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Create an automated welcome email
Automatically send a welcome email the moment someone subscribes to your list.
A welcome email is the message someone receives just after they subscribe to your list. It's the first impression your newsletter makes, so it's worth getting right - a warm greeting, a reminder of what they signed up for, and a gentle nudge to add your address to their contacts so future emails land in the inbox. MailMachine can send it automatically, every time, the moment someone joins.
New to automations? Start with Understand email automation for the lay of the land.
Set up your welcome automation
- Click Automations.
- Click the + sign at the top right (or use the Create button).
- Select the list you want to connect, then click Continue.
- In the Predefined automations tab, choose Welcome new contacts. This drops you straight into the automation editor.
- Set the delay on the edit-condition step - how long after someone subscribes the email should send. Set it to immediately for an instant welcome, or add a short delay if you prefer.
- Select the Send an email action in the workflow.
- Click Edit to open the email in the designer and customise it.
- Build your welcome message - your branding, your words. When you're done, click Save and exit.
- Activate the automation with the toggle at the top right, then Save and exit once more.
From now on, every new subscriber gets your welcome message automatically, after whatever delay you set.
Use your welcome email to ask new subscribers to add your sender address to their contacts or safe-sender list. It's a simple line that measurably improves whether your later emails reach the inbox.
Troubleshooting
The welcome email doesn't send - confirm the automation is activated (toggle ON), the trigger is "contact subscribes to list", and new contacts are actually being added to that list.
It lands in spam - ask subscribers to add you to their contacts, keep spam-trigger words out of your subject and content, and make sure your sending domain is authenticated.
The timing's off - check the delay step. Set it to immediately for an instant send, and bear timezones in mind if you've scheduled a longer delay.
Personalisation isn't working - check your merge tags are formatted correctly, and that your contacts actually have the fields you're referencing filled in. Test with a sample contact that has everything populated.
If your welcome email won't trigger, open a support ticket.