📄 Smart Follow-up · How to Run Marketing Automation

⬅️ Previously

This article continues from Detail 3️⃣ · How to Save Targeted Customers · Saving Contacts. After saving and tagging your contacts, follow the workflow below to run marketing automation — let the system develop customers for you 24/7.

🌟 Core goal: Get your marketing automation up and running. Contacts are saved, now it's time to send emails and get inquiries!

📋 What's covered: ① Create a marketing task (send the emails) → ② Manage marketing data (review results + reply to customers) → ③ Troubleshooting (what to do when issues arise). Follow along step by step.

Marketing Overview

✅ Before you start · Confirm 2 things (both required)

1. Contact tags are set up — Step from Detail 3️⃣ · How to Save Targeted Customers · Saving Contacts is complete. In this article, add customers in bulk by tag.
2. Email templates are ready — Go to "Settings - Email Templates" and prepare your cold emails ahead of time. Don't know how to write them? 👉 Build High-Reply Cold Emails with AI

▶️ Watch the video below, or follow the documentation step by step to learn all the marketing details in a few minutes:

📺 Video not loading? Open in a new window →

Before sending, make 2 choices 👇

Decision 1 · Which sending channel?

Sending Channel	Description	Recommendation
✅ Premium Channel (system channel)	Best for high-volume sending, more stable, does not affect your own domain reputation	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
❌ My Mailbox (your own mailbox)	Best for 1-on-1 manual follow-up, risk of account ban + domain blacklisting	⭐

→ Always choose "Premium Channel" for mass sending; reserve your own mailbox for 1-on-1 manual follow-up after replies come in.

Decision 2 · Which task type?

Task Type	Best For	Rounds	Recommendation
Mass Email	Holiday greetings / one-off notifications / very small batch testing	1 round only	⭐⭐ Occasional use
Smart Follow-up	Daily customer outreach · system auto multi-round follow-up	3-12 rounds auto	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strongly recommended for beginners

→ Foreign trade outreach usually isn't a one-and-done — it requires continuous follow-up. Beginners should go straight to Smart Follow-up: set up multi-round emails in advance, and the system sends them on schedule, so you can collect inquiries even while you're on vacation.

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I. Create a Marketing Task

(1) Mass Email (Best for Small Tests)

Best for sending notifications, holiday greetings, or very small batch precision tests. Only 1 round, no auto follow-up.

Steps: ① Create task → ② Configure sending → Submit task

1. Create Task

Either from "Email Marketing - Mass Email" or by selecting contacts from "Customer Management - Contacts".

• Method 1: From "Email Marketing - Mass Email" page, click the Create Task button at the top

• Method 2: From "Customer Management - Contacts" page, select contacts and click the Mass Send button at the top

2. Sending Configuration

Check before sending · Filter out invalid emails

We recommend creating a "Do Not Send" view first to filter out invalid / bounced emails, so you don't waste sending volume — Setup guide for "Do Not Send" view

4 mass send settings:

Item	What to fill in
① Task Name	Clearly describe the customer group for easier data review later
② Send Time	Schedule based on the target customer's time zone, during their working hours
③ Email Template	Select the cold email template you prepared in the "Before you start" section
④ Sending Channel	Strongly recommend "Premium Channel" (see Decision 1)

Why can't you mass send from your own mailbox?

Sending thousands of identical emails to strangers all at once → your domain ends up on spam lists → future emails go straight to recipients' spam folders → hard to recover for 6+ months.

✅ Mass send via Premium Channel (system channel), and use your own mailbox only for 1-on-1 manual follow-up.

📺 Demo Video: Mass Email

📺 Video not loading? Open in a new window →

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(2) Smart Follow-up (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strongly Recommended · Advanced Automation)

Smart Follow-up is built for daily outreach. The system handles multi-round follow-ups, auto-throttling, and volume control — so you can collect inquiries even on vacation! Most send settings and rules only need to be configured once.

📊 Smart Follow-up Timeline (understand before you operate)

💡 In plain English: Step 1 sends immediately; only after 30 days with no reply does Step 2 send; and so on. As soon as a customer replies, you should take over manually — but we recommend turning off the auto-stop-on-reply feature (see advanced rules below).

Steps: ① Create plan → ② Add steps → ③ Set advanced rules → ④ Activate plan + add customers

1. Create Plan

When choosing the sending channel, prioritize the Premium Channel.

Next, set the plan name and plan time:

• Plan Name: For your own reference, describe the customer group clearly
• Plan Time: Set based on the target customer's time zone, ideally within their working hours

Example: Water Sports Retailer - Auto Follow-up Plan

Click Confirm to enter the plan's Follow-up Flow page.

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2. Add Steps

Each step corresponds to one send task. Customers added to the plan start from the first step. If they don't reply after the first send, they automatically advance to the next step until all steps are complete.

Each step's settings: Sending account → Email template → Step start time

① Add the First Step

Click the + Add First Follow-up Step button in the center of the page 👇

• Sending Account: Use Premium Channel — just select 1 account, the system will allocate sending resources by its own rules
• Email Template: Prepare multiple templates so you can test which ones perform best

If you don't know how to write multi-round cold emails, check out:

👉 AI Auto-Generate Multi-Round Cold Email Sequences

• Start Time: When this step executes. For Round 1, you can choose "Execute 30 minutes after contact is added"

Note

Actual sending is also constrained by "Advanced Rules - Plan Time". If the step's execution time falls outside the plan's allowed window, the system waits until the next valid time.

Click Confirm when done — the first step is created.

② Add Subsequent Steps

Click + Add Follow-up Step under the Step 1 card to add the second step 👇

Subsequent steps configure similarly to Step 1, with one key difference: the start time:

"When does this step start?" — This sets the step's wait time (i.e. the interval). 30 days is generally recommended.

Example: When does this step start? 👇

UI: Add follow-up step	Action: step's set time	Plain English: how long the step waits
Step ❶ (Round 1)	30 min after joining plan	Wait 30 minutes
Step ❷ (Round 2)	30 days after previous step	Wait 30 days after Round 1, then send Round 2
Step ❸ (Round 3)	30 days after previous step	Wait 30 days after Round 2, then send Round 3

Beginner tip: Don't over-complicate it at the start. Set 3 rounds first, validate the flow, then expand to 6 or 12 rounds.

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3. Set Advanced Rules

Once your follow-up steps are set, click the Advanced Rules tab at the top of the plan.

5 Key Advanced Rules (most easily overlooked by beginners)

Setting	Recommendation	Consequence if not set
Email Tracking	✅ Enable	Can't see opens / clicks / replies
Sender Nickname	✅ Required (use your English name)	Sender looks unnatural → customers don't open
Reply Mailbox	❌ Not recommended	May increase interception risk
Send Limit	✅ Per plan per day ≤ 10000 (depends on your plan)	Over-reaching → reports
Per-Domain Limit	✅ Same company ≤ 3 per day	Triggers their anti-spam system

Auto-Stop on Reply · We recommend disabling

By default this is on. It seems thoughtful ("stop the moment they reply"), but false positives are serious:

• OOO (Out-of-Office auto-replies) trigger a stop
• Polite replies like "thanks" / "noted" / "received" also trigger a stop
• Once triggered, the entire plan permanently stops for that customer, missing 5-10 rounds of auto follow-up

✅ Recommended approach: Disable auto-stop-on-reply. Instead, manually scan the "Email - To Reply" tag every day, and only take over manually when there's real intent.

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4. Activate Plan + Add Customers

After follow-up steps and advanced rules are set, the final step: activate first, then add customers.

① First, activate the plan: Click the toggle in the top-right of the plan page. ⚠️ The plan only starts running after activation; without activation, adding customers won't send emails.

② Then, add customers: Since contacts are already tagged at save time, just select tags here — all contacts under that tag will be auto-added to the plan 👇

In the dialog, select the contact tags to add. The system displays the contact count under each tag. After confirming, click Confirm Add.

How to incrementally add new customers later

When new contacts are added to the same tag later, you need to manually update: click Add Customers → select the corresponding tag.

Contacts already in the plan can't be added again — the system auto-dedupes.

After adding, switch to the Customer List tab to see all contacts currently in the plan.

That's it — your auto outreach flow is set up:

Once contacts join the plan, the system auto-sends emails according to your configured steps and timing.

📺 Demo Video: Smart Follow-up

📺 Video not loading? Open in a new window →

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II. Manage Marketing Data

(1) View Sending Data

1. Mass Email Data

• View sending data: Click Mass Email → All Tasks → view sending data

• View send details: Click an individual task → click status → view details

• Opened: Customers who opened; you can select and tag them as "opened"
• Bounced: Content was intercepted, review and optimize the cold email
• Not Sent: Check the reason

2. Smart Follow-up Data

On the Smart Follow-up page, you see the plan's overall data — since marketing is continuous, data is dynamic.

On the Follow-up Flow page of the plan, you see per-step data:

This data helps you assess:

Data	What it means
High bounces	Email quality may need optimization
Low opens	Subject, send time, or customer targeting may be off
High clicks	Customers are interested in the content
High replies	Customer group and email content are well-matched

(2) Manage Customer Replies

After marketing, all customer replies are centralized on the Email page. Handle in 2 steps: understand AI categorization → reply to high-intent customers.

1. View Replies · Understand AI Auto-Categorization

The system uses AI to auto-categorize replies (To Reply / OOO Auto Reply / Reject / Inquiry), helping you instantly spot truly interested customers without going through every email.

💡 The Golden Rule (key to closing deals)

After receiving a real reply, we strongly recommend switching to your own corporate mailbox for 1-on-1 manual follow-up — the auto templates handle "getting customers to reply", but closing requires a human to build genuine trust.

2. Reply to High-Intent Customers

Once you've spotted high-intent customers under the "To Reply" category, choose the reply method based on whether your mailbox is bound to Laifaxin 👇

Option a · Mailbox Bound to System (Recommended)

If your reply mailbox is already bound to Laifaxin, replying directly in the system is the easiest. 3 steps:

① Find the inquiry email → click Reply

② Write your reply, choose your reply mailbox (corporate mailbox recommended) and send

Keep some of the original message as context for the customer:

③ Drafts / scheduled emails → check and edit in your reply mailbox's "Drafts" folder

Mailbox not bound yet? See the setup guides 👇

• 1️⃣ Personal Mailbox Setup Guide — Quick reference for Gmail / QQ / 163 / Outlook and 16 major mailboxes
• 2️⃣ Corporate Mailbox Setup Guide — Quick reference for custom domain / Tencent / Aliyun / Netease and more

Option b · Mailbox Not Bound (Fallback)

You can still reply if your mailbox isn't bound — screenshot + reply manually from your own email client, 3 steps:

① Screenshot the customer's reply

Open Laifaxin and screenshot the customer's reply. If you capture any AI tags or system categorization, mask them out (to avoid the customer noticing you're using a third-party tool):

② Copy the customer's email address + reply subject

③ Open your own mailbox client, compose the reply, paste in the screenshot

We recommend using a corporate mailbox for the manual reply — it looks more professional:

📺 Demo Video: Replying to Customer Inquiries

📺 Video not loading? Open in a new window →

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III. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Possible Cause	What to do
🔴 High bounce rate (> 15%)	• Poor mailbox quality • Email triggered anti-spam rules	① Re-filter contact list with "Email Verification" ② Check template for spam keywords (free / urgent / 100% / $$$ etc.)
🔴 Low open rate (< 10%)	• Unattractive subject • Wrong send time • Inaccurate targeting	① A/B test two subjects ② Check time zone settings ③ Go back to Detail 2️⃣ · How to Filter Imprecise Customers · AI Scoring and re-filter
🔴 Zero replies (500+ sent, still no reply)	• Content doesn't hit pain points • Customer group is off • Templates feel "mass-sent"	① Rewrite body: see AI Multi-Round Sequence Guide ② Switch customer group ③ Make each email feel 1-on-1
🟡 Many not-sent	• Matched "Do Not Send" view • Matched blacklist • System dedupe	Go to task detail review "Not Sent reasons"
🟡 Plan stops after Round 1	Auto-stop-on-reply triggered by OOO / polite replies	Disable "Auto-stop on reply" in advanced rules

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📋 Marketing Automation Pitfalls Summary

Pitfall	Consequence	How to avoid
🔴 Mass sending to strangers from your own mailbox	Domain blacklisted / lands in spam / hard to recover for 6+ months	Mass send via Premium Channel; use own mailbox only for 1-on-1
🔴 No sender nickname	Recipient sees an unnatural sender, no one opens	Required in advanced rules (use your English name)
🔴 No send limit control	Same group over-reached → reports	Per plan per day ≤ 10000, per domain per day ≤ 3
🟡 Auto-stop on reply left on by default	OOO and polite replies false-trigger → whole plan stops	Disable it, manually scan "To Reply" tag for takeover
🟡 Not taking over after Round 1 reply	Auto templates keep firing → customer gets annoyed	When you get a real reply, immediately switch to your own corporate mailbox for 1-on-1

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The 5-step main line (Find → Filter → Save → Send → Follow up) is now fully running. Time to revisit the full knowledge base:

🚀 Next Steps

• ❓ FAQ — Catch-all answers
• 🎁 New User Benefits · Upgrade Guide — See what resources you can unlock
• 🎉 Limited-Time Offers · Daily Prizes — Catch the latest campaigns

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🔗 Permanent link: https://laifa.xin/zhinan/04-email-marketing