Creating a Welcome Email Sequence (with Flodesk)

While a lot of our effort as creative business owners is on growing our audience it is important to remember that we should also be focussing on the people who are already in our audience.
One thing I encourage all my students to do is create a simple 3 part nurture sequence also known as a welcome email sequence, to build trust from the get go.
This looks like an automated reply email when someone signs up through your website, that tells them more about you, the artist, and prepares them for further contact through emails.

The second and third emails are also automated and go out after a delay of a few days.

All of this is simple to set up on any CRM you use, and my preferred software for this is Flodesk.

Over the years, I have tried a number of CRM providers and Flodesk is the simplest by far.

It has an intuitive interface making it easy to navigate, and a number of ready to use templates which feel bright and modern.
One of the major benefits and one of the big reasons I moved to Flodesk, is the pricing remains the same regardless of the number of subscribers you have.
Other CRM base their pricing on the number of subscribers, which can become costly as your audience grows.

The Welcome Email Sequence

First I want to say that any business you run can have a welcome sequence. It works for all industries. If you’re an artist and have additional projects or businesses whether you have a gallery, run workshops or classes or something else, a welcome sequence for any of these ventures is a good idea to get into place as soon as possible.

  • This email goes out immediately after someone enrols onto your mailing list, through a specific contact form.


    At the point someone subscribes, they are the most interested. As such, this is the best opportunity to tell them more about you, the artist. While this doesn’t have to be a long email, and you may think, the info is already on your website, this is the email where you tell your new subscriber what you do, the big WHY behind your work, your successes to date, and how they can learn more or see available work.

  • Typically this one is scheduled to go out 2 or 3 days after the first one.

    In this email, you can share a recent highlight such as your appearance in a publication, an interview that exists online, a podcast or similar. This further enriches their understanding of your work and also highlights that other people are paying attention to you.
    This email is also a good occasion to share available work.
    And because we want this email to be ‘evergreen’ (meaning it is not seasonal or time specific) it is good to link a page on your website or to an online gallery where they can purchase your work.

  • This email is scheduled to be sent automatically 5-7 days after Email 2.

    In this email, we want to further enrich the subscribers experience and understanding of the artist, and their brand. We want to foster more ‘know, like and trust’
    Here you can share some more about the research or ideas in your work, what draws you to this subject or how your work as has evolved over the years. Or this email can be used to talk about process and the development of your work.
    As I say in my book, Show Your Art, you are the authority in your work and in your practice. So it is important that this is conveyed to your audience, and Email 3 is a good place to convey that.

Stay on brand

When you are writing your emails it is important that you have a consistent ‘voice’.

In today’s digital landscape it is easy to delegate writing such emails to AI but if the output from the chatbot sounds like someone else, it might be doing you a disservice. Understand your brand tone, the friendliness or the formality, the colloquial or the academic tone. Write the emails as if you are writing to one person, rather than broadcasting to a crowd. For example, this might include the use of emojis (if that’s your thing).

Keep It Evergreen

Make it easy for yourself and make this one nurture sequence evergreen. This means it does not direct people to time sensitive projects, events, or products.
For example, do not use the sequence for sharing about exhibitions which might be coming to an end, or specific product pages.
Better to send people to a page such as your ‘shop’ or online gallery page. Here the products may change but the url remains consistent.

Flodesk

Need a CRM to manage your subscribers?
Join Flodesk here and get 50% off your first year.

This is one of the simplest softwares I use, and there’s no cap to the number of emails I send to my audience and no limit on how many subscribers it can hold.

You won’t regret it!

Use the Code GITAJOSHI for 50% off your first year.

If you need help writing your emails for the welcome sequence or beyond, support is available inside my one to one mentoring and coaching packages.
See details here

(I have ghost-written emails for a number of well known artists as they wanted to have closer proximity with their audience, and not leave it to their galleries to manage.)

See More Resources

See more resources from Gita Joshi and The Curators Salon below