Welcome emails that work: the first thing a new subscriber reads

When someone subscribes, their interest is at its peak. But your next issue may be a week away, and in a week a reader can forget why they subscribed at all.

The welcome email fills that gap. On Mujaz you can follow it with up to five past issues that arrive one after another on days you set, on every plan, Free included.

What a welcome email says

A welcome email is not a regular issue. Its job is to reassure the reader they're in the right place, and to tell them what's coming.

• Who you are, in two lines. Why you write this newsletter, and what sets it apart.
• What arrives, and when. “An issue every Sunday morning” says more than “great content regularly”. A clear promise makes readers look out for you; a vague one makes your email a surprise they can't place.
• The best of what you've written. One or two links to past issues on your public page that represent you.
• An invitation to reply. Ask something simple: what brought you here? Or: what would you like to read? A first reply is the start of a relationship.
• A sender name they recognise. The name readers see in their inbox is your brand name, or the From Name if you've saved one. Make it the name they subscribed to.

And keep it short. A new reader isn't used to your voice yet, and a few paragraphs are easy to read to the end. Save the long piece for your next issue.

Create it and switch it on

The welcome email lives in Settings → Automation.

1. 1Press “Create welcome email”; it opens the same editor you write your issues in.
2. 2Write the email and give it a subject; the subject is required here.
3. 3Back on the tab, switch on “Enable automation”. It won't switch on until the welcome email exists and has a subject.

Details in The welcome email.

The sequence: your best issues for people who missed them

A new subscriber hasn't read anything you wrote before today. A sequence introduces them to your best work without resending anything to your whole list. Under “Follow-up steps” press “Add step”, choose a published issue and a day from 1 to 60 after joining, up to five steps, then press “Save steps”.

• Choose issues that don't age. A piece about an idea or an experience still reads well months later; last week's news doesn't.
• Order them the way you'd introduce yourself to a friend. Start with the issue that explains your newsletter best, then the ones that go deeper.
• Space them out. Don't let them crowd your new issues; leave days between steps, for example day 3, then 7, then 14.
• Each step must come after the one before, and an issue can appear only once in the sequence.

The full steps: A timed sequence of past issues.

Who gets the welcome, and who doesn't

This is the point that surprises writers most, so know it before you start:

• The welcome goes to people who subscribe from now on, on your public page or through the sign-up form on your website.
• It does not go to your existing list, to people you import from a CSV, or to people you add by hand.
• If double opt-in is on, a new subscriber stays Pending and receives nothing until they click the confirmation link. Double opt-in is required during every account's first 7 days.
• The welcome email can't be scheduled or sent to a list; it goes on its own to each new subscriber.

If you want to welcome your existing list, write them a regular issue from Newsletters and send it to them.

Test it the way your reader will

The best test is to subscribe yourself. Use a second address of yours, subscribe on your public page, then open the email on your phone. You'll see what readers see: the sender name, the subject, and how the text displays.

After that, follow the Activity section in Automation: total sent and last sent. Each subscriber's profile also shows their place in the welcome sequence, as described in The subscriber profile.

What automation doesn't do

Mujaz has one automation: a welcome email, then past issues on set days. There are no conditions or branches of the “if they open this, send that” kind. That keeps it simple and predictable: every new subscriber takes the same path.

If you want to write to people who didn't open a particular issue, use “Resend to people who didn't open” from that issue's analytics. See Read your numbers.