We see this a lot: You've just imported a list of old contacts or stale leads and want to start them all on an action plan.

Why? Most often it's because you want to get back in front of these people by sending them drip emails. 

What's the problem? If you start dripping a list of old contacts, they may flag your messages as spam in their inbox, which can affect your email reputation and mean that future marketing emails to your good leads get flagged as spam. That's not good!

What's the better solution? Start with a quick batch email to find the people who are still open to working with you, then focus on those people.

The Recipe

1. Import your contacts, if you haven't yet. 
2. Bonus: If you have a website, be sure to install the Follow Up Boss Pixel. This way you can start tracking website activity right away.
3. Create a new email template with the message you want to send your contacts. Remember to use merge fields to instantly personalize the message. 
   Don't want to write your own? Use one of our "Stale Leads" email templates for inspiration.
   
   
4. Find the contacts you want to send the message to.
   This could be the whole imported list, but remember that the best batch emails are relevant to your audience, so use any information you have to find the right audience. For example, if your import included a tag for Buyers, filter by that tag to find all the Buyers. 
5. Select all the contacts you want to send the message to. Click the Batch Email button, and then use the template you created in Step 2.
   This is a good time to edit the message to match your audience. For the Buyers example above, add a sentence about remembering that they were looking to buy a new home. (For step-by-step instructions on sending a batch email, click here.)
   Remember to include a link back to your website in the email, especially if you have the Follow Up Boss Pixel on your site!
6. Here's the important part: watch for engagement with the email from Reporting > Batch Emails.
   You'll see two main groups start to emerge: 
   
   
   
   
   • Opens: This is the group you want to focus on.
     Click on the number of people who opened your email to see a list of them. Use mass actions to update these contacts' Stage (Nurture is a good choice). This could also be a good time to send each person another email (reply back on the first email to keep it threaded in their inbox), give them a call, send a text, or start them on an action plan.
     They've shown you they're still "alive" by opening the email, so use this opportunity to find out more about their current situation!
     
     
   • Unsubscribes: If someone unsubscribes from this email, we will tag them "Unsubscribed" and automatically exclude them from future marketing messages you send through Follow Up Boss.
     Depending on what type of people you imported and whether you want to follow up with them again, you may want to Trash or Delete contacts who unsubscribed. Click on the number of people who unsubscribed and then use mass actions to update them all at once.
     
     
7. Use the Recommended Smart Lists to continue to follow up with the people who opened your email. For example, if you keep them in the Nurture stage, your Nurture/1x a month list will help you remember to reach out to them monthly.  

Want more help with these ideas?

Video: How to use Stage and Tags to organize your database.

Video: How to use Smart Lists to prioritize your follow-ups.

Join our live Follow Up Boss Bootcamp to see these ideas in action. (Or watch the recording here.)