What is a Sales Sequence? [Examples Included]

Having an awareness of the audience and purpose when creating email sequences

It's important to tailor your Sales sequence to the specific needs of your audience. By understanding the pain points that your product or service solves and the reasons why your audience would need it, you can create targeted and effective email campaigns that convert leads into potential customers.

Here are some key points to consider when creating your Sales sequence:

• Clearly define the purpose and intent behind each email in your sequence. This will help you focus on the right messages and personalize your content for your audience.
• Treat each email as part of a larger story or theme. This will help you build rapport and establish trust with your audience.
• Use testimonials and social proof to build credibility and trust with your audience.
• Use timing and trigger events to tailor your email campaigns to the specific needs of your audience. This will help you provide them with the most relevant and accurate information.
• Utilize tools like Hubspot to create workflows and automate tasks in between emails, allowing you to efficiently manage your Sales sequence and effectively reach your target audience.

An email is a form of marketing, and you are a marketer for your company and product. Knowing your audience and purpose allows you to focus on the intention behind each email and sequence. It also provides for personalization so you can hit the touch points that specific audiences will connect with. Each section of your sequence should not be isolated from the others.  Each should complement each other and set up a theme for that sequence. It should be like telling a story versus individual statements.

Knowing whether you are trying to sell a product directly, get them to subscribe to a newsletter, or refer a friend or family member, the purpose and intent behind your emails are the name of the game. Never waste an opportunity to continue establishing rapport. Strangers will tend to react differently than well-established followers or fans when receiving niche emails about you and your services. Adding content that helps build trust is very important. Testimonials will help your audience connect to your emails’ content and is a high social proof of what your company is capable of doing.

If you know your audience, then timing when to send specific email sequences will be vital for a successful email marketing campaign.

Here are a few things you should include in a Sales Sequence.

There are many types of sales sequences 

Here are a few to keep in mind:

Every relationship starts somewhere, and with Welcome sequences, we try to build one from the ground up. It’s important to share about yourself and what you are looking to offer in value.

This is a series of emails that build value with each email and begin to move the subscriber along the customer journey. Unlike the other types of sequences, this one intentionally takes its time and adds value to the previous emails sent in the sequence.

This sequence builds off of previous sequences with added calls to action or activities suggested for your audience to complete independently. 

At its natural progression, this sequence is asking for the sale from your audience. You have already established a relationship and continued to add valuable information that they are already starting to work on. Now it is time for them to take serious action in most cases with a purchase.

A customer should remain engaged even after purchasing. This sequence continues the relationship by thanking them for taking part in your services and leaves them with additional value that they can continue using. This also creates an opportunity to share other potential services and offerings that would supplement their recent purchase.

If a person visits your website and provides their email, it is an opportunity to share value. Call out problems that your customers have, empathize with them that you've also been in similar situations, and share how your product or service will help solve those problems.

One thing you want to be sure of is the pacing at which your emails are being sent out. The worst thing you can do is come off as SPAM and lose any chance of a relationship with some of those contacts ever again. Ask yourself if you were to receive this email from someone else, how would it make you feel?

A sequence could be looked at in a few different ways from the basic text, or a mix of imagery and text, or a fully functioning HTML formatted email. Depending on what part of the sales process, the email is sent to dictate the format needed. Imagine an email onboarding sequence versus a contract renewal sequence, the more you know the intent, the better the choices in words and imagery.

Here is an example by Samantha from ActiveCampaign of a Welcome Email sequence:

• Email 1: Welcome 
  Welcome your new subscriber to the community and share with them what to expect from your next emails to come.
• Email 2: Nurture 
  Here is the opportunity to really connect with your customer by introducing them to your team, your history, and why you do what you do.
• Email 3: Engagement 
  Now that they are aware of who you are, this is the time to share value, build authority, and offer some free tips or actions that they could apply now.
• Email 4: Conversion 
  Having added valuable information in previous emails you’ve established various solutions to potential problems your subscribers are facing. Now is the time to offer even more value with your service or product that aligns with the need you have already positioned to them over the course of multiple emails. Ask for the sale.

Emails alone can carry high value for your subscribers. Taking the time to mail over materials and to reach out by phone will exponentially increase the chances of conversions. It is important that with each step it is personalized to the client to be more impactful. It also will help you stand out amongst any competitors.

When creating sequences, you will be adding additional tasks or follow-ups that are physical versus just an email. This is referred to as Grounding, which is a technique that helps keep someone in the present. So imagine a personalized gift sent by you to the client. After receiving it, anytime, they see that gift or something like that gift they will think of you, which is the type of impression you want to leave on them with such a gesture.

Another effective Sales sequence is the Soap Opera Sequence.

“A Soap Opera Sequence is typically a series of 5 emails that are sent out over the course of 5 days to an email subscriber initially upon subscribing. It tells an emotional story similar to a tv soap opera but for emails with the purpose of warming up a lead to eventually sell a product.” David Sandy

Here’s typically what the 5-day email sequence looks like:

Day #1: Sets The Stage

This first email will set up the expectations for what the subscriber will experience with the next set of emails. One of those expectations is to share something super valuable and might even call it a secret. You will describe how the secret positively affected you then you will convey how excited you are to share what that secret is soon and then cut the email short with a teaser.

Day #2: High Drama, Backstory, Wall

Now catch your reader's attention with a severe dilemma or backstory with high drama involving you and your business. Perhaps even something devastating enough to almost fail the business. You end it with the revelation that you somehow saved the day and that you’ll explain how in the next emails to come.

Day #3: Epiphany, The One Thing

This email will be the big reveal as to what it was that you did to ultimately save the day. Reveal a technique or set of resources to share with your reader and how you came about the solution. Be sure to also promise other tips and solutions that they will benefit from in your next emails.

Day #4: Hidden Benefits

This email will explain your products and services that came out of the solution or secret from your previous email. Don’t go too deep in how you got from point A to point B but that your products or services were serendipitous to what you figured out to save the day.

Day #5: Urgency Call To Action (CTA)

Each email will have a CTA for them to continue reading up to this email. Now is the direct Close and Ask for the sale that would motivate them to act now rather than later. Create a sense of urgency to take advantage of your services or products while it lasts.

No matter what type of sequence you create, it is always essential to have a Call To Action in every email. Whether in the form of a question or recommendation, it should be clear to the reader what you are requesting.

Why is a Call to Action so important in a sequence?

Sales Sequences help increase open rates from Cold starts

Sales Sequences can help increase open rates from Cold starts. A cold start is when you send an email to a contact's email address without any prior interaction. This means that the recipient is a stranger to your company and what you do.

Here are a few key points to consider when sending a cold email:

• Clearly state that the recipient is a cold contact and provide relevant information for someone who knows nothing about you or your business.
• Provide value with your content and build rapport with the recipient. This can help increase the chances of them engaging with your email.
• Send an average of 4 to 6 emails to a cold contact. This can help establish a relationship and increase the chances of them engaging with your content.
• Use a Sales Sequence to guide the email outreach and provide a consistent and structured approach. This can help increase the effectiveness of your cold email campaign.

By following these tips, you can improve your cold email success rate and increase engagement with your content.

Conclusion

As you have learned, a successful sales campaign requires a lot of planning and effort. If you are ready to start creating your own sales campaign, we are here to help. We offer expert guidance and support to help you learn new tools and techniques, and to scale your business as it grows.

If you would like to receive expert help, click on the link below to book a free consultation. Our goal is to help you succeed, and we are here to support you on your journey. Talk to a sales expert at gardenpatch today and start achieving your goals.