Email marketing is an incredibly successful marketing tool to have in your pocket. They work tirelessly for you while you do nothing, and they allow you to really personalise your audience’s journey with you.
If you read my blog on 6 common email marketing mistakes, then you’ll perhaps already be familiar with the power of segmenting your list.
But what email sequences do you send to your list, and when do you send them?! Let’s remove the mystery around email sequences, so you can go forth and conquer!
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What is an email sequence?
An email sequence is an automated series of emails that goes out to subscribers after a trigger. For example, this could be a series of emails that goes out when someone buys something from you or a series of emails after someone downloads a freebie from you.
The rate at which e-mails prompt purchases is not only estimated to be at least three times that of social media, but the average order value is also 17% higher.
Emarketer
When done right, they are a very powerful marketing tool that can deliver value to your readers and help you establish and nurture relationships.
Email marketing is believed to deliver the highest ROI of digital marketing. It’s often the place when you send your leads to enable you to communicate and build trust way behind their first touchpoint with you.
The Welcome email sequence
The welcome email sequence is the series of emails that go out immediately after someone joins your email list.
Typically you will send 4-6 emails in your welcome email sequence.
The job of this email sequence is to
- deliver whatever you promised when the person joined your list
- help them get to know you and show you understand them
- deliver some value to your reader
- move your reader closer to making a purchase
Welcome emails have an average open rate of 45%.
Omnisend
When someone first joins your email list, you’re in the honeymoon phase. This is the period when you will enjoy the highest open rates and the greatest engagement with your content.
So it’s important to get it right.
Before you begin drafting your email sequence or crafting the lead magnet to attract people onto your email list, you need to ask yourself some questions.
You need to truly understand your target reader so that you can create content that’s tailored to them and where they’re at in their journey.
Download your free 6 question worksheet here to get started.
And when you’re done with that, here’s a guide to mapping out your welcome email sequences.
The nurture email sequence
The welcome sequence and the nurture sequence can often be used interchangeably, but there is a difference!
All of the emails you send to people on your email list should be crafted to nurture the relationship and build ‘know, like and trust.’
However, a true nurture sequence continues for as long as a subscriber remains on your list – it’s not a 4 or 5 email series. It’s a form of regular contact which you don’t only turn to when you want to make a sale!
Make sure you’re staying in touch with people on your email list on a regular basis – and set a frequency you can stay consistent with.
This could be a fortnightly or a monthly email that’s a quick drop in to share some value, some news or a recent blog.
The point is, you don’t want anyone on your list to feel that you’re only interested in them when you have something to sell!
The Onboarding email sequence
What happens when someone signs up or buys your thing?
I hope it’s not CRICKETS!
I see it so often. The lead magnets cracking, the welcome email sequence works a treat, and the subscriber is wooed right into buying *the thing*.
And then…. Tumbleweed.
Don’t make the mistake of ghosting your clients when they finally make the step to buy from you.
Your onboarding sequence is a series of emails that welcomes them and celebrates them signing up. It continues to nurture your relationship, deliver value and appreciate their commitment to taking that big step.
It might include ‘how to use the thing’ or further tips to help with whatever struggle led them to you. It could be inviting them into a private community space or simply guiding them through the next steps in their journey.
The key here is not to have them feel LESS special now they’ve taken the leap to work with you or buy from you.
Setting up your email sequences
The first step is to set up your email sequence in your email software. There are three key factors to consider in this process.
- Personalisation
Personalising your emails can result in higher success rates, but only if you get the personalisation right!
Have a look at your own email marketing software and check that you are providing a field for users to give you their first name.
You can then use this to personalise subject lines and content inside your emails.
- Suppressing other emails whilst they’re in the sequence
When subscribers are in one of your email sequences, you don’t want them to receive any other emails from you.
This is because it can feel confusing or less personal if they are also receiving other marketing/newsletters from you during this sequence.
Each of your email sequences should be designed to take your subscriber on a journey, so opt them out of all other emails from you until they’ve completed the sequence.
- Halting the sequence if they sign up/buy
You need to track when people sign up or take the action you crafted your sequence for. When a subscriber takes the action – be it making a purchase or signing up for something, you want to ensure they are taken out of the rest of the nurture sequence.
Ideally, you’ll then have an onboarding sequence that they move into, which is relevant to where they are within their journey with you.
There you have it, your lickety-split guide to email sequences for your pet biz!
If you’d like some help with email marketing and would like to have a professional copywriter take the reigns, then why not book a free discovery call with me?
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