What’s Included in a Launch Email Sequence?

Email automations for launching are one of the more involved types of email sequences that exist. Depending on how long a launch is, and what’s involved, launch sequences can be 30 emails or more.

It sounds like a lot, but each email has a very specific purpose and role to play in the overall launch.

In some cases, a launch sequence may also include a promo email sequence, particularly if the launch will include a masterclass, free training, a challenge or other type of pre-launch content to warm up your audience before the cart opens and the launch begins.

Launch Email Sequences:

Here’s an example of the emails that could be included in a masterclass or workshop email sequence:

• Registration emails: Emails to introduce the masterclass and encourage people to sign up. If you have multiple videos or webinar dates, you would need emails for each video or masterclass registration.
• Pre-launch content video emails: If you’re doing a multiple video series, or a challenge, you’ll want to have an email to go out each day new content is released. If you’re doing a webinar, this would be a reminder video for the day of the webinar.
• Open Cart announcement email: This email goes out to announce your cart is open and directs to a sales video, or sales page. If you did a webinar that had a sales pitch at the end, this could also be a replay announcement email.
• Open Cart email series: An email goes out each day your cart is open. The key to these emails is that each one has a specific purpose. Don’t just randomly email your list asking them to buy your stuff. Make the stories interesting and frame them from the perspective of what your potential customer needs and his or her pain points. All “cart” emails should have links to the sales page.

Email Sequences for 5-day Open Cart

Here are some suggestions for an email marketing sequence for a 5-day open cart period:

Open Cart Emails

Open Cart email #1: A brief overview of the program
Open cart email #2: Answer questions you’ve gotten, give social proof (people are already joining)
Open cart email #3: Introduce scarcity – how long will the cart be open? Is it a limited number of spots? When will it open again?
Open cart email #4: Case Study – profile someone who has taken your course or been helped by you and how it changed their life

Close Cart Emails

On the last day a cart is open, you want to send multiple emails. Even though it seems like it’s a lot, leaving one out means leaving sales on the table.

Close Cart Email #1: Social Proof (send in morning) – Who has joined? What are they already doing inside the course, group, etc.?
Close Cart Email #2: Success Story (send mid-day) – This could be another case study or a shorter testimonial that hits on the transformation someone received
Close Cart Email #3: Scarcity, optional (send in early evening) – cart will be closing in just a bit, what last minute questions do people have? Could be used to invite them to a FB Live Q&A session.
Close cart email #4: One hour until the cart closes – Hit on scarcity and a final notice the cart is closing. People often get time zones wrong and don’t realize they’ve missed the close until it’s too late.

A lot of emails are sent during a launch, and almost everyone feels a little bit uncomfortable about how many emails are in a launch sequence. The truth is, these sequences work. They are tried and true and when you decrease the number of emails in a launch sequence, you will decrease your sales.

Yes, people will unsubscribe during launches. It happens with every launch, and has less to do with the number of emails you send than the quality of the emails you send.

If you are preparing to launch, or even thinking about launching and want to make sure you don’t miss any steps, you’ll want to grab my launch checklist, here.