I got an email from a client the other day with an urgent subject line.
I quickly opened it and was glad I did.
Turns out he was ecstatic about the email sequence we built for him.
His sequence had just helped close three clients in the past week AND it cut his time spent with prospects before signing by two-thirds, saving him three hours per prospect!
Today I want to talk about how you can do the same thing with email sequences, no matter your industry.
Marketers love making automated email sequences sound complicated, but they don’t have to be.
The secret to a great email sequence isn’t so secret; it’s just being as helpful online as you are in person.
An email sequence is nothing more than your sales process distributed through a series of emails. It anticipates questions and objections and delivers resources your prospect wants throughout their journey.
The only difference is you set the pace and can monitor your prospect’s progress along the way.
Here’s our technical definition:
An email sequence is a series of emails automatically sent from your email marketing software (EMS) based on pre-defined triggers.
I use the term “sequence” loosely here. In some cases (like transactional emails), the sequence is a single message. In other cases, a sequence may have seven or eight emails separated by scheduled delays.
In this post, I’ll show you nine simple but effective automated email sequences ideal for service businesses.
1. The Welcome Sequence
The moment a subscriber opts in to your email list is the moment they’re most interested in your brand. That’s the moment they’re most likely to read whatever you send them, so take the opportunity to provide valuable, relationship-building content.
In this sequence (it could be a single email or a series), the goal is to personally introduce the new subscriber to your brand. This is NOT the time to sell them something. Your goal is to make them know, like and trust you. Introduce your brand on a personal level, include a tour of your best content, and teach them whatever’s necessary to get the most value from your messages.
End with a call to action that encourages them to make a purchase or take the next step in your sales process. Remember, you don’t have to push a purchase. This could simply be asking them to join a social media channel or answer a short survey.
2. The Training Sequence
The goal of this sequence is to teach your new customers how to get the most value from your service.
For example, a web app teaches users how to use different features to get the most out of the app. A medical office coaches patients on how to prepare for their appointments. A law firm teaches clients about their lawsuit process.
This sequence helps your customers use your service and can even eliminate customer support overhead. By proactively training new customers, you’ll answer fewer questions and spend less time educating them one by one.
Ready to put these sequences into action?
Grab our free email sequence template pack below to start building your automated email sequences!
Click To Download The Free Automation Sequence Template Pack
3. Purchase Reminders
Customers in many industries have predictable buying habits. Purchasing might happen on a cycle or in relation to their previous purchase. If you can predict their behavior, it’s smart to remind them to buy so they place their order with you.
For example, a doctor’s office can remind a patient it’s time for their yearly exam and offer a method to schedule an appointment. A boutique marketing agency can remind its clients in September to get quotes for their holiday marketing campaigns.
These reminders should happen automatically based on triggers. That doctor’s office, for instance, would set a trigger for each patient eight months after an appointment to schedule their next yearly exam. The marketing agency would set a September 1st trigger to email anyone who hadn’t scheduled a holiday campaign.
Your reminders can be a single email or multiple emails, just be sure to end the sequence if the customer makes a purchase.
4. Re-engagement Sequence
Sometimes subscribers fall out of touch and need a little reminder. Re-engagement sequences are perfect for reminding your once active subscribers you’re still here and still care about their needs. These are usually triggered after a subscriber has been inactive for a certain period of time, say 30 days.
For example, you might declare that a subscriber who hasn’t logged into your web app’s account for 30 days to be inactive. Once an account reaches inactivity, the re-engagement sequence sends content designed to get them back on your website (maybe with a special offer or bonus).
Other examples of re-engagement sequence triggers include not purchasing for certain amount of time, not clicking or reading emails or Not visiting your website.
5. The Upsell Sequence
Your existing customers are the easiest to sell to. They already trust your brand, so half your battle is won. It’s especially important to upsell your customers if you sell different types of services or higher-priced plans/subscriptions.
An upsell sequence identifies people who made a recent purchase and are likely to make another purchase or upgrade. The sequence then sends promotional content or offers that clearly show the value of the additional purchase.
You can be as dynamic as you like here. For instance, you might send one sequence to people who use a basic version of your service (attended one appointment, spent less than $X, purchased the Bronze Plan, etc.) and another sequence for power-users (appointments every week, spend more than $X, use the Platinum Plan, etc.).
6. The Evangelist Sequence
Your biggest fans and customers are a tremendous resource and often undervalued. You can use their good will to promote your brand and bring in new sales.
Create a list of your most active, engaging fans. You might select people who often open and click links in your emails, regularly fill out forms for gated content, visit your website regularly, or participate in events like webinars, Twitter Spaces, etc.
Then create a sequence of emails that encourages them to submit testimonials, sign up to be interviewed for a case study, or share your content on social media. These people love your brand, so they’d be happy to contribute.
Ready to put these sequences into action?
Grab our free email sequence template pack below to start building your automated email sequences!
Click To Download The Free Automation Sequence Template Pack
7. The Lead Nurturing Sequence
I’m willing to bet that very few of your customers decided to purchase after their first interaction with your business. In fact, according to Salesforce, it usually takes six to eight touches with a prospect to generate a viable sales lead.
The purpose of lead nurturing is to present yourself as an expert and authority on your subject. When you do, your leads trust you with their problem.
Your general broadcast emails (recent blog posts, upcoming events, promotions, etc.) will nurture your entire list over time. But it’s smart to send special content to leads who are warmer than average.
Similar to the evangelist sequence, you can identify those especially interested in your brand by how they’ve behaved. If they’ve signed up for multiple pieces of content, they’re warm. If they’ve signed up for content that indicates intent to buy (like a product demonstration or pricing guide), they’re warm. If they’ve directly contacted you with product questions, they’re really warm.
Warm leads should receive middle-of-funnel content (product-related materials to help them make a decision) to push them into the bottom of the funnel.
8. The Onboarding Sequence
The purpose of an onboarding sequence is to help the subscriber reach a certain point of value with your service. It’s similar to the training sequence, but has a very specific end goal.
For example, a software company whose product helps users schedule social media posts knows that the product’s value isn’t realized until the user actually schedules a post. So the onboarding sequence walks the user through the steps to schedule a post.
To get this right, you must first figure out your user’s desired outcome. What problem are they trying to solve? Once you know the answer to that, lead them to it.
Ready to put these sequences into action?
Grab our free email sequence template pack below to start building your automated email sequences!
Click To Download The Free Automation Sequence Template Pack
9. Transactional Triggers
It’s good practice to email your customers when they take a significant action on your website (or with your brand in general). For one, the email acts as a record and confirmation of a successful transaction. It also helps create an email-based relationship with the customer so they’re more likely to open your future messages.
Send a receipt, invoice or confirmation anytime someone makes a purchase, subscribes to a new list, or achieves a milestone (such as activating a feature or gaining a website permission).
How To Create An Email Sequence
Finally, here’s a series of questions to ask that will help you customize any email sequence you choose to best suit your business, your sales cycle and your clients.
1. What’s the Goal of This Sequence?
As you saw in the sequences above, each has a goal. Whether it’s lead nurturing, upselling existing clients or a goal not mentioned in this article, ask yourself what the goal of your sequence is. Consider adding your goal to the top of your draft to help keep you on track while you create your copy and plan your automation.
2. How Many Emails Should I Send?
Base the number of emails or duration of the sequence on any data you have on your goal. For example, if your goal is to make a sale, your typical sales cycle is two weeks, and most sales require three conversations with a prospect, three emails over two weeks is a solid starting point.
3. What Information Do I Need To Convey?
Start with a framework of bullet points you’d like to cover in the email sequence. To return to our example of a sales email sequence, look to your sales script as a source of inspiration for important points to include in your email. Develop each point until all the information you need to cover is in your bullet points. Keep sales emails concise, with minimal distractions from the link you want prospects to click. More general marketing emails, such as lead nurturing, may benefit from some eye candy in the form of images or other media.
4. How Can I Improve on This?
Once you’ve run your email sequence and have some data, consider how you can improve it. Tweak your sales copy to handle any new objections your sales team reports, and experiment with images, subject lines and other aspects of your sequence. As always when testing, change one thing at a time so you can gather data on each tweak individually.
Get Started with Email Sequences
Building your own email sequences is easier than you’d expect. All modern email marketing platforms have interfaces to build email automation sequences based on triggers. Some of our favorite platforms are Active Campaign, Drip, and MailChimp.
The sooner you put these sequences into practice, the sooner you’ll automate your own sales process, just like that client I mentioned right at the start.
