A welcome series is a short run of emails that greets someone who has just signed up and shows them where to start. The Welcome series template sends three emails over a week to people who are new from a signup form.
Who it’s for
Any business that collects signups through a form: a newsletter, a waiting list, a shop’s first-order offer or a free account. For example, Harbour Books, a fictional bookshop in Lisbon, welcomes newsletter readers with its staff picks, then a guide to its reading clubs.
What you need first
- A published signup form. Forms are on every plan.
- A verified sending domain. See Set up a sending domain.
- The links your emails will point to, such as your shop, your getting-started page or your blog.
1 Start from the template
Go to Journeys, choose New journey, then under Start from a template and New contacts, choose Welcome series.
2 Check what the template creates
| Part | As the template sets it |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Submits a form, any form, with the entry condition outcome equals created, so only people new to your workspace enter |
| Re-entry | Once |
| Step 1 | Send message: Welcome to your workspace’s name, at once |
| Step 2 | Wait 3 days |
| Step 3 | Send message: Four things to try this week |
| Step 4 | Wait 4 days |
| Step 5 | Send message: A note from us, a short personal note signed by your team |
| Exit rules | None |
With a double opt-in form, the journey starts once the person confirms. Someone who signs up twice isn’t welcomed twice.
3 Change it for your business
- Rewrite the emails. The first email welcomes and shows what to do first, the second suggests next steps, the third is personal and invites a reply. Replace the sample copy, add your sender and give each button its real link. See Design an email.
- Set the pace. A shop with a first-order offer may want the second email after a day, not three. Change the Wait steps.
- Stop when they act. Under Exit rules, add An event happens with the action that makes a newcomer active, such as their first purchase. Once that event reaches Kirora, they skip the steps still ahead.
4 Measure it
- Clicks on each email, on the Performance tab under Steps and Email outcomes by step. A low click count on one email points to the step to rewrite.
- Conversions: add a conversion goal on the action you want from a newcomer, such as a first purchase, with Counts within set to 7 days. Available on Starter and above. See Conversion goals.
- Lift: add a Random split before the second email with one empty path as a holdout, so some newcomers get only the welcome. See Random split and holdout.
Common pitfalls
- Any form starts it. Left on Any form, every new contact from every form enters, including a contact form or a competition entry. Under Form, pick the form this series is for.
- People who didn’t arrive through a form don’t enter. That includes contacts your app or an import created, and anyone who signed up before the journey went live. To reach them, start the journey on Joins a list and tick Also enrol the people already in it. See Add people already in the list or segment.