When brands first start investing in an email marketing strategy, they tend to zero in on weekly or monthly email campaigns to keep their business top of mind for subscribers. After all, when people sign up for your emails, they’re actively interested in hearing the latest updates from your brand, so consistent newsletters make sense.
But only sending out email campaigns ignores a big opportunity to connect with subscribers (and yes, drive more sales!). Adding email flows to your email strategy is a must-have to nurture subscribers, deliver value, and showcase what sets your brand apart. Unlike one-off email campaigns, flows are triggered by a certain action or milestone in the customer journey–like downloading a free guide or signing up for a discount.
When it comes to email flows, you’re going to need to start somewhere, and a welcome flow is the best place to start.
The Benefits of Automated Flows
Automated flows deliver personalized experiences to your audience effortlessly. When a new subscriber joins your list, they should be greeted with a series of tailored emails introducing them to your brand, its values, and offerings. It’s not just about saying “hello”, it’s about setting the tone for a quality customer relationship. A welcome flow specifically lays the groundwork for trust and brand loyalty, and it’s definitely worth taking the time to set up.
By leveraging automations to nurture your community, you’re able to provide ongoing value, softly introducing them to your products or services and inviting them to explore further. You’re delivering value, building relationships, and driving sales—all on autopilot. Once you have your email flows all set up, you’re ready to start making money while you sleep!
What To Include In Your Email Welcome Flow
Not sure what a welcome flow actually looks like? We get it. Coming up with your own content can be daunting, but it’s definitely doable! But to help you out…let’s break things down a little further.
Welcome flows are triggered when someone joins your newsletter list for the first time. If you’re an e-commerce brand, this might be through a website pop-up offering some sort of incentive or discount, or a sign-up on social media. For service providers, someone might sign up by downloading a lead magnet like a free guide or template.
Generally, welcome flows have 5 emails in the flow, although this can vary slightly. The first email should be delivered immediately after someone subscribes, and all of the emails should be delivered within about 10 days (although there are some unique cases where you’ll want to spread these out more). You can play around with the specifics of the timing, but you want to send the emails soon after someone subscribes when they are still interested. It’s also a good idea to add flow filters, so that once someone purchases from your business, they don’t get any further emails. (Usually a purchase will trigger a post-purchase flow, so they’ll continue being nurtured through a different series of emails.)
Here’s what type of content you should include in each of your welcome emails:
- Email number one should, first and foremost, deliver whatever incentive you promised to get them to sign up. (That means a coupon code, or a link to a pdf download, etc.) Thank them for subscribing, and give a brief intro into your brand story, values, and mission.
- In the second email you can dive a little deeper into your brand mission and share the “why” behind your business. What sets you apart? Try positioning this email as a message from the founder to make it feel extra personal. And don’t forget to add a reminder about the incentive to make their first purchase and make it easy to get back to your website to buy!
- The third email should be value-based. This will depend on your brand and what your ideal audience finds useful, but here are some ideas below. Don’t forget to have clear opportunities for conversion too (showcase your products or services somewhere).
- Behind the scenes content.
- Customer reviews/user generated content
- About the team
- Client wins & transformations
- By the fourth email, it’s time to really explore your products or services. Use storytelling to understand your audience’s pain points and wishes, and add a testimonial or two as social proof of how amazing your products/services are.
- The fifth email should encourage the first purchase. This might mean offering an incentive or a sense of urgency based on a limited time offer. Either way, you’ll need to have a clear CTA so your subscriber knows what the next step is for engaging with your brand.
And that’s it! Once you have those emails set up and outlined, your welcome flow is good to go. Just make sure to add your subscribers to your newsletter list once they complete the flow so that they continue to be nurtured through your regular emails.
Tips For Email Flow Success
We totally know how it goes: It all sounds straightforward, but actually executing this strategy is a whole nother beast. So, we want to leave you with a few more pointers to help you out before you’re off to the races!
And of course, our team of email experts is always here for 1:1 support if you need it.
First tip: Make your subject lines good. We’re talking, I’ve got to pause whatever I’m doing and read this email right now type of attention-grabbing.
Try urgency, personalization, or emojis to get that kind of reaction from your ideal audience–just be sure not to go overboard since you don’t want to take a hit to your deliverability!
It’s not always easy to think of subject lines that really work–which is why we put together a guide of 100+ subject line ideas that you can literally copy/paste into your emails or tweak slightly for your business. Get the guide here. Bonus: When you sign up, you’ll go through a welcome flow just like we talked about above–and you’ll be able to see the email strategy in action.
Once you’ve gotten people to open your emails, it’s time to draw them in with powerful storytelling and copywriting. To do this, you need to understand your audience on a deeper level. What are their struggles, pain points, dreams, and goals? What does your person’s life look like before they purchase from you? What mindset blocks do they have? What are they missing out on?
After you fully understand your target audience, know what type of buyer you’re speaking to. (You can get our guide to buyer types here.) Are you providing a variety of content in your emails, or are you always writing to appease one buyer type? Don’t fall into the trap of delivering the same content every time. There are multiple ways to deliver value in emails; you’ll need to use several methods to appeal to buyers who have different needs and thought processes.
Getting Support With Your Welcome Flow
Setting up a welcome flow for your email list is absolutely worth it. For service providers, it’s the best way to showcase your expertise and skills while building a customer relationship. For ecommerce businesses, it’s a great way to introduce your brand–and it’s often one of the most profitable email flows you can implement for your business.
Have more questions about what a welcome flow might look like for your business? Send us a message and we’d love to sit down to chat it through.
Don’t have the time to tackle building out a whole flow by yourself? We’re here to lend a hand! Take a peek at the services we offer, or reach out to get the details for a custom email funnel.
Good luck and happy emailing!
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