[FAQ]

I’m a marketing assistant for a small software company based in Austin, Texas. We’re trying to improve our lead nurturing process.

Currently, we have one generic welcome series that goes out to everyone who signs up for our newsletter or free trial. My manager has asked me to research “personalized email sequences” as a way to improve our conversion rates, but I’m not entirely sure what that means in practice.

How does it go beyond just using a [First Name] field? What makes it a “sequence,” and how is it personalized? I’m looking for a clear definition and maybe some examples of how other companies use them based on what a user does on their site.

Thanks for the help!

[Jeff Bullas]

A very sharp question. This is the difference between basic email automation and intelligent email marketing.

Brief Answer: A personalized email sequence is a series of automated text-based emails that are dynamically sent to a user based on their specific data, interests, or actions. Instead of one generic sequence for everyone, it delivers a unique path of content tailored to each individual.

The goal is to stop broadcasting a single message and start having a one-on-one conversation at scale, delivering the right content at the right time.

First, the ‘sequence’ part simply refers to a pre-written series of emails sent out automatically on a schedule, often called a drip campaign. For example, a new user might get a welcome email on day one, a helpful tip on day three, and a case study on day five.

The ‘personalized’ part is where the magic happens. This is about changing the entire sequence based on what you know about the user. For instance, if a new user clicks on a link in your first email about a specific feature, your email system can automatically move them from the generic sequence to a new one entirely focused on that feature. This new sequence might contain different text, images, and links to video tutorials that are only relevant to that specific interest. A user who clicked a different link would get a completely different set of follow-up emails.

Another example is personalizing based on user data provided at sign-up. If a user says they are in the ‘retail’ industry, they can receive a sequence of emails featuring text-based case studies and images that are specific to retail clients. A user in the ‘finance’ industry would get a completely different, more relevant experience. This ensures the content of every email—the text, the images, the video links—is as relevant as possible to that specific user, which dramatically increases engagement and trust.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Author]

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