How to write a welcome email series, with a 5-email template

What a welcome email series does

A welcome email series is the set of automated emails a new subscriber receives in their first week or two. It arrives at the moment they are most curious about you, because they have only just said yes. A good series does five jobs, one per email: it confirms they're in and explains what's coming, tells your story, shows your most useful work and starts a conversation. Only after all that does it make an offer.

Mailchimp's own guide to welcome emails suggests a series of 3 to 5 emails, with the first sent straight away and the rest spaced 1 to 3 days apart. That is a sensible default, so it's the timing the template below uses.

This guide gives you a 5-email template with timing and subject lines. It also includes prompts to write the whole series with your AI from your own brand facts, a worked example and the US consent and unsubscribe basics.

The 5-email welcome email template

Here is the whole series on one page, with one job and one ask for each email. If you only have time to write a single email this week, write email 1, because it's the one every new subscriber receives first.

Treat the days as a starting point rather than a rule. A shop that promised a welcome discount might move email 5 earlier, while a consultant with a long sales cycle might stretch the gaps. Keep the order, though, because emails 1 to 4 let people get to know you before you ask them for anything.

What goes in each welcome email?

Email 1: You're in

This is the email almost everyone opens, because they're expecting it. Keep it short, say thank you once and then move straight on to the information they signed up for.

• Deliver exactly what you promised on the sign-up form, whether that's a guide, a discount code or the first lesson.
• Say what they'll get from you and how often. Mailchimp's guide says to always tell people how often you'll email them, so they know what to expect.
• Tell them who the emails come from, ideally a real person's name rather than a company.
• End with one easy ask, such as "Hit reply and tell me what made you sign up."

Email 2: Why we exist

Tell the short, true story of your business: the problem you noticed, the people you help and what you do differently. Build it around one specific moment rather than a mission statement, because a concrete scene is easier to remember. "I started baking sourdough for my mum's café when the supplier closed" says far more than "We're passionate about quality."

Email 3: Your best work

Pick the two or three things new subscribers are likely to find most useful, such as your best-selling product, your most-read article or the video people forward to friends. Explain in one line who each one is for, and give each its own link. Resist listing everything you've ever made, since a long list makes the choice harder and a short one is easier to act on.

Email 4: Tell me about you

Ask one question that subscribers can answer in a single line, such as what the hardest part of [the problem you solve] is for them right now. Their replies then tell you what to write and sell next, described in your customers' own vocabulary.

Email 5: Ready when you are

Now make your offer, choosing the one product or service that best matches what they signed up for. Explain what it is, who it's for, what it costs or where to see the price, and what happens after they buy. Use only true claims, real terms and real deadlines, and if there's no genuine deadline, don't invent one.

How do you write welcome email subject lines?

A subject line has one job, which is to get the right person to open the right email. In a welcome series, clear beats clever, because subscribers already know who you are and only need to know what's inside.

• Say what's inside, because a line like "Your 10% code, and what happens next" tells readers exactly why they should open it.
• Keep it short, since many people read email on a phone, where long subject lines get cut off before the important words.
• Match the email, because US law says a subject line must not mislead people about the content (more on that below). Misleading openers like "Re:" or "Your order" on a marketing email are out.
• Use the preview text, which is the line most inboxes display after the subject and the natural place for the second half of the thought.
• Sound like you, so that if your brand is warm and casual everywhere else, your subject lines are too.

These are example lines written for this article, so fill the brackets with your own words. If your email tool allows it, test two versions of the subject line for email 1, since that email reaches every subscriber.

How to write your welcome series with AI

AI is good at drafting emails but knows nothing about your business unless you tell it. If you ask for "a welcome email series" with no other information, you get generic copy full of made-up claims. So give it your facts first, then ask for the emails, and then check them in a separate step.

Step 1: Write a one-page brand fact sheet

Put the essentials on one page: what you sell, who it's for, your story in five lines and the free thing you promised on the sign-up form. Add how often you'll email, your two or three best products or pages with links, your offer for email 5 with its real terms and the claims you can prove. Finish with three emails or posts you've written that sound like you. This page does most of the work, and you'll reuse it for every email you write with AI from now on.

Step 2: Draft the series with one prompt

Paste your fact sheet into the prompt below, which asks your AI to follow the template, use only your facts and flag anything that's missing.

You are an email copywriter. Write a 5-email welcome series for new subscribers to my list.

My brand fact sheet:
[paste your fact sheet: what you sell, who for, your story, the sign-up promise, how often you email, best products or pages with links, the offer for email 5 with real terms, claims you can prove]

Three things I've written that sound like me:
[paste them]

Follow this plan:
1. You're in (send straight away): deliver the sign-up promise, say what's coming and how often, one easy ask.
2. Why we exist (day 2): my story, one specific moment.
3. Our best work (day 4): 2 or 3 items, one line each on who it's for.
4. Tell me about you (day 6): one question they can answer in a line.
5. Ready when you are (day 9): one honest offer with its real terms.

For each email give: 2 subject lines (under 45 characters), preview text, the body (under 200 words), and the one link or ask.

Rules:
- Use only facts from my fact sheet. Never invent a number, review, result, deadline or discount.
- Where you need a fact I didn't give, write [NEEDS FACT: what].
- One ask per email. No exclamation marks. Write like my examples, not like an ad.
- Subject lines must match what's inside the email.

At the end, list every claim you made and which line of my fact sheet it came from.

Step 3: Check the drafts before they go in your email tool

Read each email out loud and fix anything you wouldn't say to a customer's face. Then run a second check with the prompt below, which looks for invented claims, mixed asks and subject lines that don't match the content. Run it in a fresh chat, because your AI spots these problems more easily there than in the conversation where it wrote the drafts.

You are a careful email editor. Check this welcome email series before I load it into my email tool.

My brand fact sheet (the only facts that are true):
[paste it]

The emails:
[paste all 5 emails with subject lines and preview text]

Check each email and answer yes or no, with a short reason:
1. Does every claim, number and promise appear in my fact sheet?
2. Does the email have one job and one ask?
3. Does the subject line match what's inside?
4. Does email 1 say how often I'll email?
5. Is it under 200 words and easy to read on a phone?
6. Does it sound like my examples?
7. Is there an unsubscribe link and my postal address in the footer? (If the footer isn't pasted, say "can't see footer".)

Then give me a fixed version of any email that failed a check, and list what you changed.
Don't add new claims while fixing.

Step 4: Load, test and send to yourself

Put the emails into your email tool as a welcome sequence, which most tools call an automation or a flow. Sign up with your own email address, read every email on your phone and click every link, so you see exactly what a new subscriber sees. Finally, check that replies reach an inbox someone reads, because email 4 asks people to write back.

Worked example: a welcome series for Ali Abdaal's LifeNotes

Ali Abdaal is a YouTuber and author whose website says he's a doctor turned entrepreneur who has posted on YouTube since 2017. The site also says he wrote the New York Times bestseller Feel-Good Productivity. His newsletter page describes LifeNotes as a free, "weekly(ish)" newsletter of productivity tips, practical life advice and insights from across the web.

The sign-up form is a good model for step 1, because it says what you'll get and roughly how often. It also says the newsletter may send other emails about his courses and that you can opt out at any time. A reader therefore knows from the start that offers may come.

We haven't seen LifeNotes' real welcome emails, and Ali Abdaal hasn't used anything from this article. Below is an example draft written for this article from his public pages only, showing what the prompt above would return from a fact sheet like his.

Notice the [NEEDS FACT] marker in email 3: the AI doesn't know which pieces Ali would choose, so it asks instead of guessing. That is exactly the behaviour you want from your own drafts.

Consent and unsubscribe basics

A welcome series should only go to people who subscribed, so never add purchased lists or contacts who didn't ask to hear from you. Then cover the basics below, bearing in mind that this is a short summary rather than legal advice.

In the US: the CAN-SPAM Act

The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide sets out the US rules for commercial email. The key points, as of November 2026, are summarised below.

• Don't use subject lines that mislead people about what's in the email.
• Include your valid physical postal address in every message.
• Give a clear way to opt out, and honour opt-outs within 10 business days.
• Make it clear and conspicuous when a message is an advertisement.
• If another company sends email on your behalf, you're still legally responsible.
• The law makes no exception for business-to-business email, so it applies to companies too.

Gmail's rules for senders

Google's email sender guidelines ask all senders to set up email authentication (SPF or DKIM), which is a way of proving an email really comes from your domain. People who send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must also support one-click unsubscribe and show a visible unsubscribe link. Your email tool usually handles the unsubscribe part, and its support team can help with authentication if you send from your own domain.

Outside the US

Other countries have their own rules, and many require clear consent before you send marketing email. In the UK, check the guidance from the ICO, the UK data protection regulator, and in the EU, check your national regulator. When you're genuinely unsure, ask a qualified lawyer.

Common mistakes, and what to do instead

Selling in email 1

A big offer before people know you can feel pushy, so deliver what you promised first. If your sign-up promise was a discount, then email 1 is the discount, and that's perfectly fine.

Five links in every email

Many links split attention, and Mailchimp's guide says to use one call to action per email. Pick the single thing you want readers to do, and move everything else to the footer.

Letting AI invent your story

If you ask for "a heartfelt founder story" with no facts, you'll get one, and it will be made up. Give your AI the real story in five lines, and ask it to mark anything it adds as a question for you.

Never saying how often you'll email

People who expect a monthly email can feel spammed by a weekly one, so state the rhythm clearly in email 1 and then stick to it.

Setting it up and forgetting it

Your best products, links and prices change over time, while an automated series keeps sending the old versions. Review the whole series every three months and check that the links still work and the offer is still accurate.

Writing the same email five times

If every email says "here's our product", readers soon stop opening them. Give each email a different purpose, exactly as the template does.

Where AI Blocks helps

These are free to use with your own AI, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini: download the skill or workflow, or copy the prompt. AI Blocks doesn't send any email on your behalf, so you stay in control of every message.

• Five-email welcome sequence writer: share your offer, readers and product proof to get five drafts that teach before they sell, with claim edits and a readiness check for each email.
• Welcome flow builder: for online shops, give it your offer and best sellers to get timing, filters, email outlines, SMS and tests.
• Email sequence and timing writer: draft a welcome, nurture or win-back series with full copy, timing, entry and exit rules and a results plan.
• Email draft reviewer: paste a draft and get cuts, subject line fixes, a score out of 100 and a ship or fix verdict.
• Brand voice one-pager writer: get a one-page voice guide to paste into your fact sheet, so the emails sound like you.
• Email consent and message reviewer: share how your contacts joined and ten messages to get a review of the evidence and changes to your email plan.
• Signup popup builder: build the sign-up form that starts the series, with copy and a test plan.
• Inbox delivery fixer: share your sending domain to get SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks and a step-by-step repair plan.

To make the drafts sound like you, read how to make AI writing sound like you. To build the fact sheet once and reuse it, see how to give AI context about your business. And if you also email people who haven't signed up, read how to write cold emails with AI first, because the rules are different.

Questions people ask

How many emails should a welcome series have?

Three to five is a good range, and Mailchimp's guide suggests the same. Five emails give each job its own message, but if you're short on time, start with email 1 and email 5, then fill in the middle later.

When should I send the first welcome email?

Send it straight away, while the reader still remembers signing up. Mailchimp suggests spacing the rest 1 to 3 days apart, and setting the series up as an automation means it sends without you.

What's the difference between a welcome email sequence and a newsletter?

A welcome sequence is a fixed set of emails that every new subscriber receives, in order, from the day they join. A newsletter goes to your whole list on a regular schedule. You can run both, with the sequence first and the newsletter after it.

Should my welcome email include a discount?

Only if you promised one, or if discounts genuinely suit your business model. Mailchimp lists a discount email as one option rather than a requirement. A useful guide, lesson or best-of list also makes a good welcome, and it doesn't teach people to wait for codes.

Can I use AI to write my welcome emails?

Yes, as long as you give it your real facts and check every claim. Use the two prompts above, one to draft from your fact sheet and one to check the drafts, while you stay the person who approves and sends.

Do welcome emails need an unsubscribe link?

In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says commercial emails need a clear way to opt out, with opt-outs honoured within 10 business days. Gmail also asks bulk senders for one-click unsubscribe, so include a link in every email to be safe.