7 Proven And Essential Email Campaigns For Your Business

How many email marketing sequences do we need for our business? What are the critical email campaign examples you should have in place?

We're Kennedy and Carrie, and here are the 7 email campaigns we think every business should have.

Ready to take notes? (And, most importantly, take action?)

SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

(0:38) Want to carry on with the conversation? Join our FREE Facebook group.

(3:04) Take action - build one campaign at a time.

(5:07) Why are campaigns with multiple emails more effective?

(12:40) 1. A delivery sequence.

(15:40) 2. A welcome sequence.

(19:23) 3. A direct sales sequence.

(22:37) 4. A content-led sequence.

(27:57) 5. An objection handling sequence.

(33:19) 6. A risk reversal sequence.

(34:20) 7. A subscriber engagement sequence.

(39:01) Subject lines of the week.

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Take action - build one campaign at a time

The email campaign examples we're giving you here are the ones we think you must have in your business, but don’t get overwhelmed by this advice. Build one campaign at a time and then improve them later because you cannot optimise what doesn’t exist!

We cannot predict perfection, so we should stop waiting for it - we can only polish our progress. So don't wait to start your email marketing until you have all the sequences fully written, optimised, and reviewed. You'd be delaying action and creating a noble obstacle. Just get something out there because, with email marketing, you’re building relationships with people. We need to stop acting like every email is a performance!

Why are campaigns with multiple emails more effective?

Some campaigns could have as few as one email, but you can add as many emails as you want to a sequence. Some of our campaigns are made up of up to 30 emails - it depends on what they are and what they do. A sequence of multiple emails will always outperform one single email. That's because none of us is getting a 100% open rate on our emails (not even Google!) Even if you’re getting a healthy 40% open rate, 60% of your subscribers are still not seeing those emails.

Also, we are all inspired by and connect with different things. If you tell someone that a particular offer is expiring soon, they might buy because they're motivated by loss. But the same email might not work for someone who's motivated by different things. Instead, you might be able to get their attention by offering a bonus, for example. Having a sequence of emails in a chain with time delays between them always outperforms a singular email.

Why you should pre-write and automate your email campaigns

We recommend you pre-write and automate your email sequences because, that way, they’ll perform for you no matter what's happening in your life or business. Having automated email sequences gives you flexibility. Your pre-written emails are an asset - not a liability!

If you spend time sending out broadcast emails, you can never use that email again, and you won’t get that time back. But if you write your emails into automated campaigns that every subscriber in your list will receive, you're building an asset that’s going to serve you time and time again. Automated campaigns are effective not only because they help you make sales, but also because they allow you to deepen the relationship with your subscribers (or help you re-engage them). It depends on the point of the campaign.

The key is to build your email campaigns as an asset that compounds and serves you for as long as you need it to – not just for the time it takes you to do the work. When you write and schedule emails, you have the systems and automations already in place. And they keep working for you even when you can't, for whatever reason. Write your emails when you feel your boldest and bravest self, and pre-programme that content to go out regardless. That way, your emails will do the heavy lifting for you. They can act as a staff member, i.e. a hugely powerful asset in your business that allows you to keep going when you can't.

So what are the 7 email sequences you should have in your business?

1. A delivery sequence

You need a simple, engaged sequence that delivers whatever people want to download from you. Even if you’re giving away that product for free (i.e. a lead magnet), treat it with reverence – don’t undervalue it because it’s free. People will decide on the value of something based on how you treat it. They might not be paying money for it, but they're giving you their email address. And data is currency. So show people that what they get in return is valuable to them.

Remember that you need a delivery sequence for every product (free or paid-for) that you give out. Send people what you said you'd send them, and keep hyping that. Don’t even refer to your lead magnet as a freebie, if you can avoid it. Because people paid for it with their data and attention. And once they download it, you want them to ask you what’s next.

If you're getting started, a delivery sequence is the easiest email campaign to put together. You don’t even have to write it all in advance either. A grandfather of this industry, Jimmy D. Brown, used to say that every Tuesday and Thursday he'd set his alarm and spend 30 minutes adding one email to every one of his sequences. Before long, he had hundreds of emails. So start with one because you can’t improve on what you don’t have.

2 . A welcome sequence

The delivery and the welcome sequence aren’t the same thing. You may have several ways for people to get into your world (i.e. different lead magnets, challenges, webinars, etc.) You want different delivery sequences for each lead magnet, but you only need one welcome sequence.

Our Welcome Sequence (the one we teach inside The Email Hero Blueprint) is called the Getting To Know You sequence. No matter how someone comes into our world, they go through the same welcome sequence. It’s highly optimised, everyone gets it, and you don’t have to create a new one every time you launch a new lead magnet.

The first email of your welcome sequence should bridge the gap between how people got on your email list and what’s going to happen next. This is an important step because for most people the transaction is completed once they've downloaded your lead magnet. They ‘paid’ through their email address, and any emails they get from you after that are a nuisance and a surprise! So in the first email of your welcome sequence, tell them what's going to happen next. Use that email to position the ongoing emails and resell them on something valuable – this isn’t an apology!

Also, give them a whole bunch of ways they can connect with you on different platforms (such as your social media or your podcast). While your delivery sequence is transactional, your welcome sequence leads people into the relational territory.

3. A direct sales sequence

The direct sales sequence is conversional, in that you're starting the process of converting subscribers into becoming paying customers. This is where you tell people what you sell and how you serve.

This campaign helps you address the people who come into your world with an urgent need for a solution to their problem. Your job is to help them, so don’t push this stage down the line. The last thing you want to do for these people is to disengage them by pushing some irrelevant content down their throats.

Even if people need more information before buying, you still want to introduce them to your core offer. So be clear on what you sell, on the solution you have, and the problem it solves. You'll find that rabid (urgent) buyers will buy at this stage - this campaign is for them.

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4. A content-led sales sequence

Your content-led sales sequence is for the people who need more information. They’re more cautious buyers - perhaps because they've been burnt before. This isn’t a content value-based sequence by the way – we’re not just entertainment in someone’s inbox! It’s a content-led sales email campaign. Ultimately, your goal is to offer people your solution (just like in the direct sales campaign), but now you're doing it through a content sequence. It’s not content for content’s sake - it’s content that needs to set up the sale.

Why? Because we want to make sales, of course, but also because we don't want to distract our audience and add more overwhelm to their lives. People are coming to you with a specific problem they believe you can solve. So don’t start talking about irrelevant topics! If they wanted more content or overwhelm, they'd still be browsing the Internet. They want clarity. So your job is to prove that what you have is unique and interesting and is going to help them. You're going to do that by teaching them something small but tangible that gives them a quick win and makes them more willing to join your programme. You could share a video to teach them something, for example. Whatever you share, start with content, and then move into making an offer. This is what a content-led...