Overview
Sequences are outreach campaigns that sales teams use to reach out to contacts over a planned period of time, with sequential touchpoints like phone calls, emails, social media engagement, and other tasks. On Apollo, you can customize each step in a sequence to engage your target contacts and help your sales teams speed prospects through your pipeline.
After you hone in on your ideal customer profile, use sequences on Apollo to enroll your highest priority leads into tailored, automated, multichannel sales campaigns that help you start meaningful conversations and set up meetings with your prospects to convert them into customers as efficiently as possible.
Each sequence step may be composed of individual emails or activities that you want your team to complete to successfully engage.
Here's an example sequence for tier 1 prospects, where automated touchpoints are minimal:
Day 1
| Manual email | A hyper-personalized manual is a good strategy to begin outreach. Check out Apollo's book Outbound Sales for tips on cold emailing. |
| LinkedIn — Interact with post | By liking a contact's LinkedIn posts, you gain familiarity with your name. |
Day 4
| Dialer | Give your contact a call, and if they don't answer leave a voicemail that references your email or LinkedIn message. |
| LinkedIn — Connection request | Send a connection request on LinkedIn with the goal to keep your name top of mind. |
Day 7
| Automated email | A single automated email to your original helps resurface the value props you shared. Check out Apollo's book Outbound Sales for tips on cold emailing. |
Day 10
| Action item | An action item to send a handwritten note or gift brings something tangible to your multichannel outreach. |
Day 23
| Manual email | After you've sent a gift or note, give it a few weeks to resonate then send another manual email referencing the gift, with more personalization to make it sing. |
Day 25
| Dialer | Give it your last shot with a final call and voicemail. |
In this example sequence, hyper-personalized messages are key. Your own sequences may differ significantly, but no matter how they look, by standardizing your pipeline you can ensure your reps better manage outreach.
Get your hands on Apollo's free ebook Outbound Sales for more sequence tips and tricks.
Check out the following sections to learn how to set up and use sequences for success, and discover answers to some frequently asked questions.
Get Started
To get started:
- Create a sequence: Customize your sequence with the steps, email templates, and timing intervals that you prefer. You can create automatic and manual email, phone call, action item, and LinkedIn tasks sequence steps.
Need some inspiration? Check out these sample sequences from Apollo's Academy:
- Use email A/B tests: Implement A/B testing on automated email steps to determine which messaging works best for your target contacts.
- Manage sequence rulesets: Create a sequence ruleset to protect you from sending emails to the wrong people, and manage triggers and automations based on how prospects interact with the outreach.
- Configure sequence sending schedules: Use sequence schedules to control the day and time that you send emails, and to avoid holiday messaging.
- Add contacts to a sequence: With your sequence created, add contacts to the sequence to begin outreach. Contacts will automatically move through the sequence based on the rules, triggers, and automations you created. Need some help finding sequence contacts? Check out Use Apollo to Find New Customers.
- Report on sequences: Use email tracking statistics, sequence diagnostics, and analytics dashboards to gain powerful insights into your sequences and audiences. Determine which sequences perform the best and remedy low performing sequences.
Ready to roll? Get started with sequences on Apollo!
FAQs
What happens if a contact replies midway through the sequence?
Use sequence rulesets to define what happens when a contact replies in a sequence. You can choose to stop sending messages to the contact or keep them enrolled in the sequence outreach.
Which email address sends sequence messages?
When you add contacts to a sequence, you determine which mailbox sends any emails in the sequence to the contacts. It's possible to rotate mailboxes so messages are dispersed through multiple email addresses. To determine which email address is sending messages to a specific contact, navigate to Sequences and select your sequence, then click Contacts. Click any contact to see sequence email details, including which mailbox is sending emails to the contact.
Can I create multiple sequences?
Yes! You can create multiple sequences to match the type of prospect you’re targeting or the type of outreach, inbound or outbound, you’re employing. Check out some example sequence templates from Apollo Academy to get started.
Can I email a contact in the middle of a sequence?
Yes, you can always reach out to a contact individually outside of a sequence. Just navigate to the contact profile, then select to email or call them directly. If the contact remains in the sequence, they'll also receive any messaging configured in the sequence. You can always pause or remove a contact from a sequence to avoid sending them too many emails.
What happens if a contact is in enrolled in multiple sequences?
When you add contacts to a sequence, Apollo will flag if any of those contacts already exist in other sequences. You can choose whether to continue adding the contacts. If a contact is enrolled in multiple sequences despite this warning, the contact will receive messaging from all the sequences they're enrolled in. Check out How Do I Avoid Adding the Same Contact to Multiple Sequences to learn more.