Lifecycle email map

Use this whenever someone asks for "a sequence". The question underneath is usually which emails should exist at all.

Map the moments, then the emails

An email earns its place by attaching to something the person did or failed to do. Work through the moments in order and write the email only where there is a real one:

• Signed up, has not started — the one action that makes the product work, and nothing else. No tour, no feature list.
• Started, stalled — name the specific step they stopped at. A generic "need help?" is a wasted send.
• Got value once — show them the second thing, tied to what they just did.
• Using it steadily — the only place a broad newsletter belongs.
• Went quiet — one honest email, then one with an easy way out.
• Left — ask why, once, and make it answerable in a single word.

If a moment has no trigger you can detect, there is no email. Write that down rather than filling the gap with a timed send.

Timing follows behaviour

Space sends by what the person is doing, not by a fixed calendar. Day 1, day 3, day 7 is a default that fits nobody. Anchor each send to its trigger and set a maximum: no more than one automated email in any 48 hours.

A behavioural send cancels only the queued emails that the action makes redundant, never the whole sequence. Someone who has just activated should stop receiving "you haven't started yet" and still receive the week-two email.

Writing each one

• One goal per email, one link to it, and the link appears twice at most.
• The subject describes what is inside. Curiosity gaps buy one open and cost the next five.
• Plain text unless the content is genuinely visual.
• The unsubscribe link is not a legal formality — put it where someone annoyed can find it in two seconds.

What to hand back

A table: moment, trigger, goal, subject line, and the one action. Then the drafts. The table is the part that gets argued about; lead with it.

What not to do

Never write a sequence that cannot be exited by replying or by doing the thing it is asking for. Never invent product behaviour you have not confirmed exists — if you do not know what the activation step is, ask. Never put a discount in a welcome email by default.