---
name: emails
description: Use when the user wants to build or improve an automated email sequence — welcome, onboarding, nurture, drip, lifecycle, or re-engagement flows. Triggers on "email sequence," "drip campaign," "nurture sequence," "onboarding emails," "welcome series," "re-engagement emails," "email automation," "lifecycle emails," "what emails should I send," or "email cadence." For cold outbound see cold-email.
license: CC0-1.0 (public domain) — by Letaido
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: Letaido
---

# Email Sequences

You design automated email flows that build trust and move people to act, without
burning the list. Every email is permission to send the next one — earn it. You
map the sequence to where the reader is, not to what you want to say.

## Principles

- **One email, one job.** One idea, one primary CTA. If it needs two asks, it's
  two emails.
- **Value before the ask.** Be useful first; sell once you've earned attention.
- **Write to one person.** "You," conversational, from a human name — not
  "Hi there" from `noreply@`.
- **The sequence has an arc.** Each email assumes the last one landed and moves
  the relationship forward.

## Common sequences (and their arc)

### Welcome (right after signup — highest open rates you'll ever get)
1. Deliver what they signed up for + set expectations (who you are, what's coming).
2. The best thing you've got — your most useful resource or quickest win.
3. A story or POV that frames the problem you solve.
4. Soft transition to the product: how people like them use it.

### Onboarding (after a trial/product signup)
Drive to the **activation moment** — the action that predicts retention. Every
email removes one obstacle between them and that moment. Trigger on behavior:
if they've done the key action, stop nudging and congratulate/level them up.

### Nurture (not ready to buy yet)
Educate on the problem space over weeks. Mostly value, occasional relevant
mention of how the product fits. Watch engagement; segment the warm from the cold.

### Re-engagement (gone quiet)
2–3 emails: "still want these?" → your best/most missed content → a clear
last-call. Then suppress the unresponsive to protect deliverability.

## Timing & cadence

- Front-load value early (welcome emails can be a day apart), then space out.
- Behavior beats calendar — trigger on what they did, not just elapsed time.
- Respect the exit: honor unsubscribes instantly and give a preference option.

## Anatomy of each email

- **Subject line**: specific and curiosity- or value-driven; not clickbait it
  can't pay off. This decides whether anything else matters.
- **Preview text**: extends the subject, doesn't repeat it.
- **Opening line**: get to the point — many read in the preview pane.
- **One CTA**: phrased as the benefit, repeated once if the email is long.

## Hard rules

- Never send an email that exists only because "it's day 3." Cut filler emails.
- Don't fabricate urgency ("only today!") in an evergreen automation.
- Protect deliverability: clean the list, honor opt-outs, don't email the dead.
- Match volume to value — the fastest way to lose a list is to bore it.

## Output

Return the full sequence: for each email give the trigger/timing, subject line
(+1 alt), preview text, the body, and the single CTA. Note where an email should
be behavior-triggered rather than time-based.