Email Sequence: Best Practices and Examples
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 8:35 am
An email sequence is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically in a specific order and at scheduled intervals to a selected audience.
Typically, email sequences are used for lead nurturing, onboarding new users , promoting products, or delivering an informational course. The goal of sending automated email sequences is to seamlessly guide recipients through the sales funnel to a conversion (most commonly a purchasing decision).
Difference between email drip campaign and email sequence
The terms “email drip campaign” and “email sequence” are often used interchangeably, as both involve sending a series of emails to a targeted audience with the goal of increasing engagement rates and moving prospects closer to conversion.
However, there are subtle differences between the two: the term “drip campaign” is broader and focuses on various automated email strategies, including email sequences.
Some email marketing experts also draw a distinction between the notions based on their primary purpose. Email sequences are commonly used for more personalized and targeted communication, adapting to user interactions, while drip emails are static emails that rely more on predefined rules than user interactions.
While personalized email sequences require careful segmentation, for drip emails, you just need to set up trigger actions and write emails.
To crystallize the concepts, let's visualize examples.
Situation 1
Let's take a welcome email that you send automatically using your marketing uk mobile phone number list automation tool after you get new subscribers through the opt-in form on your landing page.
This email is part of an email drip campaign because it doesn't require audience segmentation. You simply schedule the campaign so that every new user receives the same message based on a predefined rule: signing up for your newsletter by entering their email address.
But if your campaign involves a series of welcome emails , you could say you have a welcome email sequence within your email drip campaign.
Situation 2
Now, imagine a lead nurturing campaign that depends on how your leads are interacting with your brand at that moment. You can’t send the same email to all leads, as they are at different stages of a funnel.
For example, some may be active readers of your blog, so you'll send them regular emails with blog summaries, while others might just need a little push to make a purchase - a perfect opportunity to surprise them with a special offer email.
What you need to do in this scenario is segment your leads and send them highly personalized emails. These emails will make up your lead nurturing email sequence.
As you can see, the distinction between these two concepts is somewhat theoretical. For us, the senders, it is more important to understand which email sequences are effective and how to create an automated email sequence that will magnetize prospects to convert, just like the aroma of morning coffee in a popular TV commercial.
That's what we'll talk about in the next chapters.
Examples and types of email sequences
Email marketing experts can't stop talking about the following types of email marketing sequences:
Welcome email sequence
Onboarding email sequence
Cart abandonment email sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
Educational Email Sequence
Event Email Sequence
Returning Customer/Post-Purchase Email Sequence
Since these types of email sequences coincide in many ways with the respective types of email drip campaigns, which I already talked about in one of my previous articles, I won't dwell on them here. You can find their description with step-by-step instructions and email templates in my post.
In this article, I will cover those types that have not been previously mentioned but are very common:
Lead Nurturing Email Sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
Follow-up email sequence
Conversion email sequence
Improved sales email sequence
Reminder email sequence
Email sequence for lead nurturing
Of course, you can create a lead nurturing email drip campaign that includes multiple email sequences (welcome, educational, event, whatever you prefer). But in this paragraph, I’ll talk about a lead nurturing email sequence for businesses with fast sales cycles. Its goal? To welcome your prospects and quickly move them towards conversion.
Imagine starting your lead nurturing sequence with a welcome email that doesn’t just say “Hi.” It thanks your leads for subscribing and offers them a lead magnet they can’t resist, along with first-hand instructions on how to use your service.
Lead nurturing email sequence
Since your leads aren’t sales-ready yet, you need to focus your lead nurturing sequence on leading them to the purchasing decision. You can do this by highlighting the value of your product or service, adding social proof, and clearing any doubts .
Let's consider the email within a lead nurturing sequence that highlights social proof:
Lead nurturing email sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
At the heart of every memorable email campaign is the art of engagement – it’s not just about sending emails, but about starting a conversation and fostering a relationship. With an email sequence like this, you understand how your recipients interact with your emails and what email sequences to send them next.
What does it mean to build a relationship?
In sales and marketing, building a relationship means creating a sense of trust and security that makes prospects more willing to share their needs and problems. You can find more information about relationship building here.
The purpose of the engagement email sequence isn’t to convert, but to play the long game, aiming to spark interest and arouse curiosity. If your company can boast of frequent industry events or insightful content, don’t hesitate to try this email sequence for your campaigns.
The engagement sequence can also begin with a welcome email, where you thank the recipient for subscribing:
Engagement email sequence
Important: In that first message, do more than just say thank you. Ask your leads to set their preferences so you can further segment them and send relevant, more effective content for your lead nurturing email sequence.
Next, you start sending emails that promise useful content/events based on their selected preferences. And then? You watch. You learn from their interactions, adjusting your approach with every click and open.
Conversion email sequence
A medida que la secuencia avanza y percibes un avance en el viaje del prospecto, los animas a actuar, como unirse a una sesión de usuarios, como en el ejemplo a continuación:
Conversion email sequenceSi los prospectos permanecen fríos frente a tu secuencia de correos de conversión, puedes proceder con una secuencia de seguimiento.
This sequence of emails can be part of a post-sale email campaign when your goal is to encourage your customer to repeat the purchase. As a general rule, this is upselling or cross-selling, tactics well known in e-commerce but also common in the B2B SaaS landscape.
Cross -selling is offering customers additional products or services relevant to what they have already purchased.
Upselling is offering your customers updated and more expensive products or services instead of what they initially wanted to buy or have already purchased.
You can start your upsell sequence with a series of welcome or educational emails (one of which is in the example below).
Improved sales email sequence
For example, it starts with an email congratulating the customer on their initial purchase, followed by a sequence that gradually educates them on the benefits of the product’s features, culminating in a tailored upsell offer that seems like a natural next step.
Improved sales email sequence
The enhanced sales sequence is just one aspect of a post-purchase campaign designed to increase customer retention.
Other effective sequences include asking for feedback, requesting reviews , or encouraging testimonials. The latter, by the way, is the email sequence we use at Snov.io. I'll show you how it worked in the last chapter of this post.
Reminder email sequence
Reminder sequences are typical in event campaigns where you invite a lead to participate in your webinar or conference and send them regular reminders so they don't forget to attend.
Alternatively, you can use these sequences to remind your prospects about the demo or meeting they've already booked. Not to be confused with follow-up sequences, keep in mind that the goal of reminder email sequences is to get a prospect back to the event/meeting/call they 've already agreed to attend.
Typically, email sequences are used for lead nurturing, onboarding new users , promoting products, or delivering an informational course. The goal of sending automated email sequences is to seamlessly guide recipients through the sales funnel to a conversion (most commonly a purchasing decision).
Difference between email drip campaign and email sequence
The terms “email drip campaign” and “email sequence” are often used interchangeably, as both involve sending a series of emails to a targeted audience with the goal of increasing engagement rates and moving prospects closer to conversion.
However, there are subtle differences between the two: the term “drip campaign” is broader and focuses on various automated email strategies, including email sequences.
Some email marketing experts also draw a distinction between the notions based on their primary purpose. Email sequences are commonly used for more personalized and targeted communication, adapting to user interactions, while drip emails are static emails that rely more on predefined rules than user interactions.
While personalized email sequences require careful segmentation, for drip emails, you just need to set up trigger actions and write emails.
To crystallize the concepts, let's visualize examples.
Situation 1
Let's take a welcome email that you send automatically using your marketing uk mobile phone number list automation tool after you get new subscribers through the opt-in form on your landing page.
This email is part of an email drip campaign because it doesn't require audience segmentation. You simply schedule the campaign so that every new user receives the same message based on a predefined rule: signing up for your newsletter by entering their email address.
But if your campaign involves a series of welcome emails , you could say you have a welcome email sequence within your email drip campaign.
Situation 2
Now, imagine a lead nurturing campaign that depends on how your leads are interacting with your brand at that moment. You can’t send the same email to all leads, as they are at different stages of a funnel.
For example, some may be active readers of your blog, so you'll send them regular emails with blog summaries, while others might just need a little push to make a purchase - a perfect opportunity to surprise them with a special offer email.
What you need to do in this scenario is segment your leads and send them highly personalized emails. These emails will make up your lead nurturing email sequence.
As you can see, the distinction between these two concepts is somewhat theoretical. For us, the senders, it is more important to understand which email sequences are effective and how to create an automated email sequence that will magnetize prospects to convert, just like the aroma of morning coffee in a popular TV commercial.
That's what we'll talk about in the next chapters.
Examples and types of email sequences
Email marketing experts can't stop talking about the following types of email marketing sequences:
Welcome email sequence
Onboarding email sequence
Cart abandonment email sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
Educational Email Sequence
Event Email Sequence
Returning Customer/Post-Purchase Email Sequence
Since these types of email sequences coincide in many ways with the respective types of email drip campaigns, which I already talked about in one of my previous articles, I won't dwell on them here. You can find their description with step-by-step instructions and email templates in my post.
In this article, I will cover those types that have not been previously mentioned but are very common:
Lead Nurturing Email Sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
Follow-up email sequence
Conversion email sequence
Improved sales email sequence
Reminder email sequence
Email sequence for lead nurturing
Of course, you can create a lead nurturing email drip campaign that includes multiple email sequences (welcome, educational, event, whatever you prefer). But in this paragraph, I’ll talk about a lead nurturing email sequence for businesses with fast sales cycles. Its goal? To welcome your prospects and quickly move them towards conversion.
Imagine starting your lead nurturing sequence with a welcome email that doesn’t just say “Hi.” It thanks your leads for subscribing and offers them a lead magnet they can’t resist, along with first-hand instructions on how to use your service.
Lead nurturing email sequence
Since your leads aren’t sales-ready yet, you need to focus your lead nurturing sequence on leading them to the purchasing decision. You can do this by highlighting the value of your product or service, adding social proof, and clearing any doubts .
Let's consider the email within a lead nurturing sequence that highlights social proof:
Lead nurturing email sequence
Engagement Email Sequence
At the heart of every memorable email campaign is the art of engagement – it’s not just about sending emails, but about starting a conversation and fostering a relationship. With an email sequence like this, you understand how your recipients interact with your emails and what email sequences to send them next.
What does it mean to build a relationship?
In sales and marketing, building a relationship means creating a sense of trust and security that makes prospects more willing to share their needs and problems. You can find more information about relationship building here.
The purpose of the engagement email sequence isn’t to convert, but to play the long game, aiming to spark interest and arouse curiosity. If your company can boast of frequent industry events or insightful content, don’t hesitate to try this email sequence for your campaigns.
The engagement sequence can also begin with a welcome email, where you thank the recipient for subscribing:
Engagement email sequence
Important: In that first message, do more than just say thank you. Ask your leads to set their preferences so you can further segment them and send relevant, more effective content for your lead nurturing email sequence.
Next, you start sending emails that promise useful content/events based on their selected preferences. And then? You watch. You learn from their interactions, adjusting your approach with every click and open.
Conversion email sequence
A medida que la secuencia avanza y percibes un avance en el viaje del prospecto, los animas a actuar, como unirse a una sesión de usuarios, como en el ejemplo a continuación:
Conversion email sequenceSi los prospectos permanecen fríos frente a tu secuencia de correos de conversión, puedes proceder con una secuencia de seguimiento.
This sequence of emails can be part of a post-sale email campaign when your goal is to encourage your customer to repeat the purchase. As a general rule, this is upselling or cross-selling, tactics well known in e-commerce but also common in the B2B SaaS landscape.
Cross -selling is offering customers additional products or services relevant to what they have already purchased.
Upselling is offering your customers updated and more expensive products or services instead of what they initially wanted to buy or have already purchased.
You can start your upsell sequence with a series of welcome or educational emails (one of which is in the example below).
Improved sales email sequence
For example, it starts with an email congratulating the customer on their initial purchase, followed by a sequence that gradually educates them on the benefits of the product’s features, culminating in a tailored upsell offer that seems like a natural next step.
Improved sales email sequence
The enhanced sales sequence is just one aspect of a post-purchase campaign designed to increase customer retention.
Other effective sequences include asking for feedback, requesting reviews , or encouraging testimonials. The latter, by the way, is the email sequence we use at Snov.io. I'll show you how it worked in the last chapter of this post.
Reminder email sequence
Reminder sequences are typical in event campaigns where you invite a lead to participate in your webinar or conference and send them regular reminders so they don't forget to attend.
Alternatively, you can use these sequences to remind your prospects about the demo or meeting they've already booked. Not to be confused with follow-up sequences, keep in mind that the goal of reminder email sequences is to get a prospect back to the event/meeting/call they 've already agreed to attend.