If you have landed on this page, chances are you want to learn how to create a successful welcome email series for your business or blog. This quick and easy guide will provide you with a clear outline for creating a welcome email series that will keep your subscribers engaged and trigger action.

I’m sure you’ll agree that if your email list is growing, it’s a sure sign that your target audience wants to connect with you.

But what do you do once they opt-in?

The key to building a long-term relationship is to connect with your subscribers right from the start. This is where the welcome email series comes in. BlueHornet’s survey shows that more than 74 percent of people expect a welcome email after subscribing.

However, a single welcome email is not enough to engage your audience. It’s just the first step. The goal is to send out a series of welcome emails to establish rapport and gain the trust of your subscribers.

So, here’s how we do it:

Step 1: Plan the Story You Want to Tell

This is the first and most important one. However, many who are new to creating a welcome email series have no idea they must do this before they can craft the email series. As a result, they fail to grab the attention and trust of their subscribers.

To begin, you want to consider two things:

1. Pinpoint what’s important to your target audience so you can include useful information as part of your welcome email series.
2. Determine what information you can share that will help introduce subscribers to your business/brand.

For now, forget about the number of emails you need to send out. I will outline the series structure in a moment, but ultimately your story will determine the number sent. This could be 3, 4, 5 emails or more.

Here are a few ideas to help you determine what goes into your story:

• What valuable pieces of content, ebooks or podcasts can you include in your welcome email series to add value?
• How has your brand evolved over time?
• What makes you stand out from others in your market?
• How does your blog, products or services solve the problems of your target audience?
• What value can subscribers expect to receive from you?
• Have you received coverage on an authority website or within a publication?
• Do you have testimonials from customers who have purchased from you or clients you have worked with?

Be sure not to miss any important details. This really helps the subscriber to learn about you and your brand.

After organizing your notes, you can move on to the second step.

Step 2: Develop the Welcome Email Series

This is the most exciting part. In this step, you will develop your email content.

Keep in mind that you are using the welcome email series to introduce your subscribers to your business or blog. Avoid hard selling immediately and don’t overwhelm the subscribers with too much content in a single email. You are establishing a relationship with the subscriber, and you need to let the trust grow naturally. Keep your goal in mind and structure your email series accordingly.

Here are some tips on structuring your email series:

1^st email: Send it right after someone subscribers to your list. Use it to introduce the subscriber to your business. Briefly tell them how your brand evolved. If they subscribed for an incentive like a guide you promised, deliver it right away. And tell them what kind of emails they should expect from you in the days or weeks to come.

2^nd email: In your first email you promised to deliver more value. In the second email, deliver the promised value and solve a pain point of the subscriber. For example, send them a blog post that helps solve a major problem they might be having.

3^rd email: Deliver additional valuable content with the goal to motivate and inspire them. Consider the problem that might have led your subscriber to sign up. Then help fix the problem and delight the subscriber.

4^th email: This one will be similar to the third one, delivering unexpected, valuable resources and guides. Consider offering free gifts or incentives. Do not hesitate to give a subtle tip-off about your solutions or products and services.

5^th email: Make an offer, and if possible, offer time-sensitive discount. Here you can briefly explain the benefits of your products and services.

Step 3: Make It Look Good

This step reminds me of a mistake I made when I was developing my welcome email series for the first time. I knew my goal was to engage my subscribers and trigger action, but I didn’t use proper templates and didn’t even add visuals. The result: I failed at triggering the interest of my audience, let alone any action.

So, my advice for you is to come up with stylized templates that are in harmony with your brand and the rest of the emails you send out. Also, adding visuals will capture the attention of the receiver and promote engagement.

Here are a few other mistakes I have made and how you can avoid them:

Sending out just one or two emails. To keep your audience engaged and gain their attention and trust, you should send out at least 3 emails over time. Of course, the length of your story and your goal will determine how many emails you should send out. If your story is lengthy, consider breaking it up into 3-6 emails or more.

Sending the emails on random days. It is better to send out your emails in a more structured way. Consider sending a welcome email on the same day every week for several weeks.

Failure to decide a proper email frequency. Here, you need to take your sales cycle into account. If your product or service is something that sells out quickly, you should consider sending the emails more frequently. If you are targeting businesses, you might want to spread out the emails over many weeks.

And there you are – a simple 3-step guide for creating a welcome email series. Now you know how to engage with your subscribers more successfully. The only thing left for you to do: implement what you learned in this guide.

Get to it and build an effective and result-oriented welcome email series.

Keep Building,