How To Create An Email Nurture Campaign That Converts

Last updated on August 30th, 2023

Want to learn how to run an email nurture campaign that converts leads into customers? This step-by-step guide teaches you how to get started from zero.

Are you building an email list?

Already have a list of emails that you want to convert to paying customers?

Learning how to run an email nurture campaign can be one of the highest ROI marketing campaigns you can run.

In fact, the average email marketing return on investment is $42 for every $1 spent.

This guide will teach you everything you need to get started.

Feel free to skip the section most relevant to you:

What Is An Email Nurture Campaign?
Why You Should Be Running Email Nurture Campaigns
20 Types Of Email Nurture Campaigns You Can Run
How To Run An Email Nurture Sequence (Step-By-Step)
Frequently Asked Questions About Email Nurture Sequences

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What Is An Email Nurture Campaign?

An email nurture campaign (also known as a drip campaign or autoresponder series) is a series of pre-written emails that are sent out automatically to subscribers or leads over a period of time.

Marketers use email nurture sequences to engage, inform, and guide leads or subscribers down a path that gradually leads them to take action.

Why You Should Be Running Email Nurture Campaigns

Uncertain about starting an email nurture sequence or need to persuade other team members that it’s worth investing in?

Here are 4 signs it’s time to start launching email nurture sequences:

You have an email list that you’re not taking advantage of, meaning you’re missing out on generating revenue from your list.
You have an audience that you’re not capturing, meaning there’s a lot of potential to monetize your audience.
You’re not maintaining brand awareness with your leads to stay top-of-mind, which increases the likelihood they’ll buy from you when the time is right.
You’re working with limited resources and need to get the most out of your marketing. Email automation allows these campaigns to be fully automated, allowing you to generate revenue without exchanging your time for each sale.

20 Types of Email Nurture Campaigns You Can Run

Later we’ll discuss planning the right sequences for your goals.

So keep these different types of sequences in mind when you’re planning your campaigns:

Welcome email for new signups – This is the first series of emails a new subscriber receives after signing up for your newsletter or creating an account. It typically introduces your brand, sets expectations for future communications, and offers some initial value.
Confirmation email – This sequence is used to confirm actions taken by the recipient, such as signing up for a newsletter, creating an account, or making a purchase. The confirmation email ensures that the lead is aware of their action and sets the stage for future interactions.
Trial-to-customer sequences – This sequence is aimed at converting trial users into paying customers. It should showcase your product’s benefits and use cases. The goal is to encourage trial users to become paying customers.
Lead magnet email sequences – When someone signs up to receive a lead magnet (e.g., an ebook, whitepaper, or free resource), this sequence is used to deliver the content and nurture the lead further. The goal is usually to establish trust, build a relationship, and eventually convert leads into customers.
Repeat customer email sequences – This sequence is for existing customers to encourage repeat purchases and foster brand loyalty. It might include personalized offers, product recommendations, loyalty rewards, or exclusive content.
Reactivation email sequences – This sequence targets inactive or lapsed customers. The goal is to re-engage them and encourage them to return to your website or make a purchase by offering incentives or reminding them of the value your product provides.
Follow-up email sequences – This sequence is sent after specific actions or interactions with your business. For example, after a purchase, event attendance, or contact form submission. These emails reinforce the message, thank the recipient, and encourage further engagement or action.
Event email sequences – For events like webinars, conferences, or workshops, this sequence is used to inform and engage attendees before, during, and after the event. It can include event details, reminders, resources, and post-event follow-ups.
Cold email follow-up sequences – This sequence is used when reaching out to potential customers or partners who haven’t previously interacted with your business. The follow-up sequence is designed to build rapport and trust over time, increasing the likelihood of a positive response.
Cart abandonment email sequences – This sequence is usually used by e-commerce businesses, when a customer adds products to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, this sequence sends reminders or offers incentives to encourage them to finalize the purchase.
Onboarding sequences – This sequence is often used by software companies to help new users understand how to use the product. It can include tutorials, tips, and best practices.
Educational sequences – This sequence is designed to educate subscribers on a particular topic related to your industry or product.
Sales funnel sequences – This sequence is intended to guide potential customers down the sales funnel, from awareness to consideration to making a purchase. It might start with high-level information about a problem and gradually introduce your product as the solution.
Re-engagement sequences – This sequence targets subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails in a while to reignite their interest, reminding them of the value you offer or enticing them with a special deal.
Post-purchase sequences – This sequence thanks a customer after a purchase and provides useful information about the product they bought, and might cross-sell or upsell related products.
Review and testimonial request sequences – This sequence asks customers for feedback, reviews, or testimonials after they use your product.
Event-based sequences – This is triggered by specific dates or events, such as a subscriber’s birthday, a membership renewal reminder, or an upcoming webinar or sale.
Upsell and cross-sell sequences – This sequence targets existing customers to introduce them to higher-tier products or complementary offerings.
Membership or subscription renewal sequences – This sequence reminds customers to renew their subscription by highlighting the benefits and what they stand to lose if they don’t renew.
Affiliate or referral sequences – This sequence encourages subscribers or customers to refer friends or promote products in exchange for rewards or commission.

How To Run An Email Nurture Campaign (Step-By-Step)

Setting up and running an email nurture sequence involves a combination of strategy, content creation, technology, and analysis.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get started:

Define Your Goals

Before you choose the type of email nurture sequence to run, ask yourself:

What goal are you trying to achieve?

For example:

Are you trying to onboard new customers to decrease churn? Then you should create an onboarding sequence that helps customers learn how to get their desired outcome out of your product.

Remember, your goal shouldn’t be to run a sequence just because you can. Think about which metrics you need to improve in your business, and THEN use that information to determine your sequence.

Here are some examples of this:

Low customer lifetime value? → Create upsell and cross-sell sequences.
Low lead-to-customer conversion rate? → Create lead magnet sequences.
Not enough people that opted in for an event showing up? → Create an event sequence that hypes up your event beforehand.
Want more free trials to become paying customers? → Create trial-to-customer sequences.

Before you begin, take note of your current metrics so you can measure the result of your sequence later.

Create Your Plan

Next, you need a plan to help you reach your goals.

Answer these questions before moving on to the next step:

How can you create a sequence that’s relevant to your leads or subscribers?
What problem are they currently experiencing that might have caused them to opt-in to your email list?
What’s stopping them from fixing this problem?
How does your solution fix this problem?
What are objections people have towards your solution, and how can you address those objections in your emails?
How can you implement storytelling to entice your audience to keep opening your emails?
How can you implement case studies, customer stories, and social proof into your emails to build trust?

The upcoming sections will help walk you through the rest of the planning process.

Capture Leads

You can’t run an email nurture sequence without an email list.

Capturing leads for an email nurture sequence is the start of your sequence.

In other words, it’s how your subscribers “opt in” to your sequence.

When capturing leads, it’s crucial to:

Clearly communicate what subscribers should expect in terms of content and frequency.
Adhere to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Always get explicit consent before sending any marketing emails.

Here’s how you can gather leads:

Offer something valuable (free trials, newsletters, ebooks, resources, tools, etc.) to your audience in exchange for their email address.
Use a signup form on a landing page or pop-up to capture email addresses.
Then you need to get traffic to your signup forms (which you can do through SEO, organic social media marketing, or paid ads)

Segment Your Leads

Based on WHY your leads signup, you want to segment your email list.

This will enable you to create personalized sequences that are more relevant to your leads.

For example, if you have a newsletter, free trial, lead magnet, and list of churned customers, you’ll want to segment these subscribers into different lists.

Each segment should have a different email nurture sequence.

Outline Your Sequence

Next, you’ll want to plan out the number of emails you want to send, the content in each email, and the time between each email.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how many emails you should send or how much time there should be between each email.

It’s important to make these decisions based on your data.

Sure, you can see what other companies in your industry do, but keep in mind that they might not know what they’re doing (it happens).

If you’re creating a sequence for a call-to-action that’s time sensitive, like a free trial to paid or an event sequence, you might want to send daily or weekly emails depending on the deadline you need them to take action.

Or if you’re selling a product with a longer sales cycle, you might want to stick to a longer cadence, such as weekly or monthly.

When deciding what content will be in each email, you can start by drafting your subject lines, which we’ll discuss next.

Create Your Emails

To start outlining your emails, you should start with the subject line. At first, you want your subject lines to describe the purpose of each email accurately.

But later, you should refine your subject line to:

Be optimized to fit on mobile devices
Entice the reader to open the email without being inauthentic
Keep it short and concise
Consider using statistics and numbers
Include a benefit of reading the email
Use action words
Include a desired outcome
Interrupt patterns that are common with most other subject lines

Then, you can start writing the body of each email.

(You’ll also want to consider using the same tips for creating subject lines.)

The main point of the email body is to deliver on the value promised in the subject line.

But you should also keep these tips in mind:

Provide value before pitching your offer (don’t pitch every email)
Address pain points and how to solve them
Leave cliffhangers at the end of your email
Consider sharing other types of content you might have that’s relevant (like a blog)
Try to entertain the reader instead of being another boring email
Keep sentences and paragraphs short and easy to read
Try to include examples and proof of what you talk about
End with a call to action, whether that’s your desired action or clicking on a piece of content for more information

And since these emails are for a sequence, try to send them in a logical order.

For example, your first email could be a welcome email, then your next could discuss a common pain point, and the next could be a solution on how to solve that pain point.

Or, if you’re sending an onboarding sequence, each email could walk the subscriber through the process of using your product.

Use An Email Marketing Platform

You can’t run an email nurture campaign at scale without an email marketing automation platform.

There are 2 different types of platforms you can use:

A dedicated email marketing platform
An all-in-one CRM that comes with email marketing capabilities

We recommend choosing the latter so you don’t have to worry about choosing a separate CRM that integrates with your email marketing platform. If you want to try an email marketing CRM, you can sign up for a free trial with VipeCloud to get started.

Regardless of your email marketing platform, you should be able to design and brand your emails using the software to ensure your emails are visually appealing and consistent with your brand.

If you choose VipeCloud, you can get started using any of the 600+ pre-made templates.

Set Up the Automation

The most important part of your email marketing software is the automation you can use to have your sequences run without any more input after you’ve set them up.

Below is an example of how you can set up an email nurture sequence for new subscribers using VipeCloud:

Create a signup form.

Create your email templates.

Create your email nurture sequence using “series” and add your email templates. Select when you want your emails to be sent.

Add your “series” as an autoresponder for your signup form.

Now anyone that signs up using your signup form will be entered into your email nurture sequence.

Track KPIs

Most email marketing platforms like VipeCloud allow you to track KPIs that you can use to measure the success of your campaigns and further optimize their performance.

You should monitor and try to optimize your:

Open rate – You won’t reach your goals if your leads aren’t opening your emails. This KPI tells you how compelling your subject lines and the first lines of your emails are.
Click-through rate (CTR) – This is the rate of people that click a CTA in your email. This KPI tells you how effective your email content and CTAs are.
Conversion rate – This KPI measures how many recipients took your desired action.
Unsubscribe rate – If this rate is high for a particular email, you might want to review its content or timing.
Qualitative feedback – Sometimes, your leads will reply to your emails with questions, feedback, or comments. Take note of these. You can also have emails in your sequences that encourage your recipients to respond.

Optimize And Test Different Sequences

After you’ve run your campaigns and analyzed your KPIs, you can further optimize your emails by determining which emails performed well and which ones did not.

When you’re first starting out, and your lead list is small, you shouldn’t worry too much about testing different sequences.

But as you collect data, you can A/B test different variations of your sequences, then eliminate the sequences that don’t perform as well.

And before launching a new sequence, you should also send test emails to yourself to check for any issues or mistakes.

Make Sure You’re In Compliance

It’s easy to overlook, but you need to make sure your campaigns are in compliance.

This means you should avoid sending spammy emails, and you should include an “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of your emails for your leads to opt-out at any time.

Ignoring this could lead to your leads reporting you as spam or blocking you from delivering emails to their inbox.

You also want to make sure you’re in compliance with any laws and regulations for email marketing, such as GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act.

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Nurture Sequences

How Many Emails Should Be In A Nurture Sequence?

The number of emails in a nurture sequence can vary based on your goals, content, and the audience’s journey stage.

Generally, a typical nurture sequence contains between 4 to 7 emails.

However, some sequences, especially for complex products or long sales cycles, might extend to 10 or more emails.

The key is to provide consistent value without overwhelming or annoying the subscriber.

How Long Should An Email Nurture Sequence Be?

The length of an email nurture sequence can range from a week to several months, depending on your campaign’s goal and audience feedback. For example:

A welcome sequence might last one week, with daily emails.
An educational sequence might span several months, with weekly emails.
A cart abandonment sequence might only be a few days, with reminders sent a few hours after abandonment and then again a day or two later.

Your goal should be to strike a balance between staying top-of-mind without spamming them with unwanted emails.

Remember to monitor your KPIs to determine what optimizations you should make to your emails.

Ready To Start Nurturing Leads With Email?

You can’t use the information and tips in this article without email marketing software.

Looking for one that works for you?

VipeCloud is an all-in-one CRM that gives you all the tools you need for sales and marketing (including email automation) at a low cost.

You can get started yourself with a free 15-day trial.

Or you can talk with our support team to learn how VipeCloud can fit into your business.

What Is An Email Nurture Campaign?

Why You Should Be Running Email Nurture Campaigns

20 Types of Email Nurture Campaigns You Can Run