When someone subscribes to hear from your brand, it's a key moment in the customer journey. This is your chance to welcome and introduce new contacts to your business and products when they're most likely to be interested and engaged using a thoughtful welcome email automation.

Introduction to welcome emails

A welcome email is a single email or a series of personalized messages sent to greet new subscribers or customers. They help introduce recipients to your business and products.

Here's an example of what to include in your welcome emails and when to send them:

Remember, these are general guidelines, and you should adjust the intervals based on your specific industry, product lifecycle, and audience engagement patterns. Additionally, always ensure that your emails provide value and align with the interests of your contacts.

Send an automated welcome email to new contacts

In this example, we’ll create a simple welcome email automation. When a contact is added to a specific list in Brevo, they’ll receive a welcome email after a brief delay.

You can expand this approach to a more advanced automation, such as providing tips for getting started with your product, offering a discount on an annual plan, or directing free customers to another automation focused on plan recommendations. Adjust the process to align with your specific goals and needs.

Step 1: Create your automation

1. Go to Automations.
2. Click Create an automation.
3. Click Use the new editor [Beta].
4. Click the name of your automation in the top bar to update it.

Step 2: Define who will receive your welcome email

The automation will be triggered when a new contact is added to a specific list in Brevo.

1. From the Triggers tab, drag and drop the Contacts - Contact added to list step into the canvas.
   
2. From the List dropdown, select which list(s) should trigger the automation. Anytime a contact is added to the selected list(s), they will enter the automation.
   
3. Click Save to save your trigger.

Step 3: Add a brief delay before sending your welcome email

You can add a brief delay of 2 or 3 minutes before sending your welcome email to make the interaction feel less automated.

1. From the Rules tab, drag and drop the Time delay step into the canvas.
   
2. Enter the delay you want your contacts to wait for before receiving your welcome email.
   
3. Click Save to save your rule.

Step 4: Send your welcome email

You'll now set up the welcome email that will be sent to your new contacts.

1. From the Actions tab, drag and drop the Messaging - Send an email step into the canvas.
   
2. Set up the information of your welcome email:
   🎨 Content

   Message

   You will now design the email that will be sent to your new contacts. With the new automation editor, you can now design your email templates seamlessly within the editor itself. 

   1. Click Select template to start designing your welcome email.
   2. Search for the email design you need in the different tabs. You can choose one of Brevo's pre-configured templates or your own template, or you can create your own design from scratch.
      
   3. Click Use to open the email design in the Drag & Drop editor.
   4. Customize your email by dragging and dropping content blocks, such as text, images, or buttons. To learn more on how to use the Drag & Drop Editor, check our dedicated section in the Help Center. 
   5. Once you are done designing your email, click Use this design in automation.

   What event data to display?

   Keep the option selected as The email doesn't have variables.

   🔠 Subject

   The subject line and preview text are the first things recipients see in their inboxes. Using compelling subject lines and preview text can help drive more opens, clicks, and conversions.

   1. In the Subject line field, enter the subject line of your email. You can include promotional offers, emojis, or even questions to pique your recipients' curiosity.
      ➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article How to write a great email subject line?.
   2. In the Preview text field, enter the preview text of your email.
      

   👤 Sender

   Ensure that your welcome email recipients easily recognize your business by using a sender email address and name associated with your business.

   1. From the Email address dropdown, select a sender from your existing ones or create a new one.
   2. By default, the sender name in the Sender's name field is the one linked to the sender email address you selected above. You can override it by entering another name in the Sender's name field.
      

   ⚙️ Additional settings

   Click Edit settings to configure additional settings for your welcome email.

   🛑 Frequency cap

   We don't recommend including your welcome email in your frequency cap as this is the first introductory email your recipients will receive from your brand. ➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Limit your marketing pressure with sending cadence (Frequency cap and Email overload prevention).

   ⏲️ Email sending time

   Enable this option to choose when to send your automated welcome email. You can choose to send it based on:

   

   • A custom timeframe (only during certain days and hours of the week), or
   • At the best time calculated by Brevo to maximize the open rate by delivering your emails at the optimal time for each recipient over a 24-hour period.

   💡 Good to know

   If you choose to schedule the sending of your welcome email, the delay you added at Step 2: Add a rule - Time delay might not be observed.

   📫  Email copy

   Enable this option to send a copy of your welcome email to a designated recipient each time a contact receives it.

   Both CC (Carbon Copy) and BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) options allow you to send a copy of your welcome email. The main difference is that CC recipients are visible to others, while BCC recipients are not.

   📨 Sending and tracking

   Use a different Reply-to address

   By default, the Reply-to address is the same as the sender’s. Enable this option to override it by entering another email address in the field.

   Activate Google Analytics tracking

   Enable this option to track your welcome email in Google Analytics.

   You can specify a custom UTM name, such as the name of your automation, or use the name of your welcome email by default. You can also track the ID of your email. ➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Integrate Google Analytics with your Brevo account.

   Add a tag

   You can use descriptive tags to find your email more easily. For example, you could tag your Welcome email with the "welcome" tag.

   Add an attachment

   Enable this option to add an attachment to your welcome email. You can add one file with a limit of 5MB.

   💡 Good to know

   Your file name should only contain alphanumeric characters.

   📄 Subscription

   Use an update profile form

   Enable this option to select an existing update profile form to add to the footer of your email or create a new one. ➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Update your contacts details and preferences (Update Profile form).

3. Click Save to save your action.

Step 5: (Optional) Send a series of welcome emails

When creating this welcome email automation, you can easily turn it into a series of welcome emails.

To do so, simply follow Step 2: Define who will receive your welcome email and Step 3: Add a brief delay before sending your welcome email again for each additional welcome email that you want to send. You can also easily duplicate and update your existing steps to save time.

For example, this is what a series of three welcome emails could look like:

Step 6: Activate your automation

Once you're done setting up your welcome email automation, activate it to allow new contacts added to the selected list(s) to enter it.

1. In the top bar, click Activate automation.
2. (Optional) Activate the Allow contact re-entry after exit option to let contacts who have exited this automation receive your welcome email again if they are re-added to the list.
3. (Optional) Activate the Set up wait time option and specify how long to wait before a contact can re-enter the automation after they are re-added to the list.
   
4. Click Activate automation.

Your automation is now active. Contacts will enter it once they're added to the list(s) you selected in Step 2: Define who will receive your welcome email.

⏭️ What's next?

• About the new automation editor
• Available triggers, actions, and rules

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.