Building an outreach sequence
How outreach sequences work: steps and days, adding people, what each status means, how a reply stops the sequence, pausing, and the weekly numbers.
A sequence sends each person a series of steps on a schedule until they reply. Sequences live in Outreach, and each one belongs to a role.
Steps and days
A sequence is an ordered list of steps:
- Email: a subject and a message.
- LinkedIn message: a short note.
- Call: a call for you to make, with notes on what to cover.
- Wait: time for people to reply before the next step.
The sequence page shows every step with its day, counted from when a person starts on Day 1, and the full message. Placeholders such as first name, the personal first line and your signature are filled in for each person when the step goes out.
Create a sequence
- In Outreach, choose New sequence. Pick the role, a name only your team sees, and the mailbox to Send from. Replies come back to that mailbox. The sequence starts with one email.
- On Home, ask the agent to set up outreach for a role, then choose Open draft.
- In Sourcing, choose Add to outreach and pick a new sequence for the role: a draft with three steps over eight days.
Every new sequence starts as a Draft. When it's ready, choose Start sequence.
Add people
Choose Add people on the sequence page to pick from the people you've shortlisted in Sourcing, grouped by search, with the role's own searches first. You can also add people from a search or a profile. Everyone starts at step 1, and nothing is sent until you approve their first line. See Personal first lines.
Statuses, and how a reply stops the sequence
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Added, but nothing has been sent yet |
| Active | Moving through the steps |
| Replied | Wrote back, so the sequence stopped for them |
| Interested | Wrote back and is interested |
| Not interested | Wrote back and isn't interested |
| Bounced | The email couldn't be delivered, so the sequence stopped |
| Finished | Went through every step without replying |
A reply stops the sequence for that person, so nobody gets a follow-up after they've answered. The People table puts what needs you first: replies, then interested people.
Pause and resume
A sequence is Active, Paused or Draft. Choose Pause and nothing more goes out until you choose Resume. Paused sequences aren't offered when you add people from Sourcing.
Opens, replies and bounces
The Outreach page shows the last eight weeks across every sequence: Sent, Opened, Replied and Bounced, each by week, with opens, replies and bounces as a share of sent. The sequences table shows each one's status, enrolled count, reply rate (replies as a share of the people contacted) and last activity. On a sequence page, the Funnel shows Enrolled, Opened, Replied and Interested. To act on these numbers, see Measuring your hiring funnel and Outreach that gets replies.
Questions people ask about this
Genie answers from this article and the rest of the help center.
Related articles
- Personal first linesHow Emoti writes an opening line for each person in a sequence from their profile, how it's marked as AI-written, how to edit it, and why nothing is sent until you approve it.
- Sending window, daily limit and deliverabilitySet when outreach emails go out and how many a day, add your signature, choose a mailbox, and help keep your messages out of spam folders.
- Reviewing matches: shortlist, pass and profilesWork through a search's matches ten at a time, shortlist or pass, read a profile, reveal contact details with a contact reveal and add people to outreach.
- Outreach that gets repliesPractical rules for recruiting outreach people answer. A specific first line, why them and why now, a short message with one clear ask, a few steps over about ten days, and stopping when they reply.
- Measuring your hiring funnelWhich numbers to watch at each stage of hiring and where to find them in Emoti. Work out stage conversion, reply rate and screen pass rate, spot stalled candidates, and know what to fix when a stage leaks.