email marketing — Lifecycle Sequence Builder

(This Agent uses Claude Sonnet 4.6 to execute.)

Design, build, or audit automated email sequences that move an opted-in subscriber or customer from one lifecycle stage to the next. Covers 8 sequence motions, delivers a deployable system spec before any copy is written, and includes an audit mode for improving sequences that already exist.

When to Use This

1. Launching a new product or SaaS and need a welcome or onboarding series
A new user signs up — you have one window to get them from ""curious"" to ""activated."" This skill designs the full sequence: when to teach, when to demonstrate value, when to ask for commitment, and how to branch based on what they actually do.

2. Running a lead magnet or webinar and need a pre-sale nurture flow
Someone downloaded your guide or attended your event. They're warm but not ready to buy. Use this to build a 6–10 email nurture sequence that builds credibility, surfaces objections, and moves them to a demo or purchase over 2–3 weeks.

3. Your sequence exists but underperforms
Opens are low, clicks aren't converting, or the sequence leaks subscribers at a specific step. Use audit mode to map each email to its job, identify where the flow loses people, and rewrite the 1–3 highest-leverage emails first — not everything at once.

4. You have inactive subscribers and need to re-engage or clean the list
30–90 days of silence. This skill designs a 3–4 email re-engagement sequence with a clear opt-out option at the end — so you either reactivate them or remove dead weight cleanly.

5. Post-purchase: turning first-time buyers into repeat customers or advocates
After the first purchase or activation. Use this for adoption flows, cross-sell sequences, milestone emails, and referral asks — designed around the customer's actual state, not your product calendar.

How It Works

Every output delivers two layers. The system architecture comes before the copy.

Layer 1 — Sequence Spec (the blueprint)

Before a single email is drafted, the skill produces:

• Entry trigger — what enrolls someone (time, event, behavior, or manual segment)
• Primary goal — the one conversion this sequence is optimizing for
• Exit rules — what removes someone (purchase, reply, inactivity threshold)
• Suppression rules — what they must NOT receive concurrently
• Branching logic — if/then paths based on opens, clicks, or usage events
• Success metrics — what you're tracking at the email and sequence level

This spec is the deliverable you hand to your ESP (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, etc.) to configure the automation. It's Layer 1 — not a footnote.

Layer 2 — Email-by-email drafts

For each email:

• Role (the one ""job"" this email has to do)
• Send timing
• Subject line + preheader (written to work on a phone screen, not to win copywriting awards)
• Full body copy
• Primary CTA (verb + outcome, never ""click here"")
• Branching conditions if applicable

Optionally includes a Measurement Plan: what to track per email, one hypothesis per variable (subject, timing, CTA, segmentation), and which signals mean a real problem vs noise.

The design rules applied at every step:

• One job per email — sequences fail when a single email tries to teach, pitch, and re-engage simultaneously
• Earn attention before asking — value and clarity come before any offer
• Every email must advance state — if it doesn't move the subscriber forward, it gets cut

8 Lifecycle Motions Covered

What Makes This Different

vs asking a general AI to write onboarding emails
General AI produces copy in isolation. It doesn't produce entry triggers, exit rules, suppression logic, or branching conditions — the structural elements that determine whether the sequence actually runs as intended in your ESP. You get polished emails with no system to put them in.

vs email platform templates (Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo)
Platform templates give you format scaffolds, not strategic design. They don't know your audience's journey stage, your product's activation events, or your specific conversion goal. This skill adapts to your context first — then delivers both the spec and the copy.

vs hiring a copywriter
A copywriter delivers email drafts. They typically don't produce the system layer: no exit rules, no suppression logic, no branching conditions, no measurement hypotheses. You end up doing the strategy work yourself or hiring a strategist separately. This skill delivers both in the same output.

The structural output that's genuinely rare
Sequence Spec + email-by-email drafts + Measurement Plan as a single deliverable. The spec goes to your ESP setup, the drafts go to your editor, the measurement plan goes to your reporting stack. Three workstreams served in one session.

Audit Mode

Bring your current flow and the skill will:

1. Map every existing email to its job — or flag that it has none
2. Identify emails that duplicate effort or create conflicting expectations
3. Check whether different audience intents are mixed into one sequence
4. Evaluate cadence against real unsubscribe and complaint risk
5. Produce a revised Sequence Spec and rewrite the 1–3 highest-leverage emails

The audit doesn't mean rewriting everything. It finds what's structurally broken and fixes that first.

Cadence Defaults

B2B default: avoid weekends unless your send data says otherwise. Prefer recipient-local-time delivery when your ESP supports it.