Ok 5Pillar (sorry I feel akward calling you that! Can we shorten to 5 - actually that could be worse like "hi five" - a little cheesy),
I agree with you about the congratulations emails - those are key and do have a personal touch that's needed. But for instance right now we're trying out an email where anyone who performed for us throughout the month will get an additional congratulatory email with incentives and we're trying it mass. There's tons of ways to make the fields dynamic so they feel customized and personal (oops for any affiliates out there reading this - shield your eyes! We still do yours personally, of course

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