The First 3 Emails You Should Send To Your List (Email Marketing Tips For 2025)

There are 3 emails you should be sending your list… before you ever ask them to spend a single dollar with you… 

Yes, I’m talking about your Welcome Emails!

In this blog, I’m going to walk you through my proven 3-step welcome email sequence to help you increase engagement, deliverability and long-term sales…

Hey, Posse! What’s up? It’s Alex.

Coming at ya with another email marketing tutorial hot off the Posse press. 

If you want to learn more modern email marketing, copywriting and branding strategies, you’re in the right place…

Go ahead and subscribe to my newsletter so you’re first to know when my tutorial goes up. 

In this video, we are talking about the 3 MOST important emails you’ll ever send to your list…

Your welcome emails — aka nurture campaign — aka “indoctrination sequence”— aka the automated sequence of emails that you send to every single new subscriber who joins your list. 

These emails serve a VERY important purpose…

Especially RIGHT NOW when there is SO much noise and content online…

When there are dupes and fakes and artificial everything everywhere…

When skepticism is at an all-time high and trust is at an all-time low…

You want to make sure that when someone DOES put their trust in you and signs up for your list, you’re doing everything you can to keep that trust and create connection as quickly as possible.

So please for the love of god, whatever you do, do NOT use AI to write these emails for you!

In a world where there is SO much generic, watered-down garbage being published online — do you REALLY think using that kind of messaging is how you make a good first impression with your new leads?

Remember, right now people FIRST look for a reason to count you out. When we’re all bombarded with so much messaging from every different direction, we have no choice but to *very subconsciously* put everything through a more and more rigid filtering process.

Before we EVER *consciously* give it our time, energy or attention.

Customers today are savvier than ever, and if you’re not putting your BEST foot forward with your welcome emails – aka your empathy, personality and HUMANITY… in order to get through that BS filter everyone has…

You might as well kiss that new lead GOODBYE and flush money down the toilet. 

So with that outta the way, let’s get started.

My Proven 3-Step Email Welcome Sequence

The primary goal of your WELCOME sequence is to welcome your new subscribers to your community — that’s pretty obvious.

But these emails need to do to far more than simply say “hi” and where to buy.

The first interaction a customer has with your brand MASSIVELY informs their future action.

This often STARTS with your content or ads, then of course, your website or landing page, wherever this person decides to join your email list…

But your job is not done there. Not even close.

The first few emails you send these new leads will be the MOST OPENED emails you’ll ever send them.

And THIS is when they form an OPINION of who you are, how you can help them and if they want to stick around.

And trust me, you WANT THEM TO STICK AROUND.

Because customers today are savvier than ever. They are taking MUCH longer to make a purchasing decision while they evaluate the UNLIMITED options available to them…

At the Copy Posse, we’re seeing longer sales cycles too. With the average customer taking over a month to buy from us.

What are they doing in that first month (or in some cases even longer?)

They are waiting and watching and evaluating you…

It takes time (and repeated exposure) in order to build the know, like & trust factor when there are just SO many other options out there.

And that is why your welcome sequence is arguably some of the most important copy you’ll write in your business and so it pays to put some extra time and effort into making sure you get these emails RIGHT.

Sometimes, when so much is changing in the marketing world, I like to look back to the BASICS. Because at the end of the day, we’re all humans who value similar things… especially relationships.

In his book, How To Win Friends And Influence People, Dale Carnegie explains the 6 most important things to keep in mind if you want to make a great first impression.

1. Be genuinely interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Use their name! Remember your own name is the sweetest and most important sound in the world to you.
4. Encourage other people to talk about themselves and LISTEN.
5. Talk about the other person’s interests.
6. Make them feel important, and do it sincerely,

The goal of these emails is to educate your subscribers on what you’re all about and how you can help them…

WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY making a great first impression, creating a connection with new leads, encouraging engagement and turning those new leads into raving fans who stick around until they’re comfortable  buying from you. Period. 

Sounds like a big job. But I created a simple 3-step welcome sequence to make it easier.

I call it the A.I.M. Sequence…

Email #1: Acknowledge

This is the first email in the welcome sequence and I recommend sending it 1-2 hours after someone opts-in to your email list.

Why not immediately? Because this is usually when you’d send the confirmation email for whatever it is they just signed up for – usually it’s a free lead magnet or some free resource they want. THAT email should go out immediately to deliver the thing they are waiting for…

But then you want to follow up with an email to WELCOME this new person to your community… This is it!!

Your big moment to show your new leads WHO you are.

You can see here I’m saying, “Yessssssss I’m so happy you us thrilled to officially welcome you the Copy Posse. You’re one of us now (I promise we’re not a cult) 🤣”

So, yes, here I’m literally welcoming them and using their name… 

BUT more important than that, I’m making them feel like they BELONG here. Creating a sense of belonging in your marketing is incredibly powerful. I’ll talk more about that in Email #2.

Here, I’m also showcasing a bit of my personality and talking to them like I would talk to a friend. 

And THAT is the secret to replicating the “smile” of a good first impression, of course, that and an actual smile, or in this case, a laughing emoji. 

People connect with people. PERIOD. So don’t be afraid to have fun and show your personality if that aligns with your brand voice.

Now, you want to be VERY careful not to talk about yourself TOO much in this first email, which I know can feel hard when you want them to know about all the cool stuff you’re up to and why they should stick around.

But, remember, if you want to make a good first impression: You want to make it about THEM, the reader, as quickly as possible.

So in this email, I go on to talk about how I believe empathy is your greatest superpower… your words matter… and how YOU have the power to create the life of your dreams. 

What am I doing here? 

I’m showing interest in them AND I’m making them feel important.

Not bad so far… 

Let’s see if I can tick the rest of these boxes before the 3 welcome emails are over.

Now, in this first email, you then want to ACKNOWLEDGE your new subscriber, validate their reason for joining your list and share how you can help them when they decide to stick around and NOT unsubscribe…

It is very important to show them you understand where they are at and the PROBLEM they are looking to solve. 

Call it out in black and white and then tell them how you’re going to help them solve it. 

This is where you can share your brand promise and USP.

You should NOT be plugging any programs or offers or trying to sell them anything this early in the sequence.

This email is about building trust and making them feel like they belong here…

A good way to do this is by offering them more free content that might be helpful or interesting to them.

Finally, you can end by letting them know you’ll be following up in a couple of days with more information to help them on their journey.

Then, 2-3 days later, you send them Welcome Email #2…

Email #2: Include

In this second email, you can now go deeper into sharing the MISSION behind your brand or business and why they are a very important part of that mission…

Here you want to pull back the curtain a little and give them a peek into your world. Transparency is powerful here.

Share the story of how your mission came to be and what it REALLY means to you. Share about the REAL reason you do what you do…

The goal with this is, again, not to talk yourself up, but to show them, “Hey, I’m a real person just like you. I’ve had struggles and hardships and my life isn’t perfect but I’m here doing this awesome thing and I want you to join me.”

If you’re not writing this for a personal brand, but more of a product brand or company, you can absolutely still share the founding story and mission here

The goal of this email is to make your subscribers feel INCLUDED and CONNECTED to you.

So while the majority of this email will be about your story…

You still want to make sure you’re bringing it back to THEM. 

I like to throw in a little P.S. line that says, “I’d love to get to know you a bit better too. Reply back to this email and let me know the #1 challenge I can best support you with right now.”

And look at that, we’ve already checked all our boxes, and we aren’t even finished yet!

Now, 2-3 days later, you want to send…

Email #3: Mobilize

So now it’s time to invite your leads to take ACTION. Creating engagement early on is important because you want your subscribers to know this is not a ONE WAY thing… it’s a conversation.

In this email, you can share with them your product/service/offer and tell them exactly how you can help them solve their big problem quickly, if they are ready now.

After all, we do have a business and things to sell and I think it’s smart to let people know that right off the bat.

There are 3 different speeds of buyers…

• #1 – FAST
  • Ready to buy now – don’t make them wait!
  • These buyers are more emotional buyers – they are looking for a solution now!
  • Invite them to take the next step with you asap
    
• #2 – MEDIUM
  • Need a little love – show them the way.
  • They are 50/50 logical and emotional buyers… they take a bit more time to gather information before they are ready to buy…
  • You want to guide them forward…
    
• #3 – SLOW
  • Need a lotta love.
  • They are the logical buyers who do not trust you and need ALL the information before they make a decision…
  • For these ppl, you want to continue to addd value, create trust and NUTURE their experience.

So you want to think of this email as an invitation for those people who are ready to make a purchasing decision NOW!!!

BUT – this is NOT a sales email. 

Right now, you’re still just two new friends connecting and getting to know each better.

You can see I lead this email with a story about how I wore an eye patch as a kid (yes and EYE PATCH lol). And talk a bit more about my marketing philosophy…

Then at the end, I let them know all the ways they can learn more in my programs – and present them with some options if they are ready.

And that’s it. My super simple 3-step formula for creating a personal yet impactful welcome sequence. 

Just remember A, I, M, acknowledge, include, mobilize…

If you want to see my ENTIRE welcome sequence and read all 3 emails from start to finish, make sure you hop on my email list.

BUT THEN WHAT? What do you send to your list after these welcome emails?

Remember, the goal of the welcome emails is to simply get new leads to engage with your emails and build a connection with your brand. 

They might take a few days, weeks, months or even YEARS before deciding to BUY from you…

And during that time, you want to be sending REAL-TIME emails to your list so you can then turn those lurker leads into loyal customers who buy from you over and over again. 

If you want my help with that, check out my mini-course 365-Day Inbox Income.

It’s broken up into 5 super short and easy-to-digest lessons…

And you’ll get my exact list monetization process… 

INCLUDING my 3 go-to promotion frameworks that I follow for every promo I send my list. 

My email marketing calendar is pre-filled with 279 notable dates, seasons, and reasons for you to email your list.

PLUS I’ll help you come up with 125+ juicy content ideas and stories for writing engaging and trust-building emails that you can send to your list all year round. 

It’s a juicy and super easy-to-follow guide – and it’s only $27.

What email marketing questions do you have for me?

Drop them below and until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!

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