Lead nurture sequences

What a lead nurture sequence is

A lead nurture sequence is a fixed series of emails, usually five to eight, sent automatically over several weeks to someone who has shown interest in what you sell but has not bought: they asked for a quote, downloaded a guide, booked a call and went quiet. Each email answers one of the questions a buyer asks themselves between "interesting" and "yes", in the order they ask them.

It is not a welcome sequence, which goes to a new newsletter subscriber and introduces the business. A nurture sequence goes to someone who has already raised a hand about a specific service. It is not a newsletter either; the newsletter is written fresh and dated, and the sequence is written once and runs for years.

Who this is for

A business whose buyers take weeks or months to decide, and who therefore loses most of its inquiries not to a competitor but to silence. Trades with a quote stage, professional services, anything bought once every few years, anything where a spouse or a partner or a board has to agree. If you can look at last quarter's inquiries and see that most of them never said no and never said yes, this is the service.

It is not for a business that sells on the spot. If the buyer decides in one visit, the money belongs in conversion copy on the page they decide on. It is also not for a business with no way of capturing the inquiry in the first place; a sequence needs an address to send to, which means a form, a download or a booking, and form copy comes first.

What goes in it

The sequence is built from the questions your buyers actually ask, and I collect them before writing anything: from your sales calls and quote follow-ups, from the inbox, from the reasons people give when they finally say no. Those questions are ranked by when they occur in the decision, and each email takes one.

A typical sequence for a service business runs in this order, though the order is set by your buyers, not by a template.

1. The immediate reply. Sent within minutes. What happens next, when they will hear from a person, and one thing to read meanwhile.
2. What it costs and why. The range, what moves it up or down, and what a low quote from someone else usually leaves out.
3. What it is like. One customer's experience, told as a story with a source. This is where a case study earns its keep.
4. The objection. The reason people give for not going ahead, stated plainly and answered.
5. The risk. The guarantee, the warranty, the licence, the insurance, whatever makes the decision safer.
6. The ask. A plain invitation to book, with a real reason to do it this month if one exists and no invented one if it does not.

Alongside the emails, the sequence has timing, exits and a fallback: how many days between each email, what removes someone from the sequence (they booked, they replied, they unsubscribed), and what happens to the people who reach the end without acting, which is usually a transfer to the newsletter.

What you get

The emails. Each as a document with the subject line and two alternatives, the preview text, the body, and the one link. Typically one hundred and fifty to three hundred words each. Written in your voice, in plain language, from a named sender.

The sequence map. One page showing every email, the days between them, the exit conditions and where each exit leads. This is what your sending platform is built from, and what you check against in a year when you have forgotten how it works.

A test plan and a setup note. Which subject lines to test first, how to read the results, and the settings the platform needs. If nobody in your business can build it in the tool, marketing automation setup is priced separately.

A worked example

An illustration. A kitchen renovation company gets a steady flow of quote requests through its website, visits each home, sends a written quote, and then hears nothing from about half of them. The owner follows up by phone when there is time, which is rarely.

The sequence has six emails over five weeks and starts the day the quote is sent. Day one confirms the quote is on its way and explains how to read it. Day four explains why the price is what it is and what a cheaper quote usually omits. Day nine is one customer's story, with photographs and a first name used with permission. Day sixteen answers the objection heard most often on site visits: "we are not sure about the timing". Day twenty-five explains the deposit, the payment stages and the warranty. Day thirty-five asks plainly whether they would like to go ahead, book a second visit, or be left alone. Anyone who books leaves the sequence at once. Six emails, one map, one number tracked: quotes that turn into signed contracts in the sixty days after sending.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you sell, how long buyers take, where inquiries come in, and what happens to them now. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. The number of emails, the number of revision rounds, and whether setup in your tool is included, agreed before anything starts.
3. Listening. One week. I read your quote follow-ups and inbox, sit in on or listen to a few sales calls if you allow it, and list the questions in the order buyers ask them.
4. The draft sequence. All the emails and the map, ten working days after the call. You tell me what you would never say and what is missing.
5. The final sequence. One round of revisions included, with the test plan and the setup note, and a short call with whoever builds it.

Three to four weeks from first call to final sequence is typical.

What it costs

A lead nurture sequence is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on the number of emails, how much listening is needed to find the questions, and whether I also build the sequence in your sending platform. The pricing page explains how quoting works for services without a published band. Canadian anti-spam law requires consent before commercial email is sent and sets rules on how that consent is obtained; I write within those rules, and I will tell you when a question needs a lawyer rather than a copywriter.

What happens next

Once the sequence has run for a quarter, the emails that get replies tell you which questions matter most, and those usually become pages. The proof email points at a need for more case studies; the objection email points at objection handling for the sales conversation itself; and the people who reach the end without buying need somewhere to go, which is the newsletter.