Create An Automated Sequence For New Subscribers

Depending on the context and contents of a particular Collection, it may be helpful to set up an Automated Sequence of emails for new Subscribers to that Collection

For example, if you have a Children's Ministry Collection, perhaps your children's pastor has curated some helpful information to share with parents, that might answer some commonly asked questions, or provide resources to promote spiritual growth in your children outside of the church environment. You could set up an Automated Sequence that disseminates all of that information in bite-sized emails rather than sending it all at once, throughout a few days, weeks, or months.

Setting up an Automated Sequence is super easy - especially if you've already mastered how to create regular emails (from the Send & Schedule tab of your Smart Campaign).

To get started, go to Messages in your Dashboard and then select Smart Campaigns. Then, make sure you're viewing Posts from the left sidebar to make sure you're viewing the correct Smart Campaigns. Click here for a quick link.

Next, click on the Smart Campaign you want to add emails to. This will bring you to your Emails (as noted in the left sidebar). Lastly, click Automated Sequence.

In this guide, we'll cover the following topics. Click on any one to jump ahead.

What Are Smart Campaigns

Smart Campaigns are a part of Nucleus Messages. Whereas you can manually create a Campaign in Messages, Smart Campaigns are automatically created for you, based on other aspects of your Nucleus account. For instance, if you create a Flow, a Smart Campaign is created so that you can send an email to anyone who has submitted through that particular Flow. The same is true of Collections in Nucleus Posts. When you create a Collection, a Smart Campaign is automatically created for you, so you can manage and message your subscribers of that particular Collection.

Note: Unlike regular Campaigns in Nucleus Messages, Smart Campaigns are always automatically active and live. You can always pause a Smart Campaign, but there's no need to initially activate it.

Create & Craft Your Emails (Automated Sequence)

To create any email for your Automated Sequence, while in the Automated Sequence section of your Collection's Smart Campaign, click the + Add New button.

If you already have one or more emails created, you can always click the down arrow on the far right of an email and click Duplicate from the dropdown menu.

Give the email a name and then click Save Changes.

Note: This is for admin purposes only. This is not the subject line of your email.

Now it's time to edit your message. The first thing you will want to do is add a sender name & reply-to email. This defaults to what is found in your Settings in the sidebar of your Smart Campaign; however, if you want to change it for just this one email, simply type in a custom sender +/or reply-to email below.

Now it's time to enter a subject line and fill in the email body. The Nucleus email editor allows you to bold, italicize, or underline text, as well as enter hyperlinks, images, or emojis so that you can craft the email you want your audience to receive. It also offers the ability to enter Smart Data, which will pull from available information for your subscriber (such as their first name) to make your email more personalized. To enter a Smart Data option click the {..} button and follow the prompts.

Once you're happy with your email, you can click Save Changes As Draft, or you can click Send me a test email in the upper right hand corner of the editor beforehand. This allows you to see exactly what a Subscriber would see when they receive your email in their inbox - you can send yourself a test email. (This also helps with catching any mistakes before setting your message live.)

After a few minutes, the test email will be sent to whatever your Nucleus login email address. The email will have [TEST] in front of the Subject Line to help you quickly locate it in your inbox.

Curate The Sequence Of Your Email

Once you're ready to set this email live, click Choose Delay (Days, Hours, +/- Minutes).

Here, you can hone in on exactly when you want this email to be sent to someone after they have subscribed to a Collection.

Then, click Save & Start Sending.

Now, whenever someone new subscribes to your Collection, your Smart Campaign will send this emailing in the future, according to when you've set the delay to be.

Tips For Automated Sequences

While you can technically do what you want with your Automated Sequence, here are some tips to ensure you're using it wisely and not flooding people's inboxes too much:

  1. Don't use them if you only have one email you want to send when someone first subscribes to a Collection. Use the Welcome Email instead for that.
  2. Don't blast all your emails in a very short succession. Give them time to breathe. Depending on the context of the contents, that could mean a few days in between. It could mean a week or more in between. The last thing you want to do is make someone annoyed with how many emails they are receiving from you, and then they choose to unsubscribe before receiving any other emails from you notifying them of a new Post in that Collection. So while the frequency of emails is up to you, be wise and don't annoy 😅

What Next?

If you haven't yet explored other ways of messaging your Subscribers, here are some helpful visual guides to shore up that knowledge gap 👇

Otherwise, here are some other helpful guides to expand your knowledge on how you can best use Nucleus Posts for your church communication's strategy:

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