Learn / Automations

How to set up a welcome email

One email, sent as soon as somebody joins the list. The highest open rate you will ever get, so it is the one worth writing properly.

The workflow

1. 1Send email: no campaign chosen yet
2. 2Exit flow

Before you start

This is the highest open rate you will ever get, because it arrives while somebody still remembers signing up. Spend the effort here rather than on the fifth campaign. Say what they just joined, what turns up and how often, and give them one thing to do. Resist listing everything your company sells: the job of the first email is to confirm they made a sensible decision, not to convert.

You will need: a list, one campaign to send.

How to set it up

1. 1Open Automations and choose Start from a template, then Welcome email.
2. 2Set the trigger to the list your signup form adds people to.
3. 3Click the send step and pick the campaign to send, or create one first under Campaigns.
4. 4Preview it, then activate. New subscribers enter from that moment; nobody already on the list is enrolled.

What goes wrong

• A welcome that arrives before the double opt-in confirmation. If you use confirmed opt-in, trigger on the list they join AFTER confirming, or the first thing they get is a welcome to something they have not confirmed.
• Activating it and expecting your existing subscribers to receive it. A trigger fires on an event, and joining the list already happened for them.

A variation worth knowing

Trigger on a tag instead of a list when several forms feed one list and you want a different welcome for each.