Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

Yesterday I talked about the importance of adding SMS to your welcome series. Today, let’s discuss the number of messages in your series and the timing of those messages.

FIRST, let’s talk about the number of messages. Have as many as needed to build consumer confidence and help guide their shopping journey. By going back to value-adds, product introductions, intent-driven messaging, and maybe an offer reminder email, my guess is that most brands will end up with either three or four messages. Don’t communicate more than you really need to

SECOND, let’s talk about when to send those messages. 

While there is no hard and fast rule, I direct you back to the topic of intent. If the goal is to guide the customer to purchase, which is their implied intent, wouldn’t it make sense to do that without delay? Here is my advice:

Send message 1 immediately. This is especially important if you offer a discount for signing up. Then send each subsequent message one day apart

Once you start sending, you can monitor your email metrics and see if you need to build in a one-day buffer. Ultimately, looking at your unsubscribe rates will give you an educated answer. 

One word of note: 

While it might be reasonable to expect slightly higher unsubscribe rates for a welcome series, as customers may sign up just to receive a discount or are exploring your brand, a sharp and drastic increase will be your tell-tale sign that you may need to add an “off day” in-between messages. 

Personally, I don’t think you will. 

So there you have it. Create as many messages as is necessary to guide a consumer down their initial path to purchase — likely 3 or 4 — and send one message each day.

It REALLY IS that easy.

Join me tomorrow where we bring it all together and wrap up our welcome series.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Until next time, happy marketing!