Email sequences are 24/7 robo-salesmen for your business. Even as you’re fast asleep, your sequence is out there selling your customers’ products.
The most important is easily the welcome sequence. It familiarizes your customers with your brand, helps you communicate what you’re all about, tells your story, sets yourself apart, and of course, sells the whole time.
That’s obvious – but how long should it be? It can be too short — 0 emails — but what’s a good limit for welcome sequence length?
The Answer
The real answer, like with many things in copy, sounds like a cop-out.
“As many emails as it takes.”
That’s not really a cop-out, though.
I follow the Chris Orzechowski school of email copywriting.
To use one of Chris O.’s examples, imagine one of those old-fashioned scales. Like a “scale of justice” type of scale.
You know — each side needs to have equal weight for the scales to balance.
Let’s say, on one side of the scale is your product.
On the other is a series of pebbles, each representing an email you send.
One email may not tip those scales in your favor. You might address one objection, but the customer could have a bunch more.
But over time, each of your welcome emails puts another pebble on your side of the scale.
Eventually, so many of those pebbles pile up that the scale finally shifts — your customer buys.
See what I mean?
That could take any number of emails, depending on your target audience, how well they know your brand, your product, your pricing, and your own copywriting and marketing skills.
For example, if you sell something for $5, you might get the sale on your first email.
But if you sell a complex, high-ticket product with 3 gazillion features and benefits to sell and 3 gazillion more objectives to diffuse. You need more emails to tip the “sales scale” in your direction.
My Semi-Non-Copout Answer
But with that out of the way:
5-10 emails is a very vague, general goal to shoot for if you’re like most smaller online businesses.
Think about it: if your customer hasn’t bought after 10 emails, they might even be reading the emails anymore.
Again, that might not work for you at all, as we covered before.
So know your customer and your niche…
And always test and tweak.
Rough segue time!
Want help planning and/or writing your welcome sequence?
That’s something I can do for ya.