The best B2B salespeople don’t use one email sequence. They use a variety every day to generate leads and move deals forward.
They send cold emails to new leads, welcome emails to newsletter subscribers, webinar follow-ups to recent attendees, and nurturing emails to high-quality leads who need a little more maturation before buying.
This multi-faceted approach allows them to reach a high number of leads at the right time in a personalised manner.
Today, we’ll share the best sales email sequence examples, plus insights to help build your own.
Let’s start👇
9 email sequence examples to increase conversion rates
1. B2B cold email sequence
If you’re a Sales Development Representative, no sequence is as important to hitting your quota as the B2B email sequence.
It’s a series of hyper-relevant, personalised sales emails designed to book a meeting with B2B leads you haven’t interacted with yet.
Generally, these sequences are about 4-5 emails in length.
Each email should be short and to the point, focusing on how you can help the lead overcome their unique problems with your solution.
Example B2B cold email sequence from Cognism
Email 1: Compliment, introduction, and value proposition
Email 2: Social proof
Email 3: Sharing a helpful resource
Email 4: Breakup email
Why it works:
- It starts with a personalised compliment to build rapport with the lead and show them you did your research.
- The sales sequence focuses on specific pain points and results that sales leaders typically want from this tool.
- In the third email, the sequence gives the lead a taste of the product, which acts as evidence that you can deliver on your promises.
2. Welcome email sequence
When a potential customer subscribes to your email list, they should receive a welcome sequence of emails from a sales rep.
These sequences can do several things to nurture the lead and build trust:
- Thank the prospect.
- Introduce them to your brand and offer.
- Teach them how to get the most out of the offering.
- Tell them what to expect going forward.
- Share relevant blog posts and case studies.
- Explain your brand’s unique process or recipe.
These emails can also subtly promote your other products and services, encouraging the lead to explore everything you have to offer before making a purchasing decision.
For example, it’s common for free trial email welcome sequences to educate the lead on a premium feature and ask them to hop on a call to discuss it more in-depth.
Example welcome sequence from a CRM sales rep to a newsletter subscriber
Email 1: Greetings and what to expect
Email 2: Introduction to your product
Email 3: Check in with the lead
Why it works:
- Positions you as a helpful expert rather than a mere salesperson.
- Sets their expectations and gets them excited about the newsletter, which improves engagement.
- The third email sequence example attempts to uncover their precise pain points so that you can write more tailored sales messaging in the future.
3. Sales funnel email sequence
An email sequence for sales funnels is a sequence of emails sent to leads who have just opted into something on your website.
This cadence walks these new leads through the awareness, consideration, and decision stages, ending in a call to purchase.
It’s beneficial for more transactional sales processes that don’t require a call with a sales rep.
Start with an email that provides instant value to make an excellent funnel sequence. This could be a link to an industry report or an interesting article.
How do you know what the leads will find interesting?
Make it solve the same problem as the lead magnet for which they traded their contact information.
For example, leads who download a checklist for conducting an SEO audit will receive an in-depth guide on SEO best practices.
The following few emails should educate the lead on an offering that solves that problem while building your authority by sharing relevant customer success stories.
Finally, around email three or four, you’ll make a call to action, asking them to make a purchase.
Example sales funnel email sequence from a web hosting service sales rep
Email 1: Introduction & value proposition (awareness stage)
Email 2: Building trust & addressing pain points (consideration stage)
Email 3: Urgency & close (decision stage)
Why it works:
- It gives data-driven arguments for why it’s so critical the prospect uses your particular business.
- It focuses on the benefits of the product instead of the features.
- Uses an expiring discount to create a sense of urgency in the decision stage.
4. Webinar email sequence
This sequence covers the three stages of the webinar:
- Promote the webinar and drive attendance.
- Give attendees information to access and enjoy the webinar.
- Follow up with attendees for sales purposes.
Usually, B2B sales reps don’t enter the mix until those post-webinar emails. Here, sales reps ask the attendees about their experience and pitch products and services related to the topic of discussion.
For example, if the topic was “new property management regulations in NYC,” a sales rep might share details about a software tool that helps them stay in compliance.
Since it’s post-webinar that leads most often convert into customers, we’ll restrict this template to the follow-up stage:
Example of a webinar follow-up email sequence
Email: Follow up and ask for feedback
Why it works:
- Reminds the lead of the value they received from the webinar.
- Shows your expertise in the subject by reviewing the key takeaways.
- The product or service relates to the webinar subject, so it’s highly relevant to the lead’s current interests.
5. Lead nurture email sequence
Lead nurturing makes for one of the best email sequences. It's a long-term cadence with infrequent emails (every one to two weeks) that slowly but effectively educates leads on your solutions and builds brand trust without being overly pushy.
In B2B sales, these sequences are often reserved for quality leads that failed to convert in your cold email outreach sequence.
By placing these potential buyers into a nurturing sequence, you continue warming them up without overwhelming them with requests and other sales messaging.
Instead, the emails mostly share valuable content such as analyses of industry trends, deep dives on your services, case studies, product comparisons, and other educational content.
The hope is that once the lead realises they need help with the problem you solve, they’ll think of you and your business.
A great way to soft sell in each email is to mention that you’re available to help at the end of each email, like so:
“By the way, if you need help getting better leads, Cognism can help with that.”
Then, add a button they can click to submit a contact form or visit your check-out page.
Since a lead nurture sequence is meant to be long — like seven to ten emails long — we’re going to share a strategy you can use to build your own lead nurturing email sequence templates:
Lead nurture email sequence example
- Email 1 (Greetings): Greet the lead and introduce them to your brand — what you do, who you help, and how you do it.
- Email 2 (Give Free Value): Share a piece of content that leads like your recipient find incredibly valuable.
- Email 3 (Introduce Your Solution): Highlight your top features or services and share videos of them in action.
- Email 4 (Build Social Proof): Share a case study of a customer similar to this lead — aka, they share the same job title, industry, or company type.
- Email 5 (Beat Competition): Share a comparison guide and your unique selling proposition to show how your solution is better than competitors.
- Email 6 (Industry Insights): Call out and summarise specific industry trends and statistics that will help the lead accomplish their goals.
- Email 7 (Handle Objections): Name three to five common reasons clients give for not using a solution like yours, then assuage these concerns with logic and data.
- Continue sharing value - until they make a purchase or tell you to stop.
Why it works:
- Keeps the lead engaged and learning about your offerings.
- Provides the buyer with resources to help them make their purchase decision.
- Convinces the lead that you’re a consultative seller who has their success in mind
6. SaaS free trial email sequence
This SaaS email sequence consists of emails that attempt to convince a free trial user to upgrade to a paid plan.
But that doesn’t mean just hyping up the premium features and summarising the benefits of becoming a customer.
You should also offer your assistance throughout, reminding the email lead that you’re there to answer questions and proactively sharing feature tutorials and best practices.
This high level of customer service will cause the lead to view you as a helpful partner and give them proof that being a customer will be a satisfying experience.
Example SaaS free trial email sequence
Email 1: Free trial welcome and onboarding
Email 2: Highlight features & push for upgrade
Email 3: After the free trial ends
Why it works:
- Uses the first email to set the lead up for success so they get the most out of the free trial (and hopefully become addicted to it.)
- Reminds the user about how the free trial helped their business.
- Offers a discount to create a sense of urgency to upgrade plans.
7. Pain point solution sequence
This cold outreach email sequence allows you to leverage the challenges your prospective clients have to create highly relevant emails that lead to conversions.
It’s composed of B2B emails that are hyper-focused on various aspects of each challenge:
- The common causes of the pain.
- Consequences of letting it fester.
- Your unique solution to the pain.
- The benefits of solving it.
- How other customers have succeeded with the help of your business.
Example of a pain point outbound email sequence
Email 1: Address the pain point & consequences of not solving it
Email 2: Solution & benefits (offer & call to action)
Why it works:
- Hones in on one specific problem the lead is suffering.
- Discusses the cost of not solving the problem.
- Convincingly describes how the solution can eliminate the problem.
8. Onboarding email sequence
An email onboarding sequence onboards new customers. Generally, Customer Success Managers(CSMs) handle these sequences, but sometimes sales reps do if the company is smaller and without a CS department.
An excellent SaaS onboarding email sequence does the following:
- Guide users through setup by giving clear next steps and helpful resources (videos/guides).
- Highlight key features that will deliver immediate value.
- Encourage engagement by offering tips, use cases, and success stories.
- Offer personalised support with invitations to webinars and demos.
- Build trust and excitement by sharing social proof and expected benefits.
Onboarding email sequence example
Email 1: Welcome & Onboarding Instructions
Email 2: Highlight features & best practices
Why it works:
- Provides a lot of additional resources that help the new customer solve common issues and set up key functionality.
- Uses bulleted lists and bolded headings to make the information clear and digestible.
- Always remind the customer that help is just a call away.
9. Email follow-up sequence
This email sales sequence is used at various stages of the B2B sales process, but it’s most often used to book a meeting with a prospect who expressed interest in your offer.
You might send one after a webinar to see if the attendees are open to a call to discuss the product offered in the webinar. Or after someone fills out a demo form on your site.
These follow-ups should be short and valuable. They should remind the recipient of the benefits of meeting with you and provide value in the form of a relevant industry article or guide.
The little touch of adding a link to an article that you think they’d find interesting can be the slight nudge they need to trust you enough to respond or take a call.
Email sales follow-up sequence example (to a lead who requested a live demo)
Email 1: Scheduling the demo
Email 2: Reminder to schedule the demo
Why it works:
- Each email reminds the lead about the benefits of the feature or product they want to see.
- The emails are short, direct, and friendly in tone.
- The second email explains why the demo itself will be worth their time while also sharing a rapport-building resource.
Sequence email FAQs
What is an email sequence?
An email sequence is a series of pre-written emails that work together to generate a certain action from the recipient. This could be signing up for a free trial, purchasing a product, or leaving a review on a website.
Why should sales use a cold email sequence?
A cold email sequence streamlines the cold outreach process by providing you with pre-written email templates that you can quickly personalise to the cold lead.
Also, by using the same sequence consistently, you receive actionable feedback about its open rates, reply and conversion rates. This intel helps you improve the sequence intelligently.
How long should an email sequence be?
The length of an email sequence depends on the type of sequence you’re running. A lead nurturing sequence, for example, could be dozens of emails long since it’s meant to keep the leads warm. An outreach email sequence, however, is usually four to five emails since it’s very sales-heavy and too many requests for a meeting can become overwhelming for recipients.
How many emails should be in a sequence?
The ideal number of emails in a sequence depends on your goals, the type of sequence, and the bandwidth you have to create emails.
However, there are some general recommendations:
- Welcome email sequence: 3-4 emails.
- Cold email sequence: 4-5 emails.
- Email follow-up sequence: 2-3 emails.
- SaaS free trial sequence: 5-6 emails.
Keep in mind that these are only recommendations. Your sequence should contain enough emails to adequately produce the results you’re looking for.
How to create an email sequence
To create an email sequence, follow these steps:
Choose your objective
Figure out your desired end result. Is it a lead downloading an e-book or a prospect agreeing to a consultation? Your answer will dictate the length of the sequence, the messaging, and the content you share.
Pick your email software
Many sellers use sales engagement tools like Outreach to store, schedule, and track their email sequences.
But you may want to add email automation software to your sales tech stack. These tools can auto-deliver emails based on how leads react to them.
Search for inspiration
This article shared some examples of different types of email sequences for B2B sales. Steal them. Borrow the techniques we use to write your own emails.
Write your emails
Determine the purpose of each email, then write the copy, ensuring that your emails are personalised to the lead, provide value, and follow copywriting best practices like short sentences and clear, conversational prose.
Psst 👋 Don’t forget about your email subject lines.
Add fields for personalisation
Your email sequence software will likely enable you to drop empty fields for things like [First name] and [Job title] in the emails. This makes it easy to personalise the content.
Many tools will even auto-populate these fields with the correct details, which they draw from your CRM or lead database.
Make quality connections with Cognism
After you’ve added your personal touch to these email sequence templates, you’ll need to fill your database with quality B2B emails.
Cognism can clean and enrich your lists so your emails reach their intended recipients, which is integral to maintaining a good domain reputation.
Its AI-powered Sales Companion provides tailored insights and verified B2B email data that can dramatically improve your email deliverability, allowing you to reach and convert more leads.
When Frank, Bright & Abel started using Cognism, their email campaigns consistently hit 95-98% deliverability—a massive boon for their prospecting efficiency!
Check out how Cognism can help you connect with the best leads. Click to book a demo 👇
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