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Building a Sequence
By the end of this lesson, you'll have a multi-step sequence built around your first message, and you'll know the step cap, how to choose between threading and a new subject line, and how to read the spam check.
➕ Adding a Step
We've got one message so far. Most campaigns need more than one.
Click Add message and you get two controls:
- The delay before the next message goes out, anywhere from 1 to 10 days
- Send as reply, which keeps everything threaded on one message chain
Turn Send as reply off and the message becomes its own email with a brand new subject line. Each message in the sequence gets its own delay timer, and you make the thread-or-new-message call independently at every step.
🚧 Four Is the Ceiling
You can add up to four messages in a sequence. This is a hard limit.
Some platforms will happily let you build a 12-step sequence. We decided not to allow that, because if someone has ignored you four times, you're probably not going to win them over on the seventh email.
If you're not sure what a good structure looks like, this is the one we recommend:
- Message one, your opening email
- A bump, sent as a threaded reply
- A breakup message, sent as a new email on its own thread
Start your sequences shorter than you think. It's always easier to add a step to a campaign that's working than to repair a reputation you damaged by being too aggressive in your outreach.
🧵 Threads or a New Subject Line
Replying on the thread is the default, and it's the right choice most of the time. Your first email is already sitting in their inbox, so the follow-up arrives with context attached and reads like an actual person following up rather than a system starting over. It also costs you nothing to write.
A new thread buys you one thing the reply can't: a fresh subject line, and a fresh shot at the preview pane. If your first subject line was the problem, replying on that thread just buries the second message underneath it.
So the judgment call is straightforward. If you go with a new thread, change the angle in the subject line rather than just nudging again.
🎯 The Spam Check
Open Spam check in the side panel configuration.
It scores your copy out of 100, live as you type, and tells you specifically what's costing you points. Remove the subject line, for instance, and the score changes immediately, with the panel flagging the missing subject line as the reason.
That live cause-and-effect is the useful part. Make a change, watch the number move, and you learn which choices carry a cost.
Aim for 100. A hundred means you haven't made any of the obvious mistakes. It is not a guarantee of deliverability, which is a different problem covered earlier in this course.
🚀 What's Next
You've now got a full multi-step sequence, you know why the cap is four, you can choose between a threaded follow-up and a fresh subject line on purpose, and you can read the spam check as you write.
Next up we'll look at sending and scheduling your campaign.
