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How to automate emails to a Saved Filter of Contacts
How to automate emails to a Saved Filter of Contacts

Automate your personal outreach to People and Leads in a segment

Success at Copper avatar
Written by Success at Copper
Updated this week

Available with the following plans:

Professional, Business

With Copper's email automations feature, you can automate outreach to your warm contacts through customizable email sequences. It's easy to get started using our gallery of pre-configured templates.

These options are available for both People and Leads. You must have Leads enabled to see the Leads options.

Template options for saved filters

By default, only Admins and Account Owners can manage email automations. However, individual Users can be granted permission.

This article will walk you through creating an email automation to a saved filter, including:

If you want to automate outreach to Company primary contacts, please see this help center article on automating emails to a Company Saved Filter.

We recommend keeping your automated emails targeted and personal.

You can review more best practices in our help center article here.


Automatically email People in a saved filter

You can satisfy man use cases and optimize your workflows with this flexible option!

Template option for People filters


💡 Tip

Replace a manual process, such as bulk email, by using the "Only new People added moving forward" option, as shown below. That way, the contacts on the list who already received your manual outreach will not receive the automated email.


Saved Filter Automation for People

Follow these steps to create the automation:

  1. Give your automation a unique Name
    If you plan to create multiple saved filter automations, you’ll want to edit the pre-filled Name we’ve populated.

  2. Give your email automation a Description

  3. Select the People Saved Filter
    You cannot select the "All People" filter. We recommend you segment your contacts to maximize deliverability and email engagement.

  4. Choose which People in the saved filter should receive the automated emails:

    1. Only new People added moving forward will only send the automated email to the People who enter the saved filter after the automation is saved and activated

    2. All People already in the saved filter plus any added moving forward will send the automated email to all People who are already in the saved filter plus any People who enter the filter moving forward
      ⚠️ If your audience is large, Copper may not send all of the automated emails in one day. Please see the daily send limitation section of the best practices article for more information.

  5. Select which user the email should be sent from
    You may select Contact Owner or a specific user.
    If you select Contact Owner, any contacts who do not have an owner will receive the automated email from the Automation Owner (which is you).

  6. Note the Sending Schedule

    Automated emails will only be sent during these hours, which will adhere to the Company time zone set in Settings > Workflow Automation

  7. Select the email template you would like to send or create a new one

  8. Select a waiting period
    We've set a period of 3 days for Step 1, but you can change it. This is how long Copper waits after sending an email. For a single email, it’s the time Copper waits to see if the activity defined in 'Stop sending if' occurs. In a multi-step series, it’s the delay before Copper sends the next email.

  9. Business plan only: Add step(s)

    1. To add a step, click Send Email

      Add a step

    2. You can choose to send up to 3 emails as part of the automation
      You can only add or delete steps when creating an automation. Once the automation is saved and active, you cannot add or delete steps.

    3. For each individual step, you can choose:

      1. A different email template

      2. A different waiting period

  10. Select which 'Stop sending if' activity qualifies as a ‘successful’ exit from the automation
    Contacts who meet this criteria appear in the Replied section of the automation details panel, while those who don’t remain in the Sent section when the automation ends.

  11. Click Save & Activate.
    When you save your automation for the first time, automated emails will start sending within minutes. Ongoing, contacts will receive the automated email within an hour of matching the criteria.


Automatically email Leads in a saved filter

You can satisfy man use cases and optimize your workflows with this flexible option!

Template option for People filters

Copper does not support automated outreach to cold Leads. If you automate emails to unqualified Leads, a Lead list you purchased, or any other recipient who is not expecting an email from you, your emails may be marked as spam, which could directly impact the deliverability of all emails you send from your Gmail account.


💡 Tip

Replace a manual process, such as bulk email, by using the "Only new People added moving forward" option, as shown below. That way, the contacts on the list who already received your manual outreach will not receive the automated email.


Saved Filter Automation for Leads

Follow these steps to create the automation:

  1. Give your automation a unique Name
    If you plan to create multiple saved filter automations, you’ll want to edit the pre-filled Name we’ve populated.

  2. Give your email automation a Description

  3. Select the Leads - List (saved filter)
    You cannot select the "All Leads" filter. We recommend you segment your contacts to maximize deliverability and email engagement.

  4. Choose which Leads in the saved filter should receive the automated emails:

    1. Only new Leads added moving forward will only send the automated email to the leads who enter the saved filter after the automation is saved and activated

    2. All Leads already in the saved filter plus any added moving forward will send the automated email to all leads who are already in the saved filter plus any leads who enter the filter moving forward
      ⚠️ If your audience is large, Copper may not send all of the automated emails in one day. Please see the daily send limitation section of the best practices article for more information.

  5. Select which user the email should be sent from
    You may select Contact Owner or a specific user.
    If you select Contact Owner, any contacts who do not have an owner will receive the automated email from the Automation Owner (which is you).

  6. Note the Sending Schedule

    Automated emails will only be sent during these hours, which will adhere to the Company time zone set in Settings > Workflow Automation

  7. Select the email template you would like to send or create a new one

  8. Select a waiting period
    We've set a period of 3 days for Step 1, but you can change it. This is how long Copper waits after sending an email. For a single email, it’s the time Copper waits to see if the activity defined in 'Stop sending if' occurs. In a multi-step series, it’s the delay before Copper sends the next email.

  9. Business plan only: Add step(s)

    1. To add a step, click Send Email

      Add a step

    2. You can choose to send up to 3 emails as part of the automation
      You can only add or delete steps when creating an automation. Once the automation is saved and active, you cannot add or delete steps.

    3. For each individual step, you can choose:

      1. A different email template

      2. A different waiting period

  10. Select which 'Stop sending if' activity qualifies as a ‘successful’ exit from the automation
    Contacts who meet this criteria appear in the Replied section of the automation details panel, while those who don’t remain in the Sent section when the automation ends.

  11. Click Save & Activate.
    When you save your automation for the first time, automated emails will start sending within minutes. Ongoing, contacts will receive the automated email within an hour of matching the criteria.


FAQs

When will the emails be sent?

Each hour we check to see if any contacts meet the criteria for the automations you’ve created and attempt to send the email(s).

What if I make a mistake?

Delete the automation as soon as possible. There is no ability to unsend an email once it has been sent.

Can I create my own email automation triggers?

Not yet. But we would love to hear what kind of email automations you are looking to create. Our goal is to continuously deliver more pre-built options with each release, and your feedback is crucial to helping us determine what those should be!


Have a question? Contact our Customer Success Team using the in-app chat 💬

Have a suggestion? Check out the Ideas board in our Community 👥

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