The welcome email is the one that gets opened

01What the welcome email is for

It has three jobs:

1. Confirm they're in the right place. Remind them what they signed up for, in their words, not yours.
2. Set expectations. What will you send, how often, and what's in it for them?
3. Get one small action. A reply, a click, a save. Anything that turns a stranger into someone who's engaged once.

02What to put in

• A subject line that says what it is. "Welcome to The Red Pen. Here's what to expect" beats "Hey there 👋". People open emails they recognise.
• A first line about them. "You signed up because your emails aren't getting replies. Let's fix that."
• The promise. "Every issue: one real piece of copy, rewritten line by line, with the reasons."
• Your best thing, right now. Don't make them wait for issue one. Link the single most useful thing you've ever written.
• A reply prompt. "Hit reply and tell me the one email you're stuck on." Replies tell inbox providers that people want your mail, and they tell you what to write next.

03What to leave out

• Your company history. They didn't sign up for it.
• Five links. One clear action beats five competing ones.
• A hard sell. Selling in the first email teaches people your emails are ads. Ads get ignored.
• A noreply address. If you ask for a reply, let them reply.

04Before and after

05The short version

• The welcome email reaches people at their most interested moment. Use it.
• Confirm why they're here, say what's coming, and ask for one small action.
• Skip the history, the link dump, the hard sell and the noreply address.

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