Add new content to sequences

Start a simple list in Google Sheets or Notion. Add a row for each new piece: case study, article, webinar recording, guide or video. Use these columns:

• Title and link.
• Topic or problem it addresses.
• The stage it suits: just learning, comparing options or ready to decide.
• Who it is for.
• The date it was published.

Do this on the day you publish. Added later, it never happens.

Open each sequence and write down what each email is for, not what it says. For example: email 1 welcome, email 2 a useful guide, email 3 a case study, email 4 an answer to the main objection, email 5 an invitation to book. The word that matters is the job.

This matters because new content has to replace something with the same job. A new case study replaces the old case study. It does not become a sixth email on top of five, because the sequence then grows longer every month.

For each item in the log, ask three questions:

• Does it answer a question a person at this stage really has?
• Is it better than the piece currently in the slot?
• Does it still say things you stand behind?

If it fails any of these, leave it in the log and do not send it. A new piece is not better just because it is new. Matching the message to the stage is covered in Match the message to the moment they are in.

Do not add content by changing only the link. Rewrite the lead-in so the email still reads as one message with a clear point. Keep the same length, the same single call to action and the same tone as the others in the sequence.

Read the email before and after it, so the flow still makes sense. If email 3 refers to "the guide I sent last time", make sure the guide in email 2 is still the one you mean.

Making several swaps at once leaves you unable to say what changed the results. Change one email each time. Write the date and what you swapped in a change log, which can be a second tab in the same sheet.

Know who gets the change. Contacts who are already halfway through the sequence will see a mix of old and new emails. For most flows this is fine. If order matters, apply the change only to people who enter the sequence from the swap date.

After two to four weeks, compare the click rate and the replies of the new email with the old one. Use the same approach as in Review open and click rates monthly. If the new email does worse, put the old one back and look at why. Maybe the subject line was weaker, as covered in Test subject lines and send times. Maybe the piece is just not as useful.

Add a "review by" date to each piece in the log, six or twelve months out. When the date comes round, check:

• Do the links still work?
• Are the figures and product names current?
• Does the advice still match what you tell customers now?

Remove or rewrite anything that fails. Old content that makes you look out of touch is worse than a gap in the sequence. Pay the most attention to case studies, because a customer who has left or a result that no longer holds can do real harm.

• Adding every new post to a sequence because it exists.
• Letting the sequence grow from five emails to twelve.
• Changing only the link and leaving the old introduction.
• Making several swaps at once, so you cannot tell what worked.
• Never checking links and dates.
• Sending new content as one-off emails to people who are already in a sequence, which doubles up what they receive.

Every email in your sequences points to something published in the last year, or to something you have checked and still stand behind. The sequence length stays the same. Click rates hold steady or rise month on month, and nobody replies to an email to ask why you are sending something that is out of date. If a contact says "this is exactly what I needed", the slot and the content match.