# Email sequence explained | Propel

Source: https://runpropel.com/glossary/email-sequence

Glossary

# What is an email sequence?

An email sequence is a planned run of messages to one person: a first email, then a follow-up or two a few days apart if there is no answer. It stops as soon as the person replies, because a reply means the conversation has started.

## Why follow up at all?

Most people who answer a cold email do not answer the first one. A short, polite follow-up a few days later gives a busy person a second chance. More than two or three starts to feel like pressure.

## What makes a good sequence?

- Each message adds something: a new reason, a useful link, a simpler ask.
- Days between steps, not hours.
- A stop the moment they reply, whatever the reply says.

## How does Propel run one?

Each step has the day it is due, counted from when the person was added. A step fires only once its day has come, and a reply stops the whole sequence, as does a pause from you. Every step passes the same do-not-contact check as the first email. See [Get customers](https://runpropel.com/get-customers).

Where Propel does this

[Get customers →](https://runpropel.com/get-customers)

Related terms

- [Cold email](https://runpropel.com/glossary/cold-email)
- [Reply rate](https://runpropel.com/glossary/reply-rate)
- [Do-not-contact list](https://runpropel.com/glossary/do-not-contact-list)
- [All terms](https://runpropel.com/glossary)