June 3, 2025 • 29 mins
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So, how do some digital sellers seem to make sales on autopilot… even when they’re not actively promoting? Spoiler: it’s not magic—it’s email automation. In this episode, I’m breaking down 8 essential email sequences every digital product seller should have in place. These automations work behind the scenes to connect with your audience, build trust, and drive sales, all without you lifting a finger after setup.
You’ll learn how to use automations like testimonial requests, cart recovery, onboarding, and nurture sequences to create a more strategic, personalized email experience. I’ll help you prioritize which ones to start with, and walk you through how to get them up and running quickly—even if email marketing feels overwhelming right now.
Your action step? Take inventory of what automations you already have in place, then choose one simple sequence to set up this week. And if you want templates, tech support, and guidance to make it happen, check out The Savvy Seller Collective. DM me @kristendoyle.co on Instagram and let me know which automated emails you're setting up first!
02:09 - Automated emails that are quick to set up and give you results right away
09:25 - How to easily set up an automated educational nurture sequence
12:19 - What to include in your product launch runway sequence and sales sequence
16:45 - Examples of automated emails that help you continue customer relationships after they’ve purchased from you
21:11 - Why you need a cold subscriber re-engagement campaign
Links & Resources:
- WooCommerce Cart Abandonment plugin
- Kit - The best email platform for easy automations
- Savvy Seller Collective
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode150
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen (00:00):
Are the only emails that you send out weekly
broadcasts that go out to yourentire email list? If that's
you, first of all, know thatyou're not alone. A lot of us
start there with our emailmarketing, but you are leaving
money on the table and missingout on some great opportunities
to connect with your audience.
So today, I am going to shareeight different types of
(00:23):
automated emails and emailsequences that can work for you
around the clock, turning moreof your subscribers into
customers by reaching out tothem at just the right time. In
a lot of cases, these are emailsthat if you had to send them out
manually on your own, they wouldjust never happen. So you would
just miss those opportunitiescompletely. And the best part
(00:45):
is, you'll set these up once andlet them run in the background
while you're focusing on otherthings.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
(01:06):
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process. Things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations and somuch more. Let's get started,
(01:26):
y'all.
I know when we talk about emailmarketing, you probably
immediately think of thoseweekly broadcasts, and those are
a great place to start. Butemail automation isn't just for
big businesses or fancy techsetups. It actually is super
helpful for smaller businesseslike ours who are selling
(01:50):
digital products or services,and the tech is not that hard to
set up on most email marketingplatforms. And then the good
thing about this is, once youget it set up, they'll just
continue working for you overtime, and you won't have to mess
with them again, other thanmaybe to tweak emails for better
performance.
I'm going to walk you throughall eight types of emails that I
(02:12):
think you should be automating,but we'll start with the ones I
call the low hanging fruit.
These are the ones that arereally quick and easy to set up,
and they'll give you someresults right away. Like I said,
if you are just sending outthose weekly newsletters, the
occasional launch series, you'remissing out on a lot of
opportunities to connect withyour audience, to build
relationships, and, yes, to sellthem things. See, when everybody
(02:35):
gets the exact same messages,regardless of what they're
interested in or what actionsthey've taken, things like, what
have they clicked on? Whatfreebies have they downloaded?
Your emails just don't hit homethe way that they could, and you
miss out on a lot ofopportunities.
Now, I know sometimes when wethink about automations, we're
worried a little bit aboutemails being cold or robotic or
(02:58):
maybe not making sense, butthink about it this way. If you
create the right emails andyou're using the right triggers,
those are the things that setthose emails off to go out to
your subscribers, it's actuallykind of the opposite of cold and
robotic. It lets you send reallyrelevant content targeted to
that particular subscriber.
(03:20):
So for example, when someonedownloads your resource about
classroom management, you cantag them as being interested in
classroom management and sendthem more content about that,
while your subscribers whodownloaded something that was a
reading resource get somethingtotally different. See,
broadcast emails, those weeklyemails we send out to everyone,
those are like shouting into acrowded room. See, everybody's
(03:43):
hearing the same thing at thesame time, and some people will
be interested and a lot of themwon't.
Those targeted emails are morelike having a conversation with
someone based on something theyactually told you, because
you're sending them the contentthey are really interested in.
And a lot of these get youhigher open and click rates
because they're relevant to whatthat person actually cares
(04:04):
about.
Now the secret to making theseemails work is using tags and
segments in your email platform.
So when someone does somethinglike downloading a certain
freebie or clicking a link, youtag them and it can kick off a
sequence of emails tailored tothat action that they just did.
Now you want to be careful notto create hundreds of tags in
(04:26):
your email platform. Think interms of categories, not
individual things, and that willhelp you keep it from getting
overwhelming and super messy.
Trust me, I've been there. I amactually currently working on
cleaning up my tags because Ihave too many.
Alright, let's talk about thoselow hanging fruit sequences.
(04:47):
These are a couple of prettyeasy to set up sequences. They
won't take a whole lot of emailsthat you have to write, and
they're easy to trigger. Thefirst one is a testimonial
request or a review request.
This is just a simple one offemail that you write it once and
you set it up to go outautomatically a few days, few
weeks after someone purchasessomething from you.
(05:11):
Now the timing for this is goingto depend on your specific
product. Think about how long ittakes for somebody to start
seeing results from using yourproduct. That timing is going to
be your sweet spot to ask forfeedback. So for digital
downloads, printables, thingslike that, you might just want
to wait a few days. But forsomething bigger, like a course,
(05:31):
you might want to wait a fewweeks before you ask for
feedback.
In this email, you want to makesure you're making it super easy
for them to respond. So createsomething like a Google form and
give them specific questions,instead of just asking them to
reply and tell you what theythink. When you do this, make
those questions as easy aspossible to answer. Try to
(05:54):
include mostly multiple choicequestions with just a couple of
short answer questions, and themore specific the question is,
the easier it is for the personto answer.
Let them know in the form thatyou want to use their
testimonial on your sales pagesor in your emails. I usually say
something like, Do I havepermission to use your answers
(06:16):
in my marketing for this course,product, resource, whatever it
is, and just have them check yesor no. And then, of course, as
we all know, a little incentivenever hurts. So maybe you offer
people a discount on their nextpurchase if they take the time
to give you feedback. That way,you're able to incentivize that
response, and you'll get goodtestimonial, they'll get a
(06:39):
discount on a future purchase,and everybody wins.
The next email sequence, I wouldencourage you to set up is just
a little longer, and this one'sgoing to be a two email
sequence, but it is still supereasy to do. This one is an
abandoned cart recoverysequence, and what this does is
it grabs those people who addeditems to their cart but didn't
(07:04):
ever check out. This one is foryou, if you have a way for
people to buy directly on yourown website, or if you're using
a checkout platform like ThriveCart, or lots of course builders
that have abandoned cartautomations available for you.
The reason this is so effectiveis because these are people who
added something to their cart.
They were a click or two awayfrom buying and something
(07:24):
happened. Maybe life got in theway. Maybe their kids needed
something, and they just needthat friendly reminder to come
back and finish their purchase.
Abandoned cart emails canusually recover anywhere from 10
to 30% of those almost sales,which is pretty amazing, if you
can get that out of writing twoquick emails and then setting it
(07:47):
up on an automation.
So the first email should go outjust a few hours after they
leave your site. This is just afriendly, Hey, I noticed you
were looking at this. Your cardis saved, if you want to come
back to it, with a direct linkto their cart. Then the second
one goes out a day, maybe twodays later. And in this one, I
(08:09):
would address why they mighthave hesitated, what might be
making them question thispurchase. And you can even offer
a little incentive. Maybe youoffer a 10% discount for them to
complete their purchases. Whenyou think about timing on these,
you don't want to wait too longto send out that first email,
because you really want to catchthem while they're still
thinking about it, and keep thatone helpful, not pushy. I saw
(08:33):
you were checking this out, andI wanted to make sure you could
find it again. And then in thatsecond email, think about what
might have made them pausebefore buying and try to address
those questions or concerns thatthey might have had.
Now, depending on where you areselling your offers, your
platform might have abandonedcart functionality built in, so
(08:53):
you write your emails rightthere in the platform, or you
might need to do it through yourregular email provider or
through a plugin. If you are onWooCommerce, then I recommend a
plugin that is calledWooCommerce Cart Abandonment.
That one will automaticallyrecognize when carts have been
abandoned, and you'll createyour emails right in the plugin
(09:15):
in your WordPress dashboard tosend out to those people. You'll
also get stats in the plugin forhow many of those abandoned
carts are being recovered.
Alright, let's move on to somesequences that are a little
bigger and require a few moreemails, but they're still
totally worth it in the rightcircumstances. Automation number
(09:35):
three is an educational nurturesequence. This sequence is all
about giving some value relatedto your products and educating
your new subscribers andbringing them over to your point
of view without doing any hardselling. The goal here is
basically to show people thatyou know your stuff and you can
help them with their problems.
These are great for newsubscribers to your list that
(09:59):
you really want to nurturebefore you start selling things
to them.
Now, typically, there's no needto create anything brand new for
this. You can go in andrepurpose your very best blog
posts, podcast episodes, evensocial media posts, and turn
them into emails to send out tothese new subscribers. And keep
in mind your new subscribers,and probably even some of the
(10:22):
old ones, haven't seen all thatgreat content that you've
created over the years. So thistype of nurture sequence makes
sure that they get to see yourgreatest hits, if you will,
those things that really aregoing to help them the most.
When you are coming up with whatto send out in this nurture
sequence, think about thequestions that people have
(10:44):
before they buy your product, orthe things they need to learn
from you, maybe some mindsetshifts they need to make before
they're even ready for youroffers, and answer those or help
them to make those shifts intheir thinking. So for example,
if you know you're going to sellmath resources, then maybe you
want to share your favorite tipsfor how to run math centers for
(11:07):
teaching fractions, differentthings like that, that show that
you really get what teachersneed, and it helps them get
ready to purchase your mathresources down the road.
Now most of these emails can bejust simple, straightforward
emails, either delivering allthe content right in the email,
or delivering a little piece ofit and sending them over to a
blog post or a podcast episodefor the whole thing. But if you
(11:30):
sell something like courses,then consider maybe using at
least a couple of these emailsto give people a taste of your
teaching style. So maybe youshare one lesson from a course
or a video training in the sameformat as your course, so that
people are able to kind of seewhat it's like to learn from you
(11:51):
before you ever even talk tothem about the fact that you
have a course to sell them.
As far as triggering a nurturesequence like this, you might
consider doing that right afterpeople go through your welcome
sequence, and you can do itbased on tagging from what types
of opt ins they signed up for.
So if they signed up for an optin a certain category, you can
send them educational content tonurture them around that topic,
(12:12):
as opposed to sending themgeneric information that you
send to everybody.
Alright, sequence number four isa product launch runway
sequence. Now, whether you arelaunching your offer live and
there are set open and closedates for when your cart is
open, or you're running this onevergreen, you can't start
(12:36):
selling people until you havewarmed them up. So the goal of
the product launch runwaysequence is to create some
anticipation, warm people up andget them interested and ready
before you start talking aboutyour offer and asking them to
purchase something. This usuallystarts anywhere from two to four
weeks before you're going toopen cart. And if you're on an
(13:00):
evergreen type of sequence, thenyou just let this sequence run
first, and then move them into asales sequence after that.
You can start this out bytalking about the problem that
your product fixes. Think aboutthe general process that we go
through when we're buying, thatbuyer journey funnel, where the
first thing that your buyersneed is to be aware that they
(13:22):
have a problem. So start bytalking about that problem, and
then you want to create a desirefor them to solve the problem.
You want to share stories abouthow other people have solved
this problem. Hint, hint,they've probably used your
offer, but you're not going toreally talk about that part yet.
You want to start building someinterest and excitement, and
(13:44):
that desire to have a solutionto whatever you're going to be
selling them before you everintroduce the fact that you have
a product or a course orwhatever it is available for
people to purchase.
And then number five is thesales sequence. So after you've
done your pre launch runway, itis time to move into your actual
(14:06):
launch series. If you're doing alive launch, this is probably
going to be five to seven emailsgoing out over the course of a
week. If you're doing somethingon evergreen, then you might
stretch these emails out overmore like two weeks, or even
closer to three. The goal ofthese emails is really to show
off your offer from lots ofdifferent angles, so that all
different types of buyers canconnect with it.
(14:28):
See, we all make decisions aboutthe things we're purchasing in
different ways. Some of us arevery logical. We need all the
details. We need all the FAQsanswered. Some of us are more
emotional buyers. So we need tohear the stories from people who
have used this and had greattransformations, and you just
want to make sure that you arevarying your emails so that
you're addressing all thosedifferent angles that people
(14:51):
come from when they're making apurchase decision.
What makes a good sales sequenceis clearly explaining the
problem and how your product isthe solution, sharing lots of
stories and testimonials frompeople who've used your product
and loved it. In fact, one of myfavorite is something that is
(15:11):
typically called the unlikelyhero, and that is where someone
who maybe was worried aboutsigning up for your course or
worried that your productwouldn't work for them. They had
their hesitations, and theybought it anyway and used it and
loved it. They're that unlikelyhero, someone who maybe wasn't
(15:33):
just the perfect case study, butthey bought it and they used it
and they loved it. That's agreat way to get across to
people that your product is foreveryone.
Another thing you want to makesure that you're doing is
addressing any common concernsor objections that people have
that can stop them from making apurchase. So think about all the
things that could get in theway, as well as any questions
(15:57):
that people are asking you. Soif you've gotten a lot of the
same question, that's a goodindicator that that is a common
concern, and you need to addressthat in one of your emails.
And then, last but not least,you have to have a reason to buy
now. So if this is a livelaunch, then that cart close
date is the reason to buy now,because it's going away. But if
(16:18):
it's not, if you're runningsomething on evergreen, where
it's always available, thenthink about things like limited
spots, special discounts, extrabonuses that go away after a
certain time. There are lots ofways that you can create a
reason to buy right now, asopposed to just waiting forever.
And those emails make it superclear what they should do. Those
(16:38):
buy links or buttons should beimpossible to miss and really,
really clear.
Alright, so we have talked aboutsome basic, easy automations to
set up for people who arealready on your list. We've
talked about nurturing andselling to new people that are
joining your list. Let's talkabout some that can help you to
(17:02):
continue the relationship withpeople after they've purchased
from you.
So our next automation is a postpurchase onboarding sequence.
Now, depending on your product,this might be one email or it
might be a series of five or sixemails. Either way, those first
(17:23):
few days after someone makes apurchase are really important.
See, they need to figure out howto access the thing they bought,
how to use it, and they need tostart seeing results. This is
great for helping people to getvalue quickly. That makes them
happy customers, and happycustomers don't ask for refunds.
So a good onboarding sequencereally is great for your
(17:45):
customer and for your bottomline as the business owner as
well. They can also help to cutdown on support questions that
you get from people who emailyou the same things over and
over.
So like I said, you wouldstructure this kind of based on
how big or complex your productis. For a really simple one off,
kind of a downloadable product,you might just need to send one
(18:06):
email with information on how toaccess the thing they bought,
some next steps, maybe a quicktip or two for getting started.
If you have something morecomplex, maybe it's a course or
a membership, then think aboutsending them a series of emails
that walks them through gettingstarted, accessing everything,
what to do first, how to startimplementing step by step. As
(18:32):
you are writing those emails,think about including some tips
for success, examples ofsuccesses other buyers have had,
and especially reminders aboutfeatures that people might not
notice right away. If you haveanything that people say, Oh, I
didn't know that was in here,those are great things to
highlight in these emails.
The next type of sequence thatyou want to have automated is an
(18:56):
upsell sequence, or maybe across sell sequence. Upsells
refer to selling something alittle more expensive. Cross
sells would refer to sellingsomething similar. Either way,
once someone has purchased onething from you, they have told
you something really important.
They have told you that they areinterested in the solutions you
offer, that they are willing tospend money to buy these
(19:18):
solutions, and this makes themsome of your best potential
future customers as well.
Now you want to be strategicabout this. You don't want to
start sending out more and moresales emails immediately after
they've made that firstpurchase. Wait until your
customers had time to use andlove that first purchase before
(19:41):
you start pushing them onto moreand more things. For smaller
products, you might just wait afew weeks, but for bigger
products or courses, you mightwait a month or more before you
start sending out next steps.
When it comes to sending thoseemails, you want to make sure
that you're sending these asrecommendations that feel
helpful for people and not pushyand salesy.
So you can kind of position thatnext thing you're offering as a
(20:04):
logical next step, as opposed tojust random promotions. Connect
what they already bought withthe new thing, and how that's
going to help them get to thenext step, or make it even
better. You can use languagelike, For most people, the next
step after this is that theyusually do this, or, Since you
(20:25):
grabbed my this product, youmight also like that one. If
you've got stories from peoplewho've used both products
together and they love theresults, share those with
people. And don't always onlyupsell to something huge. Take
advantage of cross sellingsimilar price products as well,
especially if they complementone another.
(20:46):
Now this is something I wouldsay that you want to space
emails out over time, and youreally do want to send targeted
upsells or cross sells. So ifsomeone has bought something
from you that is a plannertemplate, don't go sending them
a whole bunch of social mediapost graphics. Send them more
things related to planning,because that's what they've told
(21:08):
you that they're interested in.
Alright, last but definitely notleast, is a cold subscriber re
engagement campaign. The goal ofthis is twofold. You are trying
to get people who haven't beenopening your emails to start re
engaging with you, to startopening and clicking and paying
attention again, or if they'renot going to, you're trying to
(21:32):
get them off of your list.
There's a lot of reasons thatyou want to do this. The first
is, most email platforms chargeyou by how many subscribers you
have, so cleaning out your listhelps to keep your costs down.
However, even if you're on aplatform that gives you
unlimited subscribers, your openand click rates, the amount of
(21:52):
people who are responding toyour emails, those are all
signals that get sent to Gmailand all of the other email
deliverability places to sendsome signals about the health of
your list and about whether ornot you're a scammy spammer
face. Think I got that from afriend. You want to make sure
(22:14):
that your open rates, your clickrates, your response rates are
good and healthy. And one way todo that is to get rid of those
people who are never opening orengaging with your emails.
Now the first thing you'll needto do is decide what cold means
for your list. Typically it'speople who haven't opened or
clicked anything in three monthsor so. And what you'll do is
(22:37):
create an email sequence purelyintended to get their attention
back and remind them why theyliked you in the first place. I
usually do this in about threeemails, is probably enough. Use
subject lines that make peoplecurious enough to open even if
they've been ignoring you. Thinkabout things like offering them
a freebie or a special discount,something to make them open and
(23:00):
click those emails.
If people don't open any of theemails in that re engagement
sequence, then it's a good signthat it is time to let them go.
So your last email in thissequence would be that one last
we're breaking up now emailletting them know that they're
going to be removed from yourlist unless they click to stay.
Now you don't have to do that ina way that sounds threatening.
(23:23):
You can just say, I want to makesure I'm not filling up your
inbox with emails that you don'twant. So if you don't click on
this link in the next sevendays, however long you want to
give them, I'll just go aheadand remove you from my list, or
if you'd like to unsubscribenow, you can click the
unsubscribe link in the footer.
You just want to really befriendly and give them that
option. We all know what it'slike to sign up for an email
(23:45):
list and then ignore the emailsforever and just never bother to
unsubscribe. I know I haveplenty of those in my inbox from
all the places that I shop forclothes for my kids.
Keep in mind, cleaning out thoseinactive email subscribers
really does make your overallperformance better, and that
helps increase yourdeliverability and keeps your
(24:06):
costs down. So it really isimportant to do that. It is
better to have 500 people on mylist who open my emails than
5000 who ignore me. So keep thatin mind, and don't be afraid to
unsubscribe people if they don'topen anything in that re
engagement sequence. I actuallywalked my savvy seller
(24:27):
collective members throughcreating this exact automation
recently. We created a fullyautomated re engagement sequence
that they could use right away,that triggers and runs itself
every 90 days like clockwork,with swipe copy that they could
customize for their own businessand get everything up and
running fast. It was reallypretty cool to see everybody
implement it and see how they'reable to start cleaning up their
(24:50):
lists and let it run onautopilot for them.
So we have talked about eightreally useful email automations:
educational nurture sequences,product launch runway, sale
sequences, abandoned cart, postpurchase onboarding, upsells and
cross sells, testimonialrequests and a cold subscriber
(25:12):
re engagement campaign. Irecommend you start with the
easy wins. The testimonialrequests and the abandoned cart
recovery require the fewestemails, and they are super quick
to set up. They can startworking for you right away, and
they can just keep going overtime. Once those are running,
look at your post purchaseonboarding and your educational
nurture sequences next.
(25:34):
What I love about automatedsequences like these is that
once you set them up, they workall the time for you. You don't
have to think about it. Youdon't have to go in and trigger
things to get started. It's likehaving a nice little email
automation assistant, a littlebot working around the clock for
you, and it takes one more thingoff of your to do list.
(25:55):
Here's what I want you to lookat this week. Look at what
automated sequences you alreadyhave running in your business,
and then pick one of the easyones we talked about today that
you don't have, and set it upthis week, even if it's just a
simple testimonial request emailto send out to your past buyers.
Get something going that willwork for you automatically.
(26:15):
By the way, like I said,creating these types of email
automations is one of the thingsthat we do together in The Savvy
Seller Collective all the time.
Inside the membership, I give mymembers templates, swipe copies,
step by step guidance to helpyou implement systems like this
in your business. If that soundslike something that you would
find helpful, you can check outall the details at
(26:37):
kristendoyle.co/collective. Iwould love to know which
automation you're setting upthis week, or if you have any
questions about how to make ithappen on your email platform,
send me a DM on Instagram@kristendoyle.co and let me
know. I'll talk to you soon.
Are the only emails that you send out weekly
broadcasts that go out to yourentire email list? If that's
you, first of all, know thatyou're not alone. A lot of us
start there with our emailmarketing, but you are leaving
money on the table and missingout on some great opportunities
to connect with your audience.
So today, I am going to shareeight different types of
(00:23):
automated emails and emailsequences that can work for you
around the clock, turning moreof your subscribers into
customers by reaching out tothem at just the right time. In
a lot of cases, these are emailsthat if you had to send them out
manually on your own, they wouldjust never happen. So you would
just miss those opportunitiescompletely. And the best part
(00:45):
is, you'll set these up once andlet them run in the background
while you're focusing on otherthings.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
(01:06):
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process. Things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations and somuch more. Let's get started,
(01:26):
y'all.
I know when we talk about emailmarketing, you probably
immediately think of thoseweekly broadcasts, and those are
a great place to start. Butemail automation isn't just for
big businesses or fancy techsetups. It actually is super
helpful for smaller businesseslike ours who are selling
(01:50):
digital products or services,and the tech is not that hard to
set up on most email marketingplatforms. And then the good
thing about this is, once youget it set up, they'll just
continue working for you overtime, and you won't have to mess
with them again, other thanmaybe to tweak emails for better
performance.
I'm going to walk you throughall eight types of emails that I
(02:12):
think you should be automating,but we'll start with the ones I
call the low hanging fruit.
These are the ones that arereally quick and easy to set up,
and they'll give you someresults right away. Like I said,
if you are just sending outthose weekly newsletters, the
occasional launch series, you'remissing out on a lot of
opportunities to connect withyour audience, to build
relationships, and, yes, to sellthem things. See, when everybody
(02:35):
gets the exact same messages,regardless of what they're
interested in or what actionsthey've taken, things like, what
have they clicked on? Whatfreebies have they downloaded?
Your emails just don't hit homethe way that they could, and you
miss out on a lot ofopportunities.
Now, I know sometimes when wethink about automations, we're
worried a little bit aboutemails being cold or robotic or
(02:58):
maybe not making sense, butthink about it this way. If you
create the right emails andyou're using the right triggers,
those are the things that setthose emails off to go out to
your subscribers, it's actuallykind of the opposite of cold and
robotic. It lets you send reallyrelevant content targeted to
that particular subscriber.
(03:20):
So for example, when someonedownloads your resource about
classroom management, you cantag them as being interested in
classroom management and sendthem more content about that,
while your subscribers whodownloaded something that was a
reading resource get somethingtotally different. See,
broadcast emails, those weeklyemails we send out to everyone,
those are like shouting into acrowded room. See, everybody's
(03:43):
hearing the same thing at thesame time, and some people will
be interested and a lot of themwon't.
Those targeted emails are morelike having a conversation with
someone based on something theyactually told you, because
you're sending them the contentthey are really interested in.
And a lot of these get youhigher open and click rates
because they're relevant to whatthat person actually cares
(04:04):
about.
Now the secret to making theseemails work is using tags and
segments in your email platform.
So when someone does somethinglike downloading a certain
freebie or clicking a link, youtag them and it can kick off a
sequence of emails tailored tothat action that they just did.
Now you want to be careful notto create hundreds of tags in
(04:26):
your email platform. Think interms of categories, not
individual things, and that willhelp you keep it from getting
overwhelming and super messy.
Trust me, I've been there. I amactually currently working on
cleaning up my tags because Ihave too many.
Alright, let's talk about thoselow hanging fruit sequences.
(04:47):
These are a couple of prettyeasy to set up sequences. They
won't take a whole lot of emailsthat you have to write, and
they're easy to trigger. Thefirst one is a testimonial
request or a review request.
This is just a simple one offemail that you write it once and
you set it up to go outautomatically a few days, few
weeks after someone purchasessomething from you.
(05:11):
Now the timing for this is goingto depend on your specific
product. Think about how long ittakes for somebody to start
seeing results from using yourproduct. That timing is going to
be your sweet spot to ask forfeedback. So for digital
downloads, printables, thingslike that, you might just want
to wait a few days. But forsomething bigger, like a course,
(05:31):
you might want to wait a fewweeks before you ask for
feedback.
In this email, you want to makesure you're making it super easy
for them to respond. So createsomething like a Google form and
give them specific questions,instead of just asking them to
reply and tell you what theythink. When you do this, make
those questions as easy aspossible to answer. Try to
(05:54):
include mostly multiple choicequestions with just a couple of
short answer questions, and themore specific the question is,
the easier it is for the personto answer.
Let them know in the form thatyou want to use their
testimonial on your sales pagesor in your emails. I usually say
something like, Do I havepermission to use your answers
(06:16):
in my marketing for this course,product, resource, whatever it
is, and just have them check yesor no. And then, of course, as
we all know, a little incentivenever hurts. So maybe you offer
people a discount on their nextpurchase if they take the time
to give you feedback. That way,you're able to incentivize that
response, and you'll get goodtestimonial, they'll get a
(06:39):
discount on a future purchase,and everybody wins.
The next email sequence, I wouldencourage you to set up is just
a little longer, and this one'sgoing to be a two email
sequence, but it is still supereasy to do. This one is an
abandoned cart recoverysequence, and what this does is
it grabs those people who addeditems to their cart but didn't
(07:04):
ever check out. This one is foryou, if you have a way for
people to buy directly on yourown website, or if you're using
a checkout platform like ThriveCart, or lots of course builders
that have abandoned cartautomations available for you.
The reason this is so effectiveis because these are people who
added something to their cart.
They were a click or two awayfrom buying and something
(07:24):
happened. Maybe life got in theway. Maybe their kids needed
something, and they just needthat friendly reminder to come
back and finish their purchase.
Abandoned cart emails canusually recover anywhere from 10
to 30% of those almost sales,which is pretty amazing, if you
can get that out of writing twoquick emails and then setting it
(07:47):
up on an automation.
So the first email should go outjust a few hours after they
leave your site. This is just afriendly, Hey, I noticed you
were looking at this. Your cardis saved, if you want to come
back to it, with a direct linkto their cart. Then the second
one goes out a day, maybe twodays later. And in this one, I
(08:09):
would address why they mighthave hesitated, what might be
making them question thispurchase. And you can even offer
a little incentive. Maybe youoffer a 10% discount for them to
complete their purchases. Whenyou think about timing on these,
you don't want to wait too longto send out that first email,
because you really want to catchthem while they're still
thinking about it, and keep thatone helpful, not pushy. I saw
(08:33):
you were checking this out, andI wanted to make sure you could
find it again. And then in thatsecond email, think about what
might have made them pausebefore buying and try to address
those questions or concerns thatthey might have had.
Now, depending on where you areselling your offers, your
platform might have abandonedcart functionality built in, so
(08:53):
you write your emails rightthere in the platform, or you
might need to do it through yourregular email provider or
through a plugin. If you are onWooCommerce, then I recommend a
plugin that is calledWooCommerce Cart Abandonment.
That one will automaticallyrecognize when carts have been
abandoned, and you'll createyour emails right in the plugin
(09:15):
in your WordPress dashboard tosend out to those people. You'll
also get stats in the plugin forhow many of those abandoned
carts are being recovered.
Alright, let's move on to somesequences that are a little
bigger and require a few moreemails, but they're still
totally worth it in the rightcircumstances. Automation number
(09:35):
three is an educational nurturesequence. This sequence is all
about giving some value relatedto your products and educating
your new subscribers andbringing them over to your point
of view without doing any hardselling. The goal here is
basically to show people thatyou know your stuff and you can
help them with their problems.
These are great for newsubscribers to your list that
(09:59):
you really want to nurturebefore you start selling things
to them.
Now, typically, there's no needto create anything brand new for
this. You can go in andrepurpose your very best blog
posts, podcast episodes, evensocial media posts, and turn
them into emails to send out tothese new subscribers. And keep
in mind your new subscribers,and probably even some of the
(10:22):
old ones, haven't seen all thatgreat content that you've
created over the years. So thistype of nurture sequence makes
sure that they get to see yourgreatest hits, if you will,
those things that really aregoing to help them the most.
When you are coming up with whatto send out in this nurture
sequence, think about thequestions that people have
(10:44):
before they buy your product, orthe things they need to learn
from you, maybe some mindsetshifts they need to make before
they're even ready for youroffers, and answer those or help
them to make those shifts intheir thinking. So for example,
if you know you're going to sellmath resources, then maybe you
want to share your favorite tipsfor how to run math centers for
(11:07):
teaching fractions, differentthings like that, that show that
you really get what teachersneed, and it helps them get
ready to purchase your mathresources down the road.
Now most of these emails can bejust simple, straightforward
emails, either delivering allthe content right in the email,
or delivering a little piece ofit and sending them over to a
blog post or a podcast episodefor the whole thing. But if you
(11:30):
sell something like courses,then consider maybe using at
least a couple of these emailsto give people a taste of your
teaching style. So maybe youshare one lesson from a course
or a video training in the sameformat as your course, so that
people are able to kind of seewhat it's like to learn from you
(11:51):
before you ever even talk tothem about the fact that you
have a course to sell them.
As far as triggering a nurturesequence like this, you might
consider doing that right afterpeople go through your welcome
sequence, and you can do itbased on tagging from what types
of opt ins they signed up for.
So if they signed up for an optin a certain category, you can
send them educational content tonurture them around that topic,
(12:12):
as opposed to sending themgeneric information that you
send to everybody.
Alright, sequence number four isa product launch runway
sequence. Now, whether you arelaunching your offer live and
there are set open and closedates for when your cart is
open, or you're running this onevergreen, you can't start
(12:36):
selling people until you havewarmed them up. So the goal of
the product launch runwaysequence is to create some
anticipation, warm people up andget them interested and ready
before you start talking aboutyour offer and asking them to
purchase something. This usuallystarts anywhere from two to four
weeks before you're going toopen cart. And if you're on an
(13:00):
evergreen type of sequence, thenyou just let this sequence run
first, and then move them into asales sequence after that.
You can start this out bytalking about the problem that
your product fixes. Think aboutthe general process that we go
through when we're buying, thatbuyer journey funnel, where the
first thing that your buyersneed is to be aware that they
(13:22):
have a problem. So start bytalking about that problem, and
then you want to create a desirefor them to solve the problem.
You want to share stories abouthow other people have solved
this problem. Hint, hint,they've probably used your
offer, but you're not going toreally talk about that part yet.
You want to start building someinterest and excitement, and
(13:44):
that desire to have a solutionto whatever you're going to be
selling them before you everintroduce the fact that you have
a product or a course orwhatever it is available for
people to purchase.
And then number five is thesales sequence. So after you've
done your pre launch runway, itis time to move into your actual
(14:06):
launch series. If you're doing alive launch, this is probably
going to be five to seven emailsgoing out over the course of a
week. If you're doing somethingon evergreen, then you might
stretch these emails out overmore like two weeks, or even
closer to three. The goal ofthese emails is really to show
off your offer from lots ofdifferent angles, so that all
different types of buyers canconnect with it.
(14:28):
See, we all make decisions aboutthe things we're purchasing in
different ways. Some of us arevery logical. We need all the
details. We need all the FAQsanswered. Some of us are more
emotional buyers. So we need tohear the stories from people who
have used this and had greattransformations, and you just
want to make sure that you arevarying your emails so that
you're addressing all thosedifferent angles that people
(14:51):
come from when they're making apurchase decision.
What makes a good sales sequenceis clearly explaining the
problem and how your product isthe solution, sharing lots of
stories and testimonials frompeople who've used your product
and loved it. In fact, one of myfavorite is something that is
(15:11):
typically called the unlikelyhero, and that is where someone
who maybe was worried aboutsigning up for your course or
worried that your productwouldn't work for them. They had
their hesitations, and theybought it anyway and used it and
loved it. They're that unlikelyhero, someone who maybe wasn't
(15:33):
just the perfect case study, butthey bought it and they used it
and they loved it. That's agreat way to get across to
people that your product is foreveryone.
Another thing you want to makesure that you're doing is
addressing any common concernsor objections that people have
that can stop them from making apurchase. So think about all the
things that could get in theway, as well as any questions
(15:57):
that people are asking you. Soif you've gotten a lot of the
same question, that's a goodindicator that that is a common
concern, and you need to addressthat in one of your emails.
And then, last but not least,you have to have a reason to buy
now. So if this is a livelaunch, then that cart close
date is the reason to buy now,because it's going away. But if
(16:18):
it's not, if you're runningsomething on evergreen, where
it's always available, thenthink about things like limited
spots, special discounts, extrabonuses that go away after a
certain time. There are lots ofways that you can create a
reason to buy right now, asopposed to just waiting forever.
And those emails make it superclear what they should do. Those
(16:38):
buy links or buttons should beimpossible to miss and really,
really clear.
Alright, so we have talked aboutsome basic, easy automations to
set up for people who arealready on your list. We've
talked about nurturing andselling to new people that are
joining your list. Let's talkabout some that can help you to
(17:02):
continue the relationship withpeople after they've purchased
from you.
So our next automation is a postpurchase onboarding sequence.
Now, depending on your product,this might be one email or it
might be a series of five or sixemails. Either way, those first
(17:23):
few days after someone makes apurchase are really important.
See, they need to figure out howto access the thing they bought,
how to use it, and they need tostart seeing results. This is
great for helping people to getvalue quickly. That makes them
happy customers, and happycustomers don't ask for refunds.
So a good onboarding sequencereally is great for your
(17:45):
customer and for your bottomline as the business owner as
well. They can also help to cutdown on support questions that
you get from people who emailyou the same things over and
over.
So like I said, you wouldstructure this kind of based on
how big or complex your productis. For a really simple one off,
kind of a downloadable product,you might just need to send one
(18:06):
email with information on how toaccess the thing they bought,
some next steps, maybe a quicktip or two for getting started.
If you have something morecomplex, maybe it's a course or
a membership, then think aboutsending them a series of emails
that walks them through gettingstarted, accessing everything,
what to do first, how to startimplementing step by step. As
(18:32):
you are writing those emails,think about including some tips
for success, examples ofsuccesses other buyers have had,
and especially reminders aboutfeatures that people might not
notice right away. If you haveanything that people say, Oh, I
didn't know that was in here,those are great things to
highlight in these emails.
The next type of sequence thatyou want to have automated is an
(18:56):
upsell sequence, or maybe across sell sequence. Upsells
refer to selling something alittle more expensive. Cross
sells would refer to sellingsomething similar. Either way,
once someone has purchased onething from you, they have told
you something really important.
They have told you that they areinterested in the solutions you
offer, that they are willing tospend money to buy these
(19:18):
solutions, and this makes themsome of your best potential
future customers as well.
Now you want to be strategicabout this. You don't want to
start sending out more and moresales emails immediately after
they've made that firstpurchase. Wait until your
customers had time to use andlove that first purchase before
(19:41):
you start pushing them onto moreand more things. For smaller
products, you might just wait afew weeks, but for bigger
products or courses, you mightwait a month or more before you
start sending out next steps.
When it comes to sending thoseemails, you want to make sure
that you're sending these asrecommendations that feel
helpful for people and not pushyand salesy.
So you can kind of position thatnext thing you're offering as a
(20:04):
logical next step, as opposed tojust random promotions. Connect
what they already bought withthe new thing, and how that's
going to help them get to thenext step, or make it even
better. You can use languagelike, For most people, the next
step after this is that theyusually do this, or, Since you
(20:25):
grabbed my this product, youmight also like that one. If
you've got stories from peoplewho've used both products
together and they love theresults, share those with
people. And don't always onlyupsell to something huge. Take
advantage of cross sellingsimilar price products as well,
especially if they complementone another.
(20:46):
Now this is something I wouldsay that you want to space
emails out over time, and youreally do want to send targeted
upsells or cross sells. So ifsomeone has bought something
from you that is a plannertemplate, don't go sending them
a whole bunch of social mediapost graphics. Send them more
things related to planning,because that's what they've told
(21:08):
you that they're interested in.
Alright, last but definitely notleast, is a cold subscriber re
engagement campaign. The goal ofthis is twofold. You are trying
to get people who haven't beenopening your emails to start re
engaging with you, to startopening and clicking and paying
attention again, or if they'renot going to, you're trying to
(21:32):
get them off of your list.
There's a lot of reasons thatyou want to do this. The first
is, most email platforms chargeyou by how many subscribers you
have, so cleaning out your listhelps to keep your costs down.
However, even if you're on aplatform that gives you
unlimited subscribers, your openand click rates, the amount of
(21:52):
people who are responding toyour emails, those are all
signals that get sent to Gmailand all of the other email
deliverability places to sendsome signals about the health of
your list and about whether ornot you're a scammy spammer
face. Think I got that from afriend. You want to make sure
(22:14):
that your open rates, your clickrates, your response rates are
good and healthy. And one way todo that is to get rid of those
people who are never opening orengaging with your emails.
Now the first thing you'll needto do is decide what cold means
for your list. Typically it'speople who haven't opened or
clicked anything in three monthsor so. And what you'll do is
(22:37):
create an email sequence purelyintended to get their attention
back and remind them why theyliked you in the first place. I
usually do this in about threeemails, is probably enough. Use
subject lines that make peoplecurious enough to open even if
they've been ignoring you. Thinkabout things like offering them
a freebie or a special discount,something to make them open and
(23:00):
click those emails.
If people don't open any of theemails in that re engagement
sequence, then it's a good signthat it is time to let them go.
So your last email in thissequence would be that one last
we're breaking up now emailletting them know that they're
going to be removed from yourlist unless they click to stay.
Now you don't have to do that ina way that sounds threatening.
(23:23):
You can just say, I want to makesure I'm not filling up your
inbox with emails that you don'twant. So if you don't click on
this link in the next sevendays, however long you want to
give them, I'll just go aheadand remove you from my list, or
if you'd like to unsubscribenow, you can click the
unsubscribe link in the footer.
You just want to really befriendly and give them that
option. We all know what it'slike to sign up for an email
(23:45):
list and then ignore the emailsforever and just never bother to
unsubscribe. I know I haveplenty of those in my inbox from
all the places that I shop forclothes for my kids.
Keep in mind, cleaning out thoseinactive email subscribers
really does make your overallperformance better, and that
helps increase yourdeliverability and keeps your
(24:06):
costs down. So it really isimportant to do that. It is
better to have 500 people on mylist who open my emails than
5000 who ignore me. So keep thatin mind, and don't be afraid to
unsubscribe people if they don'topen anything in that re
engagement sequence. I actuallywalked my savvy seller
(24:27):
collective members throughcreating this exact automation
recently. We created a fullyautomated re engagement sequence
that they could use right away,that triggers and runs itself
every 90 days like clockwork,with swipe copy that they could
customize for their own businessand get everything up and
running fast. It was reallypretty cool to see everybody
implement it and see how they'reable to start cleaning up their
(24:50):
lists and let it run onautopilot for them.
So we have talked about eightreally useful email automations:
educational nurture sequences,product launch runway, sale
sequences, abandoned cart, postpurchase onboarding, upsells and
cross sells, testimonialrequests and a cold subscriber
(25:12):
re engagement campaign. Irecommend you start with the
easy wins. The testimonialrequests and the abandoned cart
recovery require the fewestemails, and they are super quick
to set up. They can startworking for you right away, and
they can just keep going overtime. Once those are running,
look at your post purchaseonboarding and your educational
nurture sequences next.
(25:34):
What I love about automatedsequences like these is that
once you set them up, they workall the time for you. You don't
have to think about it. Youdon't have to go in and trigger
things to get started. It's likehaving a nice little email
automation assistant, a littlebot working around the clock for
you, and it takes one more thingoff of your to do list.
(25:55):
Here's what I want you to lookat this week. Look at what
automated sequences you alreadyhave running in your business,
and then pick one of the easyones we talked about today that
you don't have, and set it upthis week, even if it's just a
simple testimonial request emailto send out to your past buyers.
Get something going that willwork for you automatically.
(26:15):
By the way, like I said,creating these types of email
automations is one of the thingsthat we do together in The Savvy
Seller Collective all the time.
Inside the membership, I give mymembers templates, swipe copies,
step by step guidance to helpyou implement systems like this
in your business. If that soundslike something that you would
find helpful, you can check outall the details at
(26:37):
kristendoyle.co/collective. Iwould love to know which
automation you're setting upthis week, or if you have any
questions about how to make ithappen on your email platform,
send me a DM on Instagram@kristendoyle.co and let me
know. I'll talk to you soon.
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