Create an Automated Welcome Flow

When someone signs up for your marketing, it's an opportunity to make a great first impression. Send them a welcome message to introduce yourself, say thank you, or offer a special promotion. In Mailchimp, you can use a marketing automation flow to make sure each new contact receives a welcome email or sms automatically.

In this article, you'll learn how to create an automated welcome message with a marketing automation flow.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• Automated welcome messages are built with marketing automation flows. Depending on your plan, you may not have access to all automation flow tools. To find out what features are included in each plan, check out our pricing page. To change your plan type, visit the Plans page in your account.

• To learn how automation flows work before you build one, check out About Marketing Automation Flows.

How signup triggers work

Every welcome flow starts with a Signs up for Email or Signs up for SMS starting point. Before you build your flow, it's important to understand exactly who that trigger adds, so your welcome message reaches the contacts you expect.

The Signs up for Email or Signs up for SMS triggers add contacts who are new to your audience and have a status of subscribed to email or SMS. Here's what that means in practice.

• Imported contacts are included by default. Contacts who are new to your audience and added by import will enter your flow. If you'd rather welcome only the contacts who sign up through a form, use the checkbox in your trigger settings to exclude imported contacts.

• Filters let you narrow who enters. Click Filter who can enter this flow to add segmenting conditions to your trigger, so only the contacts you choose receive your welcome message. Filter by signup source, tags, group or audience field data, location, or ecommerce attributes. This is useful for personalizing your welcome content — for example, you could build one flow that welcomes contacts who joined through a specific form or landing page with content about that offer, and another that welcomes contacts tagged from an event with a different message.

• Contacts who re-subscribe depend on your re-entry setting. If your flow is set to allow contacts to re-enter, a contact who goes from subscribed to unsubscribed and then subscribes again can receive your welcome message. If your flow doesn't allow contacts to re-enter, contacts who re-subscribe won't receive it.

• Already-subscribed contacts won't be added again. A contact who's already subscribed won't enter the flow just because they fill out another form. For example, a subscribed contact who submits a form or landing page to claim a lead magnet or other offer won't get your welcome message again. This isn't affected by your re-entry setting. If you want every contact who fills out a form to receive a flow, consider using the Joins segment or Tag added trigger instead.

• Contacts from a one-time historical sync won't be added. If contacts are added to your audience through a one-time historical sync from an integrated platform, they won't enter your flow. This prevents your welcome message from going out to a batch of existing customers all at once. Going forward, though, new contacts who sync from that integration will be queued into your flow as they're added, so you only need to connect the integration once.

• Double opt-in adds a delay. If double opt-in is enabled for your audience, a new contact isn't added as a subscribed contact until they click the link in your opt-in confirmation email or text message. That means they won't enter your flow at the moment they submit your signup form — they'll enter it after they confirm and their status updates to subscribed. Contacts who never confirm won't enter the flow at all. To learn more, check out About Double Opt-in.

Option 1: Use a welcome flow template

We offer several flow templates that welcome new contacts. Each one comes with a signup trigger and a welcome message already in place, so you only need to choose your audience and edit the content. Depending on the template, the trigger might be a general email signup, a signup through a specific form, or a signup for SMS.

To use a flow template, follow these steps.

1. Click the Automations icon, then click Flow templates.

2. Find the welcome templates. Search for "welcome," or scroll to the Find & welcome new contacts section.

3. Choose the template that fits your needs, with outreach by email, SMS, or both. Click a template to open a preview of the flow. The preview shows the flow's description, trigger, requirements, and objective, so you can confirm it's the right fit.

4. Click Use this flow.

5. Click the drop-down menu to choose an audience, then click Continue.

Depending on which template you choose, you may also need to choose a store or product to configure your flow. To learn more, check out Use Automation Flow Templates.

Some welcome templates are AI-powered. If you choose a template from the AI-powered flows section, Intuit Assist will use your brand kit to generate designed, on-brand email content for you to review. To learn more, check out Use Intuit Assist with Automation Flow Templates.

Now you're ready to review the trigger, edit your message, and turn the flow on.

Option 2: Build a welcome flow from scratch

Build from scratch when you want to set your own delay, add multiple welcome emails or SMS messages, or filter who receives the welcome.

Create the flow

1. Click the Automations icon.
2. Click Build from scratch.
3. Enter a Name for your flow, then click the drop-down to choose an Audience.
4. Click Choose a trigger.

Add the signup trigger

1. Click Choose a trigger.
2. Choose Signs up for email or Signs up for SMS. This adds a contact to your flow when they subscribe to marketing.
3. Choose whether to include new, imported contacts.
4. Optional: Click Filter who can enter this flow to use segmenting conditions to narrow who receives your welcome message. For example, you could welcome only the contacts who join a specific group.
5. Click Save Trigger.

To learn about the other triggers available, check out All the Marketing Automation Flow Triggers.

Add your welcome email or SMS

After you add the trigger, add the steps that make up your flow. To add a step, click and drag rules and actions from the side panel onto your flow, or click the plus icon (+) on the map and select the rule or action you want to add.

For a welcome flow, add these steps.

1. Add a Send email action, or a Send SMS action if you have an approved SMS Marketing program.
2. Next, add your content. Whether you started from a template or from scratch, you'll edit your content in the send action on your flow map. a. To edit a welcome email, click the Send email action, then edit your sender details, subject line, and design. To learn more, check out Use Send Email Actions. b. To edit a welcome text message, click the Send SMS action, then write your message content. To learn more, check out Use Send SMS Actions.
3. Optional: Add another Delay rule and a second send action to turn your welcome message into a welcome series. You can mix channels — for example, a welcome email followed by a text message a few days later.

Click Save when you finish editing.

Send a test email

Before you turn on your flow, use Send a Test Email to check your design, copy, and links in a real inbox without activating your flow or adding anyone to your audience. You can test more than one email at a time, which is helpful if your welcome flow is a series.

To send a test email, follow these steps.

1. In your flow, click the Send email action you want to test.
2. Click Send a test email.
3. In the Send a Test Email pop-up, enter the address you want the test sent to in the Send a test to field. To send to more than one address, separate each address with a comma.
4. Click the Select emails drop-down to choose which of your flow's emails to include in the test.
5. Optional: Add instructions or a personal message for whoever receives the test. This is useful when you're sending a draft to a teammate for review.
6. Click Send test.

Check your inbox to review the email. If you need to make changes, edit the Send email action and send another test.

Activate your flow

1. When your flow is ready, click Continue.
2. Click Turn flow on.

Great job! Now, anyone who signs up for your email marketing will receive your welcome email.

Review your settings

We'll display a checklist with your welcome email settings. Review the checklist and make any necessary changes to your automation, like From name, email address, subject line, or sending delay.

To edit the draft, follow these steps.

1. To edit campaign information, click the Edit button in the field you want to edit.
   • Click Edit Delay and Recipients to change the delivery delay after signup. The default delay is immediately. Other delay options are 1 hour, 6 hours, or 1 day. Click the drop-down menu to set the delay time.
   • Click Edit From to edit the name and email address your contacts will see.
   • Click Edit Subject to edit the subject line and preview text.
2. When you finish editing a section, click Save before moving to the next section.
3. In the Content section, click Edit Design.
4. Design and preview your campaign. If you need help, check out Design an Email With the New Builder.
5. When you’re done, click Continue to return to the checklist.

6. Click Start Sending.
   

7. In the pop-up confirmation box, click Start Now.
   

Great job! Now, anyone who signs up to your email marketing will receive your welcome message. After the data begins to roll in, you can view your automation report to see how it’s performing.

Test with a signup

After you turn on your flow, you may want to test the whole thing end to end to confirm contacts enter it and receive the email.

• Confirm the flow is on. On the All flows homepage, your welcome flow should show as active. This confirms contacts can enter it.
• Try a test signup. Navigate to the signup form you use to collect new contacts, and sign up. Use an email address that isn't already subscribed and hasn't already entered this flow. If you sign up with an address that's already been through the flow, you won't receive the email again. This is true even if you delete the address and sign up again.

Tip: Use Gmail to get extra addresses for testing. If you don't have a new address to try with your signup form, that's OK. Gmail users can create instant disposable email addresses by adding a plus sign and additional numbers or letters to the address. Here's an example:

When you join your Mailchimp audience with these address variations, we’ll recognize them as unique subscribers. All welcome emails sent to the new addresses will go to your original inbox.