Broadcast campaigns require ongoing effort every time you send. You build automated flows once and they generate revenue indefinitely. For most businesses, flows produce a disproportionate share of email revenue relative to the work involved — which is why they should be built before anyone worries about the newsletter.
Here are the four worth building, roughly in order of return.
1. The welcome sequence
Someone has just given you their email address. This is the highest engagement you will ever have with them, and most businesses respond with a single automated “thanks for subscribing” and then nothing for three weeks.
A three to five email sequence over the first fortnight works far better:
- Email one, immediately: deliver whatever was promised, set expectations for what comes next.
- Email two, day two: your story or approach — why you do this, what makes you different.
- Email three, day four: something genuinely useful. A guide, a comparison, an answer to the question everyone asks.
- Email four, day seven: social proof — a case study or customer story.
- Email five, day ten: a clear, low-pressure offer or call to action.
Send the first email immediately. Engagement drops sharply with every hour of delay.
2. Abandoned cart recovery
For ecommerce this is usually the highest-return flow available. Shoppers abandon most carts, and a well-timed reminder brings a meaningful share of them back.
Three emails works well: one after an hour, one at twenty-four hours, one at seventy-two. The first is a simple reminder — people genuinely get distracted. The second can address common objections like delivery cost or returns. The third may include an incentive, though be careful: if you always discount at seventy-two hours, people learn to wait.
Include the actual products with images, and link straight back to a restored cart. Every additional step loses recoveries.
Browse abandonment
A related flow for people who viewed a product but never added it to a cart. Lower intent, so lower conversion, but the volume is much higher and it costs nothing extra to run.
3. Post-purchase
Customers think most warmly of you just after they buy, and most businesses waste that window entirely.
A post-purchase sequence should confirm the order properly, set delivery expectations, help the customer get value from what they bought, and then — at the right moment — ask for a review.
Timing on the review request matters. Ask once they have actually received and used the product. Too early and you get nothing; too late and the enthusiasm has faded.
This flow drives reviews, reduces support contacts, and sets up repeat purchase. It costs nothing to run once built.
4. Win-back
Customers lapse. A win-back flow targeting people who have not purchased in a defined period — typically twice your average purchase interval — is considerably cheaper than acquiring equivalent new customers.
Two or three emails: a straightforward “we have not seen you in a while” with new products, followed by an incentive, followed by a final message that also serves as a list-cleaning exercise. Anyone who does not engage with the win-back sequence should be suppressed from regular sending, because continuing to email unengaged contacts damages deliverability.
Deliverability underpins all of it
None of these flows matter if the emails land in spam. Get SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured correctly before increasing volume. Keep your list clean by removing hard bounces and long-term non-openers. Send primarily to engaged segments.
You earn sending reputation slowly and lose it quickly. A single campaign blasted to a stale list can undo months of good sending.
Where to start
If you have none of these, build the welcome sequence first — it applies to every business and has the highest engagement. If you run ecommerce, build abandoned cart first; it usually pays for the whole project within weeks.
Our email marketing service covers building and optimising these, including the deliverability groundwork that makes them work.
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