Nurturing Sequences Are… How Many Emails?

What Is a Nurturing Sequence

To make sure we’re talking about the same thing – nurturing sequences are made up of a series of emails that are automatically sent on a schedule you define, in response to a triggering event – like an opt-in, a page view, or a document download. Nurturing sequences can be suspended based on new triggering events.  Note that this is done at the lead level, and not for the entire group of leads who may be receiving the sequence. Automatically recording and reacting to various triggering events is the true power of nurturing. Once set up, it’s almost hands-free marketing.

What’s the magic number?

Odds are you are on someone’s email list. Perhaps they send a new message to your inbox every day. Maybe they only send out 2 emails per month. You know that person is a successful Internet marketer, so you wonder if you should be following in their footsteps as far as your nurturing sequence length is concerned.

Email Nurturing Sequence Length – Short vs Long

Some marketers believe in short sequences. Others have involved nurturing sequences that take a year for you to make it through. Which of these marketers is right? What is the ideal time frame length for your nurturing sequence to run?

I don’t mean to foreshadow, but the real answer is “it depends.”

There is an old marketing saying known as the Rule of Seven. It is based on a lot of research which shows a prospect needs to be contacted at least 7 times before they will buy from you. Does that mean you should have precisely seven emails in your nurturing sequence?

Maybe.

The truth is, the key cannot be found in a specific number, but rather the relationships you develop.

Nurturing sequences build relationships

Think about your own inbox. If someone consistently delivers great information and “speaks” in a voice you can identify with, will you ever get tired of getting an email from them? Probably not. You have connected with them in a way that forwards the action for you and what you’re considering. They have done a great job of answering your questions and providing value that really means something to you. As long as the emails deliver content you are looking for, and they are not sales-oriented most of the time, you might stay on that email list forever.

Some people are different.

They opted into a particular list because they promised to deliver special discounted sales offers to their inbox each and every day. Those people are bargain hunters. They fully expect to see some type of sales oriented content when they open their emails. Those individuals might buy something from the first email they received. They might not need to be contacted 7 times.

Give them what they are looking for

What are you offering them?

Take a look at your opt-in page. What does it offer? What does it promise? The answers to these questions can give you an idea of how many emails you should have in the nurturing sequence that follows that particular opt-in. You should also look at your fulfillment email. Does it deliver on your promise? Does it appropriately set up additional communication on that topic? You don’t need to tell people you’ll communicate daily or weekly (unless they opted in to something you called a daily or weekly email, of course), but it’s good to mention that you’ll have more information headed their way in a day or two (or whenever your first email in your nurturing sequence will be sent).

So really, how many emails?

The Rule of Seven suggests that seven is the right minimum number of emails to have in each of your nurturing sequences. But let’s get real. You need to get something flowing right now. So start with three emails – three emails that deepen the conversation in the particular topic the person on your list has expressed an interest in. Get three done and get your sequence delivering.

Remember that effective communication cadence optimization is just as important as the number of emails – timing your messages properly can significantly impact engagement and conversion rates.

This approach becomes especially valuable when you need a comprehensive marketing automation strategy to drive consistent results. If you’ve got good marketing automation software (like Genoo), you can always add emails to the end of your sequence and cause them to be delivered to people who have already received the first three.

Match the number of emails to the offer

If you’ve got people who have opted in to receive an eBook, your nurturing sequence draws out the points made in the eBook. Did you make twenty different points? Then a final sequence of twenty emails is appropriate. If you only made five points, five emails is fine.

Make them relevant

No matter how many emails you decide on, make them relevant to the reader and fluff-free. Keep them information-packed, with links to relevant blog articles you’ve written or informational pages on your website. Creating effective blog content for nurturing sequences requires strategic planning to ensure each piece supports your broader email marketing objectives. While you can softly include a way for someone to skip right to the bottom of your sales funnel and ask for a meeting or make a purchase, don’t make that the focus of your nurturing emails.

Deliver by listening

Above all, deliver what your perfect potential customers want to hear. Listen to their interests by automatically tracking their behaviors, and trigger people into nurturing sequences based on the interests they are telling you they have by their opt-ins, their page views, their downloads, even their email clicks. Learn from them and you will know what to do.

When you’re juggling multiple marketing initiatives, effective marketing prioritization methods can help you focus on what matters most while building these foundational sequences.

The important thing is to be in action. Get started. Perfection is the enemy of done. Now that you’ve mapped out your sequence, the next step is nurturing sequence implementation to put your plan into action and start converting those leads.

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