mail icon for the email you want to view, then click View Smart Mail to see the mail they received.

  


Click to enlarge.

Q: Are unsubscribe links required in a Smart Mail?
A: No. Unsubscribe links are currently only required for emails sent to a list or emails in an automation.


Q: If you CC or BCC someone on a Smart Mail, and they open the email, click a link, or reply to the Smart Mail, do those events show on their Life of the Lead?
A: If anyone from the group that was copied opens the email, then everyone in that group gets one open event—and only ever one open event. The click events will only be recorded if they land on a tracked page that recognizes the lead. In that case, any lead who was initially sent the email will get their click event.


Q: Can you establish tracking if you CC or BCC an untracked lead?
A: No. Tracking cannot be established when sending to multiple recipients via Smart Mail.


Q: Does a Smart Mail with multiple recipients count as multiple sends towards the SMTP sending limit?
A: No. Smart Mails with multiple recipients are single emails with multiple recipients, and they count as a single send.


Q: How far back does Mail Sync pull information?
A: Mail Sync performs a single historical sync that looks at the leads in SharpSpring before looking at your inbox. If you have an email from ten years ago still in your inbox, it should pull that email in. In the same manner, if you add a lead to SharpSpring after the fact, the historical email content will not be pulled. The only way to trigger another historical search is to disconnect and then reconnect MailSync. Be aware that the Life of the Lead only displays the 300 most recent events, which means that, even if Mail Sync pulls in historical content, that content may not be shown on a lead's record. 

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