16. How to make your welcome sequence custom, clickable & customer-first

EPISODE 16 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

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In this episode, I answer a question from Michelle Pontvert, a founding member of my membership, Retention Lab, and an expert in hosting low-lift virtual events.

Michelle wants to know:

“How do I make my welcome sequence feel more custom and engaging so subscribers actually look forward to hearing from me?”

Using Michelle’s Event Pep Talks private podcast as a case study, I dive deep into strategic, creative ways to personalize your welcome sequence: from segmenting subscriber journeys to Netflix-style bingeability and email-triggered personalization.

You can find out more about the Netflix effect in episode 13.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just setting up your first funnel, this episode is filled with actionable, no-fluff ways to make your subscribers feel seen from email one and keep them coming back for more.

What we cover:

Bonus Strategies to Increase Loyalty and Long-Term Opens – Like surprise and delight touches and format flexibility.

Why Your Welcome Sequence Is More Than a Freebie Delivery System – It’s your first impression and biggest opportunity to earn trust.

How to Build a Netflix-Inspired Email Experience – Personalized, intuitive, and easy to navigate.

Creative Ways to Segment & Personalize Early On – From trigger links to quizzes and click-based journeys.

How to Encourage Lead Magnet Engagement – Because most people don’t actually consume what they sign up for.

Soundbites:

“A good welcome sequence needs to build trust. It needs to deliver what you promised you’d send them. It needs to set expectations. So often I see people dropping the freebie and then all of a sudden there’s 50 million emails, which you never expected, or they drop the freebie and you never hear from them again. Being upfront with what’s going to happen after the freebie touches down in their inbox is super important because people won’t be surprised that you show up again. People won’t be surprised that you’re talking about a certain topic, that you’re sending them a certain type of content. I think it just respects the subscriber and really values their time and energy.”

“Are you actually giving your subscribers a way to map their own path through your office suite, through your content. Does every email in your welcome sequence really need to be there? Does it serve a purpose? Does it get them closer to investing in your business, to overcoming mindset hurdles, to having that aha moment that they signed up for? And how can you make subscribers interact with your lead magnet. How can you offer different format types or little gentle nudges along the way so people actually engage with what they signed up for and where is one opportunity where you can add an element of surprise and delight along the way?”

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Episode Transcript:

Nadine Nethery (00:00)

Hello, hello and welcome back to what would they do in today’s episode. I have the absolute honor and pleasure to answer a question that one of my retention lab founding members submitted, which meant it went straight to the top of my priority   question list. And here we go. Michelle Ponvert, not only is a

founding member, so joined when I first opened Retention Lab. She also is one of the amazing guest experts sharing her wisdom and her expertise with my members inside the membership portal.   Her area of expertise is in low-lift events. I’ve spoken at several and she is the absolute expert when it comes to creating high-touch events that leave

attendees feeling excited without creating   the overload and overwhelm that can come with full blown virtual summits. And she has an amazing free resource that I’m going to take a closer look at today. Her question for me is, I’m looking to update my welcome sequence and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about how to make it

more custom and customizable experience for my new subscribers to get them excited about my emails. So the freebie or lead magnet that I’m looking at today is her   private podcast all about running low lift events. It’s called Event Pep Talks. It’s a private podcast feed, so super easy to consume on the go and helps people really get their head around this

special freebie event concept and obviously wants to sell them into Michelle’s expertise and her genius and her resources. So before we get stuck into the tangible and practical tips for Michelle and obviously you, my listeners, let’s take a closer look at welcome sequences in general. I think we so often consider them like a tick in the box. There’s a number of emails that people receive because someone told us.

That’s how you do it. And we don’t really know how to approach them. And we follow this script that someone told us at some stage.   I really would love, love, love to have you step away from this preconceived idea that it’s a tick in the box. Welcome sequences are some of the most opened emails you’ll ever send to your subscribers. And

With that comes a level of opportunity. If you create a well-designed welcome experience, you instantly hook your new subscribers and they are going to open all your emails because they can’t wait to hear what you have to say. So we want to really create mini moments that matter. So it’s highly relevant, highly bespoke and really welcomes the reader.

into your universe so they feel excited and   anticipate what’s to come. So really your welcome email sequence   is more than a confirmation and delivering the goods.   And in Michelle’s case, that’s the access for her private podcast. It’s your first impression and   it’s really super important because it sets the tone for what’s to come.  

A good welcome sequence really needs to obviously build trust. It needs to deliver what you promised you’d sent them.   It needs to set expectations. So, so often I see, you know, people dropping the freebie and then all of a sudden there’s 50 million emails, which you never expected, or they drop the freebie and you never hear from them again. being upfront with what’s going to happen after the freebie touchdown in their inbox is super important because

People won’t be surprised that you show up again. People won’t be surprised that you’re talking about a certain topic, that you’re sending them a certain type of content. I think it just respects the subscriber and really values their time and energy. And if it’s not for them, if that’s not what they want, they can unsubscribe. And ultimately that just means they were not your people in the first place. So we want to create a welcome experience that really guides the subscriber to your most

valuable content and really positions you as someone they want to hear from and someone they obviously want to buy from. And if done right, your welcome sequence can reassure people that they’ve done the right move. They made the right decision to enter your world and to invite you into their inbox. So let’s have a look at Michelle’s freebie here. Obviously we want to give her some tips.

So Event Pep Talks, as I said, is a private podcast. It is super easy to consume and really highly irresistible to me. I’m a mama of three. I love a good private podcast. So I love the concept to begin with.   And obviously this lead magnet is perfectly designed to introduce people to   this low lift event style concept that Michelle is promoting and living and breathing.

And it also is strategically designed to help them overcome potential mindset hurdles and sell them ultimately into Michelle’s toolkits or outsource to have Michelle organize those events for them. So what I recommend for Michelle is obviously first email delivers the goods. It sets the scene. It reminds them what they signed up for, but it’s also an opportunity to really build connection.

from the get-go. So you want to create an experience that is in line with the style of emails people are going to receive from there on. It’s going to be in line with your personality and your brand voice. I totally believe   that’s the perfect opportunity to remind people why you are perfectly positioned to talk about this topic. So remind people of how many low-lift events you’ve hosted.

what the results were and what it’s meant for your headspace, for your email list, et cetera. So really remind people that not only have you delivered the goods, but you are the expert that they need to listen to. And I’m a huge fan also in that first email to give an opportunity to reply. So invite them to let you know what made them sign up. Where did they find you?  

What are they trying to get out of listening to this podcast? And as a general rule, I’m sure, know, Michelle’s been in the game for a while. She’s across it, but for my other listeners who potentially are newer, if you have someone sign up to a lead magnet, don’t only tag them as the, you know, downloaded the podcast, but also have a look at how you can organize your content and the emails that you’re sending into themes or.

topics or buckets. So particularly if you’re offering several types of services. So if you have   something covering virtual events, if you have something on challenges, make sure you also tag your subscribers based on the topic that they’ve come into your business,   you know, via this freebie. And that just allows you down the track beyond the welcome sequence to send them highly relevant.

content. If you know, for example, in Michelle’s instance here, they downloaded the Low Lift Events podcast, they’re going to be highly interested in what you have to say about Low Lift Events. If you also sell Thrive Card templates, for example, I know Michelle   offered some of those in the past,   you know, if they’re coming into your world by a Thrive Card, they might not necessarily be as interested in Low Lift Events as someone who downloads this podcast.

So that’s just something on the side here to really help you organize your email strategy and deliver highly valuable and relevant content beyond that welcome sequence. And then I would totally look at a Netflix style onboarding experience. So in episode 13, if you missed it, go back and have a listen.

I pulled apart the Netflix effect, the Netflix model. So how Netflix is so successful in retaining their customers and creating really bespoke customer experiences and customer journeys that mean people just love it. Netflix makes it so easy   to absorb and to navigate your way through all various pieces of content on their platform.

So you can totally replicate that for your welcome sequence.   great way to do that is really invite people to answer some questions or create interactive opportunities. So you could totally just add a question, know, what are you leaning towards after listening to a few episodes? And then you can add trigger links. again, certain links that trigger actions on the backend in your email platform that says, you know, outsourcing or DIY.  

And based on this click, you then funnel them into a relevant, you know, mini funnel, mini path that personalizes that welcome experience. Anyone who doesn’t click on any link just stays in the middle of the road in inverted commerce experience that creates future opportunities where people can then, you know, opt in to give you more information about their   current state of mind or business or plans for the future.

You can also rather than going outsourcing or DIY, you can totally lean into the stage of event planning that they’re in as well to then give them bespoke mindset messages, for example, around that. So answers here in Michelle’s case could be, you know, considering planning an event. I’m currently planning an event or I’m just curious. I’m not ready to host an event. And based on that, again, you can then tailor  

a mini path to provide them to be ready to host an event.   If they’re considering an event, you can give them those objections they have to overcome   to consider your model as the right one. Or if they’re currently planning an event, if they’re struggling, you might be able to sell them into a template to streamline those things. Another option also would be to   really

tailor their path through the podcast itself, because we all know we subscribe to lead magnets and freebies and never actually listen. If we can make it even easier to listen in, why not? So you could totally ask them, what are you most interested in   when it comes to low-lift events? Which topic most interests you? And then you can give them a few options. In Michelle’s case, you probably go with mindset.

execution strategy,   you know, there might be some other options depending on what Michelle covers in her freebie podcast. And then you could provide them with a tailored and bespoke episode list   that really makes it easy for them to just get started, to start tuning in and likely once they’ve started listening to the first few episodes, they are going to listen to the rest as well.

You can also come up with a quiz again, if you want to make it interactive here for particularly those people who again had all intentions to listen to your podcast, they subscribe, they added it to their podcast feed. They haven’t had a chance to listen, but giving them the opportunity to test their knowledge via a short quiz,   potentially link a little reward, you know, another little freebie or something   at the end of taking that quiz, but you can.

sort of nudge them to those aha moments without actually listening to the podcast episodes. If you’re asking them, you know, about tech stack required to post a low lift event, for example, you give them the options and depending, you know, it doesn’t matter if they get it right or wrong, you then give them the right answer and sort of sum up what you’re touching on in the podcast anyway. And that means even without listening to the podcast, people still get the idea.

And you can totally link up to the relevant episode as well to make it super easy to get straight to what they’re interested in. Again, you know, make it interactive, make it relevant and create opportunities like Netflix does so well that create a totally bespoke path. And the good thing is with those welcome sequences, you just have to create them once. So it sounds like a lot of work. It really isn’t because

The outcome is going to be that people are primed and ready for your offers, whether it’s outsourcing, whether it’s your templates,   or whether it is, you know, toolkits and mindset shifts. It is super powerful. I love it. And I think it’s totally worth the time and effort to create those bespoke pathways.   Another great thing here is to really check in with how people are going.

with their lead magnet. I feel so often we dump the lead magnet and we leave people to their own devices, which then means a lot of the time the lead magnet just disappears in the inbox and they never actually get to it, right? So actually check in with how they’re going.   The quiz, as I said before, is a great way to do that and to nudge them   to check in and actually give it a listen.

I also feel if you time excess, so limited time, let’s say you can listen to the podcast for 14 days or you can watch the replay for five days.   It gives that sense of urgency. People actually need to act rather than knowing it’s there for good and they can listen whenever. We all know life gets busy and we have things to do. So if you can set a time limit on it,   people are actually going to be much more likely to tune in.

You can also make it much more likely to for people to consume your lead magnet by looking at delivering it in various formats. So in Michelle’s case here, for example, the private podcast format, if she happened to record it in video format as well, you can totally have a playlist somewhere on YouTube that you could link to for people who prefer to watch. You could turn it into an ebook where you just summarize the main points of every episode.

in case let’s look at other lead magnets if you have a webinar for example that’s 90 minutes I personally struggle to find the time to sit in front of my computer for 90 minutes and   I hardly ever get to those. If you know your audience for example is busy mums why not turn it into an audio version that people can consume on the run so you can totally lead with the webinar but then

  you know, two days in, you can present that private podcast as another option to consume that webinar. It just gives you more opportunity to actually get in front of people and get people to engage with your content. So these are just some top line ideas here. can tell I’m big on personalization, big on really priming your subscriber early on and funnel them into the right content, right specific content for their mindset, for their stage of business or life.

and for their intentions, whether it’s outsourcing or DIY. So for you, because I know we covered Michelle’s freebie here, if you want to have a look how you can optimize your welcome sequence and make it more bespoke, I have as per usual, some actionable takeaways for you, some questions you can ask yourself. So start with the question, you know, are you actually giving your subscribers

a way to map their own path through your office suite, through your content. Does every email in your welcome sequence really need to be there? Does it serve a purpose? Does it get them closer to investing in your business, to overcoming mindset hurdles, to   having that aha moment that they signed up for? And how can you make subscribers

interact with your lead magnet. How can you offer different format types or little gentle nudges along the way so people actually engage with what they signed up for and then again, surprise, surprise, where is one opportunity where you can add an element of surprise and delight along the way. That unexpected touch like a little quiz, like a little extra bonus.

little extra reward if they complete a certain step. Have a think about it and hopefully it sparked your ideas for your welcome sequence as well. So as per usual, you know the drill if you would like your question answered like Michelle,   totally submit your question via the link in the show notes. You can do so

anonymously, or you can add your name and business details and get a shout out like Michelle. Plus it gives me a little bit more context around your business and yeah, it gives you a chance to feature in a future episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe,   leave us a review and share it with anyone who might be remotely interested and benefit from this. And yeah, thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next week.