Your welcome email flow is your first date with your customer. It's your chance to show them your best self and get them interested in you all while not coming across as desperate.

You're looking to strike the balance between showing them how great your company and products are while also providing valuable content in a way that will leave them wanting to open every email you send them in the future.

Unfortunately, many welcome email flows are ineffective because they're focused on closing the sale instead of building a relationship. Remember, this is your first date.

Focus on consistent design & helpful content.

To take the dating analogy further, you want to look your best and you want to have engaging conversation. If you show up looking good but only talk about how great you are and never engage your date you probably won't get a second chance.

Consistent Design

Before you create your welcome email flow it's critical that you have your branding guidelines to work with. If these are set, you're ready to go.

• Typography - Use the same fonts for headlines and copy in every email. Ideally, these should be the same that are used on your website for consistency.

• Color - Use the same color palette throughout every email in the series.

• Images - You should be using the best images you have for this email series and they should be run through the same post-production filter or preset so they have a consistent tone and feeling.

• Structure - A hero image with graphic or text overlay is a good way to hook attention early. Sandwich your copy in the middle and end it with either another great image or graphic.

• Logo - Find the best spot for your logo to live at the top of every email. If you have a secondary version of your logo that can be placed in the footer of every email.

Design Resources:
Canva is an amazing tool for non-designers to look like designers. It's a must.

Milled is a search engine for newsletters. See every email the big brands send and copy what you like.

Helpful Content

Map out the content that you want share over the course of your welcome flow before getting started. This isn't about 'sell, sell, sell'. The content of your emails should educate them on your brand and products while not being pushy.

Make a clear outline of what you'll be sharing using these principles:

• Discount Code - There's a good chance that they traded you their email for a discount code of some kind. Give them what they're looking for immediately and make it easy for them to use.

• Subject Lines - Time to hone your copywriting skills. The subject line is the hook that will lead to an open...or a delete. Clarity is better than clever. A/B testing subject lines is a great to find out what works.

• E.E.I - Education. Entertain. Inspire. Make sure your content falls into one of these three categories in order to add value to their life.

• Show, Don't Tell - Show how your products will make the customers life better. Show them how it works, why they'll love it or how to use it. Images and video are your friends.

Content Resources:
Klaviyo is a great email newsletter service. Their blog is full of tips & tricks. Try this one on writing good email subject lines.

Milled is a treasure chest of newsletter subject lines and content.

We're looking to build longterm relationships with our customers. We're not going for one-night-stands. Think of your welcome email series as the first date with someone you want to build a longterm relationship with.