sales-skills/sales-email-marketing

Email Marketing for Opt-In Subscribers

Help the user plan, build, and optimize email marketing campaigns for subscribers who opted in — covering broadcasts, nurture sequences, automation workflows, segmentation, and list management across GrooveMail, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Klaviyo, and other platforms.

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. What's the goal?

   • A) Welcome / onboarding new subscribers
   • B) Nurture leads toward a purchase
   • C) Promote a launch, sale, or event
   • D) Re-engage inactive subscribers
   • E) Post-purchase retention / upsell
   • F) Cart abandonment recovery
   • G) General list management or segmentation
   • H) Other — describe it

2. What does your list look like?

   • Approximate list size
   • How subscribers joined (lead magnet, checkout, webinar, organic, etc.)
   • Current engagement level (healthy, declining, unknown)

3. What platform are you using (or considering)?

   • GrooveMail (Groove.cm), Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Klaviyo, Drip, AWeber, GetResponse, Brevo (Sendinblue), HubSpot Marketing, or other

4. What's your audience type?

   • B2B or B2C
   • Product/service category
   • Typical buyer journey length

If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step. Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end — don't gate your response behind gathering complete context.

Step 2 — Strategy

Email types and when to use them

| Sequence Type | Trigger | Typical Length | Goal | |---------------|---------|----------------|------| | Welcome series | New subscriber opt-in | 3-7 emails over 7-14 days | Build trust, set expectations, deliver lead magnet, introduce offer | | Nurture sequence | After welcome series or lead magnet download | 5-12 emails over 2-6 weeks | Educate, build authority, move toward purchase decision | | Promotional / broadcast | Manual send or scheduled | 1-3 emails per campaign | Drive action on a specific offer, event, or announcement | | Re-engagement | Inactivity trigger (30-90 days no opens) | 3-5 emails over 7-14 days | Win back attention or clean list | | Post-purchase | Purchase confirmation | 3-7 emails over 14-30 days | Onboard, reduce refunds, drive reviews, upsell | | Cart abandonment | Cart created but not completed | 2-4 emails over 24-72 hours | Recover the sale |

Frequency planning

• New subscribers (first 14 days): Daily or every-other-day is acceptable — engagement is highest right after opt-in
• Active nurture: 2-3 emails per week maximum
• Ongoing broadcasts: 1-2 per week for most lists; 3-4 per week only for media/content brands with high engagement
• Re-engagement: Condensed — every 2-3 days over 1-2 weeks, then remove or suppress non-responders

Segmentation strategies

Segment by these dimensions (in priority order):

1. Engagement level — Active (opened/clicked in last 30 days), Warm (31-90 days), Cold (90+ days)
2. Source / opt-in method — Lead magnet topic, webinar attended, product interest shown
3. Purchase history — Never purchased, one-time buyer, repeat customer, VIP
4. Behavior triggers — Pages visited, links clicked, emails opened, products viewed
5. Demographics / firmographics — Industry, company size, role (B2B) or location, age, interests (B2C)

Key metrics and benchmarks

| Metric | Healthy Range | Warning | Action Needed | |--------|--------------|---------|---------------| | Open rate | 20-25%+ | 15-20% | Below 15% | | Click rate | 2-5%+ | 1-2% | Below 1% | | Click-to-open rate | 10-15%+ | 5-10% | Below 5% | | Unsubscribe rate | Below 0.3% | 0.3-0.5% | Above 0.5% | | Bounce rate | Below 1% | 1-2% | Above 2% | | Spam complaint rate | Below 0.05% | 0.05-0.1% | Above 0.1% |

These benchmarks vary by industry — e-commerce and media tend to have lower open rates but higher volume; B2B SaaS tends to have higher open rates on smaller, more targeted lists.

Step 3 — Platform-specific guidance

For platform-specific email marketing configuration (automation builders, segmentation tools, campaign setup, and platform features for Ghost, Buttondown, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Kit, Klaviyo, Moosend, Sender, Constant Contact, and others), see references/platforms.md.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Subject line formulas

Use these proven patterns (A/B test two per send):

| Formula | Example | |---------|---------| | Curiosity gap | "The one thing killing your [desired outcome]" | | Benefit + specificity | "How to [benefit] in [specific timeframe]" | | Question | "Are you still [struggling with X]?" | | Social proof | "How [name/company] got [specific result]" | | Urgency (use sparingly) | "[X hours] left to grab [offer]" | | Personal / conversational | "Quick question about your [topic]" | | List / number | "5 [things] that [outcome]" |

Keep subject lines under 50 characters for mobile. Avoid ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation (!!!), and spam trigger words (free, guarantee, act now) in every email.

Email copy structure

Follow this framework for most marketing emails:

1. Hook (first 1-2 lines) — Open with a question, story, bold claim, or relatable pain. This must earn the scroll.
2. Bridge (2-4 lines) — Connect the hook to the reader's situation. Build empathy or tension.
3. Body (the value) — Deliver the insight, story, tip, or offer. Keep paragraphs to 1-3 lines. Use white space aggressively.
4. CTA (1 clear action) — One primary call to action per email. Make it specific ("Download the template" not "Click here"). Button or text link — test both.
5. P.S. (optional) — Restate the CTA or add a secondary hook. P.S. lines are among the most-read parts of an email.

Formatting rules:

• 1-3 sentences per paragraph (mobile readability)
• Write at a 5th-8th grade reading level
• Use "you" more than "we" or "I"
• One idea per email — don't dilute with multiple topics

CTA design

• One primary CTA per email — multiple CTAs reduce click rate
• Use action verbs: "Get the guide," "Start your trial," "Book your spot"
• Repeat the CTA 2-3 times in longer emails (top, middle, bottom)
• Buttons get higher click rates than text links in B2C; text links often outperform in B2B
• Create urgency when appropriate: "Spots are limited" (only if true)

A/B testing

Test one variable at a time in this priority order:

1. Subject line (biggest impact on open rate) — test 2 variants on 20% of list, send winner to remaining 80%
2. Send time — test morning vs. afternoon, weekday vs. weekend
3. CTA — button vs. text link, placement, wording
4. Email length — short (under 150 words) vs. long (300+ words)
5. From name — brand name vs. personal name vs. personal + brand

Minimum sample size: 1,000 subscribers per variant for statistically meaningful results. Below that, test across multiple sends and look for patterns.

Send time optimization

General benchmarks (always test for your specific audience):

| Audience | Best Days | Best Times | |----------|-----------|------------| | B2B | Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday | 8-10 AM or 1-2 PM recipient's timezone | | B2C | Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday | 10 AM, 1 PM, or 8 PM recipient's timezone | | E-commerce | Thursday, Friday, Sunday | 10 AM or 7-9 PM recipient's timezone |

Send-time optimization features (available in most platforms) learn per-subscriber open patterns and deliver at the individually optimal time — enable this when available.

List hygiene

Perform these maintenance tasks regularly:

• Monthly: Review bounce rates. Remove hard bounces immediately (most platforms do this automatically).
• Quarterly: Run a re-engagement campaign for subscribers who haven't opened in 60-90 days. Suppress or remove non-responders.
• Before every large broadcast: Exclude unengaged segments (90+ days no opens) to protect sender reputation.
• Annually: Full list audit — remove all contacts inactive for 12+ months, verify email addresses on segments with high bounce rates.
• Ongoing: Honor unsubscribes within 24 hours (legally required in most jurisdictions). Use double opt-in for new subscribers to ensure list quality from the start.

Gotchas

1. Sending to your full list every time destroys deliverability. Always exclude unengaged subscribers from broadcasts. ISPs watch engagement ratios — low open rates on large sends trigger spam filtering for everyone on your list.
2. Skipping the welcome sequence is the biggest missed revenue opportunity. Welcome emails get 4x the open rate and 5x the click rate of regular broadcasts. If you're not sending a welcome series immediately after opt-in, you're losing your highest-engagement window.
3. More emails is not always the problem when people unsubscribe. Irrelevant emails cause more unsubscribes than high frequency. A daily email that's consistently valuable retains better than a weekly email that misses the mark. Segment and send relevant content rather than just reducing frequency.
4. Automations without exit conditions create embarrassing moments. If someone buys your product and then receives a sales email for that same product the next day, you've broken trust. Every automated sequence needs exit rules: remove/suppress when the desired action is taken.
5. Importing a purchased or scraped list into your email marketing platform will get you banned. Every major platform (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Klaviyo, GrooveMail) requires opt-in consent. Importing cold contacts results in high bounces, spam complaints, and account suspension. Use /sales-cadence for cold outbound instead.

• Self-improving: If you discover something not covered here, append it to references/learnings.md with today's date.

Before recommending a specific platform skill

This skill covers a strategy domain across many platforms. Before pointing the user to any specific platform skill (any /sales-{platform} listed in ## Related skills, e.g., /sales-mailshake, /sales-klaviyo, /sales-apollo), read that platform skill's actual SKILL.md first. The 1-line description in ## Related skills is enough to identify a candidate — it's not enough to commit to it or to write a prompt that invokes it well.

How to read it:

• If ~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md exists locally, Read it.
• For sales-* skills, WebFetch directly from this repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md — e.g., for sales-mailshake: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/sales-mailshake/SKILL.md.
• For non-sales-* skills (third-party), look up {org}/{repo} in ~/.claude/skills/sales-do/references/skill-sources.md if installed and fetch the same skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md path under that repo.

After reading, ground your recommendation in something concrete from the SKILL.md (its scope, a sub-flow, its argument-hint shape, or a "Do NOT use for..." negative trigger). Align any generated invocation with the platform skill's argument-hint. If the platform skill turns out not to fit the user's situation, swap to another or handle the question here directly rather than recommending a poor fit.

Related skills

• /sales-hubspot — HubSpot platform help (Marketing Hub email campaigns, forms, landing pages, workflow automation, CRM)
• /sales-getresponse — GetResponse platform help (autoresponders, marketing automation, conversion funnels, webinars, course creator)
• /sales-iterable — Iterable platform help (Studio journeys, Campaigns, Handlebars templating, Brand Affinity, Smart Ingest, cross-channel)
• /sales-braze — Braze platform help (Canvas Flow, Campaigns, Liquid templating, BrazeAI, Content Cards, cross-channel)
• /sales-brevo — Brevo platform help (email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, automation, CRM)
• /sales-buttondown — Buttondown platform help (newsletter publishing, paid subscriptions, Markdown, API, CLI)
• /sales-ghost — Ghost platform help (publishing, newsletters, memberships, Stripe, Mailgun, API, migration)
• /sales-beehiiv — Beehiiv platform help (publishing, growth, monetization, ad network, API)
• /sales-transactional-email — Transactional/triggered email delivery (order confirmations, password resets — not marketing)
• /sales-groove — Groove.cm platform-specific guidance (GrooveMail, GroovePages, GrooveSell, GrooveFunnels)
• /sales-closum — Closum platform help (omnichannel email, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Web Push)
• /sales-mailchimp — Mailchimp platform help (email campaigns, Customer Journey Builder, SMS, audience management, API)
• /sales-sendgrid — SendGrid platform help (Email API, Marketing Campaigns, transactional email, dynamic templates)
• /sales-postmark — Postmark platform help (transactional email, broadcast message streams, templates)
• /sales-customerio — Customer.io platform help (behavior-driven Journeys, multi-channel automation, Data Pipelines)
• /sales-mailgun — Mailgun platform help (developer-first email API, mailing lists, templates, batch sending)
• /sales-klaviyo — Klaviyo platform help (e-commerce flows, predictive analytics, Shopify integration, multi-channel)
• /sales-activecampaign — ActiveCampaign platform help (visual automation builder, CRM, lead scoring, predictive sending)
• /sales-kit — Kit (formerly ConvertKit) platform help (Visual Automations, Sequences, Commerce, Creator Recommendations)
• /sales-omnisend — Omnisend platform help (email/SMS/push for ecommerce, Shopify/WooCommerce integration)
• /sales-sendpulse — SendPulse platform help (email, chatbots, SMS, web push, Automation 360)
• /sales-chatbot — Chatbot strategy and automation (SendPulse Automation 360 connects email flows to chatbot flows)
• /sales-sms-marketing — SMS marketing strategy (opt-in, compliance, campaigns, automation)
• /sales-newsletter — Newsletter monetization (paid subscriptions, sponsorships, premium tiers)
• /sales-audience-growth — Growing an email list (lead magnets, cross-promotion, referral programs)
• /sales-digital-products — Selling digital products (ebooks, courses, templates)
• /sales-moosend — Moosend platform help (budget ESP, automations, ecommerce AI recommendations, landing pages, API)
• /sales-sender — Sender platform help (budget ESP, generous free tier, automation, SMS, transactional email, REST API)
• /sales-constantcontact — Constant Contact platform help (event management, campaigns, automation, SMS, V3 REST API)
• /sales-cadence — Cold outbound email cadences and sequences (NOT opt-in marketing)
• /sales-deliverability — SPF, DKIM, DMARC, domain warm-up, and inbox placement
• /sales-funnel — Funnel strategy and page design (landing pages that feed your email list)
• /sales-checkout — Checkout optimization and post-purchase flows
• /sales-payhip — Payhip platform help (built-in email, native ESP connections, webhooks)
• /sales-lemonsqueezy — Lemon Squeezy platform help (built-in email marketing, customer newsletters)
• /sales-do — Route to any sales skill by describing what you need

Examples

Example 1: Welcome sequence design

User: "I just launched a lead magnet (PDF checklist for first-time homebuyers) and need a welcome sequence. I'm using Mailchimp with about 200 subscribers so far. B2C audience."

What the skill does: Designs a 5-7 email welcome sequence with specific timing, subject lines, and content outlines for each email. Starts with immediate lead magnet delivery, progresses through trust-building and education, and ends with a soft pitch for the user's core offer. Includes Mailchimp-specific setup instructions using Customer Journeys.

Example 2: Diagnosing declining engagement

User: "My open rates dropped from 25% to 12% over the last 3 months. I send 3 broadcasts a week to my full list of 15,000 in ActiveCampaign."

What the skill does: Diagnoses the root cause (likely sending to the full list without segmenting by engagement, causing ISP reputation decline). Provides a recovery plan: segment by engagement, run a re-engagement campaign for cold subscribers, suppress non-responders, reduce send frequency to unengaged segments, and rebuild sender reputation gradually. Includes ActiveCampaign-specific steps.

Example 3: Abandoned cart automation

User: "How do I set up abandoned cart emails in Groove?"

What the skill does: Walks through setting up a cart abandonment sequence in GrooveMail triggered by GrooveSell cart events. Covers timing (first email at 1 hour, second at 24 hours, third at 48-72 hours), content strategy for each email (reminder, social proof, urgency/incentive), and exit conditions (remove from sequence on purchase).

Troubleshooting

"My emails are going to spam / promotions tab"

• Check authentication first: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC must be configured (use /sales-deliverability for setup)
• Stop sending to your full list — segment by engagement and only send to subscribers who have opened in the last 60-90 days
• Reduce image-to-text ratio — image-heavy emails trigger spam filters
• Avoid spam trigger words in subject lines and body
• Ask engaged subscribers to move your email to their primary inbox and reply to it — this trains ISP algorithms
• If using a new domain or IP, warm up gradually: start with 100-200 of your most engaged subscribers and increase volume by 20-30% daily

"My click rates are low even though open rates are fine"

• Open rate is healthy but click rate is below 2%: the problem is in your email body or CTA, not deliverability
• Check CTA clarity — is there one clear, specific action? Vague CTAs like "Learn more" underperform specific ones like "Download the 5-step checklist"
• Check CTA placement — put it above the fold (visible without scrolling) and repeat at the bottom
• Check relevance — are you sending the same content to your entire list? Segment by interest and personalize content
• Test button vs. text link CTAs — the winner varies by audience
• Shorten your emails — if readers lose interest before reaching the CTA, they won't click

"People are unsubscribing at a high rate"

• Unsubscribe rate above 0.5% per send is a warning sign
• Check frequency first — if you recently increased send frequency, that's likely the cause. Offer a "reduce frequency" option instead of only unsubscribe
• Check relevance — are you sending the same content to everyone? Segment by interest, purchase history, or engagement level
• Check expectations — did subscribers know what they were signing up for? If your opt-in promised "weekly tips" and you're sending daily promotions, there's a mismatch
• Review recent content — did a specific email spike unsubscribes? Check if it was off-topic, overly salesy, or poorly targeted
• Add a preference center so subscribers can choose topics and frequency rather than unsubscribing entirely