In this solo presentation, Shaun Whynacht answers the common question “What marketing automation should I have?” by outlining a simple, three‑track nurture system that serves as a baseline for most service‑based businesses. He defines marketing automation as a set of email sequences that deliver value at different stages of a contact’s relationship with the company. The core framework consists of: 1. High‑Value Nurture – a continuous stream of educational or insightful content (podcasts, articles, tips) sent to anyone in the database who is not currently a client, active lead, or past client. Its purpose is to provide value without sales pressure. 2. Sales Nurture – a targeted sequence for contacts who have shown interest (e.g., replied, booked a consult, attended a webinar). These leads are pulled out of the high‑value nurture and moved into a sales‑focused flow that answers specific objections and moves them through the opportunity pipeline. 3. Post‑Sale Nurture – a follow‑up sequence for clients after a project is completed. It keeps the relationship warm, solicits referrals, and, when appropriate, introduces complementary products or repeat‑business offers. Whynacht explains the triggers for moving contacts between these nurtures (e.g., lead conversion, deal loss, project completion) and advises that lost‑deal leads be returned to the high‑value nurture. He also notes that the three‑track system is a solid foundation that can later be expanded with product‑specific nurtures. The video ends with an invitation for viewers to ask follow‑up questions in the comments.
Chapters
Hey, what's up everybody? Happy Wednesday. I want to take a few moments of your day and answer the question, what should I have for marketing automation? Ultimately, what is marketing automation? Now, this diagram that you're seeing here on the screen was spawned out of a question that I received from a client I'm working with right now that asked me, you know, what automation for email should I have? And it's not a simple answer as here's just one. So we look at Having a base automation when working with clients, and it really spawns into 3 different categories. And I want to take a moment to explain this to you. So in the middle, the cycle of everything is what we call a high value nurture. Now, a high value nurture is essentially an automation that sends out valuable content. It can be podcasts, emails, links to other articles, just text emails that gets people thinking, but it needs to be in line with what it is that you do for your clients and how you can help them. And. Just like the name implies, it's high value. It is not a sales nurture. It is not something that is sending them out sales to products or telling them, hey, book here, do this kind of thing. That is secondary. The idea is when they get it in their inbox, it should be essentially helping them. That's the goal of the high value nurture. And everybody that's in your database that isn't currently either a past client, a client you're working with, or somebody you're in an active sales cycle with should be in this high value nurture. Now, somebody raises their hand, they say, okay, they reply to an email, they book a consult, they join a webinar, whatever that is. When they become a, from a prospect to an active lead, they should be pulled out of this high-value nurture because we don't want to dilute or cloud or distract them from what they're entering into, which is your sales nurture, which you see here on the left-hand side. This is considered part of your opportunity pipeline, your sales funnel, whatever you want to call it. So when they come from a lead issue, you know, a booked consult to maybe you're doing a proposal. There's different stages that they go through and different questions they have in their head that you need to consider answering those proactively. And that's where the sales nurture comes in. Now that's great. Maybe you close that deal, right? And they become an active client. You do the work with them. You know, when you're in an active client stage, they don't need to be in a nurture, right? Because you are corresponding with them daily, weekly, whatever it is to complete that project task for them. So They don't need to be in any nurture at that point. Now, when they finish the project, there's where we look at a post-sale nurture or post-client nurture, whatever you want to call it. The sole purpose of this is to stay in touch with them because you want to get those referrals. You want to continue to build that relationship. Now, if you're in a business where it's a one-and-done type of thing, you're really going to look at just trying to get those referrals. But if you have repeat business opportunities, you sell complementary products, this is where a great way to, to talk about that and stay top of mind and maybe slowly introduce those new products because it's a little It's a lot easier to talk about the other things that you do when somebody's already had that trust built with you and they've worked with you on a project in the past. So a little more leaning on that, not so much on that initial cold lead type of thing that you would see in the high-value nurture. Now what happens if they go into a sales process with you and you go through your sales journey and you lose that deal, right? They don't actually decide to buy with you. Well, it's simple. You put them back in the high value nurture. Now there's a phrase that floats around the, the marketing world, which is kind of cold in there. It's, it's, you know, how long do you keep people in your database? It's till they buy or die, right? This is really what they say. So put them in the high value nurture. And if the content's not right for them, they'll opt out and that's okay. So if you have these 3 different nurtures in your business, you have a really good baseline for building your system and running it really well. Now you can go above and beyond that and have different nurtures for different products and different things like that. But essentially, if you're just getting started out, these are the 3 core automations or nurtures that we put into place with our clients. So hopefully that answers your questions. If you got more, put them in the comments below the video and I'd be happy to answer them for you.
