Cold leads decay fast. A lead that's 24 hours old is 60× more likely to convert than one that's 24 days old. Email sequences are how you stay in front of them automatically — without sounding desperate or generic.
The five sequences every business should have
1. Welcome / new lead (5–7 emails over 14 days)
The most important one. Triggered the moment a lead hits your CRM. Goal: convert them while their interest is hot.
- Day 0 (immediate): "Thanks — here's what to expect." Include the asset they signed up for.
- Day 1: "The fastest way to get a result with us" — your most useful tip.
- Day 3: Customer story / case study.
- Day 5: Soft pitch — "Want to talk? Book 15 min."
- Day 7: Address the most common objection.
- Day 10: Limited-time offer (discount, bonus, fast-track).
- Day 14: "Last call — closing the offer."
2. Cart / signup abandon (3 emails over 24h)
Triggered when a user starts checkout (or a signup flow) but doesn't finish. Goal: bring them back same-day.
- +1 hour: "Did the page break?" — assume technical issue.
- +12 hours: "Still thinking about it?" — list 3 reasons people choose you.
- +24 hours: Discount or bonus.
3. Onboarding (after first purchase or signup)
Goal: drive activation, not more sales. The customer is in — get them to a value moment fast.
- Day 0: "Welcome — here's the one thing to do first."
- Day 1: "Have you done X yet? Here's how."
- Day 3: Show them a feature they probably haven't found.
- Day 7: "How's it going? Reply with any questions."
4. Win-back (lapsed customers, 90+ days inactive)
Goal: reactivate or remove. Don't keep emailing dead leads.
- Email 1: "We miss you" + soft offer.
- Email 2 (3 days later): "What changed?" — invite feedback.
- Email 3 (7 days later): "Sounds like we're not for you anymore — unsubscribe?"
Counterintuitive, but the unsubscribe email actually gets the highest re-engagement of the three. Loss aversion.
5. Newsletter (weekly or biweekly, ongoing)
Goal: stay top-of-mind without being pushy. Send useful content, mention your product 1 in 4 emails.
Writing emails that don't get deleted
- Subject line under 50 characters. Mobile previews cut anything longer.
- From a real human, not "marketing@". "Sarah from CGMIMM" beats "noreply@cgmimm.com" by 2–3× open rate.
- One CTA per email. Multiple links = decision paralysis.
- Plain text beats fancy HTML for most B2B and lead-gen emails. Looks like a real person wrote it.
- Always have a P.S. It's the second-most-read part of the email, after the subject.
How SEM by CGMIMM handles sends
One-shot blasts run today via /crm/campaigns. Each send goes through Resend with your verified "from" domain. Open and click events flow back via the Resend webhook into the campaign's stats.
Multi-step sequences are stored in email_sequences with steps and trigger conditions. The runner (cron job that walks each contact through the sequence) is in active development; for now, build sequences manually as scheduled blasts.