When you started your online business, you probably heard people telling you to build your email list and email your people. And you were probably thinking, what does that mean?

I feel you. I struggled with list building for a while, but I eventually developed a system that makes it simple for online entrepreneurs to create an email journey to guide their subscribers from the moment they join your list until you make an offer to them.

Within this journey, there are five critical email sequences that you need to create. Each sequence aims to help you build the “know, like, and trust” factor and help your people decide whether you and your products or services are right for them.

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CATCH Email Sequence

Good news: this first sequence is only one email long. This first email that you need to send to your subscribers when they first join your list is specific to how they joined. Most people come to your list because they signed up for a freebie or lead magnet, and your CATCH email is the email you use to deliver that freebie.

What most entrepreneurs don’t realize is how critical this first email is, and unfortunately, a lot of people are doing it wrong. Most of the time, they just send an email that says, “Hey, here’s your freebie!” The end.

That’s not the right approach.

This email will generally have the highest open rate because people want their free thing. That’s why you need to take advantage of that valuable real estate to start building the “know, like, and trust” factor. It’s an opportunity to get people to see you as the trusted authority that they should listen to when it comes to email.

The CATCH structure stands for:

• Congratulate them
• Acknowledge their struggles
• Tells me about you
• Credibility boost
• Hook

I have a more detailed discussion about this structure in this post.

In the CATCH email sequence, you talk about the things they’re struggling with and help them understand that you feel their pain. Doing so makes you an authority who can help them on their journey.

Now you need to tailor your CATCH email to your freebie, so if you have several freebies, you need to craft different CATCH emails because the pain points the freebie addresses will vary and you need to acknowledge them differently.

Nurture Sequence

Your nurture sequence will fall into one of two camps. One is for an immediate offer you have that is related to the freebie they downloaded, and the other is to help them get value from the freebie.

If you have a low-priced offer directly related to what they just signed up for, your nurture sequence will be about nurturing them to buy that offer. You’re going to send them a series of emails that nurture them to make that purchase.

If you don’t have an immediate offer, your nurture sequence is meant to serve a different purpose—to help them get value from the freebie they just got.

In this sequence, you’ll dig deeper into the points you cover in your freebie. You’ll give them more insight to help them get value, take action, and make progress, which will help you become an authority figure. They’ll start to like you because they’ll see that you help them solve a problem.

Welcome Sequence

In this email sequence, you’ll pivot away from being specific to the freebie. Now you’re going to talk about your business and how you can help your subscribers.

Someone who recently joined your list probably doesn’t know much about you. They don’t know your story, what you do, how you can help them, or what kinds of free and paid content you create.

Your welcome sequence is the way you introduce them into your world. It’s a series of emails that will share the basics of your business with them.

It’s also where you start to add more of your personality, so they really get to feel who you are as a person. For example, I start my welcome sequence with an email that says “Buckle up, it’s about to get weirder.” I have a lot of personality in my emails and I want people to know that so they can decide if I’m someone who can help them.

Weekly Email Sequence

Once someone is done with your welcome sequence, they go into your weekly email sequence. Some people would call it the newsletter sequence, but basically, these are the emails you send every week.

Now if you’ve just started your email list and you’re sending one email a week, don’t make it a newsletter. Instead, you should send a story-based email.

The purpose of your weekly emails is to connect with your audience, to let them into your world, so they can get to know you. This will help you get to the point where they like you and want to do business with you.

If you’re creating weekly content, you should direct your subscribers to it from that email. Note, though, that the goal of the weekly email isn’t to get clicks. It’s to build connections and have conversations.

Promo Sequence

Your promo sequence will depend on what you’re promoting. You may need an invite sequence if you’re doing a launch and a show-up sequence so that people will actually come to the webinar.

When it comes to open cart emails, many people think they can just re-send a bunch of the same basic email. Nope. You will need different types of emails for different types of buyers.

Some of your promo emails will tell them in detail what the offer is, others will help them understand what the alternatives are and what these options cost. Some of them will explain the cost of not taking any action, while others will share what other people have said about your product. There’s a lot of bases to cover in your promo sequence, so you need to be organized.

Build Your Email Marketing System

Now that you know the five critical email sequences that you need as an entrepreneur, it’s time to start creating them. There are a lot of pieces in the process, but start with your CATCH email and build from there. 

If you want more details about how to put together your email journey, I have an email marketing course that is part of my signature program, BADA$$ Online Marketing University. It’s completely FREE, so all you have to do is sign up and go through the training programs.