Email Outreach
We built email outreach with the following design considerations:
- Orbital should send as few emails as necessary to reach the target number of interviews
- Customers should not have to think about how many users they will need to email
- Emails should appear personalized, coming directly from a product team member
- Users who try to schedule after recruitment has closed should have a decent experience
How frequently are emails sent?
Currently, we send up to 24 emails per hour. The first email will be sent within 10m of starting your discovery.
How can I see which emails were sent?
We show how many users have been contacted on discovery page. The outreach tab provides a view into each and every email the system sends. Furthermore, you can see them all in your Gmail sent folder.
Will I be able to see these emails in my Gmail account?
Yep! Just check your sent emails in Gmail.
What if a user responds the email?
Their response will show up in your inbox as normal. Orbital then will stop any follow-up sequence, so you can conclude the exchange personally.
Can I send follow-ups?
Yes, follow-ups can be configured on the backend with the help of an Orbital team member. This will soon be configurable in the UI.
What happens when a scheduled call is cancelled or a no-shows?
Orbital will automatically recognize another open interview slot and continue outreach as necessary.
Do you send plaintext or HTML emails?
We send a multipart email with both plaintext and html versions. The html version should appear as if it's a plaintext email though, because the only html tags we use are paragraphs, line breaks, and an anchor tag with the actual url as its text.
Can I use my Gmail signature?
Not yet, but we'd like to support this.
Can I use a fancy HTML template for my email?
Not yet. The system is designed to send personalized, individual emails to your customers.
Why were some users not emailed?
Orbital will not contact users for any of the following reasons:
- The user has an active cooldown (due to recently scheduling or participating in an interview, or having been recently contacted by email.)
- The user is missing attributes needed to send the email (email or another attribute used in the template)
- The user is on the blocklist
- Outreach is paused waiting on others recently contacted to schedule before continuing (currently we email 10 users per slot, and give them each 48hrs after the final outreach to schedule.)
- Outreach is paused because the target number of calls have been met, or your team has no availability within the schedule ahead window.
Why did Orbital stop sending emails?
Currently, we send up to 24 emails per hour.
If Orbital appears to not be sending emails, it most likely because:
- Outreach is paused to give time to recipients to schedule before continuing (currently we email 10 users per interview slot, and give them each 48hrs after the final outreach to schedule.)
- Outreach is paused because the target number of calls have been scheduled
- Outreach is paused beacuse the interviewing team has no availability within the schedule ahead window.
I emailed my entire segment, but still need interviews. What now?
Just change the segment, or add new users to the existing segment (and Orbital will handle seamlessly.)
What happens if a recipient clicks the scheduling link after my slots are filled?
They will be told that all interview slots are booked, but to respond via email to indicate interest in participating in future discovery.
Known limitations
- No support (yet) for any ESP other than Gmail
- No support (yet) for text formatting in the email template (eg. bold, italics, links, etc.)
- No support (yet) for overriding the assumed conversion rate of 10%
- No support (yet) for using Gmail signatures