They just signed up. Now what?

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

― Maya Angelou (American writer, poet, and civil rights activist)

A quick hello if you signed up in the last week — particularly to the handful of comms folks from charities and non-profits. Welcome!

You picked a good week to arrive, because today's issue is about something you just received: the welcome email.

Here's the strange thing about welcome emails. They're the single most-opened, most-read, most-clicked email most organisations send.

The reader has just signed up! Their interest is at the highest point it will ever be. They're paying attention in a way they almost never will again.

And yet most organisations — charities especially — answer that moment with an auto-reply that reads like a receipt.

Surely the humble welcome email deserves better treatment than that?!

Why are welcome emails so important?

It's the one email they might actually read

Open rates on welcome emails are routinely 3–4× higher than the rest of your programme. If you have one shot to make a first impression, this is it. And as with all first impressions, you only get one.

They're often looking for clarity and confirmation that what they've just signed up for is indeed what they think they've just signed up for.

Treat it like the most important email of the year, because for that subscriber, it is.

It sets the cadence for everything after

Whatever your welcome email feels like, that's what the reader now expects every subsequent email to feel like.

A rough, rushed, templated message trains the recipient to ignore the next one. A warm, personal one trains them to open it.

It's where trust starts (or doesn't)

The first email is probably not the moment to ask for anything. It's a moment to give.

A welcome email that immediately asks for a donation, a share, or an upgrade reads exactly like the bad first date who talks about themselves the whole time.

The senders who win the long game use this moment to show, not sell.

Five things you can do this week

Take your welcome email from good to great by trying a few of these steps out.

1. Send it within the hour, not the day

Momentum matters.

If someone signs up at 11am on Monday and they next hear from you on Thursday, the spark is gone.

People are busy, and your emails are likely not the only thing going on in their day. Aim to send your welcome email within minutes of signup.

2. Sound like a person, not a system

Send it from a real name and a real email address.

Open with "Hi [first name]" not "Dear Valued Subscriber." If you don't have reliable data for this, then don't even try — nothing screams "robotic" like a poorly automated and badly personalised template.

Sign it as yourself (yes, you, a real human). And if recipients can't reply to the address, that's not a great sign. A welcome email that can't be replied to isn't really a welcome.

3. Tell them what to expect

How often will you send future emails?

What will they be about? When does the next one land?

A two-sentence "here's what you've signed up for" removes the small anxiety every new subscriber feels and dramatically reduces early unsubscribes.

4. Don't ask for anything

Don’t squander this moment by asking for a donation.

Or a share. Or a survey. Or a follow on LinkedIn.

The first email is for them, not for you.

There will be plenty of time to ask later — and this is an opportunity to build trust and mutual respect. Don’t be a nuisance by over-asking at every single opportunity.

5. Give them your best thing

Surface one piece of work you're proud of — a story, an essay, a campaign, or a customer's words about what you do.

Something that says "this is what we're really about." A welcome email that delivers something the reader wants to forward is a welcome email that did its job.

A small challenge

Sign up to your email list as a new subscriber this week.

Read your welcome email in your own inbox.

This alone could give a lot of insight. Did you receive it? Did it arrive quickly? Did it land in spam?

If you only ask one more question, try this:

Would I want to read the next email from these people?

If the answer is "not sure," you have your work for the week!

The best welcome emails don't try to do everything. Keep it simple. Instead, just try to make the reader glad they signed up. Everything downstream — opens, clicks, donations, retention — starts there.

Until next week,

James

P.S. Over the last few weeks we've discussed accessibility, CTAs, email weight, design, donations, and now welcomes. Same thread running through all of them: respect the reader, especially when they're paying the most attention. If you have made some changes, hit reply and let me know what you've found so far.