How To Use Email Sequences For Marketing (+9 Templates)

Published on February 26th, 2024

This guide will show you how to build an email sequence and give you 9 templates to get you going.

Turning email leads into paying customers takes time.

And forcing your offer on a lead that’s not ready to buy isn’t a good idea.

Instead, you need to have a strategy in place to nurture those leads.

This will help ease them into a sale that they’re excited to be part of.

Feel free to skip to the section that you’re most interested in:

What Is An Email Sequence?
What Makes An Effective Email Sequence?
How To Write An Effective Email Sequence: A Simple 9-Step Process
9 Different Types Of Email Sequence Templates
Best Practices For Email Sequences

Automate All Your Communications With VipeCloud

VipeCloud is the only Automation tool your small business needs to
be the hero to your customers.

With Email, Texting, Social, Suites, Chat, Stories, Video Email & Sign Up Forms fully built-in, we provide you with the perfect platform to grow your business.

15 Day Free Trial – Get started risk free. No CC needed.

What Is An Email Sequence?

An email sequence is a well-thought-out series of predefined emails systematically sent over a specific course of time.

In other words, an email sequence is a sequence of emails that educates, nurtures, and helps recipients take action.

They can be used for lead magnet nurturing, event signups, abandoned carts, and much more.

Their goal is to gradually build relationships with the recipients with a subtle goal of conversion or retention.

What Makes An Effective Email Sequence?

Email sequencing is more than composing neatly arranged emails.

When put to practical use, it can take a lead that just learned about your brand to a prospect that’s excited to buy from you.

But to do this, you’ll need these 4 elements of an effective email sequence:

Understand Your ICP

This might surprise you:

But you shouldn’t just assume that your target audience is just like you.

Which is why you need to start by mapping out your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).

Think about your IDEAL customer. How would you describe them?

What industry or business sector does your ICP operate in? You need to align your offer to the specific needs relevant to their industry.
What is their job role? You need to address how your product or service directly impacts their work.
What are their goals and challenges?: Understanding their specific pain points and goals gives you insights on how best to position your product.

Strong Copywriting

Your email copy needs to inspire your recipients to take action.

And every word needs to be intentional and persuasive.

Don’t forget these 3 copywriting rules:

Clearly state your value proposition. Position your service/product as a solution to your customers’ pain points. And make it super easy to understand.
Play to your readers’ emotions. Connect with your ICP’s feelings about their problem and potential solutions through storytelling.
Smoothen logical objections. Overcome objections surrounding your solution’s ROI. Make sure prospects understand WHY choosing you is a smart decision.

A Clear Customer Journey

Each email within a sequence should chronologically guide potential leads along pre-determined paths – from awareness to retention.

These customer journeys should be clear and logical, and build trust between you and your leads.

To ensure a seamless customer journey:

Launch with a compelling introductory email. Make sure your recipients can tell that you get their pain.
Strategically nurture the relationship over time. Think about how your leads and prospects usually go through your sales process. What questions do they ask at each stage of the process? Consider their questions to map out your sequences in a similar order.
Close with a call-to-action for the next phase (buy now, book a call, etc.).

Perfect Timing

One of the downsides of doing email marketing these days is that inboxes are super cluttered.

So, if you send your emails at the wrong time, they risk getting buried and never seen.

To avoid this, you need to send your emails when your leads are likely awake.

This will drastically increase the open rate of your emails.

You can’t go wrong with sending emails during business hours. But you should always analyze your email engagement metrics for emails sent at certain times to find your audience’s best sending times.

Frequency should also be considered.

Too many emails might lead to being seen as spammy, while too few could result in your prospects forgetting about you altogether.

Consider testing different frequencies to see what your audience prefers.

How To Write An Effective Email Sequence: A Simple 9-Step Process

Here are the 9 steps you should take to create an email sequence that aligns with your ICP and goals:

Step #1: Have A Clear Outcome Or Objective

Identify your desired outcome or objective.

Are you trying to make a sale?

Perhaps acquire feedback or improve user adoption?

Whatever your goal, make sure you also identify which KPIs you’ll need to track to measure success.

Step #2: Outline The Customer Journey And Timeline

Visualize the customer journey alongside a logical timeline.

Map out important milestones based on interactions that’ll guide prospects from awareness to conversion and retention.

This ensures each email propels recipients further down the sales funnel.

Step #3: Guide The Recipient Chronologically With Each Email

Each email should gradually advance the narrative, guiding recipients chronologically through stages of their journey.

This step-by-step approach builds trust, builds rapport, and seamlessly inches your audience closer towards your defined objective.

Step #4: Prioritize Email Clarity

Be conversational and human-like in your approach.

Be concise without sacrificing value in your emails.

Make sure the value in your emails are as easy to understand as possible.

Plus, use specific subject lines and first lines that act as individual hooks and value propositions.

Step #5: Add Curiosity To Your Subject Line

You need to give your recipients a REASON to open your emails.

And it starts with piquing curiosity in your subject lines.

Craft appealing subject lines that create intrigue while not being click-baity.

Step #6: Have A Clear CTA

A call-to-action (CTA) determines what happens next – like clicking on a link or making a purchase decision.

You need a CTA for each email that aligns with your customer journey.

Ensure there’s one clear CTA per email to avoid confusion or diverting your audience’s focus.

Step #7: Re-Read From Your Recipient’s Point Of View

Don’t just hit “’send” once your emails are drafted.

Take a pause, and then revisit them from the reader’s viewpoint.

Try to put yourself in your ICP’s shoes, remembering their pains and goals.

Check for relevance, tone, and content appeal, and look out for possible misunderstandings or objections that could potentially be written better.

Step #8: Schedule And Launch Using CRM

71% of marketers agree that automated email campaigns are effective.

There’s no way around this one.

You need an email marketing CRM to launch any email sequence.

This will allow you to:

Capture leads with sign-up forms.
Segment those leads.
Create custom email sequences for specific types of leads.
Implement lead scoring to gauge interest in your campaigns.
After those leads become prospects, you can continue tracking them in the same system using CRM pipelines.

All with automation!

Step #9: Track Email KPIs

After you launch your email campaigns, don’t forget to measure your KPIs.

Your email marketing CRM should allow you to track:

Open rates
Click-through rates
Link clicks
Conversion rates
Response rates
Bounce rates
Unsubscribes

And more!

Tracking these KPIs will help you further optimize your sequences to make them more effective.

9 Different Types Of Email Sequence Templates & Examples For B2B And B2C

You could pretty much create an email sequence for any business objective, making there a limitless amount of email sequences you could create.

These top 9 email sequence templates could be used in B2B or B2C companies.

Welcome Sequence

A welcome sequence could pair with almost any marketing strategy that involves a new lead opt-in.

The first couple of emails potential customers receive after subscribing to your sequence set the tone for future interaction.

Show them some gratitude for their interest with a friendly “Welcome!” message.

Plus, share what they should expect now that they’re part of your community.

Welcome email sequence example:

Warm welcome – Introduce your brand and express appreciation.
Share engaging content – Give insights about your industry or bring value through educational material.
Showcase your products/services – Share details about how you can help them.
Promotional offer – Offer a discount code or special deal to entice action.

Lead Magnet Opt-In Sequence

This type of sequence starts by providing immediate value in exchange for contact details.

Usually, that immediate value is something free that you’re offering, like an ebook, resource, template, or research report.

Here’s an example of what a lead magnet sequence could look like:

Sequence Example:

Delivery: Send download link/webinar access details right away. Give them a summary of how they can properly use your lead magnet.
Follow-up: Ask if they found it useful and offer related resources.
Remove friction: Address common questions/objections people may have before making a purchase.
Upsell to a paid product: If your lead magnet acts as a low-barrier-to-entry to your product, consider offering a free trial or a low-cost related product.

Abandoned Cart Sequence

Don’t let potential sales end up forgotten in the cart!

An abandoned cart sequence helps remind shoppers about items left behind.

Abandoned cart sequence example:

Reminder: Alert shoppers about items still waiting in their cart, include product images.
Incentive: Offer a discount code or free shipping as an incentive to complete checkout.
Last chance: Notify customers that their cart will soon be cleared, urging them to act.

Lead Nurturing By Stage Email Nurture Sequence

Not all leads go straight from first contact into making a purchase.

Use the email nurture sequence to provide appropriate content at each stage of your buyers’ journey.

This is great for easing a lead into a desired action.

Lead nurturing by stage email nurture sequence example:

Awareness: Help consumers recognize they have a problem.
Consideration: Compare your solution to alternatives that your ICP would consider.
Manage objections: Predict your ICP’s objections and address them.
Decision: Help them rationalize why they should choose your product.

Client Renewal Email Sequence

This sequence is aimed at existing clients.

It reminds, persuades and incentivizes customers to continue subscribing or renew contracts.

A renewal sequence example:

Announcement: Notify the client well in advance about an upcoming contract expiration.
Benefits review: Remind them what your service has accomplished for them so far.
Incentive: Offer reduced pricing or additional services if they renew before the deadline.

Customer Reactivation Sequence

This sequence gives inactive subscribers a “gentle nudge” to trigger interaction again.

Reactivation sequence example:

Hi, we missed you: Send them a friendly “catch up” message asking them about how things are going. Consider asking for feedback.
An update: Share new features, offers, and achievements since they last interacted with you
Survey/Final goodbye offer: Ask about their reason for disengagement or make an enticing offer that’s hard to refuse.

Onboarding Email Sequence

After someone makes a purchase, it’s time for onboarding sequences.

This ensures a smooth transition – while improving user experience with step-by-step guides related to your products or services.

Companies often use this sequence to improve user adoption. (especially for free trials).

Onboarding email sequence example:

Thank you & receipt: Send your appreciation and confirm transaction details.
Set up instructions: Send a guide on getting started with newly bought products or services.
More tips: Consider sending multiple emails with additional tips that help them get better use out of your product.
Check-in: Ask your recipient if the process is going smoothly.

Event Sign-up Sequence

Once someone signs up for your webinar, conference, or any event, automate the follow-up process to increase participation rates.

Otherwise, you risk a higher no-show rate.

Event sign-up sequence example:

Confirmation: Thank them for their interest and give them information about the event.
Speaker introduction: Introduce speakers and what topics they’ll cover.
Reminder: Send a reminder one week and one day before with all the necessary details.

Customer Feedback Sequence

After a purchase or interaction that you want insights about – use feedback sequences.

Understanding their opinion helps improve your products and customer experience.

Feedback email sequence example:

Warm up: Before asking for feedback, ask if they’re happy and if you solved their solved problem.
Feedback request: Ask them for their honest review.
Thank you: Close off by thanking them again for their time + maybe offer bonuses.

3 Best Practices With Email Sequences

Here are 3 more best practices to help you get more value out of your email sequences.

Use trigger links. When clicked, these perform a specific action or send automated follow-up emails based on a recipient’s interests or behavior.
Consider the value ladder approach. This is when you introduce offers in an incremental approach in terms of their value and cost.
Split-test your sequences. Consider creating multiple sequences for a single campaign to see what works best and double down on that.

Try VipeCloud’s Robust Email Sequence Builder

Now you know how to turn email leads into revenue.

But do you already have an email marketing CRM to execute these strategies?

VipeCloud is an affordable AND scalable sales and marketing CRM that gives you the features that your large competitors have – at a fraction of the cost.

In other words, you can do everything we showed you in this article without breaking the bank.

Interested in giving it a try?

Or, would you prefer to talk to a human?

Feel free to schedule a demo with us today.

What Is An Email Sequence?