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Email Management

Press Ranger supports two ways to send email: through your own external email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) or directly from the app via a connected inbox.

Sending via External Email Client (Default)

By default, clicking "Send Email" on a contact opens your preferred email client with the recipient, subject, and message pre-filled. Set your preferred client in Account Settings:

  • Gmail — Opens Gmail's web compose window.
  • Microsoft Office 365 — Opens Outlook Office compose.
  • Microsoft Outlook — Opens Outlook.com compose.
  • Computer Default — Opens your system's default email app via mailto link.

Mail templates work with external clients too — the subject and message are pre-filled with variable substitution (recipient name, title, org, etc.).

Connecting Your Inbox (Optional)

For a fully integrated experience, connect your inbox in the Mail Hub. This lets you send, track, and manage emails without leaving Press Ranger.

Go to Mail Hub and click the settings cog, then connect your account:

  • Gmail — Connect with one click via Google OAuth. No app passwords needed.
  • SMTP — Connect any email provider that supports SMTP (Outlook, Zoho, Fastmail, etc.).

Connected inboxes are shared across your team, so sub-users can send from the same account. You can connect multiple inboxes and set a default. Each inbox also has a Track opens toggle (on by default) — see Email Open Tracking.

If you manage PR for a client, connect their inbox so pitches send from their address.

Once connected, the "Send Email" buttons switch to an in-app composer. All sent emails are logged in the Mail Hub with delivery status tracking. To revert to external email client mode, disconnect your inboxes.

Sending Email

  • Without a connected inbox — Click "Send" to open your external email client with the message pre-filled.
  • With a connected inbox — Click "Send" to open the in-app composer. Choose a mail template or write a blank email, then send directly from your connected inbox.

All emails sent via connected inboxes are logged in the Mail Hub with delivery status tracking.

Email Open Tracking

Emails sent from a connected inbox can optionally include a tracking pixel, so you can see whether and when a recipient opened your message.

  • In the Mail Hub sent list, each sent email shows an Opened badge once it has been viewed. Hover the badge to see how many times it was opened and when it was last opened.
  • Open the email's detail view for the full breakdown: first opened, last opened, and total open count.

Turning it off per inbox. Open tracking is on by default. To disable it for a specific inbox, go to Mail Hub settings and toggle Track opens off for that inbox. Emails sent from that inbox will no longer include the tracking pixel.

Note: Open counts are approximate. Some email clients (such as Apple Mail and Gmail) pre-fetch or proxy images, which can cause opens to be over- or under-counted. Treat the numbers as a signal of engagement, not an exact measurement.

Mail Templates

Campaigns in Press Ranger include AI-generated mail templates with a subject line and message body. When you send an email from a campaign, the template pre-fills the composer (or your external email client) so you can review, personalize, and send.

You can create and manage templates in Mail Hub > Templates.

  • With a connected inbox — Templates support rich text (bold, links, formatting) via the visual editor.
  • Without a connected inbox — Templates are plain text only, since external email clients receive content via URL parameters which do not support HTML.

Why Press Ranger Does Not Send Mass Email

Press Ranger is designed for targeted, one-to-one outreach. There is no bulk email feature, and that is intentional:

  • Better deliverability - Emails from your own inbox land in the primary tab, not spam or promotions.
  • Your reputation stays in your control - No shared IP or domain reputation risk.
  • Database protection - Mass emailing degrades the value of contact data for everyone on the platform.
  • Higher response rates - Personalized pitches consistently outperform bulk blasts by 30-50x.

Using External Email Tools

If your workflow requires higher-volume sending, export your contact list to CSV and use a dedicated email service:

Follow their deliverability guidelines and monitor your sending reputation.

Tips

  • Personalize every pitch. Reference the journalist's recent work or beat to show you have done your research.
  • Keep pitches short. Journalists receive hundreds of emails a day. Lead with the news, not your company bio.
  • Use CRM statuses to track who you have emailed and who has responded.
  • Do not email contacts who are marked "Not a fit" or "Not Interested" in your CRM.
Last updated 4 days ago