When to send an email

Every time you set up a new campaign in Copilot.cx, you'll have a choice between email, In-App Messages, or a combination of the two.

Here, we'll look at the situations where email is most effective.

Following up on an In-App Message

Typically, email has a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 1-2%. Meanwhile, the CTR of In-Apps is 5-10x higher.

But here's the interesting part. When an email follows an In-App Message, the CTR sees a huge boost. In our experience, you can expect a CTR of at least 5% when sending an email after an In-App Message.

Why? Maybe it's because the user wasn't ready to act inside the app, but that doesn't mean they weren't interested. Or maybe they got partway through checking out a new feature or browsing your latest product, but got distracted.

Either way, follow-up emails are a proven recipe for success.

Reaching users who rarely use your app

We've already mentioned that the CTR of In-Apps is significantly higher than email. But what if most people use your app less than once a month?

In the past, we've seen cases where an In-App goes out to 200k people, but only 30k actually see it. This is because these products are mostly used through the devices themselves or voice-assistant.

This is where email comes to the rescue. Whether you're promoting a new feature, asking for a rating, or sending out a discount campaign, email is great for engaging users who rarely enter your app.

Launching seasonal sales campaigns

When it comes to seasonal, time-limited campaigns, email has a big advantage over In-Apps.

With In-Apps, you can set a message live today, but you have no control over when users will come into the app and see it. With email, on the other hand, you can be pretty confident that they'll see it today or tomorrow.

This allows you to build email sequences that cover different stages of your sales period.

Here's an example of a few emails you could send for a Christmas campaign over two weeks:

1. Day 0 – launch email to spotlight the biggest and best deals
2. Day 7 – reminder email that there's still time to grab a great deal
3. Day 13 – urgency-driving email telling users they have 24 hours to go

Guiding users through technical onboarding

If you're doing things right, you'll have In-App Messages live for every problem your users may face during onboarding. That way, you can solve their problems in real-time and keep them in the app.

But what happens if they ignore your In-Apps and drop off? That's where email comes in.

If a user fails to solve their problem in a certain period of time, a well-worded email can be the perfect way to pull them back into your app.

Another benefit here is that email gives you more space to play with. So you can explain how to solve the problem in more detail.

Re-engaging churned users

Last but not least, email can be a great option for preventing churn or re-engaging users who have already churned.

It goes without saying that users on their way out aren't using your app. So In-App Messages aren't of much use here.

Instead, we recommend setting up an email sequence that offers an escalating discount to pull users back.

The first email could offer 10%, the second 20%, and so on until you've found a formula that works for your brand.