When it comes to moving prospects through the Buyer Journey with automated emails, your automation starts when a new subscriber submits their email address through one of your forms, opting in to receive communications from you.
Digital Marketer, a digital marketing training company, defined 5 types of email marketing campaigns you can use to support those tasks and quickly move new opt-in leads through the stages of the buyer journey.
- Indoctrination Campaigns
- Engagement Campaigns
- Ascension Campaigns
- Segmentation Campaigns
- Re-Engagement Campaigns
This post summarizes each type of email marketing campaign and how to use them.
#1 Indoctrination Campaign
When website visitors opt-in to your email list by downloading a lead magnet, creating an account, or requesting a meeting with sales, the first step is to enter them into an indoctrination campaign.
The purpose of Indoctrination Campaigns is to build relationships with new subscribers. They are a series of automated emails in which you teach new members of your email list about you and your brand, help them understand the value you’re going to provide, and get them excited about you and your brand.
These are examples of some questions that you would answer through your indoctrination email sequence:
- Who are you?
- What do you stand for?
- Why are you different?
- What kind of communication they can expect from you?
- How often they should expect to receive communications?
- What should they do next to get the most value out of their relationship with your brand?
If you do a good job of indoctrinating new members of your email list(s), they’ll begin to recognize your name in their inbox, which increases the probability that they’ll open and click through on links in the emails you send them.
How To Write Indoctrination Emails
- Welcome new subscribers and introduce them to your brand.
- Re-state in 3-4 bullet points the benefits they’ll get as a subscriber.
- Your ability to articulate the benefits of opting in to receive communications from you will help you to, later, help them understand the benefits of buying from you.
- Tell them what to expect, using this framework:
- Here’s what we’re going to do for you…
- Here’s what you need to do after we’ve done it
- Ask them to whitelist your email address
Bonus Opportunity
Send new subscribers 1-3 email “best of” campaign:
- Select some content that your existing subscribers have engaged with the most. For example:
- Blog posts you published that got the most likes, shares, and/or comments
- Videos you published that got the most likes, shares, and/or comments
- Facebook posts or Facebook Lives that received the most comments
- Send your new subscriber an email with one of your popular content pieces – one content piece per email; one email per day – consecutively over the following days.
#2 Engagement Campaign
After your indoctrination series ends, the next step is to enter the user into an engagement campaign.
The purpose of engagement campaigns is to turn new subscribers into first-time buyers of a product or service most relevant to the offer requested through the form submission that triggered the sequence.
How To Write Engagement Emails
- Acknowledge the action they just took. reference the positive action they’ve taken with you
- Try to overcome the objections you know they’re experiencing. Don’t just talk about the tactical, lever-pulling features. Address the thoughts and feelings that keep them from taking action.
- Present them with the next logical action they should take – clearly spell it out – to achieve the results in which they expressed interest. This action represents a conversion for your sales process, which could be in the form of a sales meeting, a demo, a purchase, or even another piece of content.
- Ask them to take the conversion action.
#3 Ascension Campaign
After your indoctrination series ends, the next step is to enter the user into an engagement campaign.
The purpose of engagement campaigns is to turn new subscribers into first-time buyers of a product or service most relevant to the offer requested through the form submission that triggered the sequence.
How To Write Ascension Emails
- Acknowledge the action they just took. reference the positive action they’ve taken with you
- Try to overcome the objections you know they’re experiencing. Don’t just talk about the tactical, lever-pulling features. Address the thoughts and feelings that keep them from taking action.
- Present them with the next logical action they should take – clearly spell it out – to achieve the results in which they expressed interest. This action represents a conversion for your sales process, which could be in the form of a sales meeting, a demo, a purchase, or even another piece of content.
- Ask them to take the conversion action.
#4 Segmentation Campaign
After your indoctrination series ends, the next step is to enter the user into an engagement campaign.
The purpose of engagement campaigns is to turn new subscribers into first-time buyers of a product or service most relevant to the offer requested through the form submission that triggered the sequence.
How To Write Segmentation Emails
- Acknowledge the action they just took. reference the positive action they’ve taken with you
- Try to overcome the objections you know they’re experiencing. Don’t just talk about the tactical, lever-pulling features. Address the thoughts and feelings that keep them from taking action.
- Present them with the next logical action they should take – clearly spell it out – to achieve the results in which they expressed interest. This action represents a conversion for your sales process, which could be in the form of a sales meeting, a demo, a purchase, or even another piece of content.
- Ask them to take the conversion action.
#5 Re-Engagement Campaign
After your indoctrination series ends, the next step is to enter the user into an engagement campaign.
The purpose of engagement campaigns is to turn new subscribers into first-time buyers of a product or service most relevant to the offer requested through the form submission that triggered the sequence.
How To Write Re-Engagement Emails
- Acknowledge the action they just took. reference the positive action they’ve taken with you
- Try to overcome the objections you know they’re experiencing. Don’t just talk about the tactical, lever-pulling features. Address the thoughts and feelings that keep them from taking action.
- Present them with the next logical action they should take – clearly spell it out – to achieve the results in which they expressed interest. This action represents a conversion for your sales process, which could be in the form of a sales meeting, a demo, a purchase, or even another piece of content.
- Ask them to take the conversion action.