Three emails: days 0, 3 and 8

We approach a buyer on day 0, day 3 and day 8. Three emails over eight days give us room to make a useful introduction, add an angle and close the loop. After that, a fresh approach needs a fresh reason.

Plan the three together. When each has a distinct purpose, the follow-ups are much easier to write.

Give days 0, 3 and 8 purpose

Day 3 gives the opening email a little breathing room. Day 8 brings the final message into a different week and onto a different weekday. That changes when the buyer encounters the approach while keeping the business context close.

A message that arrived at a busy moment gets two more chances at different times. The sequence keeps the topic in reach without contacting the person twice in one day.

Eight days also helps keep the research current. In a six-week sequence, a vacancy may be filled by week five. Check that the reason for writing still holds whenever you plan the next message.

Three emails, three useful jobs

Give each email a purpose the other two leave open.

1. Day 0, make the introduction. Use a relevant observation, explain the help and ask one question. Forty to eighty words including the greeting keeps the approach easy to read.
2. Day 3, add a reason. Bring fresh information or a different angle on the buyer's problem. Give the person something useful even if they missed the first email.
3. Day 8, close the loop. Bring the next decision into focus with a short, specific question they can answer in one word.

Try writing the third email first. A clear closing question tells you what decision the sequence is working towards. Once you know that, the opener can make a more useful introduction.

Let each email stand alone

The buyer may read one of the three messages, in any order, across two weeks. Give each enough context to work on its own. The first line should bring them into the topic straight away.

A four-step or seven-step sequence can look substantial while repeating itself from steps two onwards. Read each message separately and ask what the buyer gains from receiving it. A reminder of your existence rarely does enough.

Make the three worth receiving

We stop at three because we want each approach to carry a useful reason to answer. A fourth needs to earn its place against the attention it asks for and the pressure it puts on the sending operation. Write the strongest sequence you can within the space you've chosen.

Plan the response before the first email leaves. An interested buyer needs a useful answer, a referral needs following and an opt-out needs recording. The sequence starts the conversation; the reply-handling work makes something of it.

Put the fourth email to work. Draft it, then compare it with the first three. If it contains a better fact, offer or question, use that material to strengthen one of them. Keep the sequence focused on the buyer's decision.

A reply changes the conversation

As soon as a reply arrives, the sending system stops the remaining sequence. A person can then respond to the message in front of them, with the automation out of the conversation.

A buyer who answered on day 4 should never receive a day 8 close as though nothing happened. Stopping the sequence protects the interest you have already earned and gives the human reply room to do its job.

Coordinate the channels too. A human email reply stops the queued LinkedIn approach, so the person gets a coherent conversation wherever they answer.

Pick up after they return

An out-of-office message tells you about availability. Use the return information to pick up at the right point in the same sequence:

• A dated return. Resume two working days after the stated date, at the next unsent step. Two days gives the buyer room to deal with their return.
• No return date. Resume fourteen days after the automatic reply.
• Maternity, sabbatical or long leave. Find who owns the decision in their absence and keep the original sequence paused.

Someone away after day 3 returns to the next unsent step, the day 8 close. Keep their place in the sequence so they receive the next useful message when they are back.

See the sequence in action

For this illustrative run, Marlowe Ferris leads a twenty-person data consultancy that has announced a second delivery team.

Day 0 uses 'your second pod': forty-nine words on the new team and a question about finding the work to fill it. Day 3 uses 'the ramp problem' to introduce the first ninety days of adding delivery capacity ahead of demand. Day 8, 'worth a look', closes with two sentences and a simple question.

In the example, Marlowe answers on day 4. The day 8 email stops, and a person answers the positive reply within thirty minutes during UK working hours.

Set the sequence, then stay responsive

Use three emails on days 0, 3 and 8, each with a useful reason to answer. Any reply pauses the sequence. For a dated out-of-office return, resume at the next unsent step two working days after that date; use the rules above for other leave.

Before scheduling, read every message from the buyer's side. The sequence is ready when each email adds something and the next step is easy to understand.