How To Write An Epic Welcome Series

Let’s write an epic welcome series! You already know the importance of having an email list as an entrepreneur, right?

Your email list is an instant, direct way to connect with your audience without any interference from those pesky algorithms (*cough* Instagram *cough*).

But for some reason, writing a welcome series for your list is something that so often gets put on the back burner. I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs get hung up on things like:

What should I write in my welcome series?

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How long my sequence be?

How far apart should the emails be spaced from each other?

And so, they procrastinate… and their welcome series never gets written.

Sound about right?

Today, I want to help you overcome this procrastination.

Why? Because a welcome series is one of the best ways to connect, nurture, and sell to your audience even when you’re not around.

And that’s my biggest goal in business!

Setting up systems that will grow your business without you having to be there live and in person — so that you’re able to work less and make more money.

My goal is that by the end of this post, you not only feel confident in your ability to write an awesome welcome series but you’ve actually scheduled time in your calendar over the next 7 days to make it happen.

This guide will be perfect for you if:

You don’t have a welcome series yet
You have a solo welcome email that you want to turn into an entire series
You want to revamp your current welcome series to make it even better

Ready? Let’s dive in.

First, what is a welcome series?

A welcome series is a sequence of emails that is sent to your new subscribers, generally beginning right when they subscribe to your newsletter or sign up for a freebie.

The word “series” is important to note here.

These are not a bunch of disconnected emails that can stand alone on their own.

This is a series, a sequence, a group of emails that should all be connected and have a sense of continuation from one to the next.

This is one of the ways to get your new subscribers to open and read all of the emails in your welcome series (which I’ll talk more about in a bit).

The Benefits of having a welcome series

When done right, your welcome series will start building the Know, Like, and Trust factor (KLT) with your subscribers from the minute they join your list.

Why is this important? Because people buy from people that they know and like!

When it’s time to promote something to your email list, your subscribers will be much more likely to read your emails and buy from you if you’ve established the KLT factor with them first.

Your welcome series can also prime your subscribers to open your future emails — newsletters and sales emails alike.

How many emails should my welcome series include?

Great question!

I suggest starting with a series of 5 emails sent over 1-2 weeks. Don’t stress too much about the timing — there’s no one-size-fits-all-formula here.

Space each email a day or two apart and run with it.

5 Big Goals for Your Welcome Series

Here are five big things you want to achieve with your welcome series:

1. Tell your story.

Where did you start and where are you at now?

You want your story to be relatable to your audience so they can see how your results and transformation are possible for them, too.

2. Start a conversation with your new subscribers.

Ask them questions, encourage them to respond, and when they do, make sure to send back a thoughtful reply to their email.

3. Position yourself as the expert to learn from.

Why should your subscribers listen to you and follow your advice?

Hint: Your answer to that question should always be a combination of empathy and expertise.

In your welcome series, you should share testimonials, case studies, and results from your own life to position yourself as an expert.

4. Deliver tons of free value.

Share tips, help shift your subscriber’s mindset, show them what’s possible, and teach them helpful stuff.

5. Let your subscribers know what to expect.

At the end of your welcome series, let your new subscribers know what they can expect from you moving forward.

How often will you be emailing them? What will your emails contain? Will you be sharing tips, advice, discounts, freebies, new blogs or podcasts?

Make it sound juicy!

6 Steps to quickly Write Your Welcome Series

Let’s get writing!

Here’s a 6-step process to help you write your welcome series this week.

1. Give yourself a deadline.

Done is better than perfect, and you can always improve your welcome series later.

Plus, no one is judging your emails the way you’re critiquing them — pinky promise.

I suggest giving yourself a deadline of 7 days.

So 7 days from today, your welcome series will be written and locked & loaded in your email list platform.

Mark it on your calendar and add it to your to-do list now!

Read: How to know if your newsletter strategy is actually working.

2. Plan out the topics of all 5 emails.

Plan out the email topics first so you can see how everything ties together and how the emails flow from one to the next.

3. “Write drunk, edit sober.”

AKA: Get your thoughts and ideas out!

Don’t edit, just let it all flow.

Come back to your rough drafts a day or two later and polish things up.

Nothing is ever 100% perfect the first time around, so don’t aim for perfection.

4. Spice up the emails.

Once you’ve created the base of your email copy, go ahead and spice things up a bit.

Add in some fun examples.

Throw in some images or GIFs.

Crack a couple of jokes.

Infuse more YOU into the emails. Your brand voice, your personality, maybe even a photo of you.

5. Use “open loops” to pique curiosity.

I suggest including open loops or “teases” in most of the emails in your welcome series to encourage your subscribers to look out for the next email in the series.

I like doing this in the PS section of each email.

Here’s an example of an open loop from an email in my former welcome series:

“P.S. In my next email I’ll be sharing a copywriting tip that’s been shown to increase sales + conversions by 380%.. so yea, it’s GOOD. See you soon!”

6. Run your emails through the “What’s in it for me?” test.

Remember: People are always thinking of themselves first and foremost.

Your audience is busy.

If they don’t feel like they’re going to get a ton of value by opening your emails, they won’t open them.

At this stage, read back through every email in your series and pretend you’re reading it through your subscribers’ eyes.

Is there a clear value here? Is there intrigue? Will they get something useful out of each email?

If not, switch things up until you can confidently answer yes to each of those questions.

Read: Three more things your welcome email needs to have.

The Welcome Series F.A.Q.

To wrap up, I want to answer a few questions I’ve been asked time and time again about the welcome series.

Q1. Should I have a different welcome series for each of my freebies?

You can, but I think that only unnecessarily complicates things.

My motto in business is to always keep things simple.

One slightly simpler strategy is to have one solo welcome email for each of your freebies.

And then after that email, everyone gets funneled into the same welcome series that has 4 emails instead of 5.

In that first email, you would basically just check in with your new subscriber, make sure they were able to download the freebie, and ask if they have any questions about it.

Q2. Should the people going through my welcome series get my newsletters, too?

No! At least, not yet.

Because we’re using those open loops and teases in your welcome series, sending those subscribers your newsletters will only confuse them.

We want your new subscribers to be hyper-focused on each email in your welcome series and to get all of those emails first before they start getting your newsletters.

If you use ConvertKit as I do, the easiest way to set this up is to automatically add a “Do Not Disturb” tag to subscribers when they enter your welcome series, and then automatically remove the tag when they’ve finished the series.

When you send out a newsletter, simply exclude people with the Do Not Disturb tag.

Q3. Can I promote or link to a paid offering in my welcome series?

Absolutely!

Some people might tell you that you need to wait a month or two before you ever talk about a paid offering with your new subscribers.

I disagree.

Why?

Because your paid offerings are how you can best help your audience and create the biggest transformation for them.

Plus, they’ve joined your community because they want your help. So don’t be shy!

You don’t have to do a super hard pitch, but I think a few tasteful mentions and links throughout your welcome series can be great.

However, with that said, I always suggest focusing on one product, service, or course in your welcome series and not a bunch of different ones.