5 Essential Email Sequences For Your Online Business

Call me crazy… but I like to observe what happens when I sign up for something online using my email address. Will I get the standard, boring form email that delivers what I signed up to get? Will there be email sequences that follow? It’s a marketing adventure.

What can I say… I’m an email nerd! I guess that’s why I created a whole program called BADA$$ Email Marketing that’s included in my free BADA$$ Online Marketing University. 

Click here to enroll in BOMU to get access to my email marketing course for FREE. 

The sad fact is that most online entrepreneurs screw up just about everything about their email marketing. They start with a boring delivery email that basically says, “here’s your thing,” in spite of the fact that this email is the most opened one they will ever send. 

From there, things don’t generally get better. Most people ghost me… at least until they want to sell me something. I’ll go months without hearing a peep and then get hit with a slew of “buy my stuff” emails. 

The people who don’t ghost me tend to throw me straight into their weekly emails. I’m left dazed and confused because I don’t really know them, like them, or trust them yet… and the weekly emails they send me don’t tend to bridge that gap. 

If you want to actually make money with email marketing, you need to think of it as a journey. A 5-step journey to be exact!

When we get so focused on making the sale, we forget about the journey. These five email sequences together create a journey for your subscribers so that when you do present an offer, they’re more likely to buy.

The CATCH Email

The first step in the journey is a single email. This email is triggered automatically after someone fills out your form, and it will also deliver the lead magnet if you’re using one. Think about all the times you’ve signed up for something and received an unimpressive email saying “here’s your freebie.” You probably don’t even remember what it said because it was so underwhelming. 

That’s why this delivery email is so important. You don’t want to waste the opportunity to make a first impression. 

This single email is also the one that is most likely to get opened since it has the resource they signed up to receive. Many studies have shown that delivery emails have open rates of 3 to 4 times your other emails. Why the hell would you want to squander an email that nearly EVERYONE will read?!? 

If your first email draws them in, people are more likely to open the next one you send. That means the reverse is true. If your first email sucks, you’ll have to work harder to get them to open your next email. 

Take the time to write an engaging email that will actually start to build the know, like, and trust factor by showing that you “get” your people and showing a bit of your personality. 

In this context, CATCH is a play on words… the email helps you “catch” your subscribers, but it also tells you what to say: (1) congratulate, (2) acknowledge the challenge, (3) tells me about you, (4) credibility boost, and (5) hook. 

If you want to learn more about each piece, grab your spot in BOMU where you can access my email marketing course for free.

Nurture Email Sequence

After the CATCH email, send your people a nurture sequence that will spur them to take action on the freebie. If your people never download your freebie (or download it but don’t take action), they are going to forget about you. 

The best way to become unforgettable is to make sure your people use the freebie and get results. Your nurture sequence is designed to help them through the process. It could be as simple as giving them a swift kick in the ass to actually take action… or it could be about going deeper with each step you’re asking them to take. 

You know what your audience needs to do; write a nurture sequence that will get them to do it!

When you are the person who created the freebie that they actually used, you become their trusted person in your space. That’s another step in building the know, like, and trust factor.

Welcome Email Sequence

Here’s a quick newsflash for you… when someone signs up for your email list, they know basically nothing about you. They have no idea what you stand for, what you stand against, how you can help them, or what you sell. 

If you don’t take the time to tell your people these things, they may never know. 

This is where your welcome sequence comes into play. Your welcome sequence gives your audience an orientation into your world. It’s a chance for your subscribers to figure out who you are and make sure they want to stay in your world. 

Let’s be honest, you can’t serve everyone. Your welcome sequence should make it clear to your subscribers whether staying on your list is right or wrong for them. 

During this sequence, you should have emails dedicated to things like your origin story, your core values (yeah… you need to have those), your content, your primary social media channel, and your products and services. 

Assuming someone reads these emails… they should know the ABCs or your business!

Weekly Emails

Don’t ghost your people. Send them an email each and every week. If I had to choose my favorite type of email, it would be weekly emails because that’s where the magic happens.

When you consistently show up for your subscribers, you build connections with them. As your connections grow, people begin to feel excited about your emails and your business. They’ll go from subscriber to fan and will actually want to buy from you and tell their friends about you.

But these are NOT boring “newsletters” that just regurgitate your weekly content. Nope. Your weekly emails are a chance to truly connect with your people. 

Each weekly email should let your audience into your life a little bit more. The goal here is connection, not conversion. And that means telling them a story from your life. 

These don’t have to be deep emails that let them in on personal secrets. You can share your funny stories, challenging experiences, and deep insights. You could also make a random observation about something you like (in my case… beer is a frequent subject). 

These emails make you relatable, which means you feel less like a marketer and more like a friend. Building this relationship makes the next step in the journey easy-peasy. 

Promo Sequences

Continuing with my generally obvious naming scheme, promo sequences are where you sell. This sequence could be part of a big launch or just a series of emails offering your product, online course, membership, or service. But the key is to remember that these emails are designed to convert.

The emails should still feel like they are coming from you… but instead of conversational copy, you’ll include conversion copy to help steer the sale. That means selling them on the benefits of your product (or your launch before that!). 

This is where you make your money, so don’t skimp on these emails. When in doubt… send another email.

How To Write The Email Sequences You Need

If you don’t have all these email sequences set up, looking at this list can feel overwhelming. And we didn’t even get into the details of what to include in each of these sequences. But I don’t want to leave you hanging.

I created an amazing FREE resource that can help you learn the ins and outs of creating email sequences for your online business. It’s called BADA$$ Online Marketing University, and you can enroll for FREE. Sign up today and learn how to build and market your online business the right way.