How to Build an Email Sales Cadence That Converts: Examples and Best Practices

Your best sales reps are closers, not copywriters. Why make them spend time writing emails when they could be building relationships? A well-crafted email sales cadence gives your whole team a repeatable way to nurture prospects and close more deals. We’ll show you how to get started.

What is an email sales cadence?

An email sales cadence is a sequence of automated emails designed to start and nurture a conversation with your prospects over time. Instead of relying on a single message, a cadence delivers a series of automated emails at specific times to guide prospects through the sales funnel.

Why email sales cadences drive better results than cold outreach

You may wonder how to get started with prospecting and moving leads through the customer journey, especially if you’re new to sales. Creating a defined email sales cadence provides a strategic starting point for nurturing customer relationships over time. While you may send an email cadence to someone you don’t have a prior relationship with, the series of touchpoints allows you to build the relationship. 

Email cadences help establish consistency in sales programs, including prospecting, lead generation, and inbound and outbound sales.

6 essential steps to build a high-performing, successful email sales cadence

Creating an effective email sales cadence is more than just sending a few messages and hoping for a reply. It needs to be intentional, data-driven, and aligned with your sales goals. Most importantly, you need to structure a cadence that gets open and converts prospects to customers. Here are six essential steps you can follow: 

1. Identify your target audience

Your email sales cadences should target a specific audience. But to ensure you’re meeting their needs, you must clearly define the audience and understand their daily challenges. Using your CRM, you can create customer profiles for different segments that include geography, job title, industry, pain points, other products purchased, and other interactions. Base all decisions on this profile, including message, tone, and time frame.

2. Define your goal

Each cadence should have a specific goal. Consider actions that can help reach the goal of increasing sales, such as setting up 25 demos this month or obtaining 100 email registrations. Then, review your overall business objectives to refine your approach. For example, if your business aims to expand into Asia, you could set a goal to acquire 80 registrations from Asia.

With this clear outcome in mind, you can craft messaging and an email sequence to work toward achieving it. Once the sales cadence is active, track the results in relation to your goal. Using your CRM, track key metrics such as demonstrations and meetings. Through the sales dashboards, you can see your progress toward reaching your targets.

3. Map out touchpoints and timing

Every effective cadence needs a clear plan. This means defining the length, timing, and purpose of your outreach based on your audience and your specific goal, whether it’s booking a demo or re-engaging a cold lead.

How many steps will it take to achieve your goal? For a warm inbound lead, a shorter cadence of three to five emails might be perfect. However, you might need five to eight touchpoints for a cold outbound sequence to establish trust. This longer journey should be strategic, moving from an introduction to sharing industry insights, then providing social proof like a case study before making a direct ask. 

Don’t forget about your timing. Sending messages too close together might be viewed as aggressive. But if you wait too long, your momentum can fade away. In one email cadence I used, I sent an email every day for three days. In other cases, I spaced out the emails over a week. For one audience profile, I found that Wednesdays had more downtime than other days, so I scheduled emails for that day.

4. Write compelling, personalized messages

Your email cadences should feel like a conversion, not a hard sell. By creating messages that focus on benefits and research with light mentions of products early in the funnel, you can provide value to your audience. 

With Agentforce, you’ll never have to write an email from scratch again. The AI-powered CRM can auto-generate personalized emails grounded in your data to help sellers make introductions or follow up in seconds.

5. Automate where it counts

You’ll want to personally craft emails when human involvement makes a difference in the results. Still, some messages in your email cadence — such as a first cold email or a no-reply follow-up — can be templated yet still personalized. By combining templates and automations with ‌CRM capabilities, you have a starting point as well as the ability to personalize at scale.

Automations can also remind you of the ideal timing of your email sales cadence and prompt you to respond when a prospect replies. AI can analyze data to identify effective messaging used in the past and generate text likely to resonate with similar prospects in the future.

6. Track, test, and optimize

The first email in a cadence might be somewhat generic since you cast a wide net to prospects. However, the rest of the sequence should be tailored based on the responses you get and data from your CRM. In addition to using templates for each email, make personalized adjustments for each customer. 

If your email cadence receives a high volume of unsubscribes, then you’re likely sending too many emails and need to reduce the cadence touch points. Additionally, if a specific email brings in a significant number of demo registrations, then you can use the style to help create future successful emails. 

Email sales cadence best practices (backed by data)

Effective email sales cadences usually require several iterations to find the right combination of variables. Here are some best practices to enhance emails:

Align messaging with the sales funnel stage

Email cadences should help demonstrate to the customer that the organization understands their needs. The State of Sales Report found that 86% of business buyers are more likely to buy when vendors understand their objectives. For example, the first time a customer visits the website means that they’re at the top of the funnel. Scheduling a demo demonstrates that they’re considering purchasing the product. 

Top-of-the-funnel messaging should consist of short, introductory emails that provide high value on their own and place less emphasis on the product. During the consideration stage, create more detailed emails to help ‌prospects understand how your products and services differ from competitors and start introducing solutions. Emails at the bottom of the funnel should focus on converting leads into sales by offering free trials, consultations, or limited-time deals with a sense of urgency.

Use curiosity and value-based subject lines

Since your prospects may never see your message if it doesn’t look interesting enough to open, email subject lines can make or break the entire sales cadence. Effective subject lines often include curiosity-based phrases or questions that make your prospect think. You also want to create urgency and highlight the benefits, which isn’t easy to do in just a few words. Whenever possible, personalize the email subject line, such as mentioning the trade show you met at last week. 

It’s also crucial to use A/B testing to ensure the subject line is optimized. By sending two or more versions of the same content with different email subject lines, you can improve results based on the highest open rate. The keys to successful A/B testing are clearly defining the success metric, such as click-through or conversions, and measuring all samples in a group in real time. A/B testing is also more effective and meaningful with a large recipient group because it allows for multiple sample subsets.

Combine manual and automated touchpoints

The State for Sales Report found that sales representatives only spend 30% of their time each week on selling. Organizations should proactively look for ways to improve efficiency to give representatives more time to focus on selling. The most effective sales cadences combine automation to boost efficiency with manual touchpoints for personalization. 

For example, sending a thank-you email right after a webinar ends ensures that the attendee gets an email shortly after the event ends, even if the sales representative is busy. Manual emails can add a personal touch that automation can’t provide, such as a personalized follow-up a few days later referencing the attendee’s questions and offering additional information. 

Use customer actions to determine next steps

During an in-person conversation, you adapt what you do and say based on the person’s behavior. Effective sales cadences use behavioral triggers to mimic the natural flow of conversation. A behavioral trigger occurs when prospects perform a specific action, prompting the brand to respond with another action, either automated or manual.

For example, if a recipient clicks on the link to a landing page, the next email might include a higher-value resource, like a case study or white paper. On the other hand, prospects who open but don’t click may receive a brief, benefit-focused email instead. Leads that engage in multiple ways, such as downloading a study, clicking on a link, and registering for a webinar, might also receive a personally written email and a meeting invitation.

Real email sales cadence examples (and when to use them)

Each cadence needs to be tailored to specific scenarios with clear goals in mind. We’ll walk through not just what to send, but why and when each message works best. Whether you’re building your first cadence or looking to refine an existing one, these three examples will give you a solid foundation to work from.

Example 1: Building a relationship with a new B2B SaaS prospect

Over the course of 14 days, this five-email cadence aims to encourage the prospect to schedule a demo with the sales rep.

Subject: Tackling [Prospect’s Industry] inefficiencies head-on

Hi [First Name]: 

Leaders in [insert prospect’s role] are constantly balancing efficiency, cost control, and scaling processes without adding more complexity. My B2B SaaS clients often share with me that the hardest part is getting visibility across teams without slowing things down.

Check out this blog post on 5 ways to help your organization reduce complexity. 

We’ve helped organizations like [relevant client name/industry] simplify workflows so you can spend less time chasing data and more time acting on it.

Best,
[Your Name]

• Email 1 (day 1): The strategy for this email is to address common industry pain points for the prospect’s role while also building credibility. By heavily personalizing the email and focusing on outcomes rather than products, the goal is to start a conversation and relationship. Use a soft call to action (CTA), such as a link to get more information instead of a request to buy now, at the end of the email to keep the dialogue going.
  
• Email 2 (day 4): The goal of this email is to use evidence and data to build trust with the potential customer. By sharing a customer story or a statistic in this email, you can provide social proof of your results. Keep this email short and friendly with a low-pressure tone.
  
• Email 3 (day 7): Guide the recipient through the funnel by offering a higher-value resource to show your understanding of their challenges. For example, consider using eBooks, articles, or benchmark data. Throughout the email, including the CTA, maintain a light and friendly tone.
  
• Email 4 (day 10): The approach for this email is to directly ask for your goal, such as booking a demo or meeting. Since you have already established trust and value in the previous emails, you can now move to the direct approach. Be sure to mention the previous emails and restate the ROI and benefits you’ve already discussed. End with a strong yet friendly CTA.
  
• Email 5 (day 14): This email will be sent to leads who didn’t book a call in email 4 and serves as the final attempt in the sequence, while still leaving the door open for future contact. Make sure to keep the tone friendly and inform them when you’ll follow up again, such as later in the year or next spring. 

Example 2: Following up with attendees after events 

Over the course of 10 days, this three-email cadence aims to encourage the prospect to book a phone call with the sales rep.

Subject: Here’s the replay from today’s webinar 

Hi [First Name],

Thanks so much for spending time with us during [Webinar Title]! The discussion sparked great ideas around [key insights here]

If you want to rewatch the session or share it with your team, here’s the replay: [Replay Link]

Do you have any follow-up questions from the session? Just hit reply — I’d be happy to help.

Cheers,
[Your Name]

• Email 1 (day 1): The strategy for this email is to thank the prospect for attending and include a link to replay the webinar. Sending this email within a few hours of the event captures the excitement and interest. Be sure to summarize the main points of the webinar. For the CTA, you can either add a link to a survey about the event or ask if they have any follow-up questions.
  
• Email 2 (day 3): The goal of this email is to build relevancy and trust with the attendee. If the prospect asks a question during the event, craft a highly personalized email that expands on their question and offers resources for their concern. Otherwise, use segmentation by role and industry to share a key insight or statistic from the event that is relevant to the potential customer. 
  
• Email 3 (day 4): Shift the focus from email to a phone call by directly suggesting a specific time to connect and referencing the value discussed in the previous email. This helps move the client further along in the sales process.

Example 3: Reaching out to a stalled prospect

During this five-email series spread over 14 days, the goal is to re-engage a prospect that has gone dark, such as a lead from Example 2 who attended the webinar but didn’t engage further. 

Subject: Picking up where we left off …

Hi [First Name],

It’s been a little while since we met at the [include conference or event]. I just wanted to take a moment to check in. 

The last time we talked, you shared that [insert past challenge]. Has anything changed with your priorities or challenges since then?

I’d love to hear what you’re focused on right now and see if there’s any way I can be helpful.

Best,
[Your Name]

• Email 1 (day 1): ​​The strategy for this email is to reintroduce yourself in a friendly way. By noting that you haven’t heard from them in a while, you can adopt a conversational tone to find out if their needs have changed. Focus on offering help and asking about their current challenges instead of trying to sell. 
  
• Email 2 (day 5): For this email, give them a reason to re-engage by sharing something new with the prospect. For example, you could highlight a new feature release, market trend, or resource. Throughout the email, keep the tone light and use a very low-pressure CTA, such as asking to send the resource. 
  
• Email 3 (day 8): Rebuild credibility based on previous interactions. By sharing a customer success story, you can use social proof to show relevance. Highlighting ROI or measurable impact helps prevent the email from sounding like a sales pitch.
  
• Email 4 (day 11): The goal of this email is to advance the relationship and prompt action. Suggesting a quick catch-up call shows respect for their time and frames it as a casual meeting.
  
• Email 5 (day 14): The goal of this email is to let prospects who haven’t responded exit gracefully while keeping the door open for future opportunities. Keep this email brief and conversational, while offering the option to reconnect.

Common email sales cadence mistakes (and how to avoid them)

With email sales cadences, small mistakes can quickly lead to a less engaged audience and lost opportunities. Before you know it, your conversion rates are lower and your brand has lost credibility. By being aware of the following five common mistakes, you can ensure that your outreach stands out for the right reason. 

Sending too many emails too quickly

Many organizations rush the sales cadence by sending all the emails too quickly instead of allowing the customer time to absorb the information and for the business relationship to grow. Instead, organizations should create an email conversation similar to getting to know a co-worker who just joined your team, with a naturally evolving conversation. For example, the best spacing of emails about an upcoming event depends on registration deadlines, such as sending emails closer together near the end of early bird registration, which is often effective.

Not segmenting by persona or industry

Many brands mistakenly create a single email for all target customers, regardless of role or industry, which results in emails that don’t use the tone and messaging most effective for the specific audience. By using market segmentation based on personas and industry, you can ensure that you’re addressing the specific challenges related to their specific needs. For example, you provide more technical details when talking to an IT manager while an email to a CEO should focus on overall business growth benefits. With targeted messaging, the prospect then feels that you understand their needs and begins to trust your brand. 

Failing to follow up after engagement

People want to feel valued, and that goes for your prospects too. If they interact with your brand, such as downloading a white paper, and it goes unacknowledged, they often start to feel less engaged. Brands that don’t follow up on trigger events also miss a natural and crucial opportunity to continue a conversation. For example, two or three days after the prospect downloads the white paper, you can send an email with a link to a podcast featuring an interview with one of the sources from the white paper.

Putting your cadence into action: metrics to monitor

After creating and sending an email cadence, your work isn’t finished. Now, you need to gather metrics to evaluate how effective the cadence is and identify areas that need improvement. By tracking these metrics, you get the information necessary to know exactly what to change in the cadence.

Open rates 

Every day, you decide which emails to open and which ones to send straight to the trash based on the subject line. Your potential customers make the same judgment. According to MailChimp, the average open rate across all industries is 35.63% with e-commerce companies having lower rates at 29.81% and non-profits averaging higher at 40.04%. Email cadences with low open rates likely have either a generic subject line or one that fails to resonate with the target audience. Test new subject lines by adding personalization or shortening the language. 

Reply rates

Customers only respond to messages that are compelling and relevant to their needs. If your email cadence has a high open rate but a low reply rate, you may need to revisit your body content. Be sure to segment reply rates by both buyer persona and industry to determine if the issue is overall or limited to specific segments. Next, identify whether the problem is related to the value proposition or the actual text. Then, start testing new, revised content to boost engagement with potential customers.

Bounce rates

Every email that bounces is a missed opportunity. If your email sales cadence has a high bounce rate, then you have an email deliverability issue, likely using a low-quality list. By cleaning your list and verifying addresses before sending out another email sales cadence, you can get your messaging in front of more target customers.

CTA click-through

Each email in the cadence should include a CTA, such as a case study, demo page, or survey. This metric tracks the number of recipients who click on the link to access the content.

If you have a low CTR, it means that the email content isn’t compelling enough for people to want more, or that the CTA isn’t relevant. It could also mean that the link needs to be moved to a different location in the email or that a different format, such as a button, should be used. To boost your CTR, run A/B tests on both the CTA copy and its placement. 

Meeting booked/conversion rates

While other metrics can help you increase conversions, the most important measure of success is whether the email prompts the prospect to book a meeting or buy the product. It’s easy to assume that the final email is the one to focus on for improving this metric, but it’s the overall effectiveness of all emails combined that leads to conversions. To boost conversions, review your emails to ensure each one is helping to move the prospect to the next stage and work on improving any that show a drop-off.

Sentiment and engagement timing

The other metrics focus on the actions of the recipient, while this one measures how the potential customer feels about the email and your brand as a whole. Instead of relying on a single data point, you should examine multiple metrics to determine sentiment, including unsubscribes, spam complaints, direct replies, and surveys.

To improve sentiment, review your content to see if you can do a better job of segmenting and personalizing‌ it. Additionally, ensure that your tone is clear and conversational, avoiding jargon. Also, look for ways to provide value to customers in your emails, rather than just talking about products.

Build stronger relationships and fuel your pipeline

A great sales cadence doesn’t just move the lead through the funnel and create a pipeline. Instead, you want to design a cadence that builds solid (and hopefully lasting) relationships. By using personalization and automation in your CRM, you can efficiently create a sales cadence that builds the trust needed for prospects to take the next step and become new customers.