Sequences

A sequence is a multi-step email campaign that automatically sends follow-up messages to creators who haven't responded. Think of it like Lemlist or Woodpecker, but integrated directly into Stormy's creator CRM and powered by AI personalization.

Creating a Sequence

To create a new sequence, navigate to Outreach > Sequences and click New Sequence. You'll need to configure:

• Name — A descriptive name for your campaign (e.g., "Q2 Beauty Creators - Instagram")
• Gmail account — Which connected Gmail account to send from
• List — The creator list to pull recipients from
• Schedule — Days and hours when emails are allowed to send

Adding Steps

Every sequence consists of one or more steps. Each step is an email that gets sent at a defined interval after the previous one.

Step Types

Step	Purpose	Typical Timing
Initial email	First contact with the creator	Sent immediately when the sequence starts
Follow-up 1	Gentle reminder if no reply	3-4 days after initial email
Follow-up 2	Value-add or different angle	5-7 days after follow-up 1
Follow-up 3	Final attempt / breakup email	7-10 days after follow-up 2

To add a step, click Add Step in the sequence builder. For each step, you choose:

1. Template — Select an existing template or write the email inline
2. Delay — Number of days to wait after the previous step (not applicable for the initial email)
3. Send condition — When this step should actually send

Send Conditions

Each follow-up step can have conditions that determine whether it gets sent. Available conditions:

• No reply — Only send if the creator hasn't replied to any previous step (this is the default)
• Not opened — Only send if the creator hasn't opened the previous email
• Always send — Send regardless of previous engagement (use carefully)

AI Personalization Per Step

When the sequence runs, Stormy's AI generates a unique version of each email for every creator. The AI uses:

• The creator's name, platform, and content niche
• Their follower count and engagement metrics
• Recent content they've posted
• Any custom columns from your list

This means even though all creators in the sequence receive the same template structure, the actual email content is different for each person. This dramatically improves deliverability and response rates compared to simple mail merge.

Timing and Scheduling

Delay Between Steps

The delay between steps is measured in calendar days. If you set follow-up 1 to a 3-day delay, it will be sent 3 days after the initial email was delivered.

Sending Windows

You can configure which days and hours your sequence is allowed to send emails. This ensures emails arrive during business hours in the creator's likely timezone.

Days: Select which days of the week to send (default: Monday through Friday).

Hours: Set a start and end time for the daily sending window (default: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM).

Timezone: Choose the timezone for your sending window. If you're targeting creators across multiple timezones, pick the timezone where most of your targets are located.

Randomized Delays

Within your sending window, Stormy adds small random delays between individual emails (typically 30 seconds to 5 minutes). This prevents the "blast" pattern that email providers flag as automated behavior.

Managing Sequences

Starting a Sequence

Once your steps, templates, and schedule are configured, click Start Sequence. Stormy will:

1. Pull all creators from the linked list who have verified email addresses
2. Skip any creators already in another active sequence (to prevent overlap)
3. Begin sending initial emails within the next available sending window

Pausing a Sequence

Click Pause to temporarily stop all sends. Creators who are mid-sequence will hold at their current step. No emails will go out until you resume.

Pausing is useful when:

• You need to update templates mid-campaign
• You've hit a deliverability issue and need to investigate
• You want to review early results before continuing

When you click Resume, the sequence picks up where it left off. Timing resets from the resume point — if a follow-up was due 2 days after pause, it will send 2 days after you resume.

Stopping a Sequence

Click Stop to permanently end the sequence. All pending steps are cancelled. Creators who already received emails keep their history, but no further emails will be sent.

Monitoring Results

The sequence dashboard shows real-time performance metrics for each active and completed sequence.

Per-Sequence Metrics

Metric	Description
Total recipients	Number of creators enrolled in the sequence
Emails sent	Total emails delivered across all steps
Open rate	Percentage of delivered emails that were opened
Reply rate	Percentage of creators who replied to any step
Bounce rate	Percentage of emails that bounced (invalid address)

Per-Step Breakdown

Click into a sequence to see metrics broken down by step. This helps you identify which follow-ups are driving the most engagement and where creators are dropping off.

Common patterns to watch for:

• Low open rate on step 1 — Subject line needs work, or your sending reputation is poor
• High opens but low replies — Email content isn't compelling enough or the ask isn't clear
• Spike in replies on follow-up 2 — Your follow-up angle is resonating — consider making it the initial email
• High bounces — List quality issue; re-verify emails before sending more

Creator-Level View

You can also see the status of every individual creator in a sequence:

• Pending — Waiting for their first email
• In progress — Mid-sequence, has received at least one email
• Replied — Creator responded (sequence stops automatically for this creator)
• Completed — All steps sent, no reply received
• Bounced — Email address was invalid

Best Practices

Keep sequences short. 3-4 steps is the sweet spot. An initial email plus 2-3 follow-ups gives creators multiple chances to see your message without being pushy.

Vary your follow-up angles. Don't just say "bumping this up." Each follow-up should add new value — share a case study, mention a relevant metric, or offer a different collaboration format.

Segment your lists. Don't send the same sequence to nano-creators and mega-influencers. Create separate sequences with messaging tailored to each tier.

Test before scaling. Start with 20-30 recipients, measure results for a week, then adjust templates before adding the full list.

Respect replies. When a creator replies (even to decline), the sequence automatically stops for them. Never manually re-add someone who has already said no.