Decide who enters the flow
Before you write, decide who gets the sequence. I would keep it narrow: people who gave you their email address through a form, a lead magnet or a newsletter box, and who are not already customers or in an open deal.
If different sources promise different things, build a short version for each. Someone who downloaded a pricing checklist expects different emails from someone who joined a monthly newsletter. Match the first email to what they asked for, which is the idea behind Match the message to the moment they are in.
Email 1: deliver the promise at once
Send it within a minute of the signup. Give them the thing you promised in the first line, with the link. Then add three short pieces:
- What they will get from you and how often.
- Who is writing and why.
- One request: reply with a short answer to a question, or add your address to their contacts.
Do not sell in email one. The goal is that the email arrives, gets opened and gets a reply. A reply tells inbox providers that people want your mail, and that helps every later email.
Email 2: one quick win, on day 2
Send the best single piece of help you have. Pick something they can use in ten minutes: a template, a checklist, a short explanation of a common mistake. Keep it to one idea.
The test is simple. After reading, can they do something they could not do before? If the answer is no, it is not a quick win yet.
Email 3: show how you think, on day 4
Now say what you believe. Explain one opinion about your field and the reasoning behind it. This is where a reader decides whether they trust your judgement.
Use real material only: your own method, your own numbers, your own published work. Do not invent a client story to make it more dramatic. If you do not have a story, a clear argument works as well.
Email 4: one next step, on day 7
By now they know who you are and have received value. Ask for one small action that fits their stage. For a business with a sales process, that is usually a short call, a demo or a reply. How to move people on from here is covered in Nurture to booking, so link to that flow rather than rebuilding it.
Give one button and one sentence. Two options or five links split attention and reduce clicks.
Write like a person
Send from a named person, not from "The Team". Use plain text or very light formatting. Keep each email under 150 words, except the quick win. Write the subject line as you would write one to a colleague: "Your checklist, and one question" works better than "Welcome to our community".
Set the exit rules
A welcome flow must end when the situation changes. Remove a contact from the flow when:
- They book a meeting or start a trial.
- They reply to any email in it.
- They become a customer.
- They unsubscribe, of course.
If you skip this, someone who booked a call on day 3 gets an email on day 7 asking them to book a call. That looks careless. Set the rules in your tool, for example Customer.io, Loops, Mailchimp or the sequences in HubSpot.
Test the flow yourself
Sign up with three different addresses, including a Gmail and a work address. Check that each email arrives in the main inbox, that links work on a phone and that the exit rules fire. Do this before you point any traffic at the form.
Common mistakes
- Selling in the first email.
- Sending all four emails in two days.
- Using "no-reply" as the sender.
- Having no exit rule, so booked contacts keep getting pitches.
- Writing about your company instead of the reader's problem.
How you know it works
Look at three numbers after the first 200 subscribers. Email 1 should be opened by most recipients, and some should reply. Email 4 should get clicks from people who have read emails 1 to 3. Spam complaints should stay below 0.1 per cent, which is the level Google and Yahoo ask senders to aim for. Most important, a share of new subscribers should reach the next step without a human chasing them.
