A welcome series is a sequence of individual welcome emails sent after someone signs up to hear from your business. These emails are responsible for setting the tone and creating expectations with your newest subscribers. Welcome emails, especially the first in a series, benefit from an unusually high open rate -- making them one of the most effective communications you'll likely ever send. 

Note: A contact is only enrolled in a welcome series after submitting a Privy display included in a series' trigger settings. A series is not triggered for new contacts that are imported, created manually, or to contacts added via third-party tools, including your e-commerce platform. 

Example series

A successful welcome series is appreciative and engaging while clearly setting the tone and expectations of the subscriber's relationship with your business. It's a unique opportunity to humanize your business, build trust, or educate the subscriber in a way that helps them succeed. The default series in Privy uses three of the most popular welcome email types: 

• Brand Introduction: Everyone who enrolls in a welcome series is a new contact, which means you have a great opportunity to start building trust with a thoughtful introduction. Use this email to share who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. 
• Get Social: Everyone's communication preferences are different, which means you have a great opportunity to foster additional engagement with your new contacts via different channels. Use this email to highlight your various social accounts and any social proof, such as follower counts or expert testimonials, that will encourage contacts to follow or subscribe. 
• Product Spotlight: A few emails into a series is a great time to put the spotlight on your products. Contacts have had time to learn about you and your business, connect with you elsewhere, and have still decided to remain on your sending list. Use this email to highlight some of your best sellers or seasonal items. If you are looking to really push some product, consider inserting a coupon into your email as an incentive. 

If you're interested in checking out some additional welcome email examples, check out this post. 

Create and send your series

() Prefer video? Check out this walkthrough from Privy Masterclass instead. 

To create and send a welcome email series: 

• Navigate to Automations and click the New automation button.
• Select the Welcome Email Series option. This action opens Privy's series editor.

1) Determine the series length

The default series length of three emails is considered best practice due to its improved performance versus longer and shorter series. However, emails can be removed using the Delete Email() button or added using the Add Email() button. The minimum is two emails, and the maximum is ten emails. 

If you add additional emails, you must select a starting template and customize the design. With the design finalized, select Next and then Back to Series in the upper-right. 

2) Determine the series topics

The default brand introduction, social connection, and product spotlight emails are a great start for many businesses. However, these topics may not be a perfect match for your situation. To use a different template, select the Edit Email() option on the desired email and then swap the template using the Templates dropdown menu in the email editor.  

If you change a template, please make sure also to update the original email's subject line. The subject line is used as the title for the email in the Welcome Series builder. 

3) Determine the series settings

To edit the series' timing, targeting, and coupon, select the Edit Settings button in the sidebar menu. 

1. Timing: The default delays between the welcome series emails are recommended for most businesses, but you will know your customers and situation best. In particular, you may want to use this setting to delay the first email in the series if you intend to enable an after signup email for the display or require that new subscribers confirm their interest via double opt-in.  
2. Targeting: A welcome series sends to all new signups by default. However, this setting allows you to send specific welcome series to new subscribers based on the display they submitted. For example, you may want to send a different welcome series to subscribers that joined you during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 
3. Coupon: None of the default welcome series emails include a coupon code. However, if you would like to offer a discount as part of one of your emails, this setting determines which code appears. Only one code is available per series. The selected code replaces any {{ coupon_code }} merge tags included in your emails. Learn more about using coupons here. 

4) Customize and test your series

To update the design and content of your emails, select the Edit Email() button on its card and use the email editor to update the default content included in the selected templates. 

After making any changes and saving, use the Send Test Email button to preview the email in your inbox. The test is sent to the email address associated with your Privy login credentials. If the test is satisfactory, use the Next and Back to Series buttons in the upper-right to return to the series view. 

5) Activate the series

Select the Activate Series button in the upper-right to start sending the series to eligible subscribers when all of your series emails are finalized. Please note that you cannot add or remove emails once a series is activated. To make this kind of change, a new series must be created. 

Review the series' performance

To review the overall performance of a welcome series, select Automations > Welcome Email in the navigation bar and then locate the series on the dashboard. The following information is available: 

• Delivered: contacts whose email server sent Privy a response stating that an email from the series was delivered.
• Opened: contacts who had an email delivered and opened the email. Privy embeds an invisible image into the email message once it is sent when you send an email. When your recipient views the email and the images load, Privy knows that the email was opened.  If the recipient's email client doesn't allow the image to load, Privy will not track the email open.
• Clicked: contacts who had an email delivered and clicked on any link in the email. 
• Unsubscribed: contacts that decided to unsubscribe from your communications by clicking the unsubscribe link in one of the welcome series emails.
• Revenue: The total revenue collected as a result of all the welcome series emails. Privy uses a last-touch model with a 7-day attribution window. If a customer has opened/clicked multiple emails within the seven days proceeding a purchase, the revenue will only be counted toward the most recent email. 

To review the performance of a specific email within a welcome series, select the series from the Welcome Emails dashboard and then click the Reporting () button on the desired email. 

Delivery Report

The Delivery Report shows how many emails were sent, delivered, bounced, and rejected. 

• Sent: the number of contacts sent the email minus the rejected recipients. 
• Delivered: contacts sent the email and whose email server sent Privy a response stating that the email was delivered.
• Bounced: the number of contacts sent the email that had the email bounce back. Bounces are usually due to non-existent, invalid, or blocked email addresses. 
• Rejected: the number of contacts that met the email's segment criteria but were not sent the email because they had a malformed address or had previously unsubscribed, bounced, or marked an email as spam.

Engagement Report

The Engagement Report shows how recipients interacted with your email once they received it. This report has five metrics that can help you gauge the success of your email: 

• Delivered: contacts whose email server sent Privy a response stating that the email was delivered.
• Opened: contacts who had the email delivered and opened the email. Privy embeds an invisible image into the email message once it is sent when you send an email. When your recipient views the email and the images load, Privy knows that the email was opened.  If the recipient's email client doesn't allow the image to load, Privy will not track the email open.
• Clicked: contacts who had the email delivered and clicked on any link in the email. 
• Unsubscribed: contacts that decided to unsubscribe from your communications by clicking the unsubscribe link in this email. 
• Reported as Spam: contacts that reported this email as spam.