Update your email welcome sequence in just 3 steps

I have a question for you…have you got an email welcome sequence? And if you do, when was the last time you gave yours a little TLC? Welcome sequences are an easy way to make a fabulous first impression, share your story, and even guide your subscribers on what to do next—all while you’re busy doing other things. In this blog I’m going to show you how you can update your email welcome sequence to keep it fresh, engaging, and interesting for your new subscribers. Whether you’re wondering why you need one in the first place, how long it should be, or what to include in yours, I’ve got you covered. And I’m also sharing my top tips for creating email copy that will make your readers actually excited to see your emails in their inbox!

What is an email welcome sequence?

This is the first thing you send your new subscribers. It’s a series of automated emails that introduces them to your business, shares a bit about what makes you special, and provides a freebie to give them a small win.

A welcome sequence helps to build trust and gets people excited to hear more from you.

Why I recommend having welcome emails

to introduce yourself, welcome people to your newsletter and share the freebie they signed up for.
to set the tone: what you’re about, who you work with, and what they can expect from your newsletters.
to provide a first step: once someone has used your freebie, and trusts you, they might be ready for that next level of support (i.e. your first paid offer).

Don’t ghost your new subscribers! It’s a huge missed opportunity to build trust and nurture leads.

Generally your welcome sequence has the highest open rate of any email you’ll send. Which is why I highly recommend getting your welcome sequence set up as soon as possible.

How many emails are in the welcome sequence?

A good starting point is having at least one email going out to new subscribers and you can build on from there.
I recommend aiming for 3 – 5 emails in your welcome sequence that are sent out over 1 – 2 weeks.

What should be in a welcome series email?

There is some key info it’s worth sharing in these emails like:

Who are you?
What’s your business mission?
Who do you serve? (To confirm they’re in the right spot)
What are you NOT about? (To help repel the wrong people)
What services do you have?
How can people get started working with you?

How to update your email welcome sequence in 3 simple steps:

I recently helped my client Jessica to revamp her existing welcome sequence, here’s how we did it…

Create a goal and plan for each email

Before you create any piece of content, you should start with a goal in mind. For each welcome email, you should have ONE goal and ONE call to action.

For Jessica, we began with outlining the aim of each email. Some were focused on building connections with a call to action to simply reply to the email, or forward it to someone who might find it helpful.

Some were focused on highlighting a problem, educating on common myths, and building trust with a call to action to learn more via her blog.

And some were for encouraging sales, with a call to action that shared a special offer only available to new email subscribers.

Here’s what our plan looked like:

Email one: deliver the freebie
Email two: identify the problem her audience has
Email three: share a specific example of the struggle you’ve both faced
Email four: introduce the paid offer
Email five: share a client story and pitch the paid offer

Pull from content you’ve already created

I’m a big fan of repurposing content rather than constantly coming up with new ideas, words, and graphics from scratch.

To make updating your email welcome sequence as easy as possible, consider what you have already created that can be used again. That could be email newsletters you’ve sent, Instagram posts you’ve shared, or blog posts you’ve published.

For Jessica, once we had a goal and call to action for each email, I found relevant Instagram posts that we could repurpose. Jessica shares a lot of useful information on Instagram, and her captions are so good they deserved a second life in email form.

Create an automated workflow

Once you have your emails written, you can add them into your email marketing software.

I personally use Mailchimp but can also vouch for Flodesk and Mailerlite.

Whatever email marketing software you’re using, there will be an option to create automations (also known as workflows or customer journeys.) These will allow you to make sure every new subscriber gets a warm hello without you lifting a finger!

Within these automated sequences you can customise the number of emails to be sent, the delay between emails and what happens once someone reaches the end.

Now let’s discuss how to write emails your audience will want to read…

best practices for writing must-read emails

Nail your subject lines: this is the only part of your email people will see without clicking so they need to be attention-grabbing and intriguing enough to encourage opens.

Optimise for skimmability: try to keep it to 200 words or less, and break up the text with bullet points, headings and images.

Have ONE call to action: as multiple calls to action can confuse your audience. Use buttons to define the action you want people to take and make them bold and clear. It can be a good idea to sprinkle the ONE call to action multiple times throughout the email.

How to measure the success of your welcome sequence

These are the key email metrics you should be tracking to measure the success of your efforts.

Opens: how many new subscribers opened your email? If it’s low, you may want to test out variations of your subject lines, from address, and preview text.

Clicks: how many of your subscribers clicked on a link within your email? This shows how engaging and relevant your content is to your audience.

Conversion rate: how many of your subscribers are taking the desired action after clicking a link in your email? This could be making an inquiry, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource. It shows how effective your email series is at driving results.

Unsubscribes: how many people unsubscribed after receiving your email? (Note: You only want people on your email list who are truly interested and engaged with your business so it’s okay if someone isn’t interested and unsubscribes. However, if too many people are unsubscribing and letting you know they’re no longer interested, that’s a sign of a potential problem.)

Engagement: this includes things like replies and forwards. High engagement shows that your emails are resonating with your audience. Yay!

Want to see an email welcome sequence in action?

Subscribe to Just Peachy Newsletters to get some inspo for your own welcome sequence. Come for the freebies, stay for the weekly letters!

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Letters From the Messy Middle: an honest, unfiltered conversation about the highs & lows of being self-employed.
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From The Blog: step-by-step guides for increasing reach, engagement & connections.
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I’m looking forward to connecting with you!