Email welcome journeys

Welcome new subscribers to your brand by sending them an opt-in email. Subscribers can use any list growth tool that collects email addresses to opt in, which initiates the journey. You can use the welcome journey to send offers, build brand awareness, or send subscribers a welcome email.

Typically, subscribers initiate a welcome journey through a sign-up unit on your website. We recommend configuring an immediate welcome email to confirm you’ve received their opt-in and ensure that they receive welcome offers from you.

Create a prebuilt email welcome journey

Attentive has a prebuilt journey that you can use to welcome new email subscribers. This prebuilt journey uses Attentive’s best practices for email welcome journeys, which you can modify to fit your brand’s needs. For example, in addition to welcoming new subscribers with a discount code and following up based on whether they make a purchase, you can also include additional messages that drive subscribers to best sellers or introduce subscribers to your social media channels.

Follow these steps to use Attentive’s prebuilt email welcome journey:

1. At the top-right corner of the Journeys page, click + Create journey.
   The Create journeys page appears.
2. Under Email, click Welcome email subscribers.
3. Click Get started.
   

Create an email welcome journey from scratch

Follow the steps below if you’d prefer to create your welcome email journey from scratch.

1. At the top-right corner of the Journeys page, click + Create journey. The Create journeys page appears.
2. Click Start from scratch.
3. On the Choose a journey trigger page, select Signed up for email, then Get started. 
   
   The journey configuration page appears.
4. Below the Signed up for email trigger, click +, then select Branch. Then, fill out the fields as outlined below. This lets you configure different send times for the welcome email, depending on whether the subscriber opted in for email, or text and email:
   • Condition: What channel(s) are active for the subscriber. 
   • BRANCH 1: Email only 
     
5. On the main configuration page, click +, then Wait. We recommend delaying the next step for 3 hours. Click Save.
   
6. On the main configuration page, click +, then Send email to add a welcome email message to the journey.
7. Design the welcome email for your customers. If you’ve already designed an email for a separate step in the journey, you can copy that email and apply it to new steps to save time.
8. At the bottom of the journey, click +, then End journey. Click Save to confirm.

If your sign-up unit also collects subscribers’ phone numbers, we recommend incorporating SMS messages in the welcome journey. After you are satisfied with the journey, turn on your journey and connect it to a sign-up unit by following the instructions below. 

Turn on your email welcome journey

After you’ve finished configuring the email welcome journey, follow the steps below to turn it on and assign a sign-up unit to it.

1. At the top, right corner of the journey configuration page, click Turn on.
2. In the confirmation message, click Turn on new journey.
   
3. Re-open the journey. At the top, click the Signed up for email trigger.
   The Sign-up sources panel opens.
   
4. Click the Subscribers link. In the new tab, create a sign-up unit to assign to your journey. This is the experience that subscribers will go through to opt in.
5. Return to the Signed up for email trigger to confirm that the sign-up unit is applied to it.

Add a resubscribe message to an email welcome journey

You can use resubscribe welcome messages to send personalized welcome back messages if a subscriber opts out of messages from your brand and then later signs up again for the same channel (email or text). You customize the message sent to each type of subscriber and choose if either, both, or neither are sent an offer or coupon code for signing up to messages from you.

For example, your welcome messages for first-time subscribers can include an offer for 15% off their first purchase, and omit including an offer for returning subscribers.

You can also use the Has only signed up once branch within any journey to send more personalized messaging to subscribers, like sending your contact card only to first-time subscribers.

Add a resubscribe message to a welcome journey

If you’ve added a welcome back message for resubscribers to a text message welcome journey, note that the setup is different for email welcome journeys. Instead of adding a welcome back message to a tab in a message step, use the Has signed up only once for email branch instead.

1. From Journeys, create a new email welcome journey or open an existing welcome journey.
2. Before the first Send email step, click + and select Branch.
3. From the side panel, set the following for your branch:
   

   • Condition: What action the subscriber has taken

   • Action: Has signed up only once

   • Channel: Choose email

     Click Save in the lower-right corner.

4. Click and drag your Send email step into the Has signed up only once for email branch.
   
5. In the Else branch, click the + and select Send email.
   
6. The Send email panel opens. Set up and design your email as before that welcomes subscribers back to email messages from your brand. For example:
   

   Welcome! We’re so glad to have you back. You’ll start seeing special offers, product drop announcements, and the best seasonal deals soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out our hottest summer deals: [link to your store]

   Your journey now has two branches and sends different messages when subscribers sign up to receive email messages from you: one for new subscribers, and one for resubscribers.
7. Click Turn on in the upper right corner to activate your email welcome journey.
8. From the Sign-up Units tab, assign a new or existing sign-up unit to this email welcome journey.