Journey Recipe: Welcome Series

The welcome series is the single best journey to build first. It goes out automatically to every new subscriber — making a great first impression without you having to do anything after the initial setup.

In this recipe, you'll find:

1. Goal
2. Who it's for
3. Trigger
4. The flow
5. What to say in each email
6. Tips for success
7. FAQs

1 Goal

Help new subscribers feel welcome, understand what you do, and take one meaningful next step — whether that's booking a call, visiting your website, or simply knowing they're in good hands.

One goal, one journey: This journey is purely about making a great first impression. Save promotions or lead-nurturing for a separate journey.

2 Who it's for

Any small business that collects email addresses. The welcome series works for:

• Service businesses (consultants, coaches, therapists, accountants) who want to introduce themselves and explain how they can help
• Retail and local businesses (bakeries, boutiques, fitness studios) who want to build loyalty from day one
• Nonprofits who want to thank new supporters and share their mission
• Anyone who collects leads through a website form and wants an automatic, professional follow-up

3 Trigger

The journey starts automatically when a new contact is added to your audience. In Tarvent, you'll use one of two trigger options:

• Contact added — fires whenever a new contact joins your audience, regardless of how they were added (form, manual, integration, etc.)
• Contact event: Subscribed — fires specifically when someone subscribes

Using double opt-in? If your audience requires subscribers to confirm their email address before they're active, use the Contact event: Confirmed subscription trigger instead. That way, the welcome series only starts after they've verified their address — and your emails will actually reach them.

4 The flow

Here's a simple 3-email welcome series. You can add a fourth email if you have more to say, but three is enough to get started.

Tarvent steps used in this recipe: Contact added trigger · Send email action · Wait flow step · Add tag action

5 What to say in each email

You don't need to be a professional copywriter. Write the way you'd talk to a customer in person — warm, clear, and genuine.

Email 1 — Welcome (send immediately)

This is your first impression. Keep it short and friendly.

• Thank them for subscribing (or signing up, or joining)
• Tell them what to expect from your emails — how often, what kind of content
• If you offered an incentive to subscribe (a discount, a free resource), deliver it here
• Use their first name in the subject line: "Welcome, {{FirstName}}!"

Example subject lines:

• Welcome to the Maple Street Bakery family, {{FirstName}}!
• You're in, {{FirstName}} — here's what's next
• Thanks for joining us, {{FirstName}} 🎉

Email 2 — Your story / what you do (day 3)

Now that they know who you are, tell them why you do what you do. People connect with people, not businesses.

• Share a bit about your background or how your business started
• Describe the problem you solve or the difference you make for customers
• Include one thing that makes you different — your approach, your values, your community
• Keep it conversational; this isn't a sales pitch

Example subjects:

• Why I started this (the real story)
• What we're really about at Apex Consulting
• The reason Sunrise Fitness exists

Email 3 — Next step / call to action (day 7)

End the series with one clear invitation. Don't offer five options — pick the single most valuable action they could take.

• Book a free call or consultation
• Browse your most popular products or services
• Follow you on social media
• Read your most helpful blog post or resource
• Reply to ask a question (great for service businesses)

Example subjects:

• Ready for your next step, {{FirstName}}?
• One thing I'd love you to do today
• Here's how we can work together

Personalization: Use {{FirstName}} in subject lines and email greetings. A subject line with a name gets noticed. In the email body, you can also reference when they joined or what form they submitted — ask your Tarvent help docs for available merge tags.

6 Tips for success

Test before you activate

Add yourself (or a colleague) as a test contact and go through the whole journey before turning it on. Check that each email looks right, the timing feels good, and every link works. It only takes a few minutes and saves embarrassment later.

Don't over-write

Each email should have one job. Email 1 welcomes. Email 2 connects. Email 3 invites. If you find yourself cramming multiple ideas into one email, it's a sign to simplify.

Send on weekdays if you can

Tarvent's Send email step lets you restrict delivery to specific days of the week. For most small businesses, Tuesday through Thursday tends to get the best results — but test what works for your audience.

Check your stats after the first 20–30 contacts

Once a handful of people have gone through the journey, open the journey's reporting and look at open rates and click rates for each email. If Email 2 has a noticeably lower open rate, try a different subject line. Small tweaks can make a meaningful difference.

Set the journey to run once per contact

In your journey settings, set it to run once per contact. You don't want someone to receive your welcome series twice if they re-subscribe or get added again through an integration.

🌟 Template-ready: This recipe is a great candidate for a one-click Tarvent journey template. If you'd like to start from a pre-built version of this flow rather than building from scratch, look for the "Welcome Series" template in the journey template gallery when creating a new journey.

7 FAQs