Email marketing is a powerful way to connect with your audience, and with Manychat, integrating email into your communication strategy has never been easier. By combining our robust automation tools with email, you can create personalized, engaging campaigns that seamlessly complement your business interactions.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of sending emails directly from Manychat, covering everything from setting up email automations to best practices for ensuring your messages reach the right audience.
Whether you’re sending newsletters, transactional emails, or follow-ups, we provide the tools you need to streamline your email strategy and maximize engagement. This article will cover:
- How to enable the email channel
- How to import and collect email addresses
- How to obtain consent for sending emails
- How to create email automations and broadcasts
- What is the pricing for the email channel?
- Limitations and troubleshooting
How to enable the email channel
To start sending emails in Manychat, the first step is to connect the email channel. Navigate to Settings → Email in your Manychat account, then click the Connect button to successfully enable the channel.
Once the channel is enabled, all outbound emails will be sent from a Manychat email address belonging to Manychat’s domain, such as noreply@many-mail.io.
You can also customize your contact information in the same section, as shown below. This allows you to update details like your sender name and address to better match your branding.
Additionally, you have the option to enable or disable Manychat branding for the emails you send. This feature is helpful if you want to maintain a consistent and professional appearance in your communications.
Lastly, you can customize the sender name and reply-to email address of your default Manychat email, as shown in the screenshot below, to make it more personalized.
The changes will take effect as soon as you click the Save button.
While this address works for basic email sending, you may prefer to send emails from your own business email address for a more professional and branded experience.
If you’d like to use your business email address, you’ll need to set it up separately. You can follow the instructions in our guide: How to set up a business email address from your own domain to configure it easily.
Enabling the email channel is a quick and essential step to unlock Manychat’s email functionality and start connecting with your audience effectively.
How to import and collect email addresses
To communicate with users through email in Manychat, you need their email addresses. There are two main ways to achieve this: importing email addresses or collecting them through Manychat automations.
Importing email addresses
If you already have an existing user base and want to use it for email marketing in Manychat, you can import those contacts into your Manychat account. This is a quick way to start email campaigns for users who have already provided their consent. To learn how to import contacts, follow the step-by-step instructions in this guide: How to import contacts for Email and SMS campaigns.
Collecting email addresses through automations
If you don’t already have a list of emails, you can collect them directly from users through Manychat automations. This is done using the Data Collection block, which allows you to prompt users to share their email addresses during a conversation and save the collected emails into the relevant System Field (Email Field) to set up email opt-ins and comply with email marketing regulations.
For detailed instructions on how to gather emails and store them properly, check out this article: Data Collection block and Custom User Fields.
Whether you’re importing an existing user base or collecting emails through automations, having user email addresses on hand is essential for building strong email campaigns. By following the guidelines provided and ensuring proper consent, you can create effective email marketing strategies to engage with your audience and drive results.
How to obtain consent for sending emails
Obtaining proper consent is a critical step when sending emails through Manychat, as it ensures compliance with legal regulations and builds trust with your audience. Whether you’re importing email addresses or collecting them through automation, it’s important to handle this process correctly.
Consent when importing email addresses
When importing email addresses you’ve already gathered, Manychat requires you to confirm that you’ve obtained appropriate consent to send messages to the contacts being created or imported. This confirmation appears in a pop-up window during the import process, and it’s your responsibility to ensure that the information provided is accurate and complies with applicable laws, regulations, and Manychat’s Terms of Service.
As the account owner, you are solely responsible for ensuring that all imported contacts have provided valid consent. Failing to comply with these requirements could result in legal or platform-related consequences.
Consent when collecting email addresses through automation
When gathering email addresses through automation using the Data Collection block, you can streamline the consent process directly within Manychat. Here’s how:
- Use the Data Collection block to prompt users for their email addresses.
- Save the responses to the Email System Field for easy management.
- Enable the Set Email Opt-In option in the block’s settings to ensure that consent is properly recorded for the contacts providing their email addresses.
The presence of the email opt-in will also be displayed in the contact's profile, as shown in the screenshot below.
⚠️ Note: If needed, you can update a contact's email address directly in their profile by clicking on the Email System Field.
This method not only simplifies the process of obtaining consent but also ensures that your email campaigns are fully compliant. For detailed instructions on how to set this up, refer to here.
Additional considerations
Transparency: Clearly explain why you’re asking for email addresses and how the information will be used.
Confirmation messages: Consider sending a confirmation email or message to double-check consent and build trust with your users.
Compliance: Stay updated on local and international email marketing regulations, such as GDPR, CAN-SPAM, or other applicable laws, to ensure ongoing compliance.
Obtaining consent is not only a legal requirement but also a best practice for fostering a positive relationship with your audience. Following these steps will help you maintain trust and ensure your email campaigns run smoothly.
How to create email automations and broadcasts
Creating email automations and broadcasts in Manychat is simple and follows the general process of building automations.
If you’re new to Manychat, we recommend starting with the How to build a Manychat automation article for a foundational understanding of how automations work.
To create an email automation in the Flow Builder, start by adding an Email node.
Once you click on the added Email node, a panel will appear on the left where you can configure all the necessary settings.
Let’s take a closer look at what each of these settings represents:
Send from
In this section, you can specify the email address you want to send the email from, as well as the sender name that will appear in your recipient's inbox. The reply-to email address will be automatically derived from your channel setup in Settings → Email, ensuring consistency and alignment with your account configuration.
Subject
This is the title of your email — the first thing your recipient sees in their inbox. Make it clear, engaging, and relevant to encourage recipients to open your email. A well-crafted subject line significantly impacts open rates.
Preheader
The preheader is the short text that appears next to or below the subject line in most email clients. It offers a sneak peek into the email content, so use it to add value and intrigue, motivating recipients to read further.
Edit Design
Clicking this section allows you to design the body of your email. Here, you can craft the email’s content, format text, add images, include links, and adjust the layout to match your branding. Use this space to create visually appealing and engaging messages that resonate with your audience.
Button
The button section lets you create a call-to-action (CTA) button within your email. You can customize the button text and set up an action for when it’s clicked, such as redirecting the user to a specific webpage or triggering another automation. A well-placed button with clear wording can significantly boost engagement.
When you click on the Edit Design section, you’ll be taken to the canvas where you can fully customize your email content. This includes designing and editing the email’s body, title, and button. For the button, you can attach relevant actions of your choice, such as redirecting to a specific URL or triggering another action.
As you can see, each of these sections comes with additional settings, allowing you to fine-tune elements like:
Padding size to adjust spacing.
Background color for different sections.
Button and text colors to align with your branding.
Once you’re done editing the main email elements, clicking outside the design box will reveal more options in the left settings bar. Here, you’ll find additional tools to enhance your email, such as:
Text: Add new text blocks to further convey your message.
Button: Include more CTAs with customizable actions.
Image: Add visuals to make your email more engaging.
Divider: Insert dividers to structure your email layout neatly.
⚠️ Note: Currently, only PNG and JPEG image formats are supported for sending. Animated images will automatically be converted to static images upon sending.
In this settings bar, you can also adjust the padding, background, and letter colors for the entire email or specific elements, giving you full creative control.
This flexible design canvas ensures that every aspect of your email can be tailored to match your branding and messaging needs, creating a polished and professional final product.
For instance, here’s how we designed our email for our imaginary company, Pineapple Republic of Testing, Inc. It features vibrant yellow and green tones to match the colors of a pineapple, aligning the email design with the brand’s theme and personality.
After finalizing your email design, return to the main section of the Flow Builder to configure the final settings.
Additional automation
This setting allows you to trigger another automation, message, or action when a contact opens the email for the first time. This is particularly useful for creating follow-up actions or conditional workflows based on user engagement. For example, you could send a thank-you message, add a tag to the contact, or start a new automation depending on whether the email was opened.
Next Step
This setting defines what happens after the email is sent, ensuring the automation continues smoothly. You can connect the email node to another action, message, or automation, guiding the contact to their next interaction. Whether leading them to a follow-up message or triggering a specific automation, the next step ensures a seamless communication strategy.
The screenshot below shows the final email automation we created. As part of the setup, we’ve included an Action block connected to the button, which tags users who click it. Additionally, we’ve specified the automation that should start for first-time email receivers in the Start Automation step.
For the trigger, we’ve added a special rule that activates this automation whenever the Email System Field value of a contact is set to anything, ensuring the automation runs as soon as a valid email address is added to the contact. And that’s it!
This approach allows you to seamlessly incorporate email into your automations, ensuring consistent communication across channels.
Broadcasting emails in Manychat is even simpler compared to other channels due to fewer restrictions, such as the absence of the 24-hour messaging window. The process of building a broadcast automation follows the same steps outlined above for creating email automations.
By following these steps, you can create effective email broadcasts that align with your broader communication strategy while taking full advantage of the email channel’s flexibility.
For a deeper understanding of how broadcasting works in Manychat, check out the Broadcasting in Manychat: Connecting with your audience at scale article.
Creating email automations and broadcasts in Manychat combines the flexibility of email with the power of automation. Whether you’re building automations or sending broadcasts, the email channel provides a robust way to connect with your users.
What is the pricing for the email channel?
Each month, Manychat provides you with a free allocation of emails based on your PRO account plan. For example, accounts with up to 500 contacts receive 5,000 free emails per month, while those with up to 5,000 contacts receive 50,000 free emails, and so on, scaling with the size of your plan.
If you exceed your monthly free allocation, additional emails are billed at $0.003 per email on a pay-as-you-go basis. Charges are applied in increments of 5,000 emails sent. At the end of the month, any remaining emails beyond the last billed 5,000 are charged in a separate transaction.
All charges are made to the card associated with your PRO subscription, ensuring seamless and flexible billing that adjusts to your email usage. This structure allows you to manage costs effectively while scaling your communication needs.
Limitations and troubleshooting
While Manychat makes sending emails simple and effective, there are a few limitations and common issues you might encounter along the way.
Limitations
- Email functionality is exclusively available for PRO plan users and is not accessible with a free account. To utilize this feature, you’ll need to upgrade to PRO.
- Unlike other channels such as Facebook and Instagram, the full content of an email message node will not be displayed inside the Live Chat conversation in Manychat. Instead, you’ll see a brief Email message sent note, indicating that the email was successfully delivered.
Troubleshooting
- The email is not being delivered to the contact.
Ensure the contact's email address is saved to the Email System Field and that the Set Email Opt-In setting is correctly configured, as described in the How to obtain consent for sending emails section of this article.
- The automation stops after the email is sent, and the follow-up steps are not triggered.
Verify that the automation, including the email block and follow-up actions, is properly published to ensure the correct version is being used. Additionally, check that other nodes following the first one are successfully connected both to the very first step and each other.
- Unable to export the list of collected email addresses.
For detailed instructions on exporting contact data, please refer to the article How to export contacts’ data. Following the steps outlined there will ensure the process is completed successfully.
If you are encountering any other issues with email sending in Manychat, please contact our Support Team.