Why This Matters

Most email nurture sequences fail for one of three reasons: they send generic content to everyone, they arrive at the wrong time, or they bore leads into unsubscribing. The average nurture sequence converts at just 1-2%, but AI-optimized sequences consistently hit 5-8% conversion rates by solving all three problems simultaneously. The difference isn't marginal — it's transformational for your pipeline.

This playbook walks you through building a complete 7-email AI nurture sequence using three specialized tools: Mailmodo for interactive AMP emails that let leads take action without leaving their inbox, Seventh Sense for AI-driven send-time optimization that ensures each email arrives when a specific contact is most likely to engage, and Rasa.io for AI-curated content that keeps your newsletter emails hyper-relevant to each subscriber's demonstrated interests. Together, these tools create a nurture engine that feels personally crafted for every lead.

Step 1: Build Your AI Segmentation Framework

Before writing a single email, you need segments that actually mean something. Forget basic demographics — AI-powered nurture sequences thrive on behavioral and intent-based segmentation. Create four core segments based on how leads entered your funnel: Content Downloaders (downloaded a guide or whitepaper), Product Explorers (visited pricing or feature pages), Webinar Attendees (engaged with educational content), and Trial Signups (already testing your product). Each segment gets a different version of the 7-email sequence with distinct messaging angles.

Use this AI prompt to generate your segmentation criteria: "Analyze the following lead acquisition channels and propose behavioral micro-segments within each, including engagement score thresholds, content affinity signals, and purchase intent indicators. Channels: [list your channels]. Product category: [your category]. Average sales cycle: [your cycle length]." Feed this into ChatGPT or Claude, then map each micro-segment to a pain point and desired outcome that will drive your email copy.

Pro Tip: Don't over-segment. Four to six segments is the sweet spot for most teams. More than that and you'll drown in content variations without meaningful performance differences. Each segment should represent at least 500 contacts to generate statistically significant data.

Step 2: Design Your 7-Email Sequence Architecture

Every email in your sequence has a specific job. Here is the framework, with subject lines and the AI prompt you should use to generate each email's body copy:

Email 1 — The Welcome Anchor (Day 0): Subject line: "Here's exactly what you asked for (plus a surprise)". Deliver the promised asset and set expectations. AI Prompt: "Write a 150-word welcome email for [segment] who downloaded [asset]. Tone: warm, expert, concise. Include: delivery of promised resource, one unexpected bonus insight from the resource, and a clear statement of what they'll receive over the next 2 weeks. End with a single question to encourage a reply."

Email 2 — The Problem Amplifier (Day 2): Subject line: "The hidden cost of [problem] nobody talks about". AI Prompt: "Write a 200-word email that expands on [core pain point for segment]. Use a specific data point or mini case study. Frame the problem as urgent but solvable. Do not pitch the product. End with a link to a relevant blog post."

Email 3 — The Social Proof Story (Day 5): Subject line: "How [company type] solved [problem] in [timeframe]". AI Prompt: "Write a 180-word customer story email using the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Customer profile: [similar to segment]. Include one specific metric. Keep the tone conversational, not salesy."

Email 4 — The Interactive Engagement (Day 8): Subject line: "Quick question: where are you stuck?". This is your Mailmodo email — build it as an AMP interactive email with an embedded survey or quiz. AI Prompt: "Generate 5 multiple-choice questions for a quick assessment that helps [segment] identify their biggest [problem area] bottleneck. Each answer option should map to a product feature or use case. Include a results summary for each outcome profile."

Email 5 — The Value Framework (Day 11): Subject line: "The 3-part framework for [desired outcome]". AI Prompt: "Create a 220-word email presenting an original 3-step framework for achieving [desired outcome]. Each step should be 1-2 sentences. Subtly position [product] as the tool that enables step 2 or 3 without making it a hard pitch. Include a visual-friendly numbered list."

Email 6 — The AI-Curated Resources (Day 14): Subject line: "Handpicked reads for your [challenge] journey". This is your Rasa.io email — more on this in Step 5. AI Prompt: "Write a 100-word intro paragraph for a curated newsletter that frames 3-4 articles around the theme of [segment's core challenge]. Tone: helpful curator, not salesperson. Transition naturally to why these resources matter now."

Email 7 — The Conversion Ask (Day 17): Subject line: "Ready to [desired outcome]? Let's make it happen". AI Prompt: "Write a 160-word direct conversion email for [segment]. Reference the journey across previous emails without being meta. Include: one sentence recap of the problem, one sentence on the proven solution, a clear CTA for [demo/trial/purchase], and a P.S. line with a time-sensitive element. Tone: confident, not pushy."

Common Mistake: Don't generate all seven emails in a single AI session. Generate each one independently, feeding in the previous email's content as context. This prevents repetitive phrasing and maintains distinct energy across the sequence.

Step 3: Build Interactive AMP Emails with Mailmodo

Mailmodo is the key to Email 4 — and it can enhance Emails 1 and 7 as well. AMP emails allow recipients to complete forms, answer surveys, book meetings, and even browse product carousels without ever leaving their inbox. This removes friction and dramatically increases conversion at the mid-funnel engagement stage. Mailmodo reports that interactive AMP emails see 3x higher click-to-conversion rates compared to traditional emails with outbound links.

For Email 4, use Mailmodo's drag-and-drop builder to create an embedded assessment quiz. Map each answer combination to a specific follow-up path — this data feeds back into your segmentation, allowing Emails 5-7 to be even more personalized. For Email 7, embed a calendar widget or a one-click demo request form directly inside the email. The fewer clicks between intent and action, the higher your conversion rate. Mailmodo also provides a fallback HTML version for email clients that don't support AMP, so you never lose reach.

Pro Tip: Use Mailmodo's built-in analytics to track in-email engagement (quiz completions, form starts vs. submissions). A high start rate but low completion rate means your quiz is too long — trim it to 3-4 questions max.

Step 4: Optimize Send Times with Seventh Sense

Seventh Sense uses AI to analyze each individual contact's historical engagement patterns and delivers your emails at the precise time they're most likely to open and click. This isn't batch send-time optimization — it's per-contact personalization. Seventh Sense integrates directly with HubSpot and Marketo, distributing your email sends across a delivery window (typically 4-24 hours) based on individual behavior models.

Connect Seventh Sense to your email platform and allow it at least 30 days of historical send data to build accurate models. For your nurture sequence, set each email's delivery window rather than a fixed send time. For example, instead of sending Email 2 at "Day 2, 9:00 AM," configure it as "Day 2, between 6:00 AM and 8:00 PM" and let Seventh Sense determine the optimal moment for each contact. Teams using Seventh Sense typically see a 15-30% lift in open rates and a 10-20% lift in click rates across their nurture sequences.

Pro Tip: Seventh Sense also identifies disengaged contacts through its throttling feature. If a lead hasn't engaged with Emails 1-3, it will deprioritize send timing — use this signal to branch disengaged contacts into a re-engagement micro-sequence instead of continuing the standard nurture.

Step 5: Automate Content Curation with Rasa.io

Rasa.io powers Email 6 by using AI to curate newsletter content personalized to each subscriber's interests. Instead of manually selecting articles, Rasa.io ingests content from RSS feeds, blogs, and industry sources you specify, then uses machine learning to match articles to individual subscriber preferences based on their past engagement behavior. Each subscriber receives a different set of articles — true 1:1 personalization at scale.

Set up Rasa.io with 15-20 content sources relevant to your audience (industry publications, your own blog, partner content, thought leaders). Configure your newsletter template to include 3-4 AI-selected articles plus one fixed section where you manually place a soft product mention or upcoming event promotion. For your nurture sequence, Rasa.io's Email 6 serves a dual purpose: it provides genuine value through curated content while keeping your brand top-of-mind heading into the conversion ask in Email 7. Rasa.io users report 20-40% higher engagement on curated newsletters versus manually assembled ones.

Common Mistake: Don't include only your own content in Rasa.io sources. A 70/30 split of third-party to owned content builds trust. If every article links back to your blog, subscribers will see it as promotion, not curation.

Step 6: Set Up Stage-by-Stage Metrics Tracking

Each email in your sequence maps to a specific funnel stage, and each stage has metrics that tell you whether your sequence is working or needs adjustment. Track these rigorously:

• Email 1 (Welcome): Open rate (target: 55-70%), click rate on delivered asset (target: 35%+), reply rate (target: 3-5%)
• Email 2 (Problem): Open rate (target: 40-50%), click-through to blog post (target: 8-12%)
• Email 3 (Social Proof): Open rate (target: 35-45%), click-through to case study (target: 6-10%)
• Email 4 (Interactive/Mailmodo): Open rate (target: 35-45%), quiz start rate (target: 20%), quiz completion rate (target: 70% of starters)
• Email 5 (Framework): Open rate (target: 30-40%), click-through to product page (target: 5-8%)
• Email 6 (Rasa.io Newsletter): Open rate (target: 35-45%), article click rate (target: 10-15%), content engagement time
• Email 7 (Conversion): Open rate (target: 30-40%), CTA click rate (target: 8-12%), conversion rate (target: 3-5%)

Calculate your overall sequence-to-conversion rate by dividing total conversions from Email 7 by total contacts who entered at Email 1. A well-optimized AI nurture sequence should convert 5-8% of leads who complete the full journey. Also track your sequence completion rate — the percentage of contacts who receive all 7 emails without unsubscribing. If this drops below 75%, your content isn't holding attention and needs revision.

Pro Tip: Build a simple dashboard that shows drop-off between each email. Your biggest drop-off point reveals your weakest email. Regenerate that email's copy using a revised AI prompt and A/B test against the original for 2-3 weeks before making it permanent.

Step 7: Iterate with AI-Powered A/B Testing

Your first version of this sequence will not be your best. Use AI to systematically improve each email over 90-day optimization cycles. For every email that underperforms its target metric, generate three alternative versions using this prompt: "Rewrite this email with [higher urgency / different emotional angle / shorter format / story-based approach]. Keep the core message and CTA identical. Target audience: [segment]. Current open rate: [X%]. Goal: increase [specific metric] by 20%."

Run A/B tests on one variable at a time: subject line first (highest impact), then body copy, then CTA phrasing. Seventh Sense's send-time optimization ensures your A/B tests aren't contaminated by timing variables — a major advantage over platforms that send all variants at the same fixed time. After each 90-day cycle, update your master sequence with winners and generate fresh challengers. This compounding improvement is what separates 2% conversion sequences from 8% ones.

Pro Tip: Keep a prompt library of every AI prompt that produced high-performing email copy. Note the model used, the specific inputs, and the resulting metrics. Over time, this becomes your team's most valuable creative asset — a tested formula for generating copy that converts.

Key Takeaways

• Segment by behavior and intent, not demographics. Four to six segments with distinct pain points will outperform dozens of demographic slices. Use AI to generate segmentation criteria and map each segment to a specific messaging angle.
• Give every email in your 7-email sequence a single job. Welcome, amplify the problem, prove the solution, engage interactively, teach a framework, curate value, then convert. Never combine objectives in a single email.
• Use Mailmodo's interactive AMP emails to eliminate friction at the mid-funnel engagement stage (Email 4) and at the conversion stage (Email 7). In-email actions convert 3x better than outbound click paths.
• Deploy Seventh Sense for per-contact send-time optimization across every email in the sequence. A 15-30% open rate lift compounds across seven emails into dramatically more contacts reaching your conversion ask.
• Leverage Rasa.io to automate personalized content curation in Email 6, building trust and engagement right before your conversion email. Maintain a 70/30 third-party to owned content ratio for maximum credibility.