Welcome Email Sequence Writer, 7 Emails

Write down exactly what your signup form offered: a discount code, a free guide, a trial or a newsletter. New subscribers look for it first, so email 1 delivers it in the opening lines, before any story about you.

Then pick one goal: the action that best predicts someone will stick with you. For a shop, that is usually a first order. For a software trial, it is the first real result someone gets from the product. For a newsletter, it might be a reply.

If your offer is a free guide, it has to be worth an email address. The lead magnet ebook writer drafts one from your notes.

Give each email one job and one call to action, then decide when it sends. Send the first immediately, while the signup is fresh, and space the rest at least a day apart.

How many emails you need depends on how long people take to decide. Klaviyo, which sells email marketing software, recommends three emails over a week¹ for a standard series: one right away, one on day 3 and one about a week after signup. Seven emails over two weeks leave room for more questions, which suits a bigger purchase or a 14-day trial.

Only emails 1 and 6 make an offer; the rest earn trust. Email 5 needs real customers’ words. If you have none yet, a testimonial request email makes it easy for happy customers to say yes.

Make the subject line say what is inside, like "Your 10% code is inside." In the US that is also the law: the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide says the subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message².

Set your own preview text, too: it is the line many inboxes show after the subject. If you leave it blank, Klaviyo’s help center notes, inboxes pull it from the beginning of your email, which can include alt text or your navigation bar³.

Keep the body to one idea, in short paragraphs that read easily on a phone. End with one button or link that names what happens next, such as "Find your roast." Sign it from a real person, and send replies to an inbox someone reads.

Choose who leaves the sequence, and when. Someone who buys on day 2 should not get a discount pitch on day 10. Klaviyo’s guide, for example, adds a check on whether someone has placed an order since starting the flow¹ before the coupon email, so buyers skip it.

Plan for people who never open or click, too. Google’s sender guidelines suggest you consider unsubscribing recipients who don’t open or read your messages⁴. They warn that frequent spam reports make future mail more likely to be marked as spam, and ask senders to keep their spam rate below 0.10%.

• Bought or booked: move them to your customer emails that day.
• No opens or clicks after four emails: send one short check-in, then stop.
• Finished all seven: move them to your regular emails.

In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act covers any email whose main purpose is promoting a product or service, which describes most welcome emails. The FTC’s guide says each one must include your valid physical postal address and a clear way to opt out², and a registered PO box counts. Honor opt-outs within 10 business days. Each email that breaks the law can cost up to $53,088.

Inbox providers add rules of their own. Since February 2024, anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts has had to meet extra requirements. Their marketing emails must support one-click unsubscribe and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link⁴. Yahoo requires bulk senders to honor unsubscribes within two days⁵. Check that your email platform adds one-click unsubscribe and processes opt-outs within two days.

Add only people who asked to hear from you. Google also recommends confirming each recipient’s email address before subscribing them⁴, usually through a confirmation email, a step known as double opt-in.

Open rates say less than they used to. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, which iPhone users can turn on, prevents senders from seeing if someone has opened their email⁷. Apple notes that it does not extend to links, so clicks still show what people did.

Judge the sequence by how many people reach your goal before it ends. Judge each email by the share who click its call to action, and by its unsubscribes and spam complaints. When one email loses people, rewrite that one first and change one thing at a time.

Short on time? Describe what you sell in the box at the top of this page, and River drafts the sequence, with timing and exit rules, for you to edit. To time each email from your own order data instead, start from the welcome email sequence template.