Step #3: Setting up a sequence

A "sequence" is a chain of different steps to reach out to your contacts. You can create a sequence using only one type of connection or combine several steps. The steps include:

After you have connected your email account and imported contacts into Reply, you may want to set up a sequence.

Please note. Connecting an email account is optional for creating and saving sequences, but it is mandatory for launching sequences that include email steps. The same relates to sequences with SMS or LinkedIn steps, i.e., you can launch such sequences when you provide the information needed to send the messages (your phone number and LinkedIn account).

To create a sequence, navigate to the "Sequences" tab from the top header menu.

Click on the "New sequence" button. The available methods to create a sequence will be shown:

Below are instructions on how to create a sequence from scratch.

The first part of setting up your sequence is creating sequence steps, i.e., the flow in which your messages will be sent, starting from initial outreach to follow-ups.

Click Add Sequence Step to select or switch between step types in the pop-up window:

If you chose Email, specify the subject for your Step 1 email. You can also insert templates (if they've been previously created) and variables, as well as attach files with a maximum size of 3 MB.

When you're done creating the email template step, you can save it to the list of your personal templates. You can also send a test email to the email account you've set as your default to see how it appears in your inbox. Just click the down arrow icon near the Save button.

Save the template for the emails in Step 1 so you can move on to the next step in making your sequence. You'll be able to create more steps and add a variant to an established step for A/B testing to see which template variant gets better reply rates. At this stage, you can create as many steps and variants as you need and edit, clone, or remove them.

NOTE: In the case of follow-up emails, if you want all emails related to the same sequence step to be sent to the same thread, you need to leave the subject line for Step 2 and further empty. Otherwise, the follow-up email will be sent separately, even if the subject is the same as in Step 1.

The next stage is Schedules, where you can specify when you want Reply to send your emails (weekdays and timeframes):

You can skip schedules if you want emails to be sent 24/7 or if you want to get back to this section later.

Following that, you must add people to the sequence, either by clicking the Add People button or by clicking the red plus button if there is already at least one contact in the sequence. You'll see a pop-up with 3 options; select one of them and add people to your sequence:

When you add contacts from the people list, you'll see a list of contacts that can be added to your sequence, and contacts associated with other sequences will not appear on the list. Select the desired people and add them to the sequence:

After you created steps and templates and added people to the sequence, you'll be able to preview your email chain and tune all of the detailed sequence Settings.

Your sequence is now fully set up! You can also save the sequence and launch it later, or save and launch it immediately.