Reply Usage Policy
Since we built the first beta of Reply, we’ve been striving to provide the best product and service quality to our customers and we expect that both execution and quality are ones of core value for our customers as well.
That is why we introduced a checklist with 12 basic rules to ensure our customers commit to the quality of communication as much as we do and use Reply for its initial purpose of sending personal emails at scale.
By using our product, you agree to this Usage Policy and acknowledge that the rules mentioned below are mandatory and must be followed. Please read them carefully.
1. Low Bounce Rate
Our first rule is strongly related to a crucial campaign metric – bounce rate. When using Reply, please, make sure your bounce rate does not exceed 15% at any time.
2. Spam Bounce Rate
Spam Bounce Rate is the number of bounced emails due to SPAM reasons. It’s calculated as a ratio of spam-bounced emails to all emails sent in a Reply account. If this metric exceeds 1% , we retain the option to suspend the account immediately.
This issue may be caused by a low quality prospect list with a lot of outdated or incorrect emails (see details below) that may hurt your domain reputation and negatively affect your future campaigns.
3. Valid Emails
Since some emails from your list can be outdated or belong to people that are not related to the same business anymore, there is a bigger problem – invalid or nonexistent emails of your prospects. The share of such emails should not exceed 20% for any campaign.
To address this issue, you can use any email verification platform of your choice or Reply’s in-house feature that has the same effect. Validating your prospect list will guarantee much better delivery rates of your campaigns and will help you ensure that your sender reputation will not be damaged by a high bounce rate.
4. Open Rate
As we all know, the more emails are opened, the better the chances they get to be responded. Make sure your open rate is over 20% for any campaign.
If you are new to outreach or if you have doubts, feel free to implement our best practices and tips on how to increase your open rate. You’re also welcome to make use of subject line A/B test options and read the guide we created with our partners on the 100 Best Cold Email Subject Lines.
5. Reply Rate
When you have a high quality prospect list and good open rate, it’s not difficult to get enough replies to cover your needs. Make sure your reply rate is higher than 4% after first step email and one follow up are sent.
To increase your reply rate, you can use email body A/B testing in campaign steps, our best practices, guides (with templates inside) and case studies.
6. CAN-SPAM Act Compliance
Make sure that your all your email campaigns comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
Before sending any email sequence, familiarize with CAN-SPAM Act or any similar regulation that might be available in the country of residents of your contacts. If in doubt, feel free to reach out to our Customer Success agent.
7. Opt Out Rate
If you’re carrying out an outbound campaign, you should always have the opt-out link available for your contacts. In addition to this, please, make sure you keep your Opt Out rate under 10%.
In order to improve your Opt Out rate, you can use the following recommendations on building a prospect list on a limited budget or, if you don’t know who your potential customers are, start with a buyer persona profile.
8. Opt Out Link & Text
This rule corresponds with CAN-SPAM Act compliance, however, we think is deserves a separate rule.
By using Reply, you agree to always include an opt-out link when sending cold email campaigns. Though, within this rule, you are free to customize your link text to make your email look as if it has been written manually.
9. No Generic Emails
We require to avoid using generic email addresses (such as info@, sales@, support@ etc.) not related to a certain person in your prospect list.
For more information, please, see our Account-Based Fundamentals guide on how to define the right person to match your prospect portrait and/or out in-house Lead Generation feature to search for contacts data directly in Reply.
10. Email Attachments
Though using email attachments throughout your outreach campaign isn’t prohibited, we strongly recommend to minimize its usage as much as possible since it makes your emails fall into spam folders.
This is especially important for cold contacts, their first-step emails and initial follow ups. If you have a “warm” campaign and prospects that you have already contacted in the past, attachments become more acceptable to use.
11. Formatting
Reply was made to keep your communication personal while put on autopilot to save your time and efforts and help you focus on real sales.
That’s why we recommend not to use too much formatting and keep your emails short, clear and straight to the point. If in doubt, feel free to use our tips and hacks on how to make emails look 100% manually written.
12. Free email accounts usage
In order to achieve optimal results, campaigns best work when a foundation of trust is fostered. To build this foundation of trust between you and your prospects/customers it is best to be completely open about your identity, goals and website, as well as to provide as much information about you and your business as possible.
To achieve that in email communications means maintaining a trusted domain, website and corporate email with a solid reputation.
We are committed to help our customers and their prospects facilitate a trusted discourse.
With this goal in mind, beginning May 15, 2019, it will no longer be possible to attach an email account from free emails providers (such as Gmail, Yahoo, GoDaddy. Business packages from these providers will still work, such as Gsuite) and Reply will require emails to be corporate and linked to your professional domains.
Please be aware that this Usage Policy is obligatory for all Product users and violating rules mentioned above may result in account suspension.
13. Reply Data
Reply’s Data Product operates under a Fair Use Policy in order to prevent potential abuse. For our freemium non-paying plans, we provide 200 email credits per account per month. For our paid sales engagement plans, we offer 1,000 email credits per account per month. If you require a different credit limit, we’re happy to discuss entering into a separate agreement with you. Please contact our customer support team for more information.
14. Reply AI chat
14.1 Our Software as a Service (SaaS) product provides an innovative and customizable chat solution designed for integration with your website’s landing page. This service, hereinafter referred to as “the Service,” consists of two primary components:
14.1.1 Customizable Website Chat Interface: A flexible chat module that can be seamlessly embedded into your website. This interface is designed to be user-friendly and can be customized to match the look and feel of your website, ensuring a consistent user experience.
14.1.2 AI-Powered Chatbot: A sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that forms the core of our Service. This AI chatbot is capable of learning and generating responses based on the information provided by you. You can feed the AI with various formats of data, including office document files (such as Word and PDF) and web links. The AI utilizes this data to interact with your website visitors, offering them information, answering queries, and engaging them in meaningful conversations.
The Service aims to enhance user engagement on your website, provide quick responses to visitor inquiries, and improve overall customer experience. By using this Service, you agree to these Terms of Service, which govern your use of our chat interface and AI chatbot.
14.2 The Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. Features and functionalities may change without prior notice.
14.3 You are responsible for all content and communications made through the AI bot on your website.
14.4 You must not use the Service for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes, including but not limited to spamming, infringing intellectual property, or spreading malicious software.
14.5 Monthly Billing and Expiration of Unused Contacts: Billing for services occurs on a month-to-month basis. Any contacts purchased but not used will expire at the next billing date and cannot be carried over to subsequent billing periods.
14.6 Automatic Upgrade Based on Usage: The service includes an automatic upgrade feature that adjusts the user’s plan based on their usage. If the user’s usage exceeds the limits of their current plan, they will be automatically upgraded to a plan that accommodates their usage.