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There’s a very specific kind of email journey that makes people roll their eyes. You know the one. The “nurture” that’s actually just five emails of increasingly desperate persuasion. The sequence that starts with “Welcome!” and ends with “Last chance!” despite the fact nobody asked for a countdown. The flow that assumes the reader is sat there, curious, caffeinated, and emotionally available for your funnel.

That journey is not dead because “journeys don’t work anymore”.

It’s dying because it was never designed around human behaviour in the first place.

And this is why I keep coming back to the same point, over and over:

Email journeys still work (of course). But only when they’re built around what people are actually thinking, feeling, doing, and saying.

That’s TFDS.

And once you start designing journeys using TFDS, two things happen immediately:

1. You stop sending the wrong message at the wrong time.
2. You suddenly have too many relevant content ideas (a rare and beautiful problem).

Let’s get into it.

First: what is an email journey (and why people keep arguing about it)?

An email journey is one of those terms that means different things depending on who you’re talking to, what platform they’re using, and how traumatised they are from their last CRM implementation.

An email journey is a series of emails that’s sent automatically to a specific group of people, triggered by a specific action or condition, with the intent of guiding them from point A to point B.

Point A might be:

• “They downloaded something.”
• “They abandoned checkout.”
• “They signed up but haven’t done the thing yet.”
• “They just became a customer.”
• “They’re drifting away.”
• “They’re showing intent but not committing.”

Point B might be:

• “They understand what we do.”
• “They trust us.”
• “They take the next step.”
• “They buy.”
• “They renew.”
• “They come back.”
• “They stop being confused.”

The key part here is this: a journey is not just “a bunch of emails”. It’s a cohesive sequence designed around progression.

That’s why people ask: “Is a journey the same as a nurture flow? Is it the same as a sequence?”

Practically? Yes, they’re cousins.
Strategically? The difference is intent.

A good journey isn’t just content being sent “because automation”. A good journey is a designed experience where each email has a job, and the whole thing has a narrative arc.

And no, journeys are not dead.

What’s dead is the idea that you can throw people into a generic flow and expect it to perform just because it exists.

Why journeys still work (when they’re designed properly)

Journeys work because they match how humans make decisions. Humans rarely go from “never heard of you” to “take my money” because of one perfect campaign email. Decisions happen over time, trust builds through repetition, and confidence builds through clear messaging. And most importantly: people move forward when they feel understood.

If your journey doesn’t feel relevant, it becomes background noise. If your journey does feel relevant, it becomes:

• a guide,
• a nudge,
• a reminder,
• a source of confidence,
• and sometimes the thing that stops people from disappearing entirely.

But relevance is not something you can fake with personalisation tokens or “Hi {FirstName}”. Relevance is a felt experience! 

Which brings us neatly to TFDS.

What the fudge is TFDS? 

TFDS stands for:

• Think: what’s going through their head? What are they thinking? 
• Feel: what emotions are present? How do they feel? 
• Do: what actions are they taking in the real world?
• Say: what are they saying out loud, internally, or to other people?

This is one of the most practical tools you can use to design journeys that work in the real inbox, in the real world, with real humans who have 19 tabs open and absolutely no patience for nonsense. It's also great for lots of other marketing stuff (I use it in all my strategies). 

I use TFDS when:

• I’m designing journeys
• I’m planning content
• I’m shaping lead magnets
• I’m writing sales follow-ups
• I’m mapping onboarding
• I’m trying to understand why something isn’t converting

Because TFDS forces you to stop designing from your perspective (marketer mode) and start designing from theirs (human mode).

Before you build anything: do you actually need a journey?

Not everything needs an email journey! Sometimes you need one really good email, sometimes you need better segmentation, sometimes you need to stop sending entirely.

A journey is worth building when the outcome you want requires:

• trust
• education
• behaviour change
• reassurance
• repeated exposure
• or a sequence of decisions rather than one click.
  
  

A quick “do we need a journey?” check

Ask yourself:

What’s the primary goal?
If you can’t say this in one sentence, you’re about to build a confused journey for a confused audience.

Is the information or decision complex?
If the answer is “yes”, a journey makes sense because one email won’t hold the nuance.

Is there a clear trigger or entry point?
If you don’t know how someone enters, you’ll end up with a journey that’s basically “we send things and hope”.

Do we have enough signal to personalise the experience?
You don’t need loads of data, but you do need enough to avoid sending the same message to everyone.

Can we support it operationally?
A journey doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be maintained. If you can’t maintain it, start smaller.

A journey is not just what you send, it’s also what you exclude. If you don’t think about exclusions, you’ll build a journey that creates collision, repetition, and emotional friction, and then you’ll call it “low engagement” and blame your subject lines. 10/10 do not recommend.

The foundations of every journey: the who, the why, and the entry

Before TFDS, you need three things:

1) Who is this journey for?

Not “everyone who downloaded something”. Not “all leads”. Not “the list”.

Be VERY specific.

If you can’t be specific, you can still start with the highest-impact segment and refine later. But you need a working hypothesis.

A helpful framing is:

• Who can we help the fastest?
• Who is closest to the outcome?
• Who is most likely to benefit from this journey now?

Because journeys are not just conversion tools. They’re also experience tools. You’re designing a path, reducing confusion, and you're building trust.

2) Why do they enter?

People don’t enter journeys for your funnel.

They enter because:

• they want something,
• they need something,
• they’re stuck,
• they’re curious,
• or they’re trying to solve a problem.

And your job is to respond to that, not to your quarterly target.

3) What is the entry point?

This is where most journeys quietly fall apart. A journey without a clear entry is usually just a sequence with a trigger slapped on. The entry point matters because it sets expectations.

If someone downloads an email design handbook (for example), you’ve got a very different starting point than someone who requested a demo, or someone who abandoned a basket, or someone who signed up for a discount code.

The entry point tells you their:

• level of intent
• level of awareness
• emotional state
• and likely objections

Which is exactly what TFDS helps you surface.

Now the TFDS exercise:

The TFDS exercise works best when you structure it around time. Because what people think before an action is not the same as what they think after it.

So you map TFDS across three moments:

• Before the action (what led them here?)
• During the action (what’s happening in the moment?)
• After the action (what now?)

Then you brainstorm liberally. You are allowed to be expansive here! The job is not “be right”, the job is “be close enough to design relevance”.

Example 1: B2B entry → Downloaded a lead magnet (Email Design Handbook)

Before: THINK
They’re likely thinking something like:

• “We keep talking about redesigning emails but nothing changes.”
• “Our emails look fine, but performance is flat.”
• “Our templates break in Outlook and nobody owns it.”
• “I’ve got a project coming up and I don’t want to mess it up.”
• “I need to prove something internally.”

Before: FEEL
They might be feeling:

• embarrassed (because the email marketing is messy),
• overwhelmed (because design is only one piece),
• annoyed (because everyone keeps blaming “creative”),
• or relieved (because they finally found something practical).

Before: DO
What are they doing?

• Searching for examples
• Looking at “best practice” templates
• Comparing brands
• Trying to brief design without being a designer
• Trying to stop internal stakeholders from derailing

Before: SAY
They might be saying:

• “We need our emails to look more premium.”
• “Our templates are outdated.”
• “Outlook keeps breaking everything.”
• “Can we just copy what [brand] does?”
• “We need more clicks.”

Now during the download moment:

During: THINK

• “Is this going to be useful, or is it a sales trap?”
• “Am I going to get spammed now?”
• “I hope this gives me a framework, not just examples.”

During: FEEL

• Cautiously optimistic
• Slightly sceptical
• Impatient (they want immediate value)

During: DO

• Skimming
• Saving it for later
• Forwarding it to a colleague
• Putting it on a “to read” list (aka email purgatory)

Then after:

After: THINK

• “What’s the first thing I should fix?”
• “How do I bring this to the team?”
• “I need proof this will matter.”

After: FEEL

• Motivated (if it’s good).
• Overwhelmed (if it’s long and unstructured).
• Defensive (if they realise they’ve been doing it wrong for years).

After: DO

• They open their last campaign.
• They compare it to the handbook.
• They start noticing issues everywhere (welcome to the club).
• They consider whether to ask for budget/help.

After: SAY

• “We need to restructure our templates.”
• “We need to stop designing like it’s Instagram.”
• “We need a system.”

You can already see what happens here: the TFDS map tells you what content they actually need next.

Not “book a call” on day two or “here’s our product” immediately. They need clear messaging and help, confidence, structure and quick wins.

That’s how you stop sending the wrong message at the wrong time.

Example 2: B2C entry → Abandoned basket

This is where TFDS gets spicy because abandoned basket is often treated like “they got distracted”.

Sometimes they did! But if they made it to checkout, filled out details, and then left… something changed.

THINK

• “Is this actually worth it?”
• “I need to check reviews.”
• “Is there a better option?”
• “What’s the returns policy?”
• “Will this work for me?”
• “Do I trust this brand?”

FEEL

• Uncertain
• Hesitant
• Protective (money is emotional)
• Sometimes excited, but not enough to commit

DO

• They search your brand on TikTok/Reddit.
• They look for coupon codes.
• They compare competitors.
• They ask a friend.
• They leave it and return later.

SAY

• “I’ll come back to this.”
• “Not sure.”
• “Feels expensive.”
• “I need to think.”

Now notice the implication:

If your abandoned basket flow is just three emails that say “still thinking?” and “here’s 10% off”, you’re skipping the real job.

This is why I often say abandoned basket is closer to a customer support ticket than a marketing flow. It’s a signal that something is unresolved.

TFDS helps you identify what that unresolved thing likely is, and design the journey accordingly.

Turning TFDS into a journey

TFDS is only useful if it turns into an actual build.

Here’s how to translate it.

Step 1: Cluster your TFDS brainstorm into themes

Your brainstorm will be messy. Good. Now organise it into 4–6 “content clusters”.

For most journeys, clusters look like:

1. Orientation: “Where am I and what happens next?”
2. Value: “Give me something useful now.”
3. Objections: “Address the doubts without being weird about it.”
4. Proof: “Show me this works / is safe / is worth it.”
5. Decision support: “Help me take the next step when I’m ready.”
6. Friction removal: “Make it easier to act.”

These clusters become the backbone of your journey.

Step 2: Build a “messaging house” for the journey

A messaging house stops journeys becoming repetitive or chaotic.

Write:

• One core promise (what is the transformation/outcome?)
• 3 supporting pillars (why it works / what makes it credible)
• Proof points (case studies, examples, results, reassurance)
• Common objections (and calm responses)
• Next step options (not just “buy now”)

This becomes your reference doc for every email in the sequence.

Step 3: Decide the journey length based on reality, not hope

People always ask: “How many emails should a journey have?”

My answer: it depends on the decision.

A useful guideline:

• Low friction action (simple purchase, low commitment): 3–6 emails
• Medium friction (considered purchase, subscription, higher cost): 6–10 emails
• High friction (B2B, procurement, long cycle, multiple stakeholders): 8–14+ emails
  
  

Length is not the performance lever either; progression is. It's all about the testing too. 

A short journey with the wrong progression is worse than a long journey designed properly.

Step 4: Plan each email using “one message, one job”

Every email needs:

• one primary point
• one emotional tone
• one next step (even if that step is “keep reading / keep thinking / save this”)

If your email tries to do everything, it will do nothing..

A practical example journey map (B2B) 

Let’s map a simple journey for: Downloaded Email Design Handbook.

Primary goal: warm interest into the next logical step (masterclass/audit/consultation).
Secondary goal: orientation, trust, useful education, segmentation signals.

Email 1: Delivery + orientation
Job: deliver the asset, set expectations, reduce anxiety.
Tone: calm, human, confident.
CTA: download

Email 2: Quick win
Job: one practical fix they can do immediately (hierarchy/one-second test).
CTA: reply with their biggest issue or click preference links (signals).

Email 3: The “why design doesn’t perform alone” reality check
Job: stop them obsessing over aesthetics; introduce ecosystem thinking.
CTA: link to related blog/resource.

Email 4: The TFDS angle (optional bridge email)
Job: reframe email design as experience design (think/feel/do/say).
CTA: “Have some help doing this”

Email 5: Proof + case study
Job: show what changed when someone fixed hierarchy/function, not “prettiness”.
CTA: soft invitation to masterclass/audit.

Email 6: Offer
Job: clear next step.
CTA: book / join / download.

Now the crucial part: exits + exclusions.

• If they book a call → exit journey.
• If they buy/register → move to onboarding journey.
• If they don’t engage after X emails → reduce cadence, do not hammer.

That last line is the part most journeys ignore.

Exclusions, exits, and collision (the part everyone forgets)

Journeys fail because people experience:

• repetition
• overlap
• mistimed messaging
• conflicting comms
• and emotional whiplash

So build:

✔ Entry rules: who qualifies and why.
✔ Exit rules: what removes someone immediately (purchase, booking, stage change).
✔ Exclusions: who should never enter (existing customers, active deals, open support tickets, etc.).
✔ Collision rules: if they’re in Journey A, suppress Journey B, or prioritise one.

If you don’t do this, you will build “journeys” that feel like the brand has no idea what it’s doing.

The point of TFDS

You’re not trying to mind-read by the way. You’re trying to get close enough to:

• anticipate needs
• reduce friction
• design progression
• and stop defaulting to generic nurture

Because generic nurture is how you end up with an email journey that says:

“Here’s the thing.”
“Here’s the thing again.”
“Here’s the thing with urgency.”
“Here’s a discount.”
“Last chance.”

And then you wonder why your unsubscribe rate climbs and Outlook quietly moves you to spam.

Closing thoughts

A journey is not a marketing sequence. It’s a designed experience that helps someone move from “not ready” to “ready”, from “uncertain” to “confident”, from “interested” to “committed”.

TFDS is the simplest tool I know for designing that movement without falling into the trap of “send more emails and hope”.

And if you do nothing else after reading this, do this:

• Pick one journey you already have
• Run TFDS on the entry point
• Then rewrite just the first two emails so they match what people are likely thinking and feeling

That one change alone will usually lift the entire sequence. If you want any support with this, tell me which journey you’re building first (welcome, abandon basket, lead magnet, onboarding, renewals), and I’ll help you map a full TFDS strategy for your emails - get in touch.

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RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.