I was sitting at a table with half a dozen business women, and I had no idea what they were talking about.
I’d been there the whole time, but suddenly they’d changed subjects and it was like they were speaking another language. I was so lost.
I looked at my friend beside me, somewhat relieved to see she looked as puzzled as I felt.
“Do you know what they’re talking about?” I whispered?
“No idea!” she mouthed back.
We looked at the other women, deeply involved in something that made total sense to them. We looked at each other.
I had to say something. “Um, we are so confused – what are you talking about?”
The girls looked at us and smiled, not knowing we hadn’t known. They were talking about another woman from our wider international community.
She had been using a controversial cancer treatment for many years and had recently succumbed to the disease. They had been discussing the online reaction to her death.
My friend and I had missed years of back story – of course we had no idea!
You don’t want this to happen to your crowd. During the pre-campaign crowdbuilding stage, it’s very easy to forget that the people joining your list later on have no idea what’s happened before they arrived.
You’re busy sending out the latest and greatest updates, but your newest subscribers are standing there, wondering what the hell is going on.
What your campaign needs to build the most enthusiastic crowd – a crowd who know EXACTLY what is going on – is a nurture sequence.
What is a nurture sequence?
A nurture sequence is a series of emails that introduce your backers to your campaign in a controlled, consistent way.
It means that no matter when your backers join your list – whether they are the first signup, or join 2 days before you launch, everyone is on the same page.
They all get the same information, just not at the same time.
What is this magic?
It’s called Automation. It means that you can set up an email to be sent as soon as someone joins your list, and another one in a few days, followed by the next, and the next.
You don’t have to write them all at once either. You can send an email to all existing members, and add it to the list to go out to new ones as they join.
Automation is a function available on the Entrepeneur level in Mailchimp, one of the easiest email marketing systems around. It’s a paid feature that is worth the investment when building your crowd and getting them ready for your launch.
But your content needs to be specific, and planned. Most people use email marketing to send emails that are relevant to a specific period in time. The trick to a nurture sequence is that your emails are ‘evergreen’.
To make this easy, you can download the nurture sequence templates below to get started on your own.
Writing evergreen content
Evergreen content is always relevant. It’s designed to inform long-term. For example:
Our Kickstarter project will launch on 15 July 2015 and we’d love to have you on board from day one.
vs
We’ll be launching our Kickstarter project in three weeks. Watch your inbox for more details.
When you build a nurture sequence, it’s important that no matter when someone receives the email, it makes sense.
What makes a good nurture sequence?
A good nurture sequence allows your entire crowd to learn about your campaign and get the full story.
The trick to bringing your nurture sequence to life lies in planning it. While exciting developments can be added later on (or the current emails can be updated to include the changes), there are some basic things that you should introduce your entire crowd to right from the beginning.
Feel free to write your own content, or you can purchase the Multitude templates at the bottom of the page.
How do I set it up?
Automation is a relatively simple process to set up. Mailchimp has some excellent resources to get you started.
Getting Started With Automation
Create an Automation Workflow
What delay should I use?
It really depends on how much time you have available. If you’ve got months up your sleeve, then once a week is fine.
But if you’ve only got 6-8 weeks, then one to two days is heaps.
More questions about nurture sequences?
Leave them in the comments below so I can get them answered for you!
