As a small business, you’re constantly looking for cost-effective ways to increase traffic, nurture your customers, and improve ROI. Email marketing is the perfect way to do this.

For years, email marketing has been a useful tool for brands everywhere. Even now, large companies that started small more than likely executed a successful marketing strategy that helped get them to where they are today.

Here are three email sequences every B2B and e-commerce business owner should use to improve customer retention and ROI.

Welcome Sequence

This is the first time you are contacting them via email and you want this impression to be a good one! The last thing you want is a new subscriber immediately unsubscribing or marking you as spam because your emails aren’t hitting the mark.

This sequence is all about introducing your brand and its products or services. Keep it simple and don’t overcomplicate it. Every email should be straight to the point, visually pleasing, and a positive experience.

Welcome them to the community, show them around your business, rave about the benefits of being a part of this community, and then offer them an incentive for being there.

There is no right answer to how long the sequence should be. You just need to get your point across without exhausting your subscribers.

Re-Engagement Sequence

A re-engagement sequence is a check-in with your customers. Let’s say the customer hasn’t purchased in a while or some time has passed since you worked on a project for them.

This is the sequence where you re-engage them with your brand and tell them about new products, promotions, or offerings.

Just because a customer hasn’t come back in a few months doesn’t mean they won’t come back at all. Life gets busy and we all need a little push sometimes.

Remember, though, with every sequence you want to provide a positive experience. Be careful about coming off too pushy. You want them to feel like they are choosing to revisit your website.

Lead Nurturing Sequence

Lead nurturing sequences are there to help push your customers along their journey.

When someone visits your website and shows interest in a product or service enough to input their contact information, they get entered into a variety of sequences, including a welcome sequence and a lead nurturing sequence.

This sequence drops little incentives on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis (depending on how you set up your automation). These emails should be tailored to where the customer is in their purchasing journey and their interests.

Lead nurturing sequences can oftentimes be more effective than salespeople because, let’s face it, no one likes being called and sold to anymore. As I have mentioned before, customers want to have control, and being called non-stop until they purchase something is more pressure than decision-making, don’t you think?

A good rule of thumb with all of these sequences and every email you send out is to create a positive experience for your customers, make them feel like they are in control, and use the right hooks and CTAs to do so.

Email marketing is still a highly effective tool for every business. It gives customers an inside look at new products, exclusive deals, and fun events that non-subscribers wouldn’t receive.

Give them a reason to stick around with every email you send.