If you’ve ever signed up for someone’s email list and immediately regretted it, you know how email marketing automation can go wrong. Maybe you got five emails in a single day. Or maybe you didn’t hear from them for months, and by the time they finally popped back into your inbox you couldn’t even remember who they were.
That kind of experience is frustrating for anyone, but especially for credentialed professionals like financial advisors, consultants, educators, or therapists who care about creating an experience that reflects the level of experience and professionalism that you bring to your work. But if you’re anything like my email marketing consulting clients, there’s a good chance that you didn’t go into business to become a marketer, and probably would rather spend your time supporting your clients than doing email marketing.
This guide is for service-based professionals who want to stay connected with their audience without spending hours each week on email marketing. If you’re already creating content for your business but struggling to maintain consistent communication with your list, these strategies will help you show up consistently without adding a ton of extra work to your already full plate.
The good news? You’re likely already creating plenty of content – blog posts, case studies, workshops, web copy.
With a little strategy, you can repurpose what you’ve already created into simple, automated email series that keep your marketing consistent and sustainable, so that you can focus more of your time on client work and less on “what do I send this week?”
Examples of Simple Email Automations for Therapists, Financial Professionals, Educators, and Consultants
Here are three types of automated email marketing sequences that you can set up for your business using repurposed content.
1. The Welcome Sequence
A welcome sequence is a short, automated series (usually 3–5 emails) that goes out right after someone joins your list. You can typically set up a basic welcome sequence in 2-3 hours, especially if you’re repurposing content you’ve already created.
When someone signs up, that’s when they’re most excited. This is the best moment to show up, remind them who you are, and let them know what comes next.
It’s an opportunity to build trust with new subscribers, get them to engage by clicking and replying, and learn more about the people coming on tor your list.
You can use a mix of information from your your website and about page, case studies, blog posts or even reuse an older email that got a lot of clicks or replies.
Benefits of a welcome sequence
- Engages new subscribers when they’re most excited to hear from you.
- Guarantees that people hear from you immediately (again, when they’re most excited).
- Can spark conversations with people who are new to your world.
Tips for putting together a welcome sequence
- Thank people for signing up – Someone opting in to your newsletter by giving you their email address is an act of trust and we want to acknowledge that.
- Remind them who you are – Don’t assume they’ll remember you or your business when they finally get around to checking their email. In that first email, tell them who you are, what you do, and why they’re receiving that email.
- Set expectations – Spell out how many emails they’ll receive from you and over what period of time, and when they can expect to hear from you after that.
- Invite them to engage — Clicks, replies, polls; these build connection and help with email deliverability, or your emails showing up in subscribers inboxes.
- Optional: let them opt out — I give subscribers the option to skip my welcome series and just get my weekly newsletter.
My own welcome email is four emails that go out over four days (so one email a day). The first one starts by:
Reminding people who I am and what I do:
In case we haven’t officially met yet, I’m Bev Feldman, an email marketing strategist for credentialed professionals at Your Personal Tech Fairy
Sets expectations by telling them exactly what will happen next:
Over the next three days, you’ll get an email a day from me, unpacking:
- My approach to email marketing (and what makes me different from all of those other Kit experts out there)
- My non-negotiables in email marketing (and why this newsletter is called Automate with Heart)
- How we can work together should you choose to hire me
Invites them to answer a questions:
P.S. Before we go, one last thing:
What do you hope to get out of this newsletter?
Hit reply with your answer – even if it’s “I don’t know!”. I read and respond to every single reply that I receive.
2. The Email Course
An email course is a series of lessons delivered over several days. It’s a way to teach something small but meaningful in bite-sized pieces, right in someone’s inbox. An email course will likely take more time to set up than a welcome series, unless you’re purely repurposing something you’ve already written by breaking it into smaller, digestable chunks.
Why an email course works
- Builds trust and positions you as a guide.
- Keeps people opening your emails day after day.
- Naturally sets up a next step (booking a call, buying a product, joining a program).
You don’t need to create something new.
Tips for putting together an email course
- Break up long content – If you have a particularly long piece of content, break it up into a series of emails instead of cramming it all into one email.
- Create a curated experience – Remind people what they learned in the previous email and set up expectations (and get subscribers excited!) by teasing out the next one.
- Zhuzh it up – Don’t just copy and paste a blog post. Instead, include a short anecdote or reflection so it feels personal in someone’s inbox. Or consider adding some bonus information that they can only receive because they’re subscribed to your newsletter.
What does “zhuzhing it up” actually look like?
Here’s an example of how to transform blog content into an email:
Blog post version: “The three main benefits of automated email sequences are: saves time, builds trust, and increases engagement.”
Totally made up email version: “I’ll be honest – I resisted putting together a welcome series. Something about automating a welcome felt so…impersonal, and kinda icky. But last month, when I was dealing with a family emergency, my welcome sequence kept working for me. New subscribers were getting welcomed, nurtured, and three of them even booked calls.
That’s when it clicked: a welcome series when done thoughtfully and intentionally can actually build connections, even when life happens.
Here are the three benefits I’ve seen in my business…”
See the difference? The email version includes a personal story, creates connection, and then delivers the same information in a more engaging way.
Examples of email courses
- Dr. Michelle Mazur’s Market Like an Expert
- Jessica Lackey’s The Predictable Revenue Roadmap
Each of these uses the same format — a structured series — but tailored to their audience and message.
3. The Evergreen Newsletter
Unlike a live newsletter you write every week, an evergreen newsletter is pre-written content that goes out to each new subscriber on a schedule. No matter when someone signs up, they receive the same content in the same order. Think of it as your “greatest hits” on autopilot.
Benefits of an evergreen newsletter
- Ensures every subscriber sees your best resources.
- Keeps your marketing sustainable when life gets busy.
- Helps you repurpose blog posts, case studies, and social posts.
Tips for creating an evergreen sequence
- Check your stats periodically – Look at open and click-through rates (or if your email marketing software can track, reply and forward rates). While these stats on their own aren’t always very reliable, in the context of other emails you can see patterns or outliers. For example, if one email has an exceptionally low open rate, than that’s a sign that you should try a different subject line.
- Mix up your CTAs – don’t always ask for a click. Sometimes a reply or a poll works better.
- Keep a few weeks pre-scheduled – One of the benefits of an evergreen newsletter is that you can have weeks (or even months or years) of content scheduled to go. When you’re getting started, I recommend having at least few weeks scheduled so that you’re not scrambling, and make sure you’re periodically going in and adding content.
- Turn automations off/on as needed – If you’re launching something live, be sure to pause your evergreen sequence so that you don’t accidentally inundate your subscribers with a bunch of extra emails.
Sustainable Email Marketing Starts with Repurposing
You don’t have to build all three series at once. Start with one – often a welcome sequence – and build from there.
Remember: you already have plenty of content. Blog posts, website copy, social captions, case studies. Repurpose it into emails. Don’t just copy and paste – zhuzh it with a story or reflection, vary your calls to action, and keep it simple.
Automation should support your business growth and respect your subscribers. That’s what makes it sustainable.
Want to see this in action? Join my newsletter here and experience my own consent-first welcome sequence for yourself.