How to create and track personalized email campaigns in Heypoplar

If you’re tired of email tools that promise the moon but deliver confusing dashboards and “AI-powered” fluff, you’re in the right place. This guide is for marketers and founders who just want to send emails that get opened—and actually know if they’re working. Here’s how to build and track personalized email campaigns in Heypoplar without losing your mind (or hours to setup).

1. Get Your Heypoplar Account Ready

Let’s not overcomplicate things. You need a Heypoplar account. If you’re not signed up, hit their site and set one up. You’ll want:

  • Access to their Campaigns feature (most plans include this)
  • The email address(es) you want to send from, verified and ready
  • A CSV or list of your contacts handy

Pro tip: Don’t overthink your contact list. You can clean and segment later. Start simple.

2. Import and Organize Your Contacts

Personalization is useless if your data’s a mess. Before you jump into crafting clever subject lines, get your contacts sorted:

  • CSV Import: Use Heypoplar’s import tool. Make sure your columns include at least:
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Email address

  • Any other fields you want to use for personalization (company, role, etc.)

  • Tagging and Segmenting: Don’t create a million segments up front. Tag by basic groups (e.g., “newsletter,” “trial users,” “VIP”). You can always refine later.

  • Check for Duplicates: Heypoplar catches some, but double-check. Nothing kills a campaign’s vibe like “Hi John John.”

3. Build a Personalized Email Template

Now for the fun part. Personalized emails don’t mean writing a custom note for every person. Use merge fields (sometimes called variables) in Heypoplar to drop in contact-specific info.

How to Do It:

  1. Create a New Campaign
    Go to Campaigns > New Campaign. Name it something you’ll remember (“April Trial Users,” not “Test 7”).

  2. Write Your Email

  3. Use merge fields:
    • Example: “Hi {{first_name}},” or “Is {{company}} struggling with X?”
  4. Keep it simple. One clear call to action.

  5. Don’t obsess over design. Text-based emails often perform better and look less like spam.

  6. Preview and Test
    Use Heypoplar’s preview feature to check how your variables look for different contacts. Send a test to yourself before blasting your list.

What works:
- First name, company, and recent activity (“Saw you joined last week!”) feel personal, not creepy. - Short, direct subject lines.

What doesn’t:
- Overly clever personalization (“We see you’re from Boise—go Broncos!”) unless you know for sure it matters. - Embedding too many images, which can send your email to spam.

4. Set Up Tracking (and Ignore Vanity Metrics)

You want to know what’s working, not just stare at graphs. Here’s what to track in Heypoplar, and what to ignore:

Enable Tracking

  • Open Tracking: Turn on. It’s the default, but don’t put too much stock in it (Apple Mail privacy makes this unreliable).
  • Click Tracking: Turn on if you have links. This is more useful—clicks actually show interest.
  • Replies: The gold standard. Heypoplar can log replies (if you set up reply tracking). This tells you who’s actually engaging.

What to Ignore

  • Open Rates: Use as a broad trend, not gospel. Apple, Gmail, and others mess with this stat.
  • “Engagement Scores” or other fuzzy metrics: Focus on clicks and replies.

Pro tip: If you’re running a test, set a clear goal. “Did people click the signup link?” is measurable. “Did people like my email?” isn’t.

5. Schedule (or Send) Your Campaign

Don’t overthink timing—there’s no magic hour. Unless you have hard data that your audience loves Tuesdays at 8:13am, just pick a time you’d want to receive an email.

  • Immediate Send: Good for urgent updates or small lists.
  • Scheduled Send: Useful for bigger lists or if you want to hit inboxes in the morning.

Heypoplar lets you stagger sends to avoid triggering spam filters. Use this for big blasts.

What works:
- Sending during business hours for B2B. - Weekends for B2C can work, but test it.

What doesn’t:
- Sending late at night (unless your audience is night owls). - Worrying about “the perfect time.” It doesn’t exist.

6. Monitor Results and Iterate

Here’s where most folks mess up: they send once, look at opens, and move on. Take 15 minutes to actually review what happened.

  • Check Your Dashboard: Look for:
  • Who opened (directionally useful)
  • Who clicked (actionable)
  • Who replied (gold)
  • Download Reports: If you need to share results, export the CSV. Don’t just screenshot the graph.

What to Look For

  • Unsubscribes: If you see a spike, check your email content or frequency.
  • Bounce Rate: High bounces = bad list. Clean it up.
  • Reply Quality: Are people replying because they’re interested, or just saying “unsubscribe”?

Pro tip: If you’re not getting the results you want, change ONE thing at a time (subject line, list, call to action) so you know what worked.

7. Best Practices (That Actually Matter)

Let’s cut through the noise. Here’s what’s worth your time:

  • Personalize only what matters. First names and company names are usually enough.
  • Be human. Write like a person, not a robot.
  • Test, but don’t be obsessive. Small tweaks beat endless A/B tests.
  • Respect unsubscribes. Make it easy to opt out.
  • Stay out of spam. Avoid ALL CAPS and too many links/images.

And what to ignore:

  • Fancy design templates (unless your brand truly needs them)
  • “AI subject line generators”—your gut is probably better
  • Over-segmenting your list from day one

Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat

The best email campaigns aren’t the most complex—they’re the ones people actually read and act on. Start small, see what works, and adjust. Don’t get bogged down in features or metrics that don’t move the needle. If you’re using Heypoplar, you’ve already skipped a lot of the bloat other platforms inflict.

Keep it human, track what matters, and tweak as you go. That’s how you get results—and keep your sanity.