A seven-email drip journey that's actually useful

A 7-email journey that respects opt-in choices

Every newsletter subscriber enters this sequence. Each email is built from the topics they ticked, spaced across 30 days, and measured against a concrete outcome. After email 7 they roll into the quarterly digest unless they change cadence in their account.

The sequence

1. 1
   Day 0 · immediate

   Welcome

   Subject Welcome to LIACC — your digest is tuned to {topics}

   Intent. Acknowledge subscription, set expectations, deliver first value.

   • Personal greeting with the subscriber's first name.
   • Three links: the most recent blog post matching their primary topic, the LIACC introduction video (when produced), the directory page of one researcher working in that topic.
   • Explicit list of what they will receive (cadence + content), one-click unsubscribe.

   KPI — Open rate > 65% · first-link click > 25% · unsubscribe < 1%.
2. 2
   Day 3

   Deep read

   Subject A 10-minute read we think you'll like on {primary_topic}

   Intent. Prove the newsletter is curated, not generic.

   • Single featured long-read from the blog in the subscriber's primary topic.
   • Short reviewer note (one paragraph from the editor explaining why).
   • Two related posts as follow-up.

   KPI — Click-through > 18% · bookmark rate > 10% (via account). If no open: light re-engagement subject in email 3.
3. 3
   Day 7

   Research spotlight

   Subject Inside a LIACC project: {featured_project}

   Intent. Show applied work, link to real partners.

   • One project page from the subscriber's thematic line, with highlights, lead researchers, funding.
   • Invitation to follow the project leads (click-through to their profile pages).
   • Pull-quote from a partner or a published paper.

   KPI — Profile-follow rate > 12% · shares > 3%.
4. 4
   Day 14

   Author spotlight

   Subject Meet one of the researchers behind your topics

   Intent. Humanise the lab. Turn subscribers into author followers.

   • One researcher card (avatar, title, unit, brief bio).
   • Their three most cited publications + one recent blog post.
   • CTA: 'Follow this author' (uses the account system).

   KPI — Follow rate > 20% · reply rate > 2% (introductions).
5. 5
   Day 21

   Invitation

   Subject Open seminars, events and an invitation

   Intent. Convert readers into event attendees.

   • Next three events (research seminar, workshop, open day) filtered by topic relevance.
   • If the subscriber ticked 'career' during subscription: extra card with thesis supervision openings.
   • Calendar file attached (.ics).

   KPI — RSVP rate > 8% · iCal downloads > 15%.
6. 6
   Day 28

   Ask

   Subject Two questions — we read every reply

   Intent. Two-way channel. Collect intent data for segmentation.

   • Question 1: what's the single research topic you want more of in 2026?
   • Question 2: are you closer to becoming a reader, a student, a partner, or a co-author?
   • Every reply is read by the team and fed back into content planning.

   KPI — Reply rate > 4% · classifier-tagged into four personas for future routing.
7. 7
   Day 30+ recurring every 90 days

   Quarterly digest

   Subject Quarterly: the five things from LIACC worth your time

   Intent. Steady-state engagement once the onboarding journey closes.

   • Top five pieces of the last 90 days ranked by topic-weighted reads.
   • One alumni story.
   • A prompt to update interests and cadence.

   KPI — 90-day retention > 60% · cadence updates > 10%.

Trigger logic

Tooling & integration

What we collect — and what we don't

We collect email, name, ticked topics, and engagement events (open, click, reply, unsubscribe). We do not buy lists, track across sites, enrich with third-party data, or sell to partners.