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Leads, emails and automation

Send automated follow-up emails

Funnel emails send themselves after a sign-up or a purchase. Connect your own email sending account once under Settings > Email Sending, then add Email Automation steps to your funnel and write each email in the drag-and-drop email editor. Add waits between emails to build a sequence. Visitors are never held up: they move on to the next page while emails go out in the background.

Updated 5 min read
Plan
Basic or Pro
You need
An email sending account, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES or Postmark
Where
Settings > Email Sending, then Email Automation steps on the flow builder
On this page
  1. Connect your email sending account
  2. Add an email to your funnel
  3. Personalise with variables
  4. Build a sequence
  5. How email buttons get their links
  6. Unsubscribes, retries and clicks
  7. Write emails with AI
  8. Frequently asked questions

Connect your email sending account

soFunnels sends funnel emails through your own email account rather than a shared server. Your emails come from your own domain, land in the inbox more often, and build your own sender reputation.

  1. Open Settings in the top bar and choose Email Sending.
  2. Under Quick setup, pick your provider (Gmail or Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES or Postmark) to fill in the server details. For any other provider, type the details your provider gives you.
  3. Enter the username and the password or API key, then the From Email and From Name your leads will see.
  4. Press Save SMTP Settings.
  5. Type your own address under Send test to and send a test. A successful test confirms the whole connection works.

Tip: a dedicated sending service such as SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES or Postmark reaches the inbox far more reliably than a personal mailbox. Send from an address on a domain you own, and add the SPF and DKIM records your provider gives you.

Good to know: your sending password is encrypted before it is stored and is only used at the moment an email is sent.

Add an email to your funnel

  1. On the flow builder, add an Email Automation step and connect it after the page that should trigger it, such as your opt-in page or checkout. The line is dashed, which means it runs in the background.
  2. Select the email and press Edit Email in Builder.
  3. Write the Email Subject, then build the body from a template or from blocks: text, images, buttons, columns and dividers.
  4. Insert personal details from Funnel Variables, such as the person's first name or what they bought.
  5. Connect the email to the page its button should open. The line is dotted and labelled "Email button".
  6. Publish the funnel. From then on, every new lead or buyer gets the email automatically.

Personalise with variables

VariableBecomes
{{first_name}}The person's first name
{{name}}Their full name
{{email}} and {{phone}}Their email address and phone number
{{product_name}}What they bought
{{order_total}} and {{order_id}}The order amount and reference
{{funnel_name}}The name of your funnel
{{date}} and {{year}}Today's date and the current year

Click a variable in the email editor to insert it where your cursor is.

Build a sequence

Chain emails with Delay / Wait steps between them: email one straight away, wait one day, email two, wait two days, email three. Add a Condition to stop the sequence for people who already bought, or to send a different email to people who clicked. Conditions and delays.

The email button's page and the follow-up sequence are separate, so one email can open a page and still lead on to the next email in the sequence.

Unsubscribes, retries and clicks

  • Unsubscribe link: every funnel email carries one automatically, and people who unsubscribe are never emailed again by your funnels.
  • Retries: if your mail server refuses an email, soFunnels tries again after 5, 30 and 120 minutes before marking it failed, so a short outage does not lose a message.
  • Click tracking: clicks on links are recorded, so you can branch on "Clicked an email link" and see which emails work.

Write emails with AI

The AI assistant in the email editor drafts subject lines and body copy, shortens long emails and adds a P.S. Ask the Funnel Architect to "Add a 3-email follow-up after the opt-in" and it builds the whole sequence for you to review.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I need my own email sending account?

Sending from your own account and domain means your emails are trusted by inboxes, your reputation is yours alone, and nobody else's sending can hurt your delivery.

Can I use my Gmail address?

Yes, through Google Workspace or Gmail's mail server settings, but a personal mailbox has daily sending limits. For more than a few dozen emails a day, use a sending service such as SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES or Postmark.

Does sending an email slow down my funnel?

No. The visitor goes straight to the next page; emails are sent after the page has already loaded for them.

Can I send a one-off broadcast to my whole list?

Funnel emails are automated: they go to each person when they reach that point in your funnel. For one-off newsletters, export your contacts to your newsletter tool, or send them there automatically with a webhook.

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Still stuck? Email [email protected] and a person will help. Using an AI assistant? Give it this page as Markdown.

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