Welcome Sequence Use Case for Journeys

Your welcome sequence is the first thing your users see after they sign up. It's a make-or-break opportunity to give your users a great first impression of your brand.

Luckily, Iterable makes it easy to create a sign-up experience that your users will love!

You can use a journey to build an automated welcome sequence that:

• Sends a sign-up confirmation email
• Checks to see if the user has completed their account setup (and reminds them to if they haven't)
• Sends a discount or special offer
• Adds users to subscriber lists that are relevant to them
• And more!

# In this article

# Send a sign-up confirmation email

There are a few different ways to add new subscribers to your welcome sequence:

• When a custom event occurs (for example: signUp)
• When a user's profile information changes (for example: signedUp = true)
• When a user subscribes to a list (for example: "New Subscribers")

In this tutorial, we'll use a custom event.

1. In the Start tile, select one of your custom events (such as signUp) as the entry source that will add new users to the sequence as soon as they sign up to receive messages from your brand.

2. After the Start tile, add a message tile and set it up to send your sign-up confirmation message.

# (Optional) Set up a double opt-in sign-up flow

There are two ways your users can subscribe: single opt-in or double opt-in.

• Single opt-in is when a user enters their email address on the sign-up page of your site, and they are automatically subscribed to your email list. This is a simpler sign-up process—it's only one step, which makes it easy for your users to subscribe. The downside of single opt-in is that users could accidentally misspell their email address (or provide a fake email address) and still be added to your list.

• Double opt-in is when users submit their email address, then receive an email with a link they have to click to verify that they want to sign up. The benefit of using double opt-in is that you can be sure you're only sending messages to valid email addresses. If a confirmation email is sent to a misspelled or fake email, that user won't be added to your list. The downside is that this creates more friction for your users—they have to go through an extra step to subscribe.

To make your welcome seqence double opt-in:

1. Set the message tile we created in the previous step to send a verification link users need to click to sign up.

2. Configure the link to:

   • Lead the user to a confirmation page (for example, "Thanks for Signing Up!")

   • Send a custom event (something like emailVerified) to Iterable through the POST /api/events/track API call.

3. Create another journey that starts when the emailVerified custom event occurs.

4. In the second journey, add an Add to list tile after the Start tile, and set it up to add users to your main list (something like "Verified Subscribers").

5. Navigate to Audience > Segmentation and create a segmentation query that finds users who don't have the emailVerified event on their profile. Save the results as a dynamic list to prevent users who didn't complete the second step of the verification process from receiving messages.

# Prevent users from receiving the welcome sequence more than once

You probably only want users to receive your welcome sequence once in their lifetime. To prevent users from seeing this sequence more than once, open the Start tile settings menu, and set the number of Maximum Entries to "1".

# Add delays

Timing is everything with a welcome sequence. You want to promptly reassure new subscribers that they've successfully signed up, but you don't want to overwhelm them with too many messages too fast.

That's where delays come in. You can add a delay between two stages of your welcome sequence to pause the sequence until you're ready for users to move on to the next step.

For example, after sending your initial sign-up confirmation email, you could wait 1 day, then send a marketing email with personalized product recommendations.

# Remind users to complete their account setup

Want to encourage users to finish setting up their account on your website or app? Here's how.

1. After the Start tile and your initial confirmation email, add a delay for the amount of time that makes sense for your sequence.

2. After the delay, add a Yes/no split tile.

3. In the Yes/no split tile, set up a query that checks to see if the user's Profile Updated Date field was filled out during the length of time you selected for the delay.

4. Connect another message tile to the No point on the Yes/no split tile, and configure it to send a follow-up message reminding your users to finish setting up their account.

5. Send users who have already completed their profile to the next stage of the journey.

# Send a discount or special offer

Sending a special offer as thanks for signing up is a great way to encourage your subscribers to make a purchase or start using your app.

1. Add a Yes/no split tile, and set it up to check whether or not the user has ever made a purchase or redeemed a special offer before.

2. Connect a message tile to the No point, and set it up to send a campaign that gives eligible users a discount or special offer (for example: "Use code WELCOME15 for 15% off!").

3. You can send users who have previously made a purchase a different special offer, or have them continue on in the journey without receiving a special offer.

# Add users to subscriber lists that are relevant to them

Your welcome sequence is probably pretty general—every new subscriber who signs up will go through it. You can use filters to start sending your subscribers messaging that is more relevant to their specific interests.

1. Add a Yes/no split tile and set it up to check whether or not a subscriber clicked an opt-in link (for example: "Get promos delivered to your inbox").

2. Connect an Add to List tile and select the list you'd like users to be added to (for example: "Promo Subscribers").

# Want to learn more?

For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out this Iterable Academy course. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!

• Iterable Studio: Creating Harmonized Customer Experiences