Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / Why Your Email Sequence Should Start After the Click
Transcript
- Lucas: So here's a stat that stopped me cold this week. A B2B SaaS company I've been following — they sell project management software to mid-sized teams — they restructured their email sequence for free trial signups, and the only change they made was what happened after someone clicked. Luna: After the click? So not the subject line or the offer, but the emails that follow once someone actually engages? Lucas: Exactly. And their trial conversion rate went up 38 percent. They didn't change the landing page, didn't change the pricing, didn't even change the call to action button. They changed the emails that showed up after the click. And that's what I want to talk about today — why the most under-optimized part of most email funnels is everything that happens after someone takes the action you asked for. Luna: I love this because so much of the conversation in email marketing is about getting the open, getting the click. And then we kind of assume the rest takes care of itself. Lucas: Right. And that assumption is costing people. So let me walk through what this company did. They had a typical five-email welcome sequence for people who signed up for a 14-day free trial. First email: welcome, here's how to get started. Second: a feature highlight. Third: a customer story. Fourth: a tip for power users. Fifth: we're here if you need help. Pretty standard stuff. Luna: I've seen that exact sequence a hundred times. What did they change? Lucas: They realised that the sequence was running on a fixed schedule — day one, day three, day five, day seven, day ten — regardless of whether the person had actually logged into the product or not. So someone could sign up, click around once, and then get a feature highlight email three days later about a feature they'd never even seen. The timing was completely disconnected from behavior. Luna: So the fix was to make the sequence behavior-triggered? Lucas: Partially. But the more interesting change was this: they added a post-click branch. If someone clicked a link in an email — say the call to action to start a project — that click would immediately pause the main sequence and kick off a new mini-sequence tailored to that action. So instead of getting the next scheduled email, they'd get a 'you just took this step, here's what to do next' email 24 hours later. Luna: That makes so much sense. You're meeting the user where they are instead of forcing them through a linear path. Lucas: Exactly. And the results were dramatic. The 38 percent lift in trial conversions came almost entirely from people who had clicked at least once and then received the post-click sequence. The ones who never clicked — their conversion rate stayed flat. So the change specifically helped the people who were already showing intent. Luna: So the insight isn't 'send more emails.' It's 'send the right emails at the right moment based on actual behavior, especially after a click.' Lucas: That's exactly it. And this applies to any email program, not just SaaS trials. If you run a newsletter with affiliate links, or if you're an e-commerce brand sending promotional emails, the moment someone clicks should trigger a change in what they receive next. Otherwise, you're treating someone who just showed interest the same as someone who ignored the last five emails. Luna: I want to push back a little though. Doesn't this create a ton of complexity? You've got multiple sequences, triggers, branches. For a small team, that's a lot to manage. Lucas: It can be. But you don't need to build a Rube Goldberg machine. Start with one trigger. Pick the click that matters most — the one that indicates genuine intent, not just curiosity. For the SaaS company, it was clicking the 'start a project' button in the email. For an e-commerce brand, it might be clicking a product link. Set up one post-click sequence, test it for 90 days, and see if it moves the needle. Luna: And if it does, you add more. That's manageable. What about metrics? How do you measure success for a post-click sequence? Lucas: Great question. The first thing to look at is the conversion rate of people who enter the post-click sequence versus those who don't. But don't just look at email metrics — look at product metrics. For the SaaS company, they tracked how many trial users reached a key activation milestone — like creating their first project or inviting a teammate — within seven days of entering the post-click sequence. That went up 52 percent. Luna: So you're measuring downstream behavior, not just email engagement. That's the right way to think about it. Lucas: Absolutely. Because the goal of email isn't to get clicks. The goal is to drive outcomes. And the post-click sequence is where you actually influence those outcomes. One more thing they did that I thought was clever: they reduced the frequency of emails after a click. Instead of sending every two days, they stretched it to every four days. They found that people who had just clicked were more likely to convert if they weren't bombarded with more emails. Luna: That's counterintuitive. Most people think 'they just engaged, let's strike while the iron is hot.' But you're saying back off a little. Lucas: Exactly. The click itself is a signal that they're exploring. Give them space to actually use the product or read the content. The post-click email should be helpful, not pushy. The SaaS company's post-click sequence had just two emails: one a day later with a tip related to the action they took, and one three days later asking if they had questions. That's it. Two emails instead of four, and conversions went up. Luna: That reminds me of something I read about how the best salespeople don't call the prospect the day after a demo. They wait a few days, send a relevant article, then check in. Same principle. Lucas: It's exactly the same principle. Email is just sales at scale. So the big takeaway for today: audit your email sequences. Find the moment when someone clicks a link that matters. Then build a separate path for what happens next. Don't treat all subscribers the same. And don't be afraid to send fewer emails to the people who are most engaged. Luna: Before we wrap, I want to ask about the landing page side. If someone clicks an email and lands on a page that doesn't match the email promise, doesn't that kill the momentum? Lucas: It absolutely does. And that's the other half of this. The post-click experience isn't just email — it's the entire path from click to conversion. The company we talked about also aligned their email copy with their landing page copy. If the email said 'start your free trial and invite your team,' the landing page headline said the same thing. That sounds obvious, but so many brands treat email and landing pages as separate silos. Luna: So the post-click sequence should include not just email timing but also messaging consistency. That's a bigger project, but worth it. Lucas: It is. And it's the kind of thing that can give you a real edge, because most marketers are still obsessing over open rates and subject lines. The ones who figure out what happens after the click are the ones who will see the real revenue lift. Luna: You know, this kind of deep-dive conversation is exactly why we keep this show ad-free. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, and you want to help keep it going without commercial breaks, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the episodes focused on what works. Lucas: Yeah, we've never run ads, and we don't plan to. Listener support is what makes that possible. So if you've gotten value from episodes like this one, that link is there. Otherwise, let's get back to the post-click funnel. Luna: So Lucas, I have a question about implementation. What about email platforms? Does every major ESP support post-click branching? Lucas: Most do, but the terminology varies. Some call it 'behavioral triggers,' some call it 'conditional logic' or 'goal-based sequences.' Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Mailchimp — they all have some version of this. The key is to set up the trigger correctly. You need to track the click as a custom event, not just a generic click. So if someone clicks the 'start project' link, that should fire a specific event that the sequence listens for. Luna: And you need to make sure you're not sending the post-click email to someone who already converted. That would be awkward. Lucas: Right. Add a suppression rule. If the subscriber has already reached the conversion goal — say, they upgraded from trial to paid — exclude them from the post-click sequence. Otherwise you're emailing a customer with a trial tip. Luna: Good point. So it requires a bit of planning, but the payoff is clear. I'm going to look at our own email flows this afternoon. Lucas: Do it. And if you find one high-intent click that's not being followed up properly, that's your first experiment. One change, 90 days, measure conversions. I'd love to hear what you find. Luna: Alright, I'll report back. Thanks everyone for listening. If you want to dive deeper, we've linked to the original case study in the show notes. Lucas: And as always, keep testing what happens after the click. It might be the most valuable work you do this quarter.