Prospect nurture that shortens sales cycles

> Cost: Paid. Keap now sells one plan from $299 a month ($2,988 a year billed annually) with 2 users and 1,500 contacts; texting and extra contacts cost more, and there is no published free trial.

Honest note: Rules, not AI. A vendor customer story, and the owner later became a Keap partner and coach, which is a conflict of interest. The measured pieces are decent: close rate 47% to 73%, sales cycle 8 weeks to 5, receivables age 3 months to 3 weeks, and about $600 a month of small apps replaced for half the cost (that is $300 a month saved, which checks). But the same page says she also moved to a more profitable client base and changed her business model with a coach, so the automation is not the only cause. "12x" is also a vendor claim: the page says one year in, monthly revenue equaled the previous year's annual revenue. The page names three Keap sales plays (Re-Engagement Offer, Personalized Check In, Guide Follow Up + Offer) but does not show their wording.

Prerequisites

• A Keap account (single plan from $299/month).
• A website form (Keap landing page or form) for new enquiries, and your own offer wording.
• Your invoices and payments set up in Keap or another tool you control.
• One person who reads replies and follows up personally.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1. Capture every enquiry in one place. In Keap Max Classic click Marketing → Landing Pages, create a page, and add a lead capture form (Keap's help article). Use Apply Tag so every submission gets a tag such as *Web design enquiry*. Retire the small apps one at a time after the same data is flowing into Keap.

Step 2. Follow up automatically. Open Marketing → Automation Builder, drag a Tag Applied goal for that tag onto the canvas, connect it to a sequence, and add a first email within minutes, a check-in a few days later, and a guide or offer email after that. The story names Keap's Re-Engagement Offer, Personalized Check In and Guide Follow Up + Offer plays as the models; I could not see their text, so write your own. Keap menus differ between its older and newer Automation Builder; Keap's help says both are supported, and the toggle is in the main navigation.

Step 3. Stop the sell-then-build roller coaster. The story's other change was selling recurring "done for you" services instead of one-off builds, plus Black Friday and year-end campaigns that gave her two best revenue months. Decide what you will offer for recurring revenue and add it to the last email in the sequence. This is a business decision, not a Keap setting.

Step 4. Get paid faster. Send invoices from the same system and use Keap's automations to remind unpaid ones. I did not verify Keap's exact click path for invoice reminders, so check Keap's help for your plan. Record the age of your unpaid invoices today so you can compare in 3 months.

What success looks like

A test enquiry gets the first email in minutes, appears in the contact list with the tag, and a week later has received the check-in. Over a quarter, compare your close rate and the age of unpaid invoices with the numbers you wrote down before starting.

Common issues & fixes

• No follow-up sent: the tag was already on the contact before the campaign was published, so it does not fire.
• Prospects reply to the automation: make sure replies land in a mailbox someone reads.
• Gains small: check your lead quality; the story's close-rate gain came with a more focused client list.

Optional: Maintenance

• Weekly: read replies and move deals forward.
• Quarterly: refresh the offer email and the seasonal campaigns.
• Quarterly: review the age of unpaid invoices.

Copy-paste prompt

Use this prompt to draft the sequence; replace the brackets with your guide and offer.

Write a 3-email follow-up sequence for a small web design company, sent after someone fills in our enquiry form. Email 1 (sent immediately) thanks them and links our guide [GUIDE LINK]. Email 2 (day 3) is a short personal check-in asking what they want their site to do. Email 3 (day 7) is a clear offer: [OFFER]. Friendly, under 120 words each, no pressure, no made-up statistics or testimonials.

Sources

• Case: Keap customer story: small web design company. Credit: the owner of a small web design company (vendor customer story; she later became a Keap partner)
• Keap pricing
• Keap help: When Triggers (Pro and Max)
• Keap Max Classic help: Add someone to an automation
• Keap Max Classic help: Then Process, Apply/Remove Tags
• Keap Max Classic help: Add a Lead Capture Form to Your Landing Page