Your welcome series is your first impression
A welcome series flow is a list-triggered flow that greets new subscribers as soon as they sign up for your marketing list. It is usually a subscriber’s first interaction with your brand and your opportunity to:
- Introduce your business directly after someone subscribes.
- Set the tone for what subscribers can expect from you going forward.
- Share any signup incentive you may have offered.
It is best practice to have 1 welcome series per channel. If you use both email and text messaging, you should have 1 welcome series that is triggered by your email subscriber list, and 1 welcome series that is triggered by your text message subscriber list. Subscribers may sign up for emails and text messages at separate times, so having 2 separate flows based on 2 distinct lists makes it easy for you to manage the welcome experience for each channel.
Ideas for personalizing your welcome series
Dive into strategic recommendations for your welcome series that can help you deliver more relevant content to your new subscribers.
Branch your flow based on purchase behavior
Curate the new subscriber experience based on whether or not they have already purchased with you. This can help ensure that you are only offering first-purchase discounts to customers who truly have never purchased before. While many of your new subscribers are probably unfamiliar with your brand, some new subscribers may have actually purchased before but never signed up for email until now.
Create a split based on What someone has done or not done > Has Placed Order at least once over all time. Then, offer new subscribers who haven't placed an order a discount to encourage their first purchase. To existing customers, try offering tailored product recommendations based on previous purchase history, or highlighting new products.
Tip: Only branch flows when you have a distinct goal in mind for the end of a specific path. It can be tempting to create an overly complex flow with many hyper-personalized splits. But if you do not have a clear reason or goal for branching, you may create more complexity in reporting than necessary without reaping a large additional benefit.
Branch your flow based on profile properties you’ve collected
You may be collecting custom properties through sign-up forms, quizzes, or other intake forms. Use these valuable customer preferences to tailor the welcome experience based on what you know about a person.
Create a split based on Properties about someone. Then, specify the profile data you want to use to split this flow. Let’s say in your sign-up form you ask customers whether they are shopping for men's or women's clothing. You can now split your flow based on purchase preference equals > men's clothing.
If they meet the condition, they’ll go down the YES path, where they’ll receive an email promoting best sellers for men. If not, they’ll go down the NO path and receive an email with women's best sellers.
Collect text message consent through your email welcome series
If you use text messaging in addition to email, you may want to offer your email-only subscribers an extra push to subscribe to text messages. You can do this directly in your email welcome series.
After you send a welcome email to new email subscribers, split your flow based on text message consent:
- Set the split based on If someone can or cannot receive marketing > Person > can receive > text message marketing > Because person > subscribed.
For email subscribers who have already consented to text message marketing, first send them a text message with your email sign-up discount. Then, send them an email thanking them for signing up, and reminding them to check their text messages for their discount. Consider also displaying your best-sellers in this email to encourage new subscribers to use their discount.
For those who have not consented to text message marketing yet, send an email encouraging them to subscribe to text message so they can unlock an even better incentive.
Keep in mind, you should still create a separate text message welcome series flow to greet text message subscribers and share any discounts you may have offered for text message signups.
Tip: You can branch based on channel consent for an email or text message welcome series. For a text message welcome series, branch based on email marketing consent to encourage subscribers to lookout for an important email with company updates, a product launch, or to sign up for an exclusive event.
Message content that works for this flow
After setting up your flow, take the time to ensure your message content exemplifies the tone and impression you want new subscribers to experience. Let’s take a look at a few content examples that would drive strong engagement within a welcome series flow.
Share your story
Familiarize new subscribers with your brand's story and mission.
How to accomplish this?
For email messages, include personal anecdotes from your brand’s founder discussing why they started the company and share the company mission.
For text messages, welcome customers to your brand and include a link to your homepage or About Us section.
Offer incentives
If you offered an incentive at sign-up, deliver the discount or reward in the first message of your welcome series.
How to accomplish this?
Use a unique coupon code to ensure that no 2 recipients will have the same code, limiting the likelihood that a subscriber will share the code with others. You can include a unique coupon code in your emails and text messages.
For more info on coupon codes, check out our guide on getting started with coupon codes.
Include UGC
User-generated content like product reviews, social media posts and testimonials are an incredibly powerful persuasion tool. Build trust with new customers by featuring UGC in your welcome series messages.
How to accomplish this?
You can achieve this in a variety of ways, ranging from including images shared by your customers, to using a tool like Klaviyo Reviews to dynamically embed customer review content into your messages.
Promote social channels
Sharing your social media channels with new subscribers can help expand your brand community and nurture loyal customers.
How to accomplish this?
For email messages, use the social links block in the email template editor to configure your social media channels and links.
For text messages, include a link for your most active social channel and direct subscribers to follow you.