How to Create an Email Nurture Sequence (Free Templates!)

One email won’t do much.

Put a bunch of emails in a sequence.

Now, you’re golden.

LinkedIn, Facebook, SMS, all work great with each other, but no lead nurturing campaign is complete without an email nurture sequence that can take the conversation further.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at how you can create an email nurture sequence, check out templates, and bring in leads like never before.

You ready?

Let’s jump right in!

The Importance of an Email Nurture Sequence

One email isn’t enough.

It won’t do more than make sure they see your brand in their inbox.

They might click it, read a little, pass some judgment and your prospect is done.

That’s why it’s critical that it’s a series.

Here’s why you should pay attention to your email nurture sequence:

• It builds trust – you can’t build your reputation in a day and it’s the same with email. No matter how much a prospect might ignore your email, the more that they see that you’re serious with what you’re sending, and the value that you give, the more they’ll be inclined to start a relationship with you.
• It can integrate with your omnichannel marketing – email nurture sequences integrate into everything. You can add them into any existing campaign on different platforms, use them as the main campaigns, or even break them off into other sequences!
• It’s a sign of activity – would you hire a growth hacking agency that’s inactive? Of course not, activity is a sign that a company knows what it’s doing and that they’re constantly working. It’s just good branding, and since we mentioned branding…
• It helps with brand recall – if they don’t read your first one, two or three emails, they’ll remember your offer because they can see your brand in their inbox.

Lastly, there’s this:

• It moves a prospect through the funnel – we’re not just talking about the obvious CTAs here that allow them to sign up with you. It goes beyond that. You can use email nurture sequence to slowly guide a prospect into making a buying decision.

Now, it’s time to create your first email nurture sequence.

Method 1: Creating Trigger-Based Sequences

Decide on the Trigger

These sequences depend on triggers.

The prospect has to do something specific before you can shoot emails their way.

Here are a couple of examples of triggers:

• Signup to a newsletter
• Downloading a lead magnet
• Filling out forms

Here’s what.

You need to automate the process.

So, pick a program that allows you to do this. It saves time and ensures that you don’t miss out on any prospect.

A Different Sequence Depending on Intent

Notice that we didn’t call this section “A Difference Sequence Depending on the Trigger”?

This is because you can group similar triggers together depending on the intent.

For example, people who download lead magnets and subscribe to a special newsletter are in it to learn, so they should get a different sequence.

On the other hand, those who request more information regarding your services or sign up for your intake forms have more of a “buying” intent so they deserve a sequence to themselves.

Here’s the thing.

An email should be personalized, but so should the sequence.

This is the only way you can make sure that you get your material to resonate with your prospects.

What Should the Sequence Look Like?

If they requested a lead magnet then your sequence can look like this:

• Trigger: Say thank you for their interest in your material, the download etc. and then offer them a chance to sign up to your offer.
• 3 days later: Throw them a link to a similar piece of content that they could be interested in.
• 4 days later: Another piece of content, this time with a CTA for them to reach out to you.
• Repeat weekly

If they’re interested in a meeting:

For buyer intent triggers, your sequence should look a little something like this:

• Trigger: First email with information if they’re requesting to book a meeting with you
• If they don’t reply: Follow up email after 3 days
• If they still don’t reply: Follow up email after 3 days
• If it still doesn’t work, look for alternative method of contact them.
• If you get them on a call: send a thank you email
• Go to method 2 for the full details

You can be more aggressive with email nurturing sequences if your prospect is the first one to initiate contact.

The First Email

Your first email in your email lead nurture sequence should always be a follow-up to the trigger.

You’ll never go wrong with saying thank you and asking them if they want to book a meeting with you soon. Be gracious with this email and keep it short.

You don’t have to sell anything.

Method 2: Creating Email Nurturing Sequences After a Meeting

The email nurturing sequences are the most critical if you ask us.

They help facilitate a proper relationship from growing with a prospect right after a sales call, and that’s important if you want to finally make a conversion.

Get the Call Right

First of all, you want to get your sales discovery/triage call right.

This means being able to identify if the prospect is a qualified buyer and what type of ideal customer profile they fall in.

Once you do that, you still need to follow the steps above and make sure that you have a personalized lead nurturing campaign designed for each of the main profiles that you have.

Check out out examples of sales scripts that work!

What Should The Sequence Look Like?

The sequence is also pretty simple.

As long as the sales discovery/triage call goes well and the lead is certified as a qualified one, you should be good with a sequence that looks a little like this:

• Succesful meeting
• 2 days later: follow-up email
• 2 days later: follow-up email
• 3 days later: follow-up email

Topics to Cover

You can just get straight to the point and tell them you’re following up, but always interspace these emails with interesting nuggets of information that they can use in their business.

Remember the more actionable, the better!

Method 3: Creating Direct Email Nurturing Sequences

Start With an Email List

You want to start with an email list of the prospects that you currently have.

A general email list can work or you can pull it out of your CRM if you want to.

Next, you want to run a “bounce test” with your emails. You want to get rid of the people who won’t be receiving your emails, these are people with full inboxes, the wrong contact information, etc. This allows you to improve your email deliverability rates and make sure ISPs don’t place restrictions on you.

Once your general email list is ready, it’s time for you to segment that email list based on the target customer profiles you want to target with.

I suggest that you start with your biggest ideal customer profile.

Determining What Topics to Cover

The topics you should cover will depend on their target customer profile.

So, these could be invitations to check out other whitepapers that you might have on your site, a truncated blog post, some resource material, etc.

Sometimes, you can just check up on them and that would be more than enough.

This might sound weird but…

DON’T SELL.

Here’s why.

We find that being pushy with prospects in B2B deals usually results in prospects being less likely to buy from you.

At most, we advise that you put in a CTA that invites them to jump on a call with you so that they can find out more about what you have to offer.

That’s the more subtle way of doing it.

Of course, we’re not stopping you from hitting them up with FOMO or a special offer, but you still need to take your time with these things.

What Should the Sequence Look Like?

The bare minimum that you should send in any email sequence is 3.

This applies universally, whether it be an outreach operation, lead generation, or newsletters.

One will never cut it and two is just plain lazy.

For buyer’s intent emails, as we mentioned earlier, it’s okay to space things out over a few days. However, if it’s just plain nurturing – especially in the case of B2B prospects with long business cycles, an email a week wouldn’t hurt.

If you’re releasing valuable material all the time, send an email each week, and then make sure you use other mediums to follow up with your prospects.

Choose an Email Automation Service

There is no way you can pull email nurturing sequences off properly without the use of a proper email automation service, now there’s a lot available in the market, and the choice pretty much boils down to pricing, tracking, and reliability.

Some email automation services also allow you to create sequences within your sequence to allow for a more personalized approach for your lead nurturing.

You want to upload all of the emails into the email automation app, and now all that’s left are the emails.

Here’s what.

Make sure you pick a service with robust tracking, you want to find out how your emails are faring, and if you’re doing a good job so far.

This way you can be flexible and adjust to whatever can be done better in the future.

Don’t Just Depend on Your Email Nurture Sequence Alone

Back in the day, a well-crafted email nurture sequence could seal the deal easily.

It’s not like that anymore.

Your email nurture sequence is just a part of your overall email nurturing plan.

Yes, it will work well.

But, you can’t just depend on it for everything.

You need to have active campaigns on LinkedIn, Facebook, calls, etc. because the aim is to create an omnichannel campaign.

However, keep this in mind.

Email lead nurturing is a more direct form of nurturing, so when you’re running it make sure your social media nurturing is less direct. Think of organic posts or brand awareness ad targeting campaigns.

You don’t want to overload your prospect because that would be counterproductive.

Lead Nurturing Templates You Can Use

We’ll be releasing the ultimate list of templates that you can use, so for now, we’ll provide you with three emails for each lead nurturing method we’ve discussed.

For Method 1

Email 1

Good day!

Thanks for downloading our resource on *topic name*.

We hope it’ll help you stimulate growth in your organization.

Feel free to check out the other stuff that we have on our *resource location e.g. blog*

Thanks and continue kicking butt!

*Your name*

Email 2

Hey, *prospect name*!

Are you having problems with *industry painpoint*.

Alright, great.

We have just the resource for you.

In this, *type of resource*, you’ll find out how to fix *industry painpoint* like a pro!

Let me know it helped.

Talk to you soon,

*Your name*

Email 3

Hi *prospect name*,

Are you looking to find out how to *actionable skill they can learn from your organization*?

We’re running a *event/resource* to help you out.

Maybe you need to get some leads coming through? Don’t worry we can help you out.

We can get on a call soon if you want, let me know what your schedule looks like!

*Your name*

For Method 2

Email 1

Hey *prospect name*!

It was great speaking with you today.

I’ve enclosed a couple of notes about the our meeting so that you can check them out when you can.

Looking forward to working with you!

Hit me up if you need anything,

*Your name*

Email 2

Hi *prospect name*,

Here’s a great piece of content that I feel could help you with what we talked about before.

The link is here.

I think you’ll find it interesting.

Talk to you soon,

*Your name*

Email 3

Hi *prospect name*,

We’re doing a *name of event or freebie* this week, and I wanted to invite you to join/take part if your’re free.

I think this is a valuable experience for your business and it’s also a chance for you to see our solutions in action.

Let me know if you’re interested so that I can put your name down.

Thank you!

*Your name*

For Method 3

Email 1

Hi *prospect name*,

How are you doing?

We’ve got a great series on *topic name* that you should check out. In fact, I’ve included an excerpt of one of the articles here.

It should help you with *industry pain point*.

*Article content*

Check out the rest of the article here *insert link*

Talk to you soon,

*Your name*

Email 2

Hi *prospect name*,

How would you like to *your USP*?

*show social proof and talk about testimonial from your old clients*.

Talk to us today and find out how we can take your growth to the next level!

See you soon,

*Your name*

Takeaways

Email is already powerful.

But, attaching a sequence to your emails adds more to that power.

It allows you to take care of your prospects.

It allows you to build relationships that are real.

That’s what’s important when building client-provider relationships.

How’s your lead generation coming along?

Book a consultation session with us!

As always, stay Golden.