How to create an automated welcome email series

Do you want to know how to create an automated welcome email series?

As the saying goes you only get one shot to make a first impression and creating an automated welcome email series is your opportunity to ensure that new subscribers to your mailing list are given a warm welcome to your business. Keep on reading to find out how to create an automated welcome email series for your business.

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What is an automated email welcome series?

An automated email welcome series is a sequence of emails that are automatically sent out to subscribers when they first join your mailing list.

 

What is the purpose of an automated email welcome series?

The purpose of an email welcome series is to ensure that new subscribers are given a warm welcome by your business. When someone first joins your mailing list your business is top of mind. They are likely to have joined your mailing list for a reason. As a result, open rates are usually the highest when people have first joined your mailing list. You want to make the most of this opportunity. Whilst someone is eager to hear from your business you should be sending them emails.

 

A welcome series if also useful if you think people may have joined your mailing list without knowing a lot about your business. For example, if they have joined your mailing list because of a lead magnet, freebie or competition.

 

Please note this article is aimed at service-based businesses that will have had new subscribers join their mailing list for a reason other than having made a purchase.

How to create an automated welcome email series

 

1. Decide on what information needs to be shared in the welcome series

The first thing you need to do is think about the content of your emails. Often business owners get caught up in how many emails they should be sending in a welcome series, but by first deciding what you want to include in the welcome series you can then work out how many emails are required to sensibly include all the content you want to be included.

 

A welcome sequence is a great opportunity to:

 

a) Introduce your business

If you are using lead magnets (or freebies) to encourage people to sign up to your mailing list, then they might not know much about your brand. Now is your opportunity to introduce your brand or business. How deep you want to go depends on your business. You might want to just do an overview or you might go deeper into sharing your mission, value or reason for starting your business.

 

b) Set future expectations

If you send a regular newsletter then you can let your subscribers know what to expect. Too often business owners are worried about emailing subscribers too much. By making it clear in your welcome series how often you’ll be sending email you are being honest with your subscribers and then they can make a choice about whether that works for them or not.

 

c) Ask your subscriber to connect on social media

If you are active on social media, then you might want to suggest people connect with you on your preferred platform too.

 

d) Link to some of your best performing content

If you are a great blog post, YouTube video or podcast episode then you could link to that.

 

e) Share information about your services

As mentioned earlier subscribers are more likely to open an email when they first join or list than later on. Therefore, make the most of their attention and ensure you make it clear how people can work with you. Some people think you shouldn’t sell in a welcome series, but I believe you should as long as it is balanced out with providing value in the series too.

 

f) Ask questions to help you segment your new subscriber

As a new subscriber you won’t have much information about your subscriber. If they joined via a specific opt-in form, you’ll have that information and you might know their location. However, if you want to be an email marketing pro then you’ll want to get to know more information to help you segment the subscriber and send relevant emails to them.

 

2. Work out how many emails you’ll need to send

By now you should have an idea of what you want to include in your welcome email series, so it is time to work out how many emails you’ll need in your sequence. As a general rule of thumb, an email should have one focus and one call to action. You should be asking people to listen to a podcast episode, connect on Instagram and let you know what they are struggling most with right now.

 

3. Decide on the timing of the emails

Part of the beauty of an automated welcome email series is that when you set the sequence up you’ll be setting the timings of the emails. For example, email #1 might be sent as soon as someone new joins your mailing list and then you may decide that every other email is sent 24hours after the previous email. You might think that sending daily is too intense and decide to spread it out even further.

 

4. Write the emails

At this stage the planning is finish and it is time for you to write the emails. Having complete step 1 and 2 you should know exactly what you need to writing about in each section. The one area you need to pay particular attention to is the subject line. Make sure you are writing subject lines that will get people opening your emails.

 

5. Set your automated welcome email series in your email service provider.

Once you have written out your emails and decided on the timings you are ready to actually set up your welcome email sequence. You’ll need to log into your email service provider (such as Mailchimp, Mailerlite, Convertkit etc) and you’ll want to create an automated sequence that is sent based on a trigger. The trigger in this case is someone joining your mailing list.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR EMAIL MARKETING?

As a certified email marketer, I help business owners with all aspects of email marketing, Whether you want to start a mailing list, send a regular newsletter, set up automated email sequences or segment your list like a pro I can help you. To discuss your specific needs fill in my contact form here or book a free discovery call here.

There you have it! You now know how to create an automated email welcome series.  

 

Creating an automated email welcome series will take a bit of time, but hopefully, you can see how useful it is for your business. Also, since the series is automated once you’ve made the series you can technically leave it for months, even years and every new subscriber will continue to receive the series.

 

Hopefully, you’ve found this blog post useful and now feel equipped to create your very own automated email welcome series. Feel free in the comments to ask any further questions.

 

A welcome service is just one of a number of different automated email sequences that you can create for your business to improve the subscriber experience, make the most of your time and encourage more sales in your business. Another automated email sequence you can check out is a re-engagement campaign.

 

Want to use email marketing to its full potential for your business?

Email marketing is one of my favourite types of marketing. I have over a decade of experience in email marketing and am a Hubspot Certified Email Marketer. If you would like to find out more about working with me 1-to-1 fill in my contact form here or book a free discovery call here.