This page provides recommendations for implementing AI Email (AIE) campaigns. We strongly encourage you to review the content below before launching your email campaign strategy to ensure compliance with privacy regulations and adherence to marketing best practices. By following these guidelines, you can enhance your credibility with your audience, reduce the likelihood of emails being ignored or marked as spam, and stay relevant to your audience.
General best practices
Follow your organization’s email marketing policies
Consult your organization’s internal policies for sending emails through AIE just as you would for any other sales or marketing email sent by your organization. You must comply with applicable law in your use of our services, including, without limitation, laws such as the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive, and CAN-SPAM.
To assist in your compliance efforts, you can suppress contacts based on email or domain.
Comply with privacy laws
Depending on how you configure your AIE campaigns, the AI email agent (formerly called the “email inbox” and “AI assistant”) may send emails to recipients in the European Union. It is your responsibility to determine your internal compliance processes concerning privacy law compliance. Without offering legal advice, we suggest that your team may want to consider applicable opt-out, or opt-in requirements under the GDPR, the EU ePrivacy Directive. Laws in the United States, such as CAN-SPAM, may also impact sending direct marketing messages and the use of “digital personas” that may conceal or misrepresent a sender’s identity.
Maintain your email reputation
Each email provider (Gmail and Outlook 365) has its own written and unwritten rules to protect their service from being used for spam. It’s important to follow these rules to retain your AI email agent’s ability to send emails in the future.
AIE limits the rate at which your AI email agent sends emails to a safe margin within the provider’s published limits.
To determine a sender’s reputation, email providers will look at many factors, including but not limited to:
Bounce rate
How often recipients click “Mark as spam” on your emails
Unsubscribes
Engagement, i.e. recipients read and reply to your messages
In its first few weeks, the email account assigned to the AI email agent will have no reputation. Email providers treat this the same as a bad reputation.
Minimize bounce rates
Bounce rates play a large role in email reputation. Do your best to minimize bounce rates, especially for a new AI email agent email. Use verified email addresses. Consider running email addresses through a bounce tool before enrolling in a campaign.
Enhance email deliverability
To enhance email deliverability, we recommend that you set up and successfully pass email authentication protocols, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Avoid the email being marked as spam
Google, Yahoo, and other email providers have requirements for bulk email senders. Their goal is to reduce spam emails across their networks. For example, see the Email sender guidelines for Google. Other email providers may adopt similar measures.
Effective February 1, 2024, any bulk-sending organization with an abuse complaint rate of 0.3% or above will find its messages automatically blocked by Google and Yahoo.
We also recommend not sending large volumes of emails immediately from a new inbox. Sudden spikes in email sending activity could trigger spam filters, leading to deliverability issues and negatively impacting your email reputation. Consider using email warmup.
Update contact restrictions promptly
If a recipient opts out, verbally or otherwise, or if their email address bounces, update your system of record so other systems (like your marketing automation platforms) don’t email them again.
Avoid unverified emails from purchased data
Using unverified emails from purchased data can significantly increase deliverability risks.
Send personalized and relevant content
Boost user engagement by ensuring that your content is both personalized and relevant to the recipient’s needs and interests.
Watch your sending reputation with Google Postmaster Tools
Use Google Postmaster Tools to keep an eye on your sending reputation. Although this tool focuses primarily on data specific to Gmail, it provides valuable insights into the overall performance and reputation of your domain/IP. Google Postmaster Tools requires a certain volume threshold from a domain/IP before it starts producing results. Therefore, you might not see useful data right away.
Leverage list cleanse tools
These tools help minimize the risks of invalid addresses and spam traps. However, remember that they do not prevent the risk of user complaints or being marked as spam.
Leverage A/B testing
Run an A/B test on the first email for a 2-week period
Depending on your priority – increase open rates or reply rates – test one variable at
a time
If open rates are priority – start simple and test subject line variations
If reply rates are priority – test body copy or CTA variations
Analyze test results and aim for ~10% point difference
To calculate % change, use the formula:
( (rate 1 – rate 2) / rate 2) * 100
AI email agent best practices
We have seen situations where AI email agent emails get blocked by the recipients’ servers. We recommend that you follow the best practices in this document, in particular, the advice on “warming up” and limiting domain sends.
Name your AI email agent after a team member
When setting up your AI email agent, name it after a member of your team. Refer to Set Up Your AI Email Agent. If you create a “digital persona” (an email account and profile not associated with an actual member of your team) for use with an AI email agent, you’re responsible for determining whether your use of that persona complies with applicable laws, including state and federal consumer protection laws.
Use marketing and intent data for targeting
By targeting individuals who are more likely to interact with your emails positively, you can enhance user engagement. Consider warming up new AI email agents with low engagement with inbound or 6QA prospects. To learn more about leveraging 6QA accounts refer to 6sense Qualified Accounts (6QA).
Prioritize engaged and verified users
It’s not just about the number of emails you’re sending — it’s about who’s receiving them. If many of your recipients mark your emails as spam or your emails bounce, it can negatively influence your email reputation and deliverability, even if you’re only sending 100 emails per day.
Email content best practices
Incorporate opt-out messages
Including opt-out or unsubscribe messages encourages recipients to unsubscribe instead of marking your email as spam, which can damage your reputation and deliverability.
Your AI email agent will mark a lead as “do not contact” (DNC) if the lead replies “unsubscribe.” If a recipient opts out or unsubscribes through AIE, they are automatically added to the DNC list. AIE can process unsubscribe and DNC requests; see Customize Your AI Email Agent and Manage Your Campaigns: Do Not Contact Status. You can also synchronize DNC records between Salesforce and AIE or by using the API to help sync DNC statuses between platforms.
If a DNC request is sent via another channel besides an AI email agent’s email, you should cancel any pending emails in AIE.
Reduce risk of triggering spam filters
To reduce the risk of triggering spam filters, avoid including images (buttons, stock photos, GIFs) or unnecessary links in your emails. This strategy can enhance deliverability by minimizing potential red flags for spam detection systems.
Use only one active Call-To-Action (CTA) to encourage the next step.
When needed, use only one link to a calendar invite.
Be professional, friendly, and succinct
Aim for approximately 5 words in the subject line and 50 – 150 words in the body copy.
Avoid “clickbait-y” numbers in the subject line.
Capitalize the first word and proper names in the subject line.
Maintain a personal, pleasant tone throughout, including in the closing.
Avoid expressions that sound too “sales-y” and could trigger a spam filter (Best Price, Winner, Click Here, Double Your Money Making, Why Pay More, etc.)
Avoid images that could read as unprofessional and trigger a spam filter (buttons, stock photos, GIFs, etc.).
Use only one active Call-To-Action (CTA) to encourage the next step.
As a final check, ask yourself: Would I want to read this email?
Emphasize value
Highlight the prospect’s goals and pain points, not what you offer—always tie the messaging back to what’s in it for them.
Use data and customer examples to prove your product’s value.
Leverage personalization and customization
Use dynamic content to send differentiated messages based on persona, industry, product, country, keyword intent, etc. Aim to personalize approximately 20% of the content with persona-based messaging.
Use the “Rule of 1”: Write to 1 person, about 1 thing, with 1 promise, and 1 call to action.
Additional considerations
In the subject line, greeting and signature, use the prospect’s name using merge tags – AIE requires first name and email address even if merge tag is not used.
Include your AI’s name and title in the signature; note that the AI’s signature should match a real rep’s signature.
Include a note to unsubscribe. Refer to Incorporate Opt-Out Messages above.
Remove unnecessary links in the body copy and signature to improve response rates. (One potential exception: a link to a calendar invite.)
Consider using a banner (optional).
Deliverability best practices
Tune email settings for optimal deliverability
Adjust daily send limit per AI email agent: Try not to send more than 150 emails per AI email agent per day. Spread out the volume across multiple AI email agents to avoid potential email deliverability issues.
Limit domain sends: Cap your default domain send limit to two contacts weekly. This precaution prevents representatives from over-sending emails to the same domain within a specific period, which could trigger spam filters and negatively affect your email domain’s reputation. Refer to Email Domain Limits.
Prioritize Personalization
Minimal or no personalization can lead email providers to flag your email traffic. That can result in your AI email agent’s inbox account being disconnected because of suspected spamming activity.
We recommend personalizing your email content beyond merge tags like “first name”. Personalization increases user engagement and helps prevent deliverability issues. Consider using AI Personalization to send personalized, relevant emails to each prospect.
Maintain low bounce and complaint rates
Strive for a bounce rate below 5% and a complaint rate of under 0.1%. You can monitor complaint rates using Google Postmaster Tools.
Email volume and cadence best practices
Gradually warm up new inboxes
When you introduce a new inbox, it’s essential to nurture it by slowly increasing the email volume over time (this is known as warming up). Start by sending emails to high-intent leads or recipients who are more likely to engage with your content. Their positive responses and interactions with your emails will signal to ISPs that your emails are reputable and wanted, boosting your sender reputation.
When getting started, we recommend starting with a small campaign of under 100 contacts per AI email agent to see how it performs. To simplify this process, see Email Inbox Warming for how AIE warms up your email to scale in volume gradually for you.
Keep your email volume consistent
After the initial warm-up phase, keep your email volume consistent.
Spread out email follow-ups by 3 to 5 business days in-between each email.
Abrupt changes or spikes in the number of emails you send can be interpreted as spam by email filters, causing problems with deliverability.
Remove inactive or low-performing recipients
To maintain a high engagement rate and protect your email reputation, remove recipients who haven’t interacted with your emails in over six months. This strategy makes sure that your emails are reaching an engaged and interested audience.
Organize contacts carefully and avoid broad outreach. Don’t indiscriminately email everyone in various roles at a company. Instead, identify and target the most relevant contacts for your message. Sending generic emails to multiple recipients can lead to spam reports and DNC requests, potentially damaging your sender reputation.