The four email flows to set up before any newsletter
Newsletters get the attention, but automated flows do most of the selling. Welcome, abandoned checkout, post-purchase and win-back, and what goes in each.
2 min read
A newsletter goes out once and is gone. A flow runs every day, for every new subscriber and every customer, without anyone pressing send. If you only have time for a few emails, make them these four.
1. Welcome
Starts: someone joins your list.
This is the email people are most likely to open, so use it well:
- Say what they'll get from you and how often.
- Show the one product or feature most new customers start with.
- If you offer a first-order incentive, deliver it here, clearly.
Two or three emails over the first week is plenty. Stop the flow as soon as they buy.
2. Abandoned checkout
Starts: someone begins checkout and doesn't finish.
Send the first reminder within a few hours, while they still remember. Show what they left, answer the common objection (shipping, returns, cancelling a subscription), and link straight back to the checkout. One follow-up a day later is enough. Don't lead with a discount, or you'll train people to abandon on purpose.
3. Post-purchase
Starts: an order or a paid subscription.
The sale isn't the end. Help them get value quickly:
- how to use what they bought,
- where to get help,
- later, a request for a review, once they've had time to use it.
For subscriptions, this flow is where you cut early cancellations.
4. Win-back
Starts: a customer hasn't bought or opened in a while. Pick a window that fits how often people normally buy from you.
Remind them what's new, ask what didn't work, and give a clear reason to come back. If they still don't engage after the last email, stop mailing them. Sending to people who never open hurts your deliverability for everyone else.
Keep the segments in sync with your ads
The same stages (new subscriber, in checkout, customer, lapsed) should exist in your email tool and your ad audiences. Then a customer stops seeing acquisition ads the day they buy, and a lapsed customer gets the win-back email and the win-back ad in the same week.
Our email agent drafts these flows in Klaviyo, Mailchimp or Omnisend in your voice. Nothing sends until you approve it.
- Email flows
- Klaviyo
- Retention
Let your AI run the marketing. You keep the final say.
Connect your ads, analytics, store and email, and approve every change before it goes out.
