need a good onboarding flow?

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey, hey Reader,

Great onboarding emails should do three things:

activate
educate
convert

So let's look at an example together, yeah?

If you've ever signed up for Calendly, you know they keep things simple and smart.

Here’s their Day 0 “Welcome” email, and why it works:

Calendly Welcome Email

Why it works

It’s friendly without fluff. The tone says “we’re glad you’re here,” but respects the end user's time.
Instead of giving you 10 features, it gives you 3 simple actions to move forward.
“Set up your availability” is something a user wants to do so it builds momentum.
It contains one message with one CTA and one job.

What doesn't work (imho):

The large walls of text. Though they get points for not going past 3 lines. A simple break with white space would suffice.

What you can steal for your own welcome flow

Pick one action that builds confidence.
Make your CTA a verb, not a feature. (“Set up your schedule” is more direct + benefit-driven than “Explore dashboard”)
Lead with clarity. Put yourself in their shoes...what do they need?

Most brands want their emails heavily branded, and I get this desire.

But you really don’t need fancy branding or million features.

You just need to answer:

What’s the next best step they can take?

That's it for me. See you next week.

And as always , I'm rooting for you 👏.

Kelly

PS. I’ve got a whole list of onboarding email types (welcome, check-in, upgrade nudge, etc). Thinking of turning this into a swipe file. Would that be helpful? Reply and let me know.

PS. Wanna really know what your buyer's need before they do?👇

Get Un-Stuck with Your Marketing Strategy. Book a 1:1 hour-long sesh with me.

Make your case studies stand out to admins with Case Study Blueprint. Buy now.

Say👋 on LinkedIn

Did a friend forward this email? Subscribe here.

191 Haines Avenue, PO Box 104, Barrington, NJ 08007
Unsubscribe · Preferences

Read more from EdTech Email Alchemy: Turn Your Emails Into District-Winning Deals

do you have a signal?

Hey, hey Reader, Recently, I ran an outbound campaign for Client X. Instead of blasting every district everywhere, we used a signals-based approach to identify the ones most likely to convert. (I got this approach and idea from Bobby Offterdinger. He talks about this strategy in this LinkedIn post. Bobby is a must-follow if you want tangible outreach/sales strategies). Here’s what signals-based outreach looked like in action: Pick your lighthouses. We narrowed focus to priority regions based...

about 8 hours ago • 1 min read

i was on a podcast

Hey, hey Reader, I hopped on the All Things Marketing and Education podcast with Elana Leoni, and it just went live! We dug into one of my favorite topics: How EdTech brands can make their emails work harder at being the relationship-builder it is. Here are a few things we talk about: The common messaging mistakes I see in EdTech (and how to fix them) Why email is still the highest-ROI channel—and how to use it effectively Copy tweaks that improve engagement fast (yes, even subject lines)...

7 days ago • 1 min read

why a 3% conversion isn't good enough

You can’t truly do email marketing without hitting send, Reader, You might be thinking, Duh, Kelly. I know, but hear me out... Too many teams get stuck over-editing, over-collaborating, and overthinking. They want the perfect headline, perfect graphic, perfect call to action. I had a client like this. They’d circle and circle on drafts, debating tiny details like banner color. But without actually sending, we had nothing to act on. The wheels were spinning, but we weren’t moving forward. And...

14 days ago • 1 min read