Autopilot: Action - Send Email

The Send Email action sends an email to the contacts that enter it. Thousands of companies including Patreon, Greenpeace and Microsoft trust Autopilot to deliver their marketing and transactional emails.

Before getting started, please note that:

• by default, each contact can only receive each email once, however you change this if you want to; and
• this article just addresses the Send Email action. If you're looking for all articles on email configuration, please visit the email category.

Creating and Customizing Emails

Drop the Send Email action, and then click "New Email":

Name your email and then choose how you'd like to create your email:

You'll notice that the options are divided into two categories: "Advanced Editor" and "Basic Editor".  You can learn about the differences between the editors here, however below is a brief description of each option.

Advanced Editor

• Start Blank: start from scratch to create a completely custom, beautiful email using a drag and drop editor.
• Start From a Template: jump-start your design process with one of our pre-made email templates.
• Start From Your Templates: start from a template that you previously saved.

Learn more about the Advanced Editor here.

Basic Editor

• Start Blank: start from scratch to create a simple, text-based email. 
• Upload HTML: upload a custom template. Before you upload your HTML, learn how to make it compatible with the Autopilot email editor here. You can upload either (a) an HTML file on its own, or (b) a ZIP file containing an HTML file as well as an images folder (named either "images" or "img"). 

Next, compose your email. This will vary based on whether you're using theAdvanced Editor or the Basic Editor. The screenshots below assume you're using the Basic Editor. To view the equivalent process for the Advanced Editor,see this article.

Note that you can customize all aspects of your emails in Autopilot. You can:

• Add personalization variables (including fallback default variables) to: (1) the body and subject, (2) the 'From Name' and 'From Email' and (3) links.
• Customize the unsubscribe link
• Add list specific subscribe and unsubscribe links.

Once your email is complete, you can send yourself a test email using the "Send Test" feature. You can fill personalization variables with:

• a randomly selected contact (which changes every time you click send); or
• a specific contact.

You can include multiple comma separated email addresses in the email field if you want to send a test to more than one person:

Once you're happy, click the "Publish" button:

If you make further changes to your email remember to publish it again to make the changes live.

Shape Settings

The Send Email action has three settings:

Learn more about each of these settings:

• Track replies
• Contacts can receive more than once
• Send from Salesforce owner

Please remember to publish the Journey after enabling or disabling any of these settings.

Sending Emails

To send emails, connect any trigger to the Send Email action. Here are some simple examples:

You can also connect multiple triggers to the same Send Email action:

If you're looking for an easy way to get started, we recommend checking out our templates library.

Managing Emails

You can manage your existing emails by clicking "Manage Existing" on any Send Email action:

The Email Manager allows you to view, search, duplicate, delete and edit your existing emails:

To edit, duplicate (i.e. copy) or delete an email hover on an email and click the button:

Learn more about email duplication here.

You can also click the "Manage" button if you need to mass select and delete emails, however we recommend doing so with caution:

Remember that all email sent with Autopilot must comply with our acceptable use policy. Please read it before sending any emails.