The email flows worth building, in payback order
Five automated email sequences in the order we build them, with the trigger and timing of each message and the sender rules that keep them out of spam.
Build the flow that follows up demand you have already paid for. For a business that sells through enquiries, that is the enquiry follow-up. For a store, it is the abandoned cart. The order below is the one we recommend and the reasoning is payback: the first two flows need no new ad spend, because the people in them have already arrived.
That order is our recommendation, not a published ranking. The one piece of outside evidence we lean on is narrow. In GetResponse’s benchmark of more than 4.4 billion messages its customers sent in 2023, triggered emails averaged a 5.02 percent click-through rate and newsletters 3.84 percent (GetResponse). That is one vendor measuring its own customers, so treat it as a direction and not as a forecast.
The short version
- Start with the flow that works leads you already have. Enquiry follow-up for a lead generation business, abandoned cart for a store. This is a Mavix recommendation based on payback, not a platform rule.
- Fix sending before writing. Gmail asks every sender for SPF or DKIM, and asks anyone sending close to 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail accounts for SPF, DKIM, a DMARC record and one-click unsubscribe.
- Keep spam complaints low. Gmail tells senders to stay below a 0.1 percent spam rate and never reach 0.3 percent. Yahoo sets the same 0.3 percent ceiling.
- Every flow needs an exit. A reply, a booking or a sale ends the sequence. An unsubscribe ends all of them.
- A newsletter comes after the five flows. It cannot react to what one person just did, and a flow can.
Which email flow should I build first?
The one whose trigger already happens in your business every week. The table sets out the five flows in the order we build them, with the reason each sits where it does.
| Order | Flow | Trigger | First message | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enquiry follow-up | A form submitted, then no reply to your first response | Same day | The lead is already paid for |
| 2 | Abandoned cart or abandoned enquiry | Added to cart or started a form, did not finish | About four hours later | The buyer was one step from done |
| 3 | Welcome | Subscribed, downloaded or created an account | Immediately | Attention is highest on day one |
| 4 | Post-purchase | First purchase or first project completed | At confirmation | A past buyer needs no acquisition spend |
| 5 | Win-back | No purchase or engagement for an unusual length of time | When the gap opens | Last, because it mails the least engaged people |
A store with no enquiry form swaps the first two. The timings are our starting points. Change them once you have seen your own replies and orders.
What is in the checklist
| Format | What it is | Who it is for | Time to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checklist | A printable build order with the trigger, timing and purpose of every message in the five core flows, plus the sending setup that keeps them out of spam. | Anyone with an email platform who only uses the broadcast feature, and anyone whose enquiries go quiet after one reply. | About a week to build. After that the platform sends them. |
What do I need to fix before any flow goes live?
Authentication, unsubscribe and list quality, in that order. An email that lands in spam earns nothing, however well it is written.
Gmail’s sender guidelines have applied since 1 February 2024. All senders need SPF or DKIM. Senders of close to 5,000 messages a day or more to personal Gmail accounts need SPF and DKIM and a DMARC record. They also need one-click unsubscribe on marketing messages (Google Workspace Admin Help, Gmail sender guidelines FAQ). Yahoo asks bulk senders for the same things, with a DMARC policy of at least p=none, and requires unsubscribes to be honoured within two days (Yahoo Sender Hub).
A small list sits under the bulk threshold. We still set up all of it, because it takes an afternoon and you do not have to redo it when the list grows.
- Publish an SPF record listing every service that sends on your behalf.
- Set up DKIM signing on your sending domain.
- Publish a DMARC record, starting at p=none so you can read the reports before enforcing.
- Put a working one-click unsubscribe in every marketing send, and show the link in the message body.
- Start a new sending domain slowly. Gmail’s guidance is to “start with a low sending volume to engaged users, and slowly increase the volume over time”.
- Watch the spam rate. Gmail says to keep it below 0.1 percent and to avoid ever reaching 0.3 percent.
Two more items are our own practice and not a provider rule. Send marketing email from a subdomain, so a marketing problem stays away from your day-to-day business email. And remove addresses that have not opened or clicked anything in about a year, because a smaller engaged list draws fewer complaints.
Photo: Kaboompics on Pexels.
Flow one, enquiry follow-up
Build this first on a lead generation business. You have already paid to get the enquiry, so every reply the sequence recovers costs nothing extra.
- Trigger: an enquiry form submitted and no reply from them after the first response.
- Message one, same day: the answer to what they asked, plus one specific observation about their business.
- Message two, day three: a relevant example or result, with the method attached.
- Message three, day seven: address the objection most likely to be stopping them, directly.
- Message four, day fourteen: a straight question about whether the timing is wrong, with an easy way to say so.
- Message five, day thirty: something useful with no ask attached.
- Exit the flow the moment they reply, book or buy.
Flow two, abandoned cart or abandoned enquiry
For a store, this is the flow we build first. The trigger is a person who chose a product and stopped one step short.
- Trigger: added to cart, or started a form, and did not finish.
- Message one, four hours: no discount, just the item and a link back.
- Message two, twenty-four hours: address the likely hesitation. Delivery, sizing and returns are the ones we see most.
- Message three, three days: a customer review, or a discount if the margin supports it.
- Think hard before putting a discount in message one. Customers who learn that leaving a cart earns a discount will leave carts.
- Exit when they buy, and suppress anyone who bought within the window.
Flow three, welcome
A new contact is paying attention on the day they sign up. In the GetResponse data, welcome emails recorded a 16.6 percent click-through rate against 3.84 percent for newsletters (GetResponse). We quote clicks and not opens on purpose. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection downloads remote content in the background whether or not the person reads the email, so an open is no longer proof of a reader (Apple).
- Trigger: subscribed, downloaded something, or created an account.
- Message one, immediately: deliver what they asked for and nothing else.
- Message two, day two: who you are and who you help, briefly.
- Message three, day five: your single best piece of useful content.
- Message four, day nine: the offer, once, clearly.
- Segment from here by what they clicked, so people stop receiving the same thing as everyone else.
Flow four, post-purchase
Someone who has bought once already knows you, and reaching them again needs no ad spend.
- Trigger: first purchase or first project completed.
- Message one: confirm and set expectations, so they do not have to email and ask.
- Message two: how to get more out of what they bought.
- Message three: ask for the review, close to the moment the product or the result arrives.
- Message four: the natural next product or service, timed to when they would need it.
- Set a replenishment reminder if what you sell runs out.
Photo: Kampus Production on Pexels.
Flow five, win-back
- Trigger: no purchase or no engagement for a period that is unusual for your business.
- Message one: acknowledge the gap plainly.
- Message two: what has changed since they last bought.
- Message three: a clear reason to come back, and a clear way to leave the list if not.
- Suppress and stop after this. Mailing people who ignored three messages is how complaint rates rise, and the 0.3 percent ceiling above applies to your whole domain.
Why build flows before a newsletter?
Because a flow reacts to something one person just did, and a newsletter goes to everyone on the same day whatever they did. A newsletter also needs something worth saying every month. A flow is written once.
The email programmes we are asked to look at often start the other way round: a monthly newsletter, and no automated sequence behind it. Build in the order above and the first two flows work leads you have already paid for, so they are the quickest to show whether email earns its place in your business.
Email also sits outside the ad auctions. The price of a search or social click moves with what competitors bid. Your sending cost follows the size of your list and the plan you are on.
The bottom line
Order email work by how close the person already is to buying. Someone who enquired this morning comes before someone who subscribed last year, and both come before a monthly broadcast. Get the sending setup right first, give every sequence an exit, and stop mailing people who have stopped reading.
Questions people ask about this
Which flow should I build first?
Whichever one acts on demand you have already paid for. For a lead generation business that is enquiry follow-up. For a store it is abandoned cart. Both work leads that already exist, so the payback does not depend on any new acquisition spend.
How many emails should a sequence have?
More than most people are comfortable with, and the discomfort is usually about the sender rather than the reader. Four to six over two weeks is normal for an enquiry sequence. The limit is whether each message is worth opening, not a number.
Will automation make our email feel robotic?
Only if it is written that way. Automation is about timing, not tone. A sequence written as though one person is talking to another reads better than most manually sent email, because it was written carefully once instead of hurriedly every time.
How do I check whether my emails land in spam?
Send a test to a few addresses you control on different providers and see where each lands. Then check your domain’s SPF, DKIM and DMARC records with a free lookup tool. Read the DMARC reports once they arrive. Finally, look at the open rate on your last few sends. A sudden drop across the whole list usually means placement, not content.
Does a small list still need a sending subdomain?
Yes, because the reason is protection rather than volume. If a marketing send ever triggers complaints, the damage stays on the subdomain and your day-to-day business email keeps arriving. Setting it up takes an afternoon and costs nothing beyond a few DNS records. Do it before the first flow goes live, because moving later means warming a new domain from scratch.
What if I only have a few enquiries a month?
Then the enquiry follow-up flow matters more, not less, because each one is a larger share of your revenue. Write the five messages once and let the platform send them. With low volume you can also personalise message one by hand within the flow, which is worth doing. The sequence still runs on its timings whether you have five enquiries or five hundred.
Should the follow-up flow stop if someone unsubscribes?
Immediately, and the platform should do that for you. An unsubscribe from any message ends every flow that contact is in, not only the one they replied to. Check the setting, because some tools treat transactional and marketing sends separately. Then make the unsubscribe link visible in every message. Hiding it produces spam complaints, which cost you more than the lost contact.
How do I write the objection email in flow one?
Pick the objection that comes up most on calls, then answer it plainly in the first two sentences. Price, timing and whether it will work for a business like theirs are the usual three. Do not argue. Say what is true, give one example that shows it, and ask a direct question. One objection per message. If you have two, that is two messages.
Where does a newsletter fit after the flows?
After all five are built and running, if you have something worth saying regularly. A monthly send that shares one useful thing keeps a list warm between flows. It should never replace them, because a newsletter cannot act on what an individual just did. If writing it every month is a struggle, send it less often and keep the quality up.
How do I stop the win-back flow damaging deliverability?
Send it only to people who have opened something within the last year, so you are not mailing dead addresses. Keep it to three messages and suppress anyone who ignores all of them, as the post says. Watch the bounce and complaint rates on each send. If either rises, pause the flow and tighten the entry rule before the next batch goes out.
Can I build these flows on a free email plan?
Usually the first two or three, because most platforms allow simple automation on their entry tiers. The limits tend to be the number of contacts, the number of active automations and whether branching is allowed. Build enquiry follow-up and welcome first. If the plan cannot run abandoned cart or segment by click, that is the point where paying for the platform earns its cost.
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