Glossary
Welcome sequence
Also called welcome series, onboarding emails.
Last reviewed 18 September 2026
What is a welcome sequence?
A welcome sequence is the short run of emails a new subscriber receives after joining a list, sent to introduce who you are and what will arrive, and it is the mail people are most likely to read because it is the only mail they are expecting.
It differs from a course in what it is for. A course teaches something and ends on a day the reader was told about; a welcome sequence sets an expectation for an ongoing arrangement, so it can be two messages or five and it has no natural last day of its own.
The first message is the one that matters, because it arrives while the reader still remembers signing up. Name the thing they asked for, say what arrives and when, and key the sequence to the moment they joined rather than to a date on your calendar.
See also
- Email course
An email course is a finite sequence of lessons delivered one email at a time, in order, on a clock that starts when each reader joins, and it ends on a day both of you knew about in advance.
- Drip campaign
A drip campaign is a stored sequence of emails sent to a person on a timer after some trigger, run towards a goal the sender chose, which is the same machinery an email course runs on and a different promise to the reader.
- Confirmed opt-in
Confirmed opt-in, usually called double opt-in, is the practice of sending one message to a newly submitted address and adding it to a list only after somebody clicks the link in that message.
Read next
This term is covered properly in Welcome email sequences: what to send in the first five days, which is a longer piece on the subject.
Every other term is on the glossary index , the longer writing is in the guides, and what this site itself does is on the home page.
Thinking of writing one of these?
5dayemail hosts a five-to-ten day email course: you write it once, and everyone who joins your list gets one email a day, in order, starting from the day they confirm.
Accounts are opened a few at a time rather than by signing up. Leave your address and you will be written to when the next ones open.
One message, when there is room. No course emails, no newsletter, and the address is not passed on. Ask and it is deleted; what is kept, and for how long, is in the privacy policy.