How to Automate a Welcome Email in 5 Simple Steps

A welcome email is quite possibly the most important thing you’ll ever send your customers. 

In fact, 74% of people expect to get one shortly after hitting the subscribe button on your beautiful form. This means your customers are literally checking their inbox, waiting to see your first email. 

What’s more? Subscribers who receive a welcome email show 33% more engagement with a brand over time compared to those who don’t. 

Here’s how to automate a welcome email in 5 simple steps:

As you can see, welcome emails present a golden opportunity to engage with your customers. By automating them, you can do the following: 

Use an intuitive email automation tool to quickly set up your welcome sequence. In this section, we’re going to walk you through the process of creating an automated welcome email in Flodesk step by step. You’ve got this! 

An opt-in form is how you collect email subscribers from your website, blog, landing page, Instagram—or wherever your ideal customers are hanging out. Many times, the opt-in form offers a freebie or some other type of incentive in exchange for an email address. 

When you collect email addresses through a signup form, you can automatically sort the subscribers into different lists called segments. The goal of segmenting your subscribers is to allow you to hyper-personalize your communication so it’s always relevant and adds value. 

Let’s say you have three different opt-in forms, for example. One offers a free marketing guide, another offers a free webinar, and the third is a basic newsletter sign up. You might want to follow up with these subscribers in different ways. Maybe you have a product that goes with the marketing guide or a coaching service that you want to promote after the webinar. 

If your subscribers just went into one big list, you wouldn’t be able to do this because you wouldn’t know who subscribed to what. (Or you’d have to keep track of it manually). But when they’re automatically segmented, you can send personalized, automatic emails to the right group of subscribers at the right time. 

So let’s set up your opt-in form and segments! Here’s what to do:  

The next step is to design the automated welcome email itself. If you’ve already done this and just want to automate it, you’re ahead of the game! Go ahead and skip to the next section. Otherwise, here’s what to do: 

This is where you start to put it all together! It’s the magic that automatically sends your welcome email to your new subscriber. Here’s what to do: 

A trigger is the thing that sets it all in motion—the first step in your automated email sequence. With your first emails, the trigger is usually when someone subscribes to your list. 

This is where those segments come into play that you set up earlier. When someone subscribes through your form, they’re automatically added to a segment (let’s call it ‘Welcome Segment’ for this example). 

Now, we’ll set up your workflow to begin when this happens. So your trigger will be when new subscribers are added to the Welcome Segment. 

Note: You have to add at least one segment as the trigger event but you can also select more than one. If you select more than one segment, your workflow will be triggered when someone is in any of the segments you’ve selected. 

Let’s go back to those three forms from the beginning as an example—a free marketing guide, a free webinar and a newsletter signup. If you want all of those subscribers to receive the same automated welcome email, you could include all three segments as trigger events. 

If a subscriber is in multiple segments (because they signed up for multiple things), it will only trigger once for them. They won’t get your workflow emails duplicated. If you want them to receive different emails (which is likely in this case since you’re sending different freebies), only select the one segment you want to be tied to this particular email sequence. 

You’re almost done! And this last step is the easiest. In fact, if you’re creating a simple workflow to send a welcome email when subscribers join your list, all you need to do is hit publish.

This will set your workflow in motion. And just like magic, new subscribers will automatically receive your welcome email! 

You can also add additional steps or instructions to the sequence at this point using the little ‘+’ button in the workflow. There are a few different options to choose from: 

If you’re ready to create a series of welcome emails, the course How to Create Your First Email Workflow in Flodesk goes into more detail on using these steps.  

Now that you know how to automate your welcome emails, here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing. 

The “freebie” is one of the most commonly used types of welcome emails because offering something for free is a great way to build an email list. Why? Because it gives people a compelling reason to hand over their email address. 

Freebies come in all shapes and sizes. You can offer an ebook, a PDF guide, a bonus pack, a workbook, a checklist, a case study, a cheat sheet, and more. Whatever you choose, make sure it solves a real, specific problem for your target customer. 

Also, make sure it’s clear to the customer that the freebie is included in the automated welcome email—and make it easy to download. Take the example above from Alyssa Nguyen Design. Here’s why her email shines: 

Your (insert name of freebie) is here! 

Insert graphic

Insert download button 

Thanks so much for signing up to receive (insert name of freebie)! I’m so excited to have you on board. Best of luck with the (name of freebie) and give me a shout if you have any questions! 

The discount code email is similar in concept to the freebie email in that you’re offering subscribers something in exchange for joining. In this case, though, you’re sending them a discount code to use online. 

Which one you use depends on the type of business or website you have. If you’re running an online store, for example, the discount code welcome email is a good fit because you have products to sell. 

Take the example above from Hair For The Girls. Here’s why this email’s great: 

Thanks so much for subscribing! 

Here’s a little something to say thanks! 

Insert discount offer (free shipping, percent off, buy one get one offer, etc.) and code. 

Now that you’re part of our community, you’ll be the first to know about new products and sales. Happy shopping! 

The personal touch welcome message is like sending a quick thank you note for subscribing. It works by establishing trust with the reader right off the bat because you’re not trying to sell them anything. 

In fact, you’re not even giving them anything—there’s no transaction of any kind in this type of email. This makes subscribers feel like your thank you is genuine and sets the stage for future communication. 

Take the email above from Leslie at 7Wayfinders, for example. Here’s what she does right: 

I’m so happy you’re here! 

(Insert brief description of yourself and your business.) 

I’m just thrilled you’ve joined the community. Thank you so much for subscribing! 

In this section, we’re going to cover some best practices to keep in mind when working on an automation campaign. 

Flodesk is the fastest-growing email marketing platform on the market, helping small business owners design emails people love to get. Flodesk offers workflows that allow users to intuitively automate lead magnet delivery, welcome sequences, and more with an easy-to-use visual builder.

A welcome email sequence is an automated workflow that’s triggered when a customer subscribes to your list. 

A welcome email sequence needs to have a form, an audience segment, a welcome email, and a trigger event. 

People are waiting for your welcome email so it’s best to send it as soon as they subscribe.