What is an Email Chain and When Should You Use It?
An email chain is a series of email messages exchanged between two or more individuals. Also called email threads or strings, these messages are usually arranged in chronological order, including the previous messages in the discussion.
In a professional setting, you would use email chains to keep everyone on the team updated about the task or project at hand. However, email threads can become complex when not handled properly, making it difficult to organize and understand the messages.
To help you use email threads correctly, let’s show you what it is, who uses email chains, how it looks, and email chain examples.
What is a Chain Email?
If you ever toggled the conversation view in Gmail, you probably know what a chain email is. A chain email keeps track and provides your conversation’s complete history, including every team member’s opinions. This follows a string-like method where every reply to the original email is attached to the conversation.
In large organizations, chain emails help reach different teams and keep the conversations in a single folder.
Their benefits include:
- Better documentation and history: Email chains provide a record of conversations promoting transparency and participation. It also makes it easier to refer to old conversations from a single place.
- Easier to understand the context: Chain emails help new joiners understand the relevance and importance of the conversation. Instead of a team briefing, they can simply read through important updates on the email thread.
- Enhances organization and email structure: Well-organized email chains reduce the likelihood of emails getting lost. Plus, they contribute to a better structure, making it easier for participants to skim through the email conversation.
- Uses Time-stamped communication: The chronological order of messages makes it simple to date back to a reference or an idea.
- Allows collaborative decision-making: Email chains facilitate collaborative decision-making through group insights, feedback, and structured queries.
Cons of Using Email Chains in Your Workplace
When not handled well, email chains can quickly become cluttered, leading to information overload for all the participants.
Here are a few disadvantages of using email chains in your workspace:
- Unrelated email conversations: Sometimes people can be added to the email threads even when the content is unrelated to them. This leads to more frustration and confusion for those participants.
- No email chain support: Many email clients do not provide email thread view options, making it difficult for users to track conversations.
- Miscommunication: Email chains can quickly become blurry if there’s no clarity in the messages. Since it reaches everyone on the list, it’s important to stick to the main point of discussion.
- Difficulty managing lengthy threads: If you’re using email chains for a bigger project, it can become challenging to maintain and keep up with the ongoing conversations.
To effectively use email chains, you must understand their broader context and usage. Let’s see how and where they are the most used.
Where is an Email Chain Used?
Email chains are used in various scenarios to facilitate communication, collaboration, and information exchange.
Here are common scenarios in which chain emails are used:
- Business communication: Email chains are used in organizations for team communication and coordination among different departments. Most teams also use chain emails to discuss meeting agendas, share minutes, and follow up on agendas.
- Project management: Project managers generally use email chains to assign tasks, communicate deadlines, and provide instructions to team members.
- Professional networking: Email chains are often used for discussing industry trends, sharing insights, and seeking advice from peers.
- Customer support: Customer support teams use email chains to share troubleshooting tips, provide updates, and resolution of queries.
- Education: Email chains are used for assignment submissions and course-related questions in universities.
- Sales communication: Sales teams may likely use email chains to share quotes with clients and follow up on communication.
- Contract negotiation: Legal teams may use email threads to address legal complexities and keep track of official proposals and letters.
Email strings are also widely used in personal communication to share family updates, discuss events, or plan trips with friends. Let’s show you how to manage email strings and what they look like to get a clearer picture.
Managing Email Threads the Easy Way
To ensure easier access to important information, you must learn to efficiently manage your email threads.
Here are 7 best ways to make the most of your email thread conversations:
- Use descriptive subject lines: Create descriptive subject lines that convey the main topic of the email at a glance.
- Use the email thread feature: Email clients like Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple support thread views, creating a seamless conversation flow. Use this to your advantage by enabling them from the settings section.
- Summarize key information: Consolidating important information in your threads will make it easier for the new participants to understand its relevance.
- Use formatting options: Use bullet points and numbering to enhance the email thread structure and create a simpler overview.
- Archive or file email threads: Regularly clean up and archive your email strings to organize and make it easier to locate conversations.
- Keep messages brief: Encourage participants to keep email messages concise and relevant to avoid consuming too much time.
- Make sure to hit Reply All: To keep all the participants of the email chain in the loop, ensure that you use the reply all function and keep everyone included. It’s an easy one to miss.
What do Email Strings Look Like?
Here’s an example of an email thread:
Email 1
From: Parker@xyz.com
To: Project team
Date: January 10, 2023
Subject: Project kickoff meeting
Hi all,
I hope this email finds you well. We’re gearing up for the project [name] next week and I’d like to discuss the agenda and set a suitable time for everyone. Please share your availability for the upcoming week.
Thanks,
Parker
Email 2
From: Maria@xyz.com
To: Project team
Date: January 11, 2023
Subject: RE: Project Kickoff Meeting
Hi Parker,
Thanks for initiating this. I’m available this Thursday at 10 am. I suggest we allocate some time for Q&A at the end.
Best,
Maria
Much like this, all the emails in a thread are grouped and displayed as a single email. But how do the other components work in an email chain? Let’s show you how!
Components of an Email Chain
Here are the basic elements of email strings:
| Components | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Subject line | Briefly summarizes the topic of the email. The subject line stays the same for all emails in the thread. |
| Grouping or threading | Connects related messages into a coherent thread. |
| Participants | Lists individuals involved in the email chain. |
| Timestamps | Indicates when the email was sent. |
| Email content | The main topic of discussion in the email chain. |
So, how do the subject line, CC, and BCC work in email threads? Let’s discover more so you can use them correctly.
The Importance of Subject Lines, CC, and BCC in an Email Chain
Each element is dependent on the rest to work cordially in an email chain. Here’s how they impact the organization and clarity in an email thread conversation.
Subject Lines
In an email chain, each conversation thread is marked with RE:, which means a reference to or regarding, and shows that an email is a reply to the previous email.
Follow subject line best practices as you would with any email marketing campaign. However, pay extra attention to the clarity of the topic — state the discussion as is and avoid creative phrases and puns.
Remember these common best practices while crafting subject lines for an email chain:
- Relevance: Center your subject line around the main topic and provide useful information.
- Specificity: Be specific and avoid spam trigger words.
- Urgency: If a discussion needs immediate attention, mention the timeliness in the subject line.
- Update: If anything has changed recently, you can change the subject line to match the current topic.
Make sure you add people who will understand the discussion, saving you time with back and forth.
The CC Function
CC, or carbon copy is an email function that lets you add email addresses without making them the primary recipients. When you use CC in your emails, your team members will know who else is added to the discussion. CC is usually used to let the team lead, or a person of authority has access to the conversation and reference it when needed.
The BCC Function
BCC, or blind carbon copy allows you to add email addresses without others knowing it. For example, if you BCC your boss on a discussion about project timelines, your team cannot see that. BCC is useful when you want to send the same message to multiple recipients, but without letting them know who else received the message.
While email chains are effectively used for professional discussions, they are also active in email marketing campaigns. Let’s further explore the role of email chains in email marketing.
Email Chains in Email Marketing — How Do They Work
Email threads exist for a reason — they help continue the conversation in a single email instead of opening new emails for each discussion. Similarly, every email campaign you send can be a reply to your previous campaign.
In the context of email marketing, an email chain typically refers to a series of automated messages sent to a specific audience over a predefined period. It’s usually called an email sequence or a drip campaign.
These email sequences are used to:
- Engage the audience,
- Nurture leads,
- Guide them through a predefined journey.
Here’s how each email campaign work in the process:
- Triggered emails: Emails are usually triggered based on specific user action and behavior. For example, a welcome email after someone signs up for your email list.
- Drip campaigns: Drip emails are a set of prescheduled emails sent over a specific timeframe. Example – An email series delivering a 5-day course.
- Automated sequences: Emails are sent immediately after a user action. For example, sending discounts to customers who abandoned their shopping carts.
Let’s now look at how the email chain influences different email marketing campaigns.
How to Use Email Chains in Email Marketing
You can send different forms of email content to encourage your audiences to take the desired action. Here are a few of the main ways email chains work in the grand scheme of email marketing:
| Email Type | Purpose | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome emails | Introduce subscribers to your brand or service. | Welcome message, brand introduction, and key messages. |
| Educational content | Provides valuable information to educate and engage the audience. | Tips, tutorials, and resources related to the industry or business. |
| Promotional emails | Highlights products, services, or promotional offers. | Discounts, promotions, and limited-time offers. |
| Re-engagement emails | Target inactive subscribers and get them back as customers. | Special offers, reminders, and incentives to engage them. |
| Transactional emails | Update and confirm user action. | Account verification, shipping updates, etc. |
These components work together to enhance the relationship with customers and foster loyalty.
Here are more ways email chains elevate customer relationships:
- Personalization and segmentation: Allows you to send personalized offers based on user intent and behavior.
- Lead nurturing: Guides leads through the sales funnel with varied email offers and valuable content.
- Efficient use of resources: Automated scheduling saves time and resources, allowing marketers to focus on creativity and strategy.
- Behavior-based communication: You can respond to a user action in real-time and build personal relationships with customers.
But do no-reply emails fit in this context? Although they’re a small part, these emails belong to the email chain too.
What is a no-reply email?
A no-reply email campaign is a strategy where the sender uses an email address that’s not configured to accept replies from email recipients. Generally, you would use no-reply campaigns when sending mass emails, transactional emails, promotional offers, or automated notifications.
While no-reply emails can be beneficial for larger email lists, they negatively influence your email deliverability and obstruct two-way communication.
Email chains in email marketing are powerful tools to reach your audience and enhance engagement rates. Let us show you a simpler way of handling email chains to increase conversions.
Use Email Chains in Email Marketing the Easy Way
If you want to use email chains in email marketing, an automation tool is a must. Without this, sending email sequences in response to user action can become a cumbersome process.
This is where Campaign Refinery makes creating email marketing campaigns a breeze.
Our built-in tools and automation features help you segment your audiences and personalize emails effortlessly. If you’re worried about the design and copywriting aspect, you can use our campaign library of pre-made templates to suit your automated email messages.
While you automate your process, our email list-cleaning tool automatically removes invalid and harmful email addresses to keep you safe from attacks.
But to effectively use these features and tools, you need a robust email list to start with. We have a solution for that too — use our Lead Magnet Multiplier Course and learn how to create lead magnets with the highest open rates, up to 8x more than before.
From there, you can start gathering interested leads and send them targeted email campaigns using our sophisticated tools. If you’re unsure about doing this by yourself, apply to become our client, and we’ll be happy to show you how to elevate your email marketing game.
