Are you struggling to maintain consistent engagement with your audience on social media? Frustrated by declining reach and algorithms that keep changing the rules?
In this article, you'll discover how to build thriving communities through email sequences that create engagement social platforms can't deliver.
This article was co-created by Paul Gowder and Michael Stelzner. For more about Paul, scroll to the end of this article. Understanding Email as a Community-Building Tool
Facebook groups get deleted, algorithm updates decimate reach, and features disappear overnight. Paul Gowder, the founder of the leading online community for Native American arts and culture, experienced this firsthand when Facebook deleted his 85,000-member group without warning.
Email offers something social media platforms can never guarantee: ownership. Social platforms change constantly. Your email list stays with you.
The reach difference is substantial as well. On social media, reaching 1% of your followers counts as success. With email, open rates of 50-60% are achievable. When you send an email, that message goes directly to your subscriber's inbox, where it waits until they're ready to read it—no algorithm deciding who sees it.
How to Create Email Sequences That Build Relationships
An email sequence is a series of messages delivered over time—once an hour, once a day, once a week, or whatever schedule makes sense for your content.
You can deliver as few as 2 emails to address simple topics or break complicated topics across 5-10 emails. Breaking your content into multiple messages delivers better retention than dumping it all into one message.
The following tips will help you develop two types of email sequences to engage and retain a loyal audience you won’t lose access to.
#1: How to Let Your Audience Guide Your Email Sequence Development
Before creating any email sequences, you need to understand what your audience actually wants. Paul recommends starting with a simple exercise: write down the questions you get asked repeatedly. These recurring questions become the foundation for your most effective email series.
For PowWows.com, people consistently asked: What is a grand entry? How do I find a pow wow? What should I wear? What should I bring? Each question represented an opportunity for a targeted email sequence.
Now, Paul’s most successful sequence is What to Expect at Your First Powwow. This free series walks nervous first-time attendees through everything they need to know about attending a pow wow. The sequence started with seven messages and has grown to 13-14 emails over time as Paul identified additional questions people needed answered.
Look at your audience segments carefully, too. Paul works with clients in the travel industry who discovered they had distinct audience groups: cruise enthusiasts, theme park families, and guided tour travelers. Each segment needs different content approaches and sequences.
#2: Solve a Problem: How to Build Two Topic-Based Sequences
Create an email series that walks your audience through their overall answer step by step, with each email focused on a single topic. Don't try to explain everything at once. Each email should move the reader one step forward in understanding or preparation.
And, don't overthink the number of emails in your sequence. You can always add more emails later as you discover additional questions or topics.
In your first email, be sure to tell people what to expect. For example, “Over the next seven days, I'm going to send you a message once a day, and walk you through everything you need to know about going to your first pow wow.” This sets expectations and increases completion rates.
The length of each email depends on your goal. For PowWows.com, which generates revenue through advertising, Paul keeps sequence emails relatively short with links to full articles on the website. This strategy builds traffic while still delivering value through email. If advertising isn't part of your model, you can make emails longer and more comprehensive.
Entry-Level Email Sequences to Nurture and Grow Relationships
Entry email sequences are a great way to grow trust and loyalty with new audiences. Use these to answer questions that are often asked by people who are new to your business, experience, or product.
For Disney travel planners, a beginning sequence might look like this:
Email: What to pack for your first cruise.
Email: What to expect on embarkation day and how to check in.
Email: How to plan excursions and activities during the cruise.
Email Sequences to Resurface Your Best Content
Paul's Throwback Thursday sequence demonstrates how to systematically leverage existing content from your back catalog.
At the beginning of each year, Paul and his virtual assistant select the 52 blog posts they'll feature in the upcoming Throwback Thursday sequence. They write all 52 emails at once, ensuring consistent coverage of their best content.
Then, every Thursday, subscribers receive an email highlighting older content from PowWows.com. The sequence runs 52 weeks, covering 52 different pieces of content throughout the year.
For content creators with significant archives, this strategy ensures new subscribers see your best work regardless of when they joined your list. If your best podcast episode is number 5 but you're now on episode 700, new subscribers will never find it unless you surface it intentionally.
The approach works for any content format. Podcasters can create “Podcast Monday” sequences featuring their top 10-20 episodes. Bloggers can highlight their most valuable articles. YouTubers can resurface their best videos. The key is selecting evergreen content that remains relevant over time.
#3: Three Ways to Get People Into Your Sequences
Paul uses several strategies to drive people into his email sequences, with some approaches working better than others.
His favorite tool is Grow.me, a free plugin that embeds email opt-in forms in the middle of WordPress articles. As readers scroll through content, the opt-in form highlights itself, making it impossible to miss. On mobile devices, where sidebar and footer forms disappear, Grow.me ensures every reader sees the opportunity to subscribe.
The plugin's real power comes from category-based targeting. If you write about multiple topics, you can display different opt-ins based on WordPress categories. A Disney travel planner could show cruise opt-ins on cruise articles, theme park opt-ins on theme park content, and all-inclusive resort opt-ins on resort posts. This topical relevance dramatically increases conversion rates.
Link triggers inside existing broadcasts provide another entry point. When sending weekly emails to your current list, mention other sequences you offer. Paul might write: “By the way, this is our 30th anniversary, and we're planning a big giveaway this summer. If you want to get on the waitlist and know when the contest starts, click here.” When someone clicks, the email platform tags them and automatically enrolls them in the anniversary sequence.
Link triggers at the end of sequences work well, too. When someone finishes What to Expect at Your First Powwow, Paul mentions other relevant sequences with a call to action, such as “We also have a series on tracing your Native American family history,” or “Join our Native American book club,” or “Sign up for our travel group.” This keeps people moving through additional sequences rather than dropping off your list.
Landing pages offer another highly effective approach. Paul creates clean pages with no navigation, headers, or footers—just text explaining the email series and an opt-in form. These pages work perfectly for podcast appearances, conference presentations, and even casual conversations. Paul can say, “Go to powwows.com/powwow101, and you'll get a free email series over ten days explaining everything about attending your first pow wow.”
These same landing page URLs work across social media. Share them in Instagram and Facebook stories, in reels, in social posts—anywhere you can add a link. Because the URL is simple and memorable, people can actually type it into their browser if they're watching a video where clicking isn't possible.
Pro Tip: Facebook lead ads deliver subscribers at a low cost. These ads let people opt in without leaving the Facebook platform, significantly reducing friction. Paul pays 12-20 cents per email subscriber through lead ads. Use an automation tool like Zapier to automatically transfer leads from Facebook to your email platform.
#4: How to Manage Email Sequence Frequency and Avoid Overwhelm
The delivery cadence of each email depends on your goals and timeliness requirements. Deliver urgent sequences once a day over a week or two. For less urgent content, once a week works fine. Paul’s What to Expect at Your First Pow Wow subscribers receive one email daily for 7-10 days.
Planning your email cadence is more complex when you’re running multiple sequences. Paul reserves Thursdays exclusively for Throwback Thursday, so regardless of what sequence a subscriber is in, they won't receive other emails on Thursdays.
You can use the scheduling settings in your email platform to control when sequences are sent. Most platforms let you specify which days a sequence can send emails, preventing accidental overlaps.
Pro Tip: Despite careful planning, overlaps still happen. Paul has an automated response ready that explains the email schedule and notes that being in multiple sequences is temporary.
#5: How to Write Emails That Feel Personal
Paul wishes people would read the 5,000-word blog posts he spends hours crafting, but he knows they won't. People scan and skim, so you want to write emails people can digest quickly by breaking content into short, scannable paragraphs. Add one or two simple images at most—anything more makes your email look promotional rather than personal.
The most effective emails read like messages from a friend, not promotional newsletters. Write as if you were talking to one person. Don't use “we” or address a crowd. Think about how you'd speak on a podcast—you're not talking to an audience in a room, you're talking to one person listening. This shift in perspective changes everything about your tone.
Finally, use language that reinforces that one-to-one relationship. Say “Hi, friend” or “Hi, [first name]” rather than “Hey, everyone” or “It's great to see everybody here today.” Email platforms let you personalize greetings with subscriber names, and this small detail makes readers feel seen.
If you struggle with conversational tone, use AI as a reformatting tool. Ask ChatGPT or Claude to “make this more conversational” or “make this more friendly,” then edit the output to sound like you. Never accept AI writing word-for-word.
Pro Tip: Keep your emails text-based rather than heavily designed like Amazon or Best Buy emails. Text-based messages get through spam filters more easily and feel genuinely personal.
Add Stories and Personality to Your Messages
Reserve the top portion of every email for personal content. Paul sends 4-7 broadcast messages per week with help from virtual assistants who write the main content sections. But he always writes the opening himself, sharing personal stories and experiences.
A typical Paul email might open: “This was a rough week for me because I had to drop my daughter off at the airport. I missed her, but it was great having her here for a few days, visiting with family. I'm excited that this weekend we're going to bring you this live stream…” Then the email transitions into the main content about upcoming events or new articles.
These personal openings connect subscribers to a real person rather than a faceless brand. The stories don't need to be dramatic—simple updates about your week, family, or experiences work perfectly.
End Emails With Questions That Drive Replies
Opens are good, clicks are better, but replies keep your messages out of promotional tabs and spam folders.
Questions at the end of sequences generate engagement and provide valuable feedback. In the first email of “What to Expect at Your First Powwow,” Paul asks: “What are you most excited about? Are you most excited about seeing the dancing? Hearing the music? Or is it the food and crafts that interest you more?”
This simple question generates five to ten responses every morning, providing better feedback than open rate statistics.
Trivia questions boost deliverability while rewarding loyal readers. Paul adds trivia to the bottom of weekly broadcasts: “By the way, here's a trivia question. Everyone who gets it right goes into a drawing to win stickers.”
The trivia trains people to read to the end. More importantly, replies send the strongest signal to Gmail and Microsoft that your emails are wanted.
Pro Tip: Use canned response automation to scale your reply management. Paul uses automation tools to respond quickly with relevant messages, maintaining personal connection without drowning in replies.
Paul Gowder is the founder of PowWows.com, the leading online community for Native American arts and culture with 100,000 email subscribers. He's also the host of the Side Hustle Suitcase podcast. Learn more about Paul on his website. Follow him on Facebook.
Other Notes From This Episode Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Instagram and @Mike_Stelzner on X. Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube. Listen to the Podcast Now
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