Follow-Up Campaigns

Follow-up campaigns are a simple way for you to resend your campaigns to recipients who haven't opened, which can be an effective way of generating additional return on investment.

You can schedule an automatic resend to non-openers for a campaign during the launch setup, or you can create a follow-up for a campaign that has already launched via the campaign report page.

On this page:

Process

When you create a follow-up campaign, either automatically or manually, a copy of the campaign will be created in the same project as the original. This new campaign will replicate all aspects of the parent campaign, except when launched, the mailing list will be filtered to non-openers. If you want to, you can change or add to the subject line of the follow-up campaign, to differentiate it from the parent campaign in the recipients' inbox.

Example: Add Ending soon or a similar reminder to the existing subject line.

Follow-up campaigns can be scheduled to launch after a specified time delay, or can be launched manually, depending on your requirements.

The follow-up campaigns feature can also to follow-up to a split campaign.

Creating an Automatic Follow-up Campaign

Creating and scheduling an automatic follow-up takes place at the final stage of the campaign launch; the 'Setup Launch', once the rest of your campaign creation is complete.

Selecting the ‘Automatically resend this campaign to non-openers’ checkbox will expand the screen to display the available options.

Resend Subject Line

You have the option to change the existing subject line for use in the follow-up campaign, which can be useful to prevent the email appearing as a duplicate to the recipient, though you can leave it unchanged if you wish.

Note: If this field is left blank, the existing subject line will be used as-is.

Resend Delay

The resend delay is the amount of time Adestra will wait after the campaign is launched before resending. You can specify the delay here using the drop-down box, and the follow-up campaign will be launched automatically according to this.

If you select 'Launch manually' from the drop-down box you can choose when to resend at a later date. When you launch your campaign, the follow-up campaign will be created in your project, and you can launch this by following the usual four-step 'Test and Launch' process.

Selecting the 'Schedule' option will expand the screen to display time and date options for you to specify when you would like the follow-up campaign to launch.

Manually Create a Follow-up Campaign

If you have an existing campaign that has already been launched, that you want to resend, you can create a follow-up campaign manually via the campaign report.

The report summary will display the ‘Create follow-up to non-openers’ button in the bottom left corner of the page. Clicking this will create the follow-up campaign in your project, and you will be directed to the campaign's overview. You are able to make changes to the campaign options and content if you wish, before following the usual 'Test and Launch' process.

Campaign Overview

Once you have created a follow-up campaign, whether automatically or manually, the parent campaign and the follow-up will be linked via the campaign overviews.

The parent campaign will display the 'Follow-up campaign' link in the top right corner, and likewise, the follow-up campaign will display the 'Parent campaign' link, allowing you to quickly navigate between them.

If you wish, you can make changes to the content of a follow-up campaign before launching, as you would a normal campaign using the HTML and text editors.

Note: If the follow-up campaign is currently scheduled for launch, the campaign will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes unless you cancel the launch.

Customise Content for Follow-up Campaigns

If you're creating a template for use with campaigns that will have follow-ups, it is possible to use conditional content to automatically alter the template when it's used in a follow-up campaign.

The value info.is_followup_campaign indicates whether the campaign is a followup or not. Here's a very simple example that will display only during resends:

Copy 
[*IF info.is_followup_campaign*]
We just want to make sure you received this email on Monday. There’s only 3 days left of the offer now, so make sure you don’t miss out.
[*END*]

[*IF info.is_followup_campaign*] We just want to make sure you received this email on Monday. There’s only 3 days left of the offer now, so make sure you don’t miss out. [*END*]

This allows you to schedule follow-up campaigns for automatic launch, without making any changes manually.

For help with including conditional content in your campaigns, contact Adestra Customer Support (adestra-support@uplandsoftware.com).

Follow-up to a Split Test Campaign

Creating a follow-up for a split test campaign is done in a very similar way to a regular campaign; it can be created automatically after launch via the 'Setup Launch' or manually via the campaign report.

Automatic Creation

Automatic Split Test Launch

In the 'Setup Launch', if the split test is set to launch automatically to the winning variant, the option will be available to schedule the resend automatically.

The resend delay is applied after the final launch to the winning variant of the split test. So in the example above, one day after the split test is launched, the winning variant will be sent to the remaining percentage of the list. Three days after the final launch, the winning variant will resend to all non-openers, across the entire list, including those who didn't open any of the other test variants.

Manual Split Test Launch

If the split test is set for manual launch, when you select the variant you wish to launch to the remainder of your list, you will be given the option to create an automatic follow-up campaign in the 'Setup Launch'.

In the same way as an automatic split test launch, the resend will launch to all non-openers, across the entire list, including those who didn't open any of the other test variants.

Manual Creation

You can manually create a follow-up for a split test campaign from the campaign report, which will display the 'Create follow-up to non-openers' button.

When you click 'Create follow-up to non-openers', the follow-up campaign created will be a copy of the most recently launched variant, regardless of which variant performed better in the split test. For example, in the screenshot above, whichever variant was launched under the reference 'June Newsletter', would be the one resent.

Note: if the campaign only contains launches for variant tests, without a final launch, the follow-up campaign will default to the 'A' variant.

Cancelling a Follow-up Campaign

If for any reason you need to cancel a follow-up campaign, you can do so by clicking on the relevant campaign in the campaign list and selecting 'Cancel Launch' from the launch banner at the top of the screen.

Delete a Follow-up Campaign

As long as the follow-up campaign has not been launched, you can delete it using the 'Delete campaign' link in the campaign overview. If the campaign is scheduled to launch, the launch will need to be cancelled before the campaign can be deleted.

Reporting on Follow-up Campaigns

Once you have created a follow-up campaign, it becomes an independent campaign within the project. The follow-up's campaign report will display the activity associated with the resend only. The campaign report for the parent campaign will not contain any statistics for the follow-up campaign.

FAQ

Can I change the mailing list a follow-up campaign sends to?

If your follow-up campaign is not currently scheduled to launch, you are able to make any changes you wish, to any part of the campaign, including changing the mailing list.

Can I send an approval request for a follow-up campaign?

No, you cannot currently request an approval for a follow-up campaign.

Can I create a follow-up campaign to a follow-up campaign?

Yes, it is possible to create follow-up campaigns for follow-up campaigns if you wish.