Where to start: your first 90 days
Start with people who asked, a sign-up form and a welcome, then a steady weekly email, a follow-up for the people who click, and your own numbers. The order of work from day one to the end of the first quarter, where to start if you already send, and a starting plan for each kind of business.
Email works when it's built in the right order: people who asked, a welcome the moment they join, a steady weekly email, a follow-up for the people who click, then your own numbers. Each step depends on the one before.
The short version
- Day one: mail only people who asked, put your business name and postal address in place, make one sign-up form, and get your sending set up.
- The first week: the welcome, a regular day, and a check before every send.
- The first month: four campaigns, mostly useful, with an offer in the mix; a follow-up for the people who click; three starter groups.
- The first quarter: your own baseline after ten campaigns, five numbers graphed weekly, the first test, and a one-page plan for the year.
- Every quarter after: win back the quiet, re-plan, and know what a subscriber is worth before paying for one.
- Already sending? Start at the first step you're missing.
Day one, before any email
Where the list comes from. Only people who asked to hear from you, never a bought, rented or scraped list. If you bring a list, know how each address was gathered and when it was last emailed. Old lists are checked first, and the first sends go to the most recent and most engaged: Email marketing and the law.
Your business name and postal address. Every email carries them in its footer.
One sign-up form, with three things: a promise (what people get, how often, and that they can leave any time), the email address only with the first name optional, and an unticked consent box: Build your email list.
Your sending, set up: the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that prove your email is yours: Get into the inbox.
The first week
The welcome, started by the form: four or five emails over 7 to 10 days. The promised gift at once, the story of the business, proof (a result, a customer), a first offer, and a question that sorts people by interest. Welcome emails drew 83.63% opens and 16.60% clicks in GetResponse's 2023 data, the best-read email a business sends: Welcome, newsletter, offer and launch emails.
The regular day: weekly by default, fortnightly where you really have less to say, never less than monthly. Klaviyo starts lists under 20,000 at one campaign a week: How often to send.
A check before every send: the links, the unsubscribe, a fallback for every personal field, the from name, subject line and preview, your prices, dates and codes, nothing broken showing, and a test send to real inboxes: Before you press send.
The first month
Four campaigns: mostly useful content, with an offer in the mix. One email, one job.
A follow-up on each campaign with an offer: two or three emails over a week, for the people who clicked and didn't act. The offer again, the main objection answered, and a real deadline. People who buy leave it. Omnisend, 2025: "Nearly one in three clicks on an automated email resulted in a purchase".
Three starter groups: customers and prospects; the engaged and the quiet, by clicks, replies and purchases; and one interest question, asked at sign-up or in the welcome: The right email for the right people.
The first quarter: 13 weeks
Your baseline: after ten campaigns, the middle value of each of your own numbers. Compare every campaign with it, not with an industry average.
Five numbers, graphed weekly: click rate, the goal (orders, bookings, replies or donations), unsubscribes, complaints and net list growth. Each graph covers 13 weeks on a scale that's held: Measure what matters.
The first test: a big difference, the whole list split in two, repeated: Test your emails.
The one-page plan for the rest of the year, with its few dates: Plan your email year.
Every quarter after that
Win back the quiet, with two or three emails over at least two months, then stop mailing anyone who still doesn't respond: Carts, win-backs, events and receipts.
Re-plan, and compare each busy season with the same weeks last year.
Before any money goes on ads to grow the list, work out what a subscriber is worth to you.
Already sending? Start where you are
| Where you are | Your next step |
|---|---|
| No list yet | The sign-up form and the welcome |
| A list, but no regular email | A regular day, weekly |
| A regular email, but no sequences | A follow-up for the people who click |
| Numbers falling | The five numbers, then bounces and complaints, before anything else |
| It all works | The one-page plan for the year, and what a subscriber is worth |
A starting plan for your kind of business
Each is a starting point; your own numbers move it.
| Business | Where people join | First sequences | Regular email | Dates | The number that matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online shop | A pop-up or slide-in, the checkout box | Welcome; abandoned cart (where your tools support it); after the purchase | Weekly; 2 to 4 a week to engaged groups once the list passes about 20,000 | Black Friday weekend, Christmas, your markets' gift days | Revenue per email and per subscriber |
| Local service: trades, salon, clinic, gym | Booking and checkout, the counter, with consent written down | Welcome; booking reminders; after the visit, for a review or rebooking | 2 to 4 a month | Your own busy seasons; New Year for gyms | Bookings and replies per campaign |
| Restaurant, café, venue | Table booking, a website form | Welcome; birthday (where your tools support it) | Weekly, tied to what's on | Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas parties, local events | Bookings, and unsubscribes: the highest of any industry, at 0.39% (MailerLite) |
| Professional services, consultant, B2B | A free guide that solves one problem; webinars | Welcome; event reminders | Weekly or fortnightly, mostly useful content | The buyer's financial year end; light in the quiet weeks | Replies and booked calls |
| Coach, creator, course seller | A free guide and its landing page | Welcome; a launch over 7 to 10 days | Weekly, up to several a week | One to three launches; the New Year fresh start | Sales per launch, and list growth |
| Nonprofit | Donation and action forms | Welcome; thanks for a gift | About weekly, 50 a year | Giving Tuesday, December, the last day of the year | Revenue per subscriber ($2.40 a year, M+R) and net list growth (5% a year, M+R) |
Doing it here
- Your brand holds your business name and postal address, every email's footer carries them, and a campaign checks the address is there before it launches: Set up your brand.
- Your campaigns go out from sending domains of their own, each with every record it needs written for you: Sending domains, set up for you.
- Every list is checked before anything sends, so only real, working addresses are mailed: Why every list is cleaned.
- A landing page's form fills a list of its own, with its own consent box, and can start the welcome for each new sign-up: What starts a sequence.
- A click in a campaign you name can start a follow-up for each person who clicked: Follow up with a sequence.
- The whole first campaign, step by step: Your first campaign, start to finish.
The order of work, drawn as a timeline with a starting plan for each kind of business, is in the free guide Everything you need to know about email marketing.