Streamlining Your Sequences
After living in Outreach for a few months, you might find yourself wanting to evaluate and lock sequences that aren’t performing, or clean-up sequences not in use. Here’s the best way to get your Sequences in order.
Clean Up Some Quick Wins:
The goal is to reduce the number of active sequences by locking any outdated and ineffective sequences. Locking a sequence removes it from the rep view but does not delete it. It allows the prospects currently active to continue progressing (like letting the sequence run its course), but does not allow new prospects to be added to the sequence. For example, if a prospect was on Step 7 of a nine step sequence when it was locked, the prospect would still get steps 8 and 9.
- Come up with a tag that will be used to assign to the sequences we will be locking. Pick a unique value to use as a tag, and read our tagging support article if you need a refresher.
- Tag the sequences you want to lock
- Search for sequences based on the following common themes. Tag sequences as you go:
- Low Delivery Count - these are sequences not really being used by the team
- Paused status - these could be sequences that are currently disabled. They could be old, or never used.
- Date Used (Sort & Filter: Recently Used >> Ascending) - these are sequences that haven’t been used for the longest time period. Also a good opportunity to clean up old event sequences or test sequences created by new users.
- By Owner (Sort & Filter: Owner: XXX User) - great opportunity to lock content that may have been created by members of the team who’ve since departed...or shouldn’t have been creating content in the first place.
- Search for sequences based on the following common themes. Tag sequences as you go:
- Lock your sequences
- Head back to the Sequences page, search for your tag, and mass lock the sequences (Action: Sequences >> Enter Tag >> Mass Select >> Lock)
- Prospects active in the sequences will continue until they finish (by replying, or completing the last step), but no new prospects can be added.
Note that when a prospect is either paused or active in a locked sequence it can prevent that prospect from being added to a new sequence based on the sequence ruleset which only allows the prospect to be active in one single sequence at a time.
Evaluate the Low Performers:
- Now’s the chance to review and remove sequences that aren’t performing. Here are a few ways to evaluate your sequences:
- Low Reply Rate (Sort & Filter: Reply Rate >> Ascending)
- Low Open Rate (Sort & Filter: Open Rate >> Ascending)
- Follow the process outlined above to tag and lock low performing sequences.
- Need more detailed training on evaluating a sequence? Check out our full Outreach University Course - Do my Sequences Kick Ass?
Organize Your Content
Helping your reps find the right content at the right content is key. Outreach Content Collections will help you organize your content so that your reps can be more efficient.
- Plan out how you will group your content.
- Put your plan into place and assign Collections to your content.
- You can also find all details in this guide.
Restrict Content Creation
Having a high volume of Sequences, Templates and Snippets in Outreach can be the result of content being created by all users. This is an ideal time to think about who should be creating content. Best practice is to restrict content creation to a select group of leaders and users who you trust to write and enable quality content. Here are a few options:
- Only Managers and Admins Create Content
- Pro’s: Easy to restrict. Ensures all content was reviewed or created by a leader.
- Con’s: Can create bottlenecks for busy managers. Could limit the ability to get content out fast. Users who cannot create content will need to have a way to request new sequences from the content creators.
- Some “Promoted” Users Create Content
- Pro’s: Only specific users have profiles allowing them to create content. Requires these users to be trained and trusted to create content.
- Con’s: Will still need to ensure users are creating good quality content. Users who cannot create content will need to have a way to request new sequences from the content creators. Potential risks for bottlenecks if the content creators can’t keep up with demand.
- Users Create Content, but Managers (or Admins) Must Review and Enable
- Pro’s: All users can create content relevant to their specific vertical/product/industry, which can help with adoption. Users can’t use content until it’s been reviewed and enabled by a leader.
- Con’s: Leaders have to be ready and willing to review and enable content. Can still result in a high volume of content in the system.
Restricting content creation ensures you have control over your messaging, and you get quality metrics from Outreach. The more available sequences, the more dilution of prospects across sequences. This will make it harder for you to make decisions based on what sequence is working best.
Resources
© 2023 Outreach.io