After successfully laying the groundwork for my business, creating a website and sending out my first broadcast email, it was time for me to move on to Kartra’s Sequences tool.

I found myself wondering, what is a sequence? Well, after a little research and reading through the incredibly helpful tutorial the Kartra team kindly provided, I discovered that a sequence is a string of events that, once triggered, execute on autopilot. They’re kind of like the automations we talked about last time, only much more comprehensive.

As I dug a little deeper, I learned that sequences are a part of your “funnel.” You’re what?

My whole life, I thought funnels were those wide-brimmed doodads that tapered off to let me pour different colored sand in an arts and crafts project. My educated guess: this is not what the marketing gods are referencing.

A funnel is actually a catch phrase that references your customer’s (buying) journey. Marketing funnels cover everything from the first time a customer becomes aware of your product (maybe through an ad, social media or word of mouth), to how your customer moves through your website and through the process of buying your product. It even includes how you communicate with them after their purchase to keep them satisfied and coming back for more.

Like the little sand doodad I described above, your marketing funnel will start out wide, catching a lot of potential leads, and narrow down your prospects as they progress toward purchasing from you.

As a solopreneur, it’s practically impossible for me to engage with all prospects on a personal level with content that is relevant to their stage in my funnel. After all, I’m only one person.

That’s where sequences come in. A sequence automates a stream of pre-created communications — informative emails, invitations to consume free content, invites to a webinar, and ultimately purchase follow-ups — that send the right message at the right time to each prospect based on their actions and the interest they’re expressing.

Once I’ve spent some time setting my sequence up, the Kartra system will do all this for me automatically, while I get to sit back and spend more time with my children. Pretty neat, huh?

Setting up a Sequence:

To get to Kartra’s sequences, navigate to “Marketing” in the main navigation and tap “Sequences” below it.

Once in, just tap the “+ Sequence” button to begin.

Note: Your entire funnel does NOT need to be in one sequence. I found it easier to make a sequence for when people filled in my opt-in form, another for when they purchased a product, etc. You can then link sequences to other sequences using an IF-AND-THEN automation, making it simple to move your leads through your entire funnel.

A handy screen will come up with a tutorial that familiarizes you with Kartra’s Sequences section. I found this incredibly useful for acquainting myself with what the sequence builder does as well as how to navigate the builder itself.

Sequences can be short and simple or longer and more complex, depending on how you want to engage your customers. For my needs, I chose to stick with relatively simple flows and not create any sub-sequences.

Establish your starting rule:

For any sequence you make, you will have to create a “starting rule,” or an action that has to occur to trigger the sequence.

Because I started off with a simple lead magnet and funnel to build my lead lists, my starting rule was that a parent must book a free introduction call through my site. However, for you, it could be that someone opts into a form, gets tagged in your email automation, watches a webinar, or even visits a specific page—all of which can trigger the next step in your customer’s journey.

Set your course of action:

Once I set my starting point, it was important for me to decide what action I wanted to take next. Helping parents establish better sleep routines for their little ones is deeply personal, so I knew a thank-you email was essential after they booked a free sleep assessment call.

Then, I spotted the “Split” action in the automation builder. Interesting. I dropped the split action onto my page, and a pop-up appeared, allowing me to create rules. I set it to send an email a week after the initial thank you email and created my conditions: if they have not purchased any of my products  they will get a set of emails to upsell them starting with my highest ticket item and going down.

💡 Note: You can set up to five conditions for each action in your sequence.

Once I set the rule, I connected the “Split” action with my starting action by dragging the grey circle from “Starting Action” to the grey circle on “Split.” It instantly turned yellow, meaning they were linked.

In the automation, there’s a “True” and “False” section. If the condition is true (they have not purchased any of my products), they automatically advance to the next step in the sequence: upsell to 1:1 Consultations.

Since the email builder uses the same simple drag-and-drop format, I quickly customized each email to include the parent’s name (using a variable) and relevant sleep tips. Once done, I saved it as a template, making it easy to create the other versions with just a few content swaps.

Before moving on to upselling my other products, I wanted to add one more step in my sequence for parents needing 1:1 help with sleep struggles.

Since sleep coaching is a transformational process, I decided it was best to check in 5 days after the initial session to see how things were improving. I wanted to hear about their progress—whether their toddler was sleeping through the night, adjusting well to their bed, or still needing support.

I also used this follow-up email as an opportunity to encourage parents to share my success stories. I share previous parent’s wins when their little one finally gets a peaceful night’s sleep. These real experiences help inspire other parents and can be shared (with permission) on my social channels!

Lastly, I included a gentle nudge toward additional resources, such as one-on-one coaching sessions or sleep guides to help them navigate the next stage in their child’s sleep journey.

This is what my sequence looks like so far:

Note: When you first add something new to your sequence, like an email, it will show up with “inactive” stamped over it. To activate, hover over the three dots in the upper right corner. A bar will appear on the side with four options: activate, edit, clone and delete. Click activate to activate your new action in your sequence.

Build out a robust sequence:

You may be wondering… what about the “False” side of my split?
Don’t worry, I’m getting to it.

In my case, “False” side means that someone did purchase something from me. 

I repeated the process:

• I cloned my previous emails, swapping out the upselling content for additional tips and resources.
• I made sure the rules reflected the correct conditions.

When I was finished, each track had:

• Additional resources and information to help their children sleep with ease.
• A follow-up email to check on progress, encourage engagement, and offer additional support.

My final sequence came out to look like this:

Set it, forget it, and save more time

Of course, as I add new sleep coaching offers, I’ll go back and update my sequence to include them. Similarly, if I retire a service, I’ll remove it.

Automation may seem overwhelming at first, but once you set it up, you’ll see how much time a set-and-forget workflow saves. The key is customizing it to fit your business, and soon, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!