Skip to main content

Creating and sending an Email Sequence in Kit

Learn how to use Email Sequences to send automated emails to your subscribers.

Email Sequences are self-contained sets of automated emails.

When you add a subscriber to an Email Sequence, they'll go through all the Email Sequence's emails in order, starting at the beginning.

Each Email Sequence email's send day and time will depend on when the subscriber was added to the Email Sequence, or the delays set up from the previous email in the Email Sequence (as relevant).

For example, you could use an Email Sequence to send an automated series of welcome emails as follows:

  1. "Welcome to my newsletter!" - sent immediately upon sign-up

  2. "Check out these popular blog posts" - sent two hours after the previous email

  3. "Here's an exclusive coupon code for you" - sent three days after the previous email, and only on weekdays

Email Sequences are different from Broadcasts, which are one-off, non-automated emails that you send at a specific date and time.

Let's dive in.

How to create an Email Sequence

To find the Email Sequences page, click Send > Email Sequences in the top navigation.

Click the + New email sequence button near the top right and select a default template for your Email Sequence. (You can change this template later.)

Composing your Email Sequence emails

Upon creating a new Email Sequence, you'll see the Content tab of the Email Sequence editor, which is where you'll compose your Email Sequence's emails.

Click the pencil icon at the top left of the Email Sequence editor to rename your Email Sequence.

NOTE: The Email Sequence's name is for your internal reference. You can change it anytime.

At the right sidebar, you'll see:

For now, compose the first email in your Email Sequence. The Email Sequence editor autosaves your work, so you don't have to worry about losing it halfway.

Once you're done composing your email, you can set up preview text for it.

Preview text is a short text snippet that gives subscribers a hint of what your email is about. Learn more in our guide to setting up preview text for your emails.

Then, click Preview in the email toolbar to preview your email on desktop or mobile, or by sending a test email to your inbox.

If you don't need your email, click the Delete icon to delete it.

Setting up and customizing your Email Sequence email templates

Click the Settings tab at the top right of the Email Sequence editor.

Under the Email Settings section, you can set a default email template for all new emails in your Email Sequence.

You can also change your email template for individual Email Sequence emails. To do this, go back to the Email Sequence editor's Content tab. Use the Emails sidebar tab to click the email whose template you want to change, and then click Styles in the right sidebar.

Then, click Browse templates under the Template setting to select a new template for just this Email Sequence email.

If you've selected a starting point template for your Email Sequence email, you can customize the email's look by clicking its components, and then adjusting their settings in the Styles sidebar tab.

NOTE: If you've selected a classic or HTML template for your Email Sequence email, you can customize it using the separate visual email template editor or HTML template code editor respectively. However, your customizations will apply to all emails using that classic or HTML template instead of just that particular Email Sequence email.

Publishing your Email Sequence emails

Happy with your email? Then, enable the Published toggle to publish it! This is super important, because the email won't send if it isn't published.

NOTE: If you make changes to your email after its status has been set to "Published," you'll need to save your changes by clicking the separate Publish changes button at the bottom of the Email Sequence editor.

With that, you're done with the first email in your Email Sequence.

You'll also need to activate the Email Sequence for its published emails to be sent to subscribers. Learn about activating Email Sequences below.

Adding new emails to your Email Sequence

To add a new email to the Email Sequence, click the Add Email button in the right sidebar of the Email Sequence editor.

You can reorder the emails in your Email Sequence by dragging and dropping them to their new position, and then clicking the Save Order button.

How to send an Email Sequence

Setting up your From email address

Click the Settings tab in the Email Sequence editor.

Use the Send emails as setting under the Email Settings section to choose your Email Sequence emails' "From" email address.

Click Update at the bottom right to save your changes.

Setting the overall Email Sequence schedule

Set your Email Sequence emails' default Send Days and Times in the Email Sequence Schedule section of the Settings tab.

For example, if you don't want your Email Sequence emails to be sent on weekends, then uncheck the "Sat" and "Sun" boxes.

Or to temporarily pause the sending of your Email Sequence, uncheck all of the sending days.

Click Update at the bottom right to save your changes.

Setting the send days for specific Email Sequence emails

You can also adjust the send days and times for individual emails in the Email Sequence using the Send this email setting in the Content tab.

This setting lets you send individual emails:

  • That are delayed by a certain number of days or hours after the previous one, and/or

  • On only certain days of the week.

Let's say that you uncheck all the send days for a particular email except for Wednesday. In this case, that email will be sent only on Wednesdays. This is even if your Email Sequence is set up to send an email every day under the Email Sequence Schedule setting.

Alternatively, you can set up a series of emails to be sent out in two-hour intervals.

On the other hand, to have your first email go out immediately, set it to send either 0 days or 0 hours after the last email.

NOTE: Only the first email in your Email Sequence can be sent immediately.

What's the relationship between the overall and per-email Email Sequence send settings?

The overall Email Sequence Schedule limits the available send day and time options for the individual emails if the individual emails' send day delay is set to days (instead of hours).

Let's say you've used the Email Sequence Schedule section under the Settings tab to set your Email Sequence to be sent on only weekdays. If so:

  • ❌ You won't be able to use the Send this email setting to send any individual Email Sequence emails on weekends.

  • ✔️ You can use the Send this email setting to send a particular Email Sequence email on only a certain weekday (such as only on Wednesdays).

In contrast, if you've set the individual emails' send day delay to hours, these emails will disregard your Email Sequence's Email Sequence Schedule setting. Instead, they'll send once the delay period has ended.

Let's say you've used the Email Sequence Schedule setting to set your Email Sequence to send only on Mondays at around 8 am GMT-07:00. You've also set the first Email Sequence email to send one hour after the last email on Mondays.

In this case, the first Email Sequence email will send at around 15 minutes past midnight GMT-07:00 on the next upcoming Monday.

NOTE: The email is sent at around 12:15 am instead of 1:00 am because our system checks for new Email Sequence emails—whose send day delays are set to hours—to send every 15 minutes.

Sending your Email Sequence to Form and Landing Page subscribers

To get subscribers into your Email Sequence after they've signed up with you via a Form or Landing Page, create a Visual Automation.

Add your Form or Landing Page as the entry point for the Visual Automation, and then add your Email Sequence as the next action step.

NOTE: If you're new to Visual Automations, check out this guide.

By default, subscribers will exit an Email Sequence they were added to via a Visual Automation when they reach the end of the Email Sequence. That means they won't receive any new emails you add to that Email Sequence afterward.

However, if you want your subscribers to remain active in your Email Sequence indefinitely, then select "Yes, subscribers added via Visual Automations should stay in the email sequence" in the Should subscribers added via Visual Automations stay in the email sequence? setting under the Settings tab of the Email Sequence editor:

Click Update at the bottom right to save your changes.

Starting an Email Sequence on a specific day

Want your Email Sequence to start sending only on a certain day, such as Christmas or the day of your course launch?

You can do so by creating a Visual Automation (see above), and then adding the "Date occurs" Event just before the action step containing your Email Sequence.

You'll also have to set the first email in your Email Sequence to be sent immediately (in other words, "0 days after last email" in the Send this email setting in the Email Sequence editor).

This is so that it goes out immediately on the date specified in the "Date occurs" Event of the Visual Automation.

Resending your Email Sequence emails to subscribers

By default, once a subscriber has completed an Email Sequence, they won't be able to receive its emails in the same email sequence again.

However, you can allow subscribers to go through an Email Sequence more than once. This is handy for situations such as where:

  • Your subscribers want to be able to sign up for an email course multiple times

  • You want to put subscribers through a cold subscriber email sequence, which you may reuse for periodic pruning of your email list

To set this up, select "Yes, enable the ability to restart the email sequence multiple times" in the Should subscribers be able to restart this email sequence multiple times? setting under the Settings tab of the Email Sequence editor.

Click Update at the bottom right to save your changes.

If a subscriber restarts an Email Sequence, they will receive emails from the very start of the Email Sequence—they won't ever be in two places in the same Email Sequence at once.

Activating the Email Sequence

Ensure that your Email Sequence is activated if you want its published emails to be sent to subscribers. Otherwise, subscribers will not receive the Email Sequence's emails even if you've added it to an active Visual Automation.

Activate (or deactivate) an Email Sequence using the Active toggle under the Settings tab of the Email Sequence editor.

Then, click Set to active (or Set to inactive, if you're deactivating the Email Sequence) in the popup that appears to confirm the (de)activation.

Excluding subscribers from Email Sequences

Your Email Sequence emails may not be for everyone.

For example, you probably don't want to send subscribers emails that pitch a particular product if they've already bought it.

So here's how you can exclude subscribers from your Email Sequences—be it the entire Email Sequence or just certain emails in it:

Excluding subscribers from entire Email Sequences

Open the relevant Email Sequence, and then go to the Settings tab of the Email Sequence editor.

Use the Subscribers setting to exclude subscribers to certain Forms, Email Sequences, Tags, or Segments from receiving this Email Sequence.

Let's say you've tagged all buyers of your baking course product (whether manually, or by using a Visual Automation or Automation Rule) with a Tag called "Baking Course Buyer."

If you have an Email Sequence promoting your baking course, you can then set it up to exclude all subscribers tagged with "Baking Course Buyer," so you don't promote your course to subscribers who've already bought it.

Click Update at the bottom right to save your changes.

Excluding subscribers from only certain Email Sequence emails

Let's say you have a welcome email sequence that not only onboards new subscribers, but also occasionally pitches your products.

In this case, you'd want to exclude buyers of these products from only your pitch emails and not the entire Email Sequence.

To set this up, click the Filter icon in the Content tab of the Email Sequence editor for the relevant Email Sequence.

NOTE: The email filter is set to "Any" by default. However, if it is changed to "None," this creates a double negative, such that the Email Sequence email will be sent to any subscriber who matches the conditions you set.

For example, if you set a Tag in the exclusion, the Email Sequence email will be sent to anyone who doesn't have that Tag.

This filter has more exclusion features than the exclusion settings for entire Email Sequences. For example, you can filter subscribers by location, email address, or subscription date.

You can even combine filters by clicking Add Filter Group.

Making changes to a live Email Sequence

Once subscribers are moving through your Email Sequence, you can still edit it, but you should know how each type of change affects your subscribers before you make your changes.

Adding emails. Adding a new email to the end of your Email Sequence is the safest option.

Subscribers who haven't completed the Email Sequence will receive its emails in order, including the new email you added at the end. Adding an email to the beginning or middle of your Email Sequence can disrupt the experience for anyone already in progress, which has similar effects to reordering your Email Sequence's email (more on this below).

Whether subscribers who've already completed the Email Sequence receive the new emails you added depends on how the Email Sequence is set up:

  • Evergreen email sequences (paid plans): All subscribers stay active and will receive any new emails you add to the Email Sequence.

  • Non-evergreen email sequences in Visual Automations: Subscribers marked as "Completed" won't receive new emails you add to the Email Sequence.

  • Subscribers added via Automation Rules or Bulk Actions: They stay active automatically and will receive new emails regardless of the evergreen setting.

Deleting emails. Subscribers who already received a deleted email aren't affected. However, subscribers queued for that email may stop progressing through the Email Sequence. So, check the number of subscribers active in the Email Sequence before deleting its emails.

Reordering emails. Avoid reordering while subscribers are active in the Email Sequence. Subscribers continue from their last queued position, which may not match the new order. As a result, some subscribers may skip emails, receive them out of sequence, or get stuck entirely.

Changing send days. Updates to the Email Sequence Schedule or per-email send day settings apply to all future sends, including for existing subscribers. Unchecking all send days effectively pauses the Email Sequence for everyone.

Updating exclusions. Adding a new Email Sequence-wide exclusion prevents matching subscribers from receiving future emails in the Email Sequence even if they're midway through it. Adding per-email exclusions causes subscribers to skip the relevant emails, but doesn't remove them from the Email Sequence or mark them as completed. Removing an exclusion resumes sending for previously excluded subscribers, usually within a few minutes.

How to duplicate your Email Sequence

You can make a copy of an Email Sequence—including its content and settings—by opening it in the Email Sequence editor.

Click the Settings tab, followed by the Duplicate option at the bottom of the Email Sequence settings.

Click Duplicate to go ahead with the duplication.

How to delete your Email Sequence

If you no longer need your Email Sequence, you can delete it by opening it in the Email Sequence editor.

Click the Settings tab, followed by the Delete option at the bottom of the Email Sequence settings.

Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Save your Email Sequence emails as reusable templates

Stop rebuilding the same email designs from scratch. When you've created an Email Sequence email you love, save it as a template so you can reuse that layout across future Broadcasts and Email Sequences, keeping your branding consistent and your setup time short.

How to save an Email Sequence email as a template

While editing any Email Sequence email:

  1. Click the Styles tab in the right sidebar

  2. Click Save template under the Template setting to save your current design

When you save, you can either create a new template by giving it a custom name, or update the template your Email Sequence email is already using. Once you save your template, it's ready to use the next time you want to create an email.

You can save updated starting point and classic templates as new templates.

Organize your Email Sequences

You can filter your Email Sequences by active, inactive, or all, to keep your workspace organized and focused. Find this option at the top left of the Email Sequences page.

Key takeaways

  • Use Email Sequences to send self-contained sets of automated emails to your subscribers.

  • After creating your Email Sequence emails, set the Email Sequence schedule and subscriber exclusions for the entire Email Sequence, as well as the Send Days and Times for individual emails in the Email Sequence, as necessary.

  • Send your Email Sequences to your Form and Landing Page subscribers by setting up a Visual Automation.

Did this answer your question?