Motion 03
Lifecycle email
Help people who knowingly joined your list take a useful next step.
Start only with documented opt-in and a working unsubscribe process. This is a relationship with existing subscribers, not a substitute for permission to send cold outreach.
Decision brief
Serve a known subscriber at the right moment
An email journey should answer a question that follows a real subscriber action. A new signup may need orientation; a trial user may need help with one task. Mixing people with different expectations makes both the message and its result hard to interpret.
Check consent records and unsubscribe behavior before writing a sequence. Then compare a small, useful two-message path with the team's current manual follow-up, using replies and meaningful next actions as measures.
What to do first
- Audit the signup source and consent record for a small sample.
- Choose one subscriber moment, such as post-signup education or trial onboarding.
- Write two messages, test unsubscribe and review useful responses.
Run a small comparison
- Select one consented segment and a specific subscriber moment.
- Draft two messages with a clear reason to receive each one.
- Test unsubscribe and record useful responses before automating more.
Questions to resolve
- What did this person agree to receive?
- What question comes next in their journey?
- How quickly does an opt-out stop future messages?
How to read the result: Continue when the journey helps the subscriber act and the team can maintain accurate consent and suppression records.
What this does not justify
- Import purchased or ambiguous contacts.
- Mistake a large subscriber count for active interest.
MeasureUseful replies or next actions per consented subscriber
Stop or revise whenStop sends if consent records or unsubscribe handling are incomplete.