Email marketing has been long in the game as one of the driving factors of success in businesses. It’s one of the first communication tools that was created during the early days of the internet.
It is, without a doubt, a tried-and-true solution that still holds up to this day even with the amount of competition it faces with social media platforms, online ad placements, search engine optimization, and many other marketing tactics that have been created along with the continuous growth of the internet.
In 2019 alone, there were around 3.9 billion email users globally, while social media trails behind with 3.78 billion in 2021. Today, there are reports that the number of email users has already exceeded 4.1 billion. This is according to a report made by Statista.
That’s a big market to tap into, and for any business that is looking to get clients and connections, email marketing is just something that you can’t miss.
There is also another trend that has been getting some ears turning on email marketing: AI automation. Granted that it’s already been done even back further in the past, but nowadays, things are quite getting a bit advanced.
You might have already heard about AI automation in countless other industries, from Amazon businesses getting automated to words like machine-learning and blockchains spreading around the internet. It’s getting pretty steamy, and everyone is hot on the trail of how new technology further improves existing systems.
The same story pretty much goes with email marketing today. With the introduction and further automation of email marketing with artificial intelligence, it’s also getting a lot more convenient to utilize for many and much more powerful to customize.
So now we know how much of a big market email marketing is and how innovation with AI is changing the playing field, but what does all this have to do with email sequencing?
What’s an Email Sequence?
Just like how you have automated chatbots on social media and predictive dialers for telemarketing to smoothen and automate processes, email sequencing also does the same.
Sequencing is basically a chain of emails that is automatically sent to specific recipients or subscribers to your email list. If you have ever done drip campaigns in the past, it’s pretty much the same but with less hassle and more automation.
What’s great about email sequencing is that you can just pretty much set it up, and it’ll do its job. You can quickly come back into it and tweak some options here and there. Do some A/B testing on subject lines or change the content, then just start it up again and leave it to work.
There are also templated email sequences that you can find that also do the work for you when it comes to the content itself, so it’s a really convenient process to follow whether or not you’re a beginner in email marketing or an expert at it already.
Creating Your Killer Email Sequence
Let’s get into the meat of the article – how you can make a killer email sequence that’ll give you a successful email marketing campaign in a heartbeat.
In the following tips and steps, you’ll be able to read through examples of businesses using email sequences to visualize better how these scenarios can work out in real-time just to make things a bit clearer.
Identify Your Target & Goals
The very first step that you have to take in email marketing is always to consider what your target is and what goals you want to reach because these will let you know what you want to happen and what the indicators are to say that you have achieved your goals.
So, what do you want to happen with your email sequencing?
- Drive conversions
- Inform about a product or service
- Promote a sale or a discount
- Increase social media presence
- Provide news about your business
- Recruit new talent
- Ask for feedback
- Generate leads
There’s plenty of goals to choose from, and you would need to limit these into segmented parts in order for you to strategize how you push through properly. This is because the next step is deciding what type of email sequencing you want to have.
The theme, design, and content all play an important aspect in how your entire strategy works, and having the right goals can give you accurate information of what type of email sequencing to use.
Types of Email Sequence
Lead Nurturing –
The first type in this quick list is a lead nurturing email. It’s pretty much just you trying to convert a recipient deeper into a sales funnel so that you can turn leads into a client.
Think of it as courtship or a dance of love but only with emails and text.
Here is an example of a lead nurturing email from a real estate business:
Welcoming –
Welcome emails, on the other hand, are the first communication messages that you send to your newly received recipient. These emails could come in a variety of ways depending on how users get subscribed to the mailing list.
Welcome emails are essentially the first handshake that you give to a recipient saying that you both are interested in future cooperation.
Take a look at this email from CakeHR, which talks about a free trial period from a newly subscribed user:
Abandoned Cart –
The third on the list is cart abandonment emails. These emails typically are used for eCommerce sites that have users leaving items on their “carts” before proceeding to checkout.
This type of email sequencing is akin to calling out someone for leaving a wallet in the middle of the road, but in this case, you want them to take the final step to purchase the items that they have selected.
Take a look at this example of a great abandoned cart email:
Re-engagement –
Re-engagement emails are purposely made for cleaning and checking your mailing list for inactive recipients. You don’t want to spend all of your time sending emails to dead contacts, and this email is just for that exact purpose.
Re-engagement email campaign sequences can let you clean your mailing lists while at the same time having inactive subscribers show interest in your brand again. It’s pretty much two birds with one stone technique.
Here is an example of a re-engagement email:
Onboarding –
Onboarding email sequences are at the last of this short quick list. It’s just like a welcome email, but this one provides good advice or a flow of how the contact can quickly avail the services or product that they have received.
It can also work the same for employee onboarding to get talent situated with companies quickly so that they can start working. Overall, onboarding email sequences are purposely made to inform and advise on the next steps.
Take a look at this example from UPSCOPE:
This list isn’t all there is to email sequences. There are still plenty of other types out there that you can use depending on what role you want to play with your email campaigns. These are just made for a quick overview of what you can expect to make and send.
Emphasize Benefits To Your Audience
You can only cram so much content into your email sequences, and most of the time, the recipients that you send these too often don’t have much time to read through the entire email that you send. Sure, from your side, it’s quick and easy to send, but for your recipients, they’ll have to shave off some of their time to read through everything.
Always get straight to the point and show the benefits of what your recipients can get if they go for your services or products. Tell them how it can improve their lives or the possible benefits that they can grab from it.
Let’s use an example for this. Let’s say you’re a drug rehabilitation facility like this website looking to help those that have health-related addictions. You wouldn’t want to beat around the bush when it comes to the email sequences that you send.
The best course of action would be to instantly tell them how their health-related problems can be cleared up with the help of your services. Showcase the prime benefits of being healthy and what you can do for them in the get-go.
You can even shape your email to sound like you’re reaching out to help them. Time is important, and each sentence you make for your email can be the difference between getting the attention of your readers or being left to be forgotten in their inbox.
Give Them Cookies~!
Everyone loves cookies, and you can use that to your advantage when it comes to marketing. In this case, you can use it in your emails as well. Every time a recipient opens your emails, give them a cookie.
This can be in the shape of a quick tip that they can easily digest, some motivational or inspirational message to give, or even just a happy greeting. These are all great free-to-use cookies that can lighten up a person’s mood.
However, the best cookies to give are discounts and promos. This works well for an eCommerce site, or a marketplace as these types of cookies are more of a chocolate chip as opposed to just a pain one.
Giving your audience cookies from time to time can make them just a bit more convinced that opening up your emails will be worthwhile.
Include Reputable Names
Names, brands, logos – they all carry one same thing, reputation. You can use this to your advantage when it comes to attracting attention to your email sequencing.
This method particularly works well in a lot of cases, from trying to grab competitors of the same market to gaining the trust of new customers. In the case of competition, they all want to be on the same playing field, and if your lead knows that their competition is getting your services?
Then that’s something that they want to have as well because they want to take that advantage off their competitors. The same goes for gaining the trust of a new market.
If a branded or reputable name is buying your product, then that can come off as a certain trait that other potential clients can take note of whenever you’re pitching to them.
To better visualize this, let’s use another example.
Let’s say you’re selling medical-related services and equipment to a very famous hospital or pharmaceutical company. Aside from the fact that you have an excellent client, you also have a valuable asset to use for your marketing.
In our particular example, it’ll be hard to get into the market if you’re just a new guy around since nobody knows you and can trust you, but that all goes out the window if you have a name or brand to back you up.
Long story short, don’t be afraid to piggyback on the reputation of your clients. They can be the very thing that can grab the attention of your email recipients.
Make Good Designs and Content
Design and content make the meat of your emails, and they matter a lot. There are plenty of designs that you can go for depending on the industry, market, and type of theme that you are going for, so while you have a lot of options, you also face a dilemma at the same time.
Which of these designs and content should I go for?
For example, if you’re an eCommerce site like WhatsGood, then you have to consider your market and industry, which is farmers and food. So, what design would you utilize to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns?
Now, that’s quite a big question to ask, and certainly, it’s going to need some time to think over, especially with your marketing team. However, there are plenty of designs that you can look over on the internet.
You can see some templated email sequence content already provided in some services, as well as blog sites that share free designs to their viewers. If you want to make your own design, then there are also sites like Canva and Mailchimp to check out.
Aside from this, you should also include important keywords in your content, as this can help with SEO. Consider utilizing keyword discovery tools to get a better grasp on which words and phrases go well with your content to reach your recipients better.
Always Include CTA’s
CTAs will be your lifeline to conversions. Your email sequencing, at the end of its journey or even along with it, should always have a goal to convert. This would either be through providing a free trial, a demo, or a meeting to talk about the product or service that you are offering. But aside from all this, your email should also try to direct a reader to do something after they have read through your content.
They already have gone through and invested their time, so that means they’re interested. Sometimes the last thing that they need is just a little gentle push. That’s where CTAs come to play or Call To Action.
Talk to your web developer to provide a link for your emails to attach in order for your readers to have an outlet to proceed through if they want to learn more or to book a demo.
There’s also plenty of techniques that you can do with CTAs, whether this is creating an urgency, offering a free promotion, or even through just simple convincing words.
Always have only one CTA in mind for each of your emails so that the idea doesn’t get muddled. You want your recipients to focus on one action and one action only, so you have to really take that into consideration whenever you create your content.
The Subject Line Matters
Whenever any user goes to check their inbox and their emails, the first thing that they will always see are the subject lines. Nothing else. It’s an understatement to say that a subject line matters. It’s actually a factor that can decide the fate of your email campaign in the first place.
Because in the first place, if your subject lines are generic, dull, or just outright annoying to see, then nobody would look into your email in the first place, and all your content and effort just goes down the drain. It’s essential to make your subject line shine as best as you can, and there’s plenty of ways to go with this. Let’s take a look at some quick tips:
- Always aim to keep your subject lines short.
- Try Your Brand Name
- Show Personality in Your Sentences
- Match The Tone of Your Content.
Let’s use Flamingo (A calendar app) as an example of using Brand names on your subject lines. You could say something like:
“How We at Flamingo Earned $60 Million in a Month.”
Even better is you could make jokes out of your brand names to get more attention. Creativity is needed whenever you want to get the most out of your subject lines, and using your brand name can be a big boost.
Think About Frequency & Timing
Think about timing and the frequency you send your email sequencing. You can always decide on how much time emails have to be sent in-between each other automatically. Almost all email services provide this feature, so you won’t have to worry much about that.
It goes to the same old question again, when is the best time for emails to be sent?
Let’s use an example with cart abandonment.
Usually, for this case, the most optimal time to send the first recovery email is 20-30 minutes and then another 24 hours for the second and 48 hours for the third.
It’s just like how you have video asset management with Youtube videos or how you work on social media posts. There’s always the best time to post, and the same goes with email sequencing, and each type comes with different optimal times.
The best course of action is always to consider doing A/B testing because most of the data that is shared through the net are just generalized and have different circumstances and factors to provide an accurate result of “what’s best.”
If you do your own research along the process, you will find the optimal times for your email sequencing.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, creating a killer email sequence to drive conversions is one of the hallmarks of a growth hacking strategy that can boost your businesses’ success in the future.
With email marketing as one of the largest markets to target and the continuous growth of email automation, there’s without a doubt that emails will still continue to be an important part of the communication system of the internet and of the business world.
