Lifecycle and email

Freelance email and lifecycle marketing, August 2026 to present

Since August 2026 I have written and built the email programme for a digital products client in health and fitness: 35+ emails across 10+ automated Mailchimp journeys, sent in Estonian.

Contents

• Fourteen-day challenge for existing buyersA daily series kept about 90% of its audience subscribed through day 14 while selling in one email out of three.
• Founder story welcome seriesTen automated emails that tell the founder’s story before any offer. The first opened at 30.0%.
• Customer survey campaignA short personal request with a 17.0% click rate, about six times the account average.
• Monthly newslettersThree editions while the list grew by about 30%, and what the subject lines showed.
• Waitlist launch for a new productOne invitation email, 3.5% clicks and 0.3% unsubscribes.

The client is anonymised, audience sizes are rounded, and all rates are from Mailchimp’s own reporting.

Fourteen-day challenge for existing buyers

Daily email series, 21 September to 4 October 2026

A daily email series kept about 90% of its starting audience subscribed through day 14 while selling in only one email out of three.

The goal was to move buyers of an entry-level product toward a paid programme without wearing out the relationship. The audience was about 280 customers who had already bought once.

I planned the 14-day arc, wrote every email, and built the automation. I set one rule for the series: two emails give practical value, the third makes the offer.

The clicks came where the series was designed to ask for them, on the selling emails, led by the first one at 3.2%. Unsubscribes averaged 0.7% per email and never passed 2%, low for daily sends over two weeks.

How it was built

1. StartA tag on the contact starts the flow, with two entry conditions that filter who can come in.
2. Days 1 to 13One email a day, with a one-day delay between each. Two emails give practical value, the third makes the offer, and the pattern repeats four times.
3. Day 14A final email closes the challenge, and the contact leaves the flow.

286 contacts started the flow and 256 had received the final email when these numbers were taken. Nobody was removed early, so the gap is unsubscribes and a few contacts still in progress.

What I would change: the value emails had no link to click, so the next version gives each one a small next step to measure engagement between offers.

Founder story welcome series

Automated sequence of ten emails, live since 8 September 2026

A ten-email automated sequence that tells the founder’s story before any offer. The first email opened at 30.0%, and the later emails kept opening at 24% to 48% among the contacts who reached them.

The goal was to introduce subscribers to the founder and the method before any offer, so the first sale comes from trust. About 540 contacts have entered the series.

I wrote all ten emails as one continuing story, each ending on a reason to open the next.

How it was built

1. StartThe flow starts when a contact finishes one of three earlier sequences. Each ending applies a tag, and any of the three tags lets the contact in.
2. Email 1 and 2The second email follows one day after the first.
3. Email 3 to 10After that, one email every two days.
4. EndA “completed” tag is added, so later campaigns can tell who has read the whole story.

The first five emails each reached about 500 contacts, and opens moved from 30.0% on the first to 19.7% on the fifth, against an account average of about 25%. Emails six to ten have so far reached a smaller group of 65 to 80 contacts, where opens ran from 24.4% to 47.8%. The strongest was the eighth email, at 47.8% opens and 9.0% clicks.

Customer survey campaign

One campaign email with an automated thank-you

A short personal email asking customers for feedback got a 17.0% click rate, about six times the account’s campaign average of 2.8%.

The goal was to collect direct feedback from customers to guide what we offered them next. It went to about 240 customers.

I wrote the email as a personal request under the subject line “Do you have a few minutes for me?”, kept it to one ask and one link, and built an automated thank-you for everyone who responded.

27.8% opened and 17.0% clicked through to the survey. 36 people completed it, and 88.9% of them opened the thank-you email.

How it was built

1. CampaignOne email to existing customers, linking to a survey built in Mailchimp.
2. StartSubmitting the survey starts a short automation.
3. Thank-youThe contact gets a thank-you email straight away.
4. EndA “responded to survey” tag is added, so responders can be segmented in later campaigns.

Monthly newsletters

Three editions, August and September 2026

Three newsletter editions went out while the list grew by about 30%, from roughly 470 to 610 subscribers, and two of the three opened well above the account average of 25%.

I planned the content, wrote each edition and built it in Mailchimp. The first September edition underperformed, so I reworked the subject line and structure for the second, which recovered to 32.3%.

The subject lines explain most of the difference. The seasonal one opened at 18.9%. The two that named a specific problem with the reader’s own training opened at 38.5% and 32.3%.

Waitlist launch for a new product

One invitation email

A single invitation email to join the waitlist for an upcoming product reached a 3.5% click rate, above the campaign average of 2.8%.

The goal was to measure interest in a new product before launch and build a warm audience for it. The email went to about 580 subscribers.

I wrote the invitation, set up the waitlist sign-up and tagged everyone who joined so the launch could go to them first.

22.5% opened, 3.5% clicked, and only 0.3% unsubscribed.