Create an Automated Welcome Email

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

In this article, you'll learn how to create an automated welcome email.

Before you start

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

• The single welcome email is a Classic Automations feature. Classic Automations are only available to accounts that have previously created a classic automation.
• The single welcome email doesn’t accept Google Analytics tracking.
• This article shows you how to send a single welcome email to new subscribers. You can also add a Signs up starting point to a Customer Journey map or send a sequence of welcome emails with a classic automation. 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.
• The single automated welcome email uses your account's default email builder. To learn more about our email builders, check out Design an Email with the New Builder and Design an Email with the Classic Builder.
• The automated welcome email campaign is different from the optional final welcome email in your form builder. We recommend that you choose to send either a final welcome email or an automated welcome, but not both. If you use both at the same time, be sure to include different content in each email, so you don’t appear to send duplicates. To learn more about the final welcome email, check out Enable or Disable the Final Welcome Email.
• One-click welcome automations can’t be replicated.

Create a one-click welcome automation

The default one-click welcome automation is one email that is sent immediately after signup, and includes pre-filled content. In the automation builder you can change the delay, and edit the design and content. This automation welcomes new subscribers to your audience, so the trigger and audience are fixed and uneditable. You can pause the automated welcome email at any time. If you have a paid Marketing plan and need more sending options, check out our Customer Journeys.

To create an automated welcome email, follow these steps.

1. On your account dashboard, click the Automations icon.
2. Click Check out Classic Automations.
   
3. Click Welcome new subscribers.
4. Enter a campaign name and click the drop-down menu to choose an audience. We’ll send your welcome message to anyone who subscribes to email marketing from this audience.
   
5. Click Begin.

Now you're ready to edit your recipients, delay, and other settings.

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 your welcome email

After you start the automation, you may want to test it to see how it looks in your inbox. Test signups for automation can be a little tricky, so be sure to read the whole section. Here’s how it works.

• Confirm the automation’s sending status.
  On the Campaigns page in your account, you should see a Sending badge next to your automation. This confirms that it’s activated.
  

• Try a test signup.
  Navigate to the signup form you use to collect new contacts, and sign up. People can only receive a welcome automation once, so you should use an email address that hasn't received the automation before. If you sign up with an address that’s already been through the automation, you won’t receive it. This is true even if you delete your address and try to sign up again.

• Tip: Use Gmail to get extra addresses for testing your automation.
  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. To do this, add a plus sign and additional numbers or letters to your address to create variations. 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.