📈 How to Optimize Your New Subscriber Welcome Flow

Welcome to BetterLetter 📧

Below, you’ll learn how to optimize your newsletter welcome flow to turn new subscribers into raving fans for the long haul.

If you implement what I teach below, you can expect:

• More sales

• Higher open and click rates

• A stronger relationship with your subscribers

Let’s dive in 👇️

Helpful Links 🔗 

• 🐦️ Justin Welsh on the power of focus (link)

• 🎨 Do this to customize how your links look in your newsletters (link)

• 💰️ Amy Porterfield’s guide to selling digital products in one image (link)

• 🍎 Will Apple kill newsletter open rates…again? (link)

• 🛠️ Our favorite newsletter tools: beehiiv (ESP), Descript (video editing), Sparkloop (growth & monetization), Typedream (custom landing pages)*

_{*These are affiliate links}

What is your welcome flow? ♻️

Your welcome flow = what happens in the moments after someone subscribes (and can even include a welcome sequence that lasts days or weeks).

When someone subscribes to your newsletter, the hard work is not done.

It’s just getting started. And first impressions matter. A LOT.

So today, I’ll help you optimize your welcome flow for:

• opens

• clicks

• shares

• replies

• purchases

Your welcome flow has the power to:

• Waste the money and effort it took to get each subscriber, OR

• Earn the right to be prioritized when your emails hit their inbox

There are 6 potential components to your newsletter welcome flow:

1. Co-registration widget (beehiiv or sparkloop)

2. Welcome survey

3. Upgrade page // Front-end offer

4. Thank you page

5. Welcome email

6. Welcome sequence

Let’s break down the 3 goals of your welcome flow (the first 2 are most important).

Then, we’ll walk through what you need to know for each of these.

The 3 Goals 🎯 

1. Get people to engage: make it 2-way, not 1-way

2. Get people to look forward to (actually) reading your emails

3. Establish a visual cue that you want people to associate with you

1/ Co-registration widgets ♻️ 

🎯 Goal: Monetize ASAP.

The two main options are beehiiv boosts + Sparkloop Upscribe.

Not everyone should use these.

When it comes to your welcome flow, you need to decide what to optimize for. This will inevitably involve tradeoffs.

Every step you have in your welcome flow increases friction.

And therefore decreases the percentage of subscribers who will move to the next step.

• If you purely want to optimize for engagement, reader experience and keeping your subscriber’s attention, don’t use boosts or sparkloop.

• If you want to optimize for monetization as quickly as possible, use boosts or sparkloop.

2/ Welcome Survey 💻️ 

🎯 Goal: Get them to fill out the survey.

Not enough people are doing this. But first party data is a big reason why newsletters are so powerful.

Why to have a welcome survey:

• You get 1st party data: This just means getting data directly from your subscribers instead of a third party like FB. It’s more accurate and rich. And it’s valuable to you and potential sponsors of your newsletter.

• High completion rate: When you do it at the time of subscription, you’re catching people during a moment of decision where their intent is high. This leads to high survey completion rates, like this one we’re driving for one of our clients.

  

• Relationship: Remember one of our goals is to make your newsletter a 2-way street (not just you talking at them). This is the beginning of forming that relationship.

• Smart spending: If you’re paying for acquisition through Meta ads, you want to make sure you’re bringing in the right kind of people. You’d rather pay $3 for an ideal subscriber than $1.50 for a random person

What information to collect:

• First name

• Company name

• Their biggest pain point, problem, OR what they want

• Anything else that’s critical for you or your advertisers to know

With the email address, first name and company name, you can enrich that data using tools like Apollo or Clay.

→ Tips

• Use 5 or fewer questions

• The first 3-4 questions should be multiple choice

• Make the questions concise (don’t make people read paragraphs)

• If you use an open ended question, make it optional and question #5

3/ Upgrade Page or Front-End Offer 💰️ 

🎯 Goal: Drive purchases.

Very few newsletter operators are doing this.

Many don’t have a front-end offer.

Front-end offer = the first product or service (typically low ticket) you offer to subscribers

Others have a front end offer but don’t include it in their welcome flow because they’re afraid of “trying to sell too early.”

Reasons to use an upgrade page/front-end offer in your welcome flow:

• High motivation: Selling something right away takes advantage of the strong ‘moment of intent’ from the subscriber. They just made a decision that they want what your newsletter offers. If you can solve a problem for them related to the newsletter, the likelihood of a purchase is higher now than it will be 30 minutes after they subscribe to the newsletter.

• Reinvest: You can recoup ad spend quickly by monetizing on Day 1 and reinvest it in more growth.

• Qualify leads: You qualify leads. People who buy something from you are more likely to buy something else from you in the future (if you deliver a high quality product).

• Awareness: Sometimes it takes multiple touch points before someone makes a purchasing decision. Using an upgrade page lets your subscribers know that you even have something for sale.

→ Tips

• Your upgrade should likely be priced in the ‘impulse buy’ category (most often $19-$99, potentially higher for B2B)

• What you offer should be aligned with the value proposition of the newsletter + whatever product or service you sell

• Examples of what you can offer:

  • Digital products:

    • Databases

    • Swipe files

    • Scripts

    • eBooks // playbooks

    • AI prompts

  • Access

    • Course material

    • Weekly coaching calls

    • Premium ongoing community

4/ Thank-You Page 🙏 

🎯 Goal: Get them to open the welcome email.

You convinced them to subscribe to your newsletter, but you may not have convinced them to read your emails yet.

Keep the thank you page simple.

In as few words as possible, do these 3 things:

• Confirm they’re subscribed

• Tell them what they signed up for

  • Here’s what content to expect (5 easy recipes)

  • Here’s when to expect it (every Friday at 7AM)

• Get them excited to read future newsletters:

  • Talk about how it will make their life better + solve their problems

    • How will it save them time, money, effort

    • How the newsletter will help them achieve the desired future they want

Finally, leave them 1 simple call to action:

→ to open the welcome email ←

→ Tips

• Give them a compelling reason to immediately go check out the welcome email. Some options:

  • Tell them there’s a surprise waiting for them and leave it vague

  • Promise something free (that is actually valuable for them)

    • Previous newsletter issue

    • Databases

    • Swipe files

    • Scripts

    • eBooks // playbooks

    • AI prompts

  • Tell them about it at the top of the thank you page + repeat it at the end

  • Include a p.s. note that if they don’t get the freebie within 5 minutes, to check their spam folder and move the email to their primary inbox

5/ Welcome Email 👋 

🎯 Goal: Get them to open the next email.

Remember the first 2 goals of your welcome flow:

1. Get people to engage: make it 2-way, not 1-way

2. Get people to look forward to (actually) reading your emails

Do a brief recap of the thank-you page:

• Tell them what content to expect and when

• Get them excited to read future newsletters

Drive them towards one of the following CTAs:

1. Reply (most people should optimize for this)

   • DON’T ask people to say ‘hi’

   • DO ask people a meaningful question that can have a short answer (e.g., we ask people their least favorite ESP)

2. Get the free resource you promised on the thank-you page

   • Imagine your subscriber’s first impression is being given a valuable resource for free (within 60 seconds of subscribing)

→ Tips

• Tap into instant gratification and make it as easy as possible for them to consume something valuable from you.

  • They just felt motivated to sign up for your newsletter for a reason. Link them to one of your best, most helpful or most recent pieces of content.

    • Example: 1440 links to that day’s newsletter (link)

• End the email with a teaser of what to expect in the next email (if you have an evergreen welcome sequence)

• Include a p.s. note saying something like “if this was in your spam, move this email into your primary folder”

6/ Welcome Sequence 📩 📩 📩 

🎯 Goal: Earn the eager open.

There’s too much to cover here. So this will get it’s own newsletter issue.

The the big ideas are to:

• Drive the know, like and trust factor

• Make it feel like Christmas whenever they get your emails

• Make it feel like a silly decision to not open and read your first 5 emails

🎯 Goal #3 of your welcome flow is simple.

Pick a single emoji you want people to associate with you and your content.

Then use it in every subject line. And on social media when you promote your newsletter.

Email inboxes, X and LinkedIn are text-heavy.

But every time they see that emoji in their inbox or on their feed, they should know it’s you.

Examples:

• Creator Spotlight 🔴 

• Meme Alerts 🚨

• BetterLetter 📈

• Beehiiv 🐝 

👉️ Here’s a summary of the takeaways:

Your welcome flow can be the difference between lighting money on fire and multiplying money.

Your welcome flow has 3 goals 🎯 

1. Get people to engage: make it 2-way, not 1-way

2. Get people to look forward to (actually) reading your emails

3. Establish a visual cue your subscribers associate with your newsletter

There are 6 potential parts of your welcome flow ♻️ 

1. Co-registration widget (beehiiv or sparkloop)

   • If priority is monetization, use it

   • If priority is best user experience, don’t

2. Welcome survey: get them to fill it out

   • 5 or fewer questions, mostly multiple choice

   • Get data that helps you validate you’re bringing in the right audience + serve them better

3. Upgrade page // Front-end offer: drive purchases

   • $19-$99

   • Aligned with newsletter value prop + higher ticket offering

4. Thank you page: Get them to read the welcome email

   • Tell them there’s a surprise in their inbox, OR

   • Tell them what valuable thing you just sent them

5. Welcome email: Get them to open the next email

   • Deliver what you promised on the thank you page

   • Tease what to expect next and why they should look forward to it

6. Welcome sequence: Earn the eager open.

   • More to come 👀 

📈 Visual Cue: Pick one emoji you want people to associate with you or your newsletter. Use it in your subject lines and on social.

Lastly..

Infuse your personal or brand’s personality into the welcome flow.

Use gifs, memes, a picture of your face.

If you’re funny, use humor. If you’re not…don’t.

Whether you have a consumer or B2B audience, establish a human connection.

Because at least for now, humans buy from humans.

There you have it. Get to work 🫡 

Until next time,

Isaac + Kieran

P.S. We’ve taken this client to 9k subscribers in 6 just weeks.

And we’re about to take some of our other clients across the 500k and 850k subscriber marks.

Growth is happening all day, every day without our clients having to lift a finger.

The only content they ever have to create is the newsletter.

We live and breathe this stuff.

So when you’re ready to turn on growth for your newsletter, let’s talk 🤙 

Our agency helps creators, brands and ministries grow their newsletters with subscribers that click, share and buy.

If you want us to grow your newsletter for you and are ready to invest at least $2k/month on ads, book a call with us here.