What Is An Email Welcome Sequence Anyway?
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ve likely heard me compare marketing to dating before. Your social media marketing is like playing the field and getting that first conversation happening. When someone is ready for a first date with you, they’ll download your lead magnet. Then your welcome sequence comes into play, keeping things casual until you’re ready for a commitment.
You may or may not have heard of a lead magnet or freebie. A lead magnet is essentially something you give a new lead in exchange for permission to market to them. It’s a very simple exchange, they give you their email address, you give them some awesome content for free!
So what do you do when you have that email address?
Why you should have a Welcome Sequence
If you don’t have a welcome sequence in place you’re leaving new subscribers hearing crickets. Think about your own behaviour online, let's say you're scrolling through Instagram. You come across a post interesting enough that it stops your scrolling. The content of that post has been engaging enough that you've taken that extra step of going somewhere else, like the creator’s profile or their link in the bio. You’re intrigued enough to enter your precious data so that you can download this piece of content. You get their freebie, open it up excited and you’re really liking what they’ve put out there...
...And then that's the last thing you hear from them. That’s it. They’re gone, you forget about them, you forget about the freebie.
When you put yourself in the shoes of your followers, you can see why having a welcome sequence is so important.
Picture downloading a valuable freebie and then, the next day receiving a personalized email, “Hi Hannah, how are you enjoying the freebie? Do you have any questions? Why don’t you try some of these other resources that you might find super helpful”. It's not a hard sales pitch or anything, it's just someone touching base. You've only just discovered this person online so curiosity will drive you to open that email and read it.
Then the next email comes. This one has a story that really really resonates with you. You're thinking, “Yeah, that's me! This person gets me!” Then the next day there’s a testimonial from someone else who's just like you. Now you're seriously thinking about working with this person but you still have some doubts and hesitations. The next day an email comes in answering your hesitations - like they’re psychic, they read your mind!
By the time you get the next email you're ready to work with this person. You’ve gotten to know them, they're obviously on the ball because they're emailing you every day and all their content is on point.
That's the experience a new subscriber gets when you have a welcome sequence.
What goes into a Welcome Sequence?
In my own business, I offer two types of welcome sequences for my clients; three-part or six-part. The three-part is more of a generic cover-all-your-bases welcome sequence. This type of sequence is for those times when you don't have a specific marketing goal in mind. You're looking to gather leads, but you're not pushing one particular product or service at this point. You are gathering leads to keep them nice and warm, maybe get a call from them, but your priority is making them feel comfortable on your marketing list.
Three-part Sequences
The three-part sequence is going to start with, “Hello, this is me. This is what I do, this is how I can help you and these are some great resources that I know about.” The aim is to share this wealth of knowledge with this new audience member so that they can see all you have to offer. The tone is not “salesy”, it's coming from a place of genuinely wanting to help, genuinely wanting them to feel like you're there to support them and your emails will have something to offer.
The purpose of the next email is to find out more about your new subscriber. Ask them questions, “Who are you? What kind of subscriber are you? Are you going to fit in column A or column B?” This is also a great opportunity to throw in some social proof and testimonials but it's really about starting a two-way conversation. Invite your new subscriber to a call or to hit reply and give you some feedback on what you have to offer.
The third email is going to be about setting expectations. “Here's what I do, and here’s how often I will get in touch with you going forward.” You can also throw in a special offer or a welcome gift such as another free resource, a discount on services or free strategy call. This email serves to transition a new subscriber in a welcome sequence to a regular email subscriber.
Six-part Sequences
The six-part sequence is more of a sales sequence, designed to inspire a single action whether that’s getting someone to sign up for a course, purchase a particular product or get on a call with you.
In your first email, you're delivering a freebie. Keep it very short and simple and just include your elevator pitch and social links. The next email is going to be about you, “Here's me. Here’s what I have to offer. Here are all the ways that I can support you, but especially this one way.” That second email is all about sharing how you can support the person but keeping it geared towards this one service or product and why this one thing will be the most useful to them.
Your third email will share some social proof. If you can include a video review from a previous client, that is gold! You want to include testimonials, screenshots or anything else that shows what other people think of your product/service to back up the claims that you’re making.
Next, we're going to address any doubts or questions that your new subscriber might have. Email three might overcome a common objection like, “I can't do this or I don't have enough money.” If you've done the work, and know your ideal client avatar well enough, you'll know what their fears are. Pick one of their pain points or objections and answer it. Tell your subscriber why that’s not a problem. Don’t be afraid to offer more social proof, the more other people can back up what you're saying, the better.
In the next email, we're still overcoming objections but this time we’re countering assumptions that people can have. Don't be afraid to be brutally honest, “this is not for you if you want all your problems solved overnight.” It's okay to eliminate people who are not right for this product/service/program. That's what this welcome sequence will do, it's going to help to strengthen warm leads and repel the people who aren’t a good fit.
Your final email is going to be sales focused so get ready to sell!. After this many emails, you’re allowed to sell your product/service/program. It’s okay. You’ve sent your new subscriber beautifully written, personalized emails. If they got this far, chances are this is right for them and you have something that's going to make their life better. So tell them about it. Tell them about it and ask them to buy it. People don't like ambiguity. They want to know what they need to do. They want you to tell them what action you want them to take.
Writing your Welcome Sequence
So that’s the framework for a welcome sequence. You don't need to do it all by yourself, but you do need it. A welcome sequence is non-negotiable if you have an email list. If you have a freebie where you're getting people into an email list, you need a welcome sequence. You need something there, so that this person, who has woken up enough to leave their Instagram or LinkedIn feed and download something from you, gets rewarded for that effort.
They told you that they want to hear from you, so don’t just ghost them.
If copywriting is not your zone of genius, and you're worried because you don't afford to hire a copywriter, I have a middle-ground option for you. I’ve created a template kit for building a welcome sequence. It’s a template for a six-part but you can tweak it to be as short or as long as you want and there are multiple options for each email’s subject line and body text. You can mix and match scripts, tweak the copy to fit your voice, but it's all there for you so that you can pop them into your email marketing platform.
For more on this topic, check out this episode of Showing Up Solo.
