Email Nurture Sequences That Actually Convert

The Drip Campaign Delusion

Day 1: Welcome email. Day 3: Product overview. Day 7: Case study. Day 14: Demo request.

Sound familiar? This is how most companies build nurture sequences. Pick some content, space it out, hope for the best.

It doesn't work. Open rates decay with every email. By message four, you're talking to yourself.

The problem isn't email. It's the assumption that everyone needs the same content at the same pace.

Behavior Beats Calendar

High-converting sequences trigger on actions, not dates.

Someone visits pricing three times? That's buying intent. Send the ROI calculator, not another blog post.

They downloaded a technical whitepaper? They're researching. Give them the implementation guide.

Opened every email but never clicked? Subject lines work, content doesn't. Test different angles.

Calendar-based sequences treat everyone the same. Behavior-based sequences meet people where they are.

The Anatomy of Sequences That Work

Entry triggers matter more than content. A sequence triggered by "visited competitor comparison page" will outperform generic "signed up for newsletter" every time. Start with intent.

Branch early. Within 2-3 emails, you should know if someone is technical or business-side, early-stage or ready-to-buy. Split them into different paths.

Exit conditions are critical. When someone books a meeting, stop the sequence. When they go cold for 30 days, move them to re-engagement. Don't keep blasting the same track.

One CTA per email. Not three links to different resources. One clear action. Make it obvious.

What to Actually Measure

Forget vanity metrics. Open rates are mostly meaningless with Apple's Mail Privacy Protection.

Track:

• Click-to-open rate - Of people who opened, how many clicked? This measures content quality.
• Sequence completion rate - How many make it to the end vs. unsubscribe or go dormant?
• Conversion by entry point - Which triggers produce the most pipeline?
• Time to conversion - How long from sequence start to desired action?

If you can't measure conversion, you can't improve it.

The Testing Framework

Every sequence should have active experiments running:

Subject lines - Test 2-3 variants per email. Statistical significance matters. Don't call winners too early.

Send times - Tuesday at 10am isn't magic. Test your actual audience.

Sequence length - Sometimes 3 emails beats 7. You won't know until you test.

Content format - Plain text vs. designed. Long vs. short. Educational vs. promotional.

Teams that test weekly improve monthly. Teams that "set and forget" wonder why results decline.

The Hard Truth

Most email sequences fail because they're built for the sender's convenience, not the recipient's journey.

You have content to distribute, so you distribute it. But the prospect doesn't care about your content calendar. They care about their problem.

Build sequences around their behavior, their questions, their timeline. The results follow.