This is the most important email you can send

👉 get this wrong and it's over before it starts

The most important email you send to your subscriber list is the very first one they get when they sign up.

A weak first email will see your hard-earned new subscribers bolting for the door. Or at best, mentally putting you on notice and treating future emails with suspicion.

A great first email - a "barnstormer" - will build your credibility fast and make sure they open your next email...then the next...

Sure, the whole point of building an email list is that they're not ready to buy immediately so you need to build a relationship with them over time. But if you mess up the first email your relationship is over before it ever really started.

So what should you put in that vital first email?

Well, here's what you shouldn't do.

1. Don't make the first email a pure pitch. Unless you know that a big % of your new subscribers will be ready to buy, this will just tee them off.
   
   Now you absolutely can include a link or a PS or a few lines offering something for sale for the small % of people who actually are ready to buy. But don't make it the main focus of the email.
   

2. Don't (just) make promises. I see a lot of initial emails follow a common template that runs along the lines of "Wow - you hit the jackpot. I'm going to be sending you loads of great content you'll find really valuable blah blah blah".
   
   Don't just tell people you'll be sending them great stuff. Actually send them great stuff in the very first email.
   

3. Don't make it all about you. Make it about them. Another common mistake is a well-meaning attempt to establish a personal relationship and share a bit of your unique personality.
   
   Great. But not until after you've blow them away with such great content in that first email that they say to themselves "now here's a person I want to get to know".

What should you do instead?

Share one of your best hints, tips, strategies or ideas that's:

• Obviously valuable. Don't send a slow burner that they only realise was great advice in a year's time. Send something they can get results with straight away or that gives them a "lightbulb moment" that sheds new light on their situation and what to do much better.

• New to them. Don't send them advice that they're likely to have heard many times before, no matter how valuable it is. If they can hear the same thing from many different sources why should they make the effort to open up your emails to listen to you?
  
  Send something that's unique to you, or new in your field. Or something you know is a blindspot for your audience.

Not easy, I know.

But that means if you get it right you'll be miles ahead of everyone else who is welcoming people to their email lists with bland, value-free messages.

Want a practical guide to creating a brilliant welcome email?

Subscribe to get these Art of Email posts and I’ll send you a free copy of my “Double Espresso” Welcome Email Template. It’ll wake your new subscribers up and get them wanting more.