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I want follow-up to continue automatically after someone takes action

Email and Text Automation and Sequences

Email and text automation sends the right follow-up after a customer action without relying on someone to remember.

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An automation answers the moment somebody acts. Somebody joins your list at eleven at night and hears from you at eleven at night. Somebody buys and gets told what happens next before they think to ask. Somebody leaves a cart and gets a reminder while they are still deciding. It is written once and it keeps running, so an evening of work this month is still working next year with nobody opening the account.

There are two ways to run one. The first is a platform, which is Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo, ActiveCampaign or GoHighLevel. The list, the triggers, the templates, the reporting and the unsubscribe link already exist inside it, and the monthly subscription is what pays for them. You are billed on how many contacts you hold, so the bill grows as the list does.

The second is a coded sender, which is a delivery service like Amazon SES or Postmark. It takes a finished email and puts it in an inbox, and that is all it does. Every other part gets written as software your business then owns. You are billed on how many emails go out, at a fraction of the price per email, and it buys none of the other parts.

Which way a platform bills is worth checking before you pick one. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo and ActiveCampaign bill on contacts held. GoHighLevel sends through its own built in service, which it bills per email sent. That difference decides which one is cheaper for you long before the build does.

The platform is the recommendation until the list grows large enough that the subscription costs more than building and keeping those parts. Which one suits you is answered from your list size, your budget and what you already pay for, and the answer arrives before you buy anything.

What is needed first, which sequences you pick, and platform or coded

What is needed before anything gets written

  • A brand kit, or an email template already builtThe colors, the typefaces and the header the emails sit inside. Without one, designing or coding that template is quoted on top, or it is the brand kit first. The sequence goes out on your brand either way.
  • A platform that can fire a triggerWhat yours can do is checked before anything is promised, rather than discovered halfway through a build. Where you have none, choosing one is part of this and you buy it in your own name.
  • People on the list for it to run onA sequence fires when somebody joins, so something has to do the joining. Where there is no signup yet, that is lead magnets and email signup capture, quoted on its own.
  • What the sequence is forThe trigger, and what you want the person to do by the end of it. That is what decides how many emails there are.

You pick the sequences you need

  • The list above is a menu, not a bundleThe price covers one sequence. Which one it is, is yours to choose.
  • Which one to start withA welcome suits a business that sells a service. A cart recovery suits one that sells online. The second sequence is quicker once the template exists.
  • Each extra sequence is priced on its ownA second trigger and a second run of emails behind it.
  • Extra emails and the timing are confirmed with you firstWhat each one is doing, how long after the trigger it goes, and what it costs, all agreed in writing before it is written.

How many emails go in one

Five is what a sequence covers before each extra email is priced on its own. These are the normal lengths, and yours can be shorter or longer once there is a reason for it.

  • A welcome, three emailsThe brand and what to expect, then the people behind it, then what you sell. That is the shape Omnisend sets out.
  • An abandoned cart, two or threeThe first between two and four hours after checkout starts, the second twenty to forty eight hours later, which is Klaviyo's own guidance.
  • Three, as a starting point for the restPost purchase, review request, win back and renewal have no published standard. Three is the average across the series in Mailchimp's study, and each one gets set from how much there is to say.
  • A course drip, one per lessonReleased on the schedule the course runs to, so the number is the number of lessons.

Text messages, and what they cost

  • Priced separately from the emailText is an add on, not part of the sequence price, because it is a second set of words and a second thing to connect.
  • Your platform decides whether it is possibleSome trigger email and text from one place. Some send only email. Which yours does is checked first.
  • Sending rates are the thing to weigh when choosing oneText is charged per message by whoever sends it, on top of the subscription, and billed to you in your own name. A platform that looks cheaper monthly can cost more once text is on.

Your platform, one I recommend, or coded

  • The platform you already pay forWhere it can fire the trigger you need. Nothing new to buy, and the build goes straight in.
  • One recommended for youMailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo, ActiveCampaign or GoHighLevel, chosen on your list size, whether you sell online, whether you want text from the same place, and what you are willing to pay monthly. Bought in your own name.
  • A coded sender, which costs far more to buildA delivery service like Amazon SES or Postmark only puts a finished email in an inbox. The list, the unsubscribe link, the trigger logic, the template, bounce handling, the DNS records, a new sending reputation, the hosting and the reporting all get written instead of switched on. That is nine parts a subscription was already covering.
  • The sum is list size, not send volumeA platform bills on contacts held, so the bill grows with the list. A delivery service bills on emails sent, at a fraction each. The build is paid once, the subscription every month.
  • The recommendation is the platform until the arithmetic says otherwiseTell me your list size, what you send in a month and what you are willing to pay monthly, and the recommendation and the reasoning arrive in writing before you buy anything. The full part by part comparison is below.
How this gets fixed

The service is an email automation build

An email sequence gets built inside your own account. The triggers, the sequences and the timing between each email are written, designed and connected inside the account you already pay for. Each one runs end to end as a test customer before it goes live, so a broken link or a sequence that fires twice gets caught before a real person sees it.

You end up with sequences running in your own platform, documented plainly enough that you can edit a line without calling anyone.

What triggers them

  • Somebody joins your list
  • Somebody buys
  • Somebody books
  • Somebody starts a course
  • Somebody leaves a cart
  • A date, like a renewal or a birthday
Scope

What this service includes

Included in your service
  • The sequences themselves
  • Welcome sequence
  • Post purchase and delivery
  • Course lessons, released on a schedule
  • Abandoned cart
  • Review and referral requests
  • Win back, for customers who went quiet
  • Text messages, where your platform sends them
  • Whether yours can trigger a text, checked first
  • A reminder sent as a text instead of an email, or as well as one
  • Set up here, and the messages billed to you by whoever sends them
  • Built in your own account
  • Your platform, or one recommended for what you need
  • Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo, ActiveCampaign, GoHighLevel
  • Written, designed and connected
  • Tested end to end before it goes live
  • Handed over so you can edit it
Related work quoted separately
  • One off campaigns and newsletters that go out by hand, which is Email and Text Campaigns and Newsletters
  • Your email platform subscription and your text message charges, which are billed to you by the provider, in your own name
  • Moving you to a different platform where yours cannot run triggers.You are told that before any work starts, and the move is quoted on its own
  • Any promise about reply rates, purchase rates, recovered carts or inbox placement
  • Sales calls. A sequence warms somebody up, a person closes
  • Deal stages and pipelines, which are CRM Setup and Lead Tracking
  • Cleaning the contact records the sequences run against, which is Contact and Data Cleanup
  • Sending from my account. Everything runs in yours, from your address
Your quote

What shapes your quote

Start with the standard service. Add only the work your business needs.

Standard starting point
  • The trigger chosen and connectedthe thing that starts it, like somebody joining your list or leaving a cart, wired so the sequence fires with nobody pressing send
  • Up to five emails writtenthe goal of the sequence, the order they arrive in, and what each one is doing
  • Two rounds of revisions on the writingyou read them, mark what is wrong, and they come back changed. Twice
  • A call to go through the revisions with yourather than a thread of notes, so a change you meant one way does not come back another
  • The timing between each email sethow long after the trigger the first one goes, and how long between each one after that
  • Built in your own accountyour platform, not mine, so it keeps running whoever you work with next
  • Run end to end as a test customersigned up as a fake buyer and the whole sequence watched arriving before it goes live
  • Handed over so you can edit itshown where it lives and how to change a line without breaking the trigger
Add only what you need
  • Each email beyond fivewritten, designed and slotted into the order
  • Each extra sequencea second trigger, and a second run of emails behind it
  • The email template designed or coded from nothingwhere there is no brand kit and no template to start from, that comes first
  • Connecting a trigger your platform cannot fire by itselfwhere two apps have to be joined before anything can happen
  • Text messages as well as emailwhere your platform sends text. The messages themselves are billed to you by whoever sends them
  • Moving you to a platform that can run triggerswhere yours cannot. You are told before any work starts, not halfway through
  • Coded instead of built on a platformquoted, and only where the list is big enough for it to pay back
Ask about this serviceor call (561) 203-9685
The process

How it runs, step by step

  • Tell me what is going on The form below. What you have now, and what you want instead.
  • A short call, if it needs one Only where the scope cannot be settled in writing.
  • You get the scope and the price In writing, with what is included and what is not.
  • You approve it Nothing starts before you have agreed the scope and the price.
  • The work happens You are told when something needs a decision from you, and nothing else.
  • Handover What was done, where it lives, and what to do next, written down.

More on how working together works.

Can this be coded instead, and when is it worth it?

A coded sender means buying only the delivery. Amazon SES or Postmark take a finished email and put it in an inbox. That is all they do. Everything a platform hands you already built gets written as software instead, and once it is written it belongs to your business.

What gets built, and what the platform already has

  • The list, and who is on itOn a platform, the platform is the list.
  • The unsubscribe link, and honoring itRequired by law, and automatic on a platform. In code it is a page, a record and a check before every send.
  • The trigger logicWhat fires, when, and what stops it firing twice. This is the part people picture, and it is the smallest part.
  • The email template, in codeNo drag and drop. Every later change is a code change.
  • Bounce and complaint handlingAn address that no longer exists, and somebody pressing the spam button, both get recorded and acted on. Without it the sending account gets suspended.
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and the DNS records behind themThe three settings in your domain that tell an inbox provider the mail really came from you. Gmail names them alongside several other things it weighs.
  • A new sending reputation, started from nothingA platform sends from addresses with a history. A new one has none, and it gets warmed up over weeks.
  • Somewhere for it to run, that stays runningOn a platform, the platform is the hosting.
  • ReportingOpened, clicked, bought. Built in on a platform, built by hand here.

What a coded build includes

  • The DNS records set up and verifiedSPF, DKIM and DMARC published on your domain and checked from outside, not just entered.
  • Tested against what a spam filter seesTest sends scored before a real address is mailed, and the wording changed where the score says to.
  • Every sequence run end to end as a test customerThe same test a platform build gets, on software that has never sent anything before.
  • Bounce and complaint handling wired before the first sendNot added after the account gets its first warning.

When it is worth it

  • The two are priced on different thingsA platform bills on how many contacts you hold, so the bill rises as the list grows even if you send the same amount. A delivery service bills on emails sent, at a fraction per email.
  • So the question is list size, not send volumeThe build is paid once. The subscription is paid every month, forever, and it grows.
  • Check both against your own numbersMailchimp and Amazon SES publish their prices. Put your contact count and your monthly sends into both and the answer is arithmetic rather than opinion.
  • What the saving costs youDeliverability becomes yours. When mail stops landing there is no support line, and the person who notices is you.

The recommendation is the platform, until the arithmetic says otherwise. Tell me your list size, what you send in a month and what you are willing to pay monthly, and you get the recommendation and the reasoning in writing before you buy anything. Where a coded sender is the right answer, it is quoted as its own job.

FAQ

Questions about this service

What is the difference between this and a newsletter?

A newsletter goes out to everyone at a time you choose. An automation goes out to one person at the moment they did something. The second one keeps working while you are busy.

How many emails belong in a sequence?

Five is what the price covers. A welcome is usually three, a cart recovery two or three, and each email past five is priced on its own. The number is set by how much there is to actually say.

Platform or coded, which one do I want?

The platform, until your list is big enough that the subscription costs more than building the parts yourself. The comparison is above, with both pricing pages linked so you can run it on your own numbers.

Can you send text messages as well?

Where your platform sends them, yes. Text is priced separately from the email, and the messages themselves are charged to you per message by whoever sends them.

My platform is basic. Can it do this?

Some of the cheap ones handle a welcome and a date based send and not much else. What yours can do is checked first and named, rather than discovered halfway through.

Do the emails come from me or from you?

From you. They send from your address, in your account, and your name is on them.

Can somebody end up in two sequences at once?

They can, which is how people get three emails in a morning. Rules get set so one sequence pauses another, and that is part of the testing before launch.

What happens when I want to change something later?

You open the sequence and edit it. It is built in your account for that reason, and the handover covers where each one lives and what sets it off.

Send me the details

I read it and reply with the scope and the price before any work starts.

Ask about this service or call (561) 203-9685

Get a quote

Tell me the result you want and where I can see the business now. I use that information to identify the most useful service or package and decide whether I can quote it in writing. If one missing detail changes the work or price, I will ask for that detail or suggest a short call.

What would help most?

Pick at least one. More than one is fine.

Answer a few more if you want a more specific first reply

What happens next: I review the links and details, then reply within two business days with the best next step, any one question I still need answered, or a written quote when the scope is already clear.

Prefer regular email? [email protected]

Derek Packer

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