Email Sequences

A sequence is an ordered series of up to five steps. Each step has a channel (email, LinkedIn, phone task, or manual task) and a delay measured in hours or days from the previous step. When you enroll a candidate into a sequence, Stori queues each step and sends or surfaces it at the right time.

Sequences live at Sequences in the top nav. You'll see a list view with status filters (Draft, Active, Paused, Archived), step count, enrollment count, and live open and reply rates for each sequence.

Click New Sequence from the sequences list. You can start from a template or build from blank.

1. Name and describe the sequence. Use a name your team will recognize ("VP Eng outbound — May 2026") rather than a generic one.
2. Add steps. Each step has a channel type, optional subject, body content, and a delay in hours from the previous step. The first step's delay is the wait between enrollment and the first send.
3. Pick a channel per step. Email steps send automatically. LinkedIn, phone, and manual task steps create a to-do for the assigned recruiter rather than auto-sending — Stori reminds you to do it.
4. Use templates for email step bodies. Click the template picker to drop in any saved client email template; you can edit after inserting.
5. Insert variables using the chips in the editor — {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{job_title}}, etc. Stori fills these in per candidate at send time.
6. Set operating hours. Pick a timezone, the days of the week to send, and the hours of day. Steps queued outside operating hours wait for the next valid window.

Sequences support four channel types per step:

• Email — sent automatically from your connected Gmail or Outlook account. Tracks opens, clicks, and replies.
• LinkedIn — surfaces a task with the candidate's LinkedIn URL and your message text. You complete the action manually; Stori advances the sequence when you mark it done.
• Phone — surfaces a task with the unlocked phone number and call notes. Same manual flow as LinkedIn.
• Manual task — a free-form action (e.g. "send a handwritten note"). Useful for high-touch sequences targeting senior roles.

You can enroll candidates into a sequence from several places:

• From the Sourcing page — select candidates and choose "Enroll in Sequence" from the bulk action menu.
• From a Shortlist — select candidates with unlocked contacts and enroll in bulk.
• From a candidate's profile — open the candidate, click Outreach, and pick a sequence.

Enrollment requires that the candidate has an unlocked email address (1 contact from your monthly Sourcing allowance, if not already unlocked). Unlocking is permanent and shared across your team — you never pay twice for the same contact.

Sequences automatically stop sending to a candidate when any of the following happens:

• Reply — the candidate replies from their email client. Stori detects the reply on the inbound side and pauses all remaining steps.
• Bounce — hard bounces stop the sequence immediately and mark the email as invalid.
• Unsubscribe — clicking the unsubscribe link in any email pauses every sequence and adds the candidate to your suppression list.
• Manual stop — you can pull a candidate out of a sequence at any time from the candidate's profile or the sequence detail page.

Auto-pause is per candidate, not per sequence. Other enrolled candidates keep receiving steps as scheduled.

Sequences move through four states:

• Draft — being built. No emails are sending. You can enroll candidates here, but they won't receive anything until you activate.
• Active — running. Enrolled candidates receive their next step on schedule. New enrollments start at step 1.
• Paused — temporarily stopped. Already-queued steps don't send. Resuming with Active picks up where it left off.
• Archived — read-only history. No new enrollments, no sends. Use Archive for retired sequences you want to keep around for reporting.

Change status from the sequence list (kebab menu) or from the sequence detail page.

Each row on the sequences list shows the live numbers: total sent, open rate, reply rate, current enrollment. Click into a sequence to see step-by-step performance — open and reply rate per step, plus a list of every enrolled candidate with their current step and status.

For deeper analysis, the Analytics Dashboard Outreach tab shows the step funnel across all sequences and a send-time heatmap to help you tune when steps land.

Stori ships with a starter library of email templates designed for common outreach scenarios (cold intro, follow-up, bump, breakup, etc.). You can use them as-is, edit them inline when building a step, or save your own templates from Settings → Email Templates.

Saved templates are shared across your team. When you change a template's content, future sequence steps that use it pick up the change — already-sent emails are unaffected.