Getting started with email marketing

Welcome to Sendlane; we’re thrilled to meet you! This guide will show you how to set your Sendlane account up for success with email marketing while safely warming your sending infrastructure.

Our world-class, in-house deliverability experts recommend following the steps in this guide in the order they appear to maximize your deliverability from the start!

In this guide

1. Gather Metrics and Contacts From Your Previous Provider
2. Remove inactive contacts
3. Set Up Sendlane Account
4. Stop Sending Email From Previous Email Provider
5. Warm your verified domain

1. Gather metrics from your previous provider

When you migrate to Sendlane you'll be starting fresh with important metrics like open rates and click rates. You'll need to note your baseline performance from your previous email provider and segment contacts by engagement data in your previous email provider before importing contacts into Sendlane.

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2. Remove inactive contacts

Inactive Contacts and invalid emails will hurt your new sending reputation and could lead to long-term damage to your sending infrastructure. When email addresses go unused, they can be turned into spam traps. Sending an email to a spam trap can cause severe problems for your business’ sending reputation and deliverability. Sendlane recommends removing contacts who have not engaged with your content in 120 days.

Create a segment for Contacts who meet the following criteria: Has been on your list for at least 120 days, AND has been sent at least one email in the past 120 days, AND has NOT opened an email from you in the past 120 days.

Remove these contacts from your main list and do not upload these contacts into Sendlane.

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3. Set up your Sendlane account

 Integrate your eCommerce store

If your business has an eCommerce Store, install your store's integration. Check out our step-by-step guides for popular eCommerce platforms or search for your platform here:

• BigCommerce
• Shopify
• Woocommerce

Update your attribution settings

Update your Sendlane account's attribution settings to match the attribution settings you used in your previous ESP.

 Install Beacon

Beacon collects data about every pageview on your website. You can target Contacts with Beacon events to send emails based on their activity on your website! By installing Beacon right away, you can start collecting valuable pageview data right away.

If you've integrated a BigCommerce store, you're done with this step! BigCommerce integrations automatically include Beacon general tracking, but you may want to check out event tracking and conversion rules which are not automatically installed with your BigCommerce integration.

 Authenticate a sending domain

Sendlane strongly recommends authenticating a sending domain. Authenticated Sending Domains verify that an email came from the sender listed in the "from" field in the Sender Profile and contribute to a strong sender reputation.

If you do not authenticate a sending domain, we recommend that you add an SPF record to your business’ domain.

 Recreate email templates in Sendlane

If you use templates for campaign emails, re-build these templates from your previous ESP into Sendlane’s campaign email builder.

 Recreate automations and forms in Sendlane

Check out our overview of automations and forms, then make duplicates of flows you used with your previous ESP and replace any forms associated with your last ESP.

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4. Stop sending email from previous email provider

To maintain good deliverability and a positive sender reputation, determine a point in time when your business will stop collecting leads and sending emails with your previous ESP. Sending emails from two ESPs simultaneously can cause ongoing deliverability issues and permanently damage your business’ sending reputation.

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5. Warm your verified domain

Sendlane strongly recommends that you begin sending only to your most engaged contacts. Follow the warming guidance in How to warm a verified domain.

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