Create a welcome journey

Welcome journeys are automated, triggered messaging flows that let you send a text or email to a subscriber immediately after they opt in to receive messages from your brand. They are most often used to deliver promised sign-up offers, but they are also crucial for building brand awareness, increasing loyalty, and establishing a positive deliverability relationship with your subscriber's inbox.

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What is it?

Welcome journeys function similarly to other automated journeys in Attentive, but they have specific requirements and capabilities designed to immediately engage new subscribers. You can dynamically include discount codes in both your text and email welcome messages.

Requirements & Capabilities for Both Channels

• Sign-Up Triggers: All welcome journeys require an active sign-up source as a trigger. You must assign the sign-up unit to the journey before turning it on.

• Channel Separation: To meet legal and carrier requirements, your SMS and email welcome journeys must be kept as separate journeys.
• A/B Testing: Available for both text and email welcome journeys to test variations of your welcome messaging, offers, and creative copy to see what drives the highest conversions. 

Specific to Text (SMS)

• Default Text Welcome Journey: Every account must have one text welcome journey designated as the default.
  • By default, new sign-up units pair with your default text welcome journey. To change this, select your preferred welcome journey in the unit's settings.
  • Subscribers who opt in by texting START are automatically routed to the default text welcome journey.
  • You can set any text welcome journey as your account default. Setting a new default does not apply to email welcome journeys or other trigger types.
  • Reassigning the default journey does not impact existing sign-up units. Sign-up units already assigned to the previous default welcome journey remain linked to it unless manually reassigned.
  • Once a text welcome journey is no longer set as the default, it can be paused.
• Virtual Contact Cards: SMS welcome journeys automatically include your virtual contact card, making it easy for subscribers to save your number to their device.
• SMS Compliance: SMS welcome journeys automatically include language required by carriers.
• No Variables: To ensure messages are sent instantly without delay, variables cannot be used in SMS welcome messages.
• A/B Testing Placement Rules: On text welcome journeys, the welcome message step (which includes the legal message) must be placed directly after the A/B test node, and no intermediate steps can be added between them.

Specific to Email

• Email Sequencing: Aim to include 3-4 email messages in your sequence with varying content. Set the first email to deliver immediately.
• Post-Purchase Branching: Continue to branch your email sequence based on whether the subscriber has made a purchase.

How do I use it?

1. Create the Journey

• Navigate to Journeys and click + Create journey.
• Choose a Welcome New Subscribers template (e.g., text or email) and click Get started.
• Click on the Send welcome message step to edit your copy. You can click the Personalization icon to insert offer codes or shortlinks.

• Make any other desired changes, rename the journey, and click Turn on.

2. Set or Change the Default Text Welcome Journey

To update which text welcome journey serves as your account default:

1. Navigate to Journeys.
2. Locate the active text welcome journey you want to make the default.
3. Click the three dots menu (...) next to the journey and select Set as default.
4. In the confirmation modal, review the details and click Confirm to apply the change.

On the journeys list, the Default label will move to the newly selected text journey.

3. Link it to a Sign-Up Unit

• Navigate to the Sign-up Units tab and find the unit you want to use as a trigger.
• Click the three dots menu next to it and select Reassign.
• Choose your newly created Welcome Journey from the dropdown, and click Reassign.

4. Advanced Branching Strategies

• A/B Testing (Both Channels): Add an A/B test node to split traffic and evaluate performance lifts across messaging variations performance lifts across messaging variations.
  • SMS Restriction: For text welcome journeys, the A/B test node must go directly after the mandatory legal message, with no other steps or elements between the branch and the text message. 

• Custom Attributes (Both Channels): If you are branching based on custom attributes gathered at sign-up, it is highly recommended to add a 10-minute Wait step before the branch. This ensures the attribute data has enough time to sync from the sign-up unit before the subscriber reaches the evaluation step.

• Resubscribers (Text only): You can route subscribers based on whether they are a first-time or returning subscriber (resubscriber). Add a specialized welcome back message for resubscribers under the "Welcome Resubscribers" tab, or add a branch (Condition: What action the subscriber has taken > Action: Has signed up only once) to send entirely different follow-up sequences to first-time vs. returning subscribers.

  Note: Adding an A/B test node to an SMS welcome journey will automatically disable resubscriber messaging.

Why should I use it?

Engage Subscribers Immediately

Capitalize on high intent by delivering promised sign-up offers and dynamic discount codes to new subscribers while their interest is fresh.

Build the Relationship

Use this initial touchpoint to introduce your brand story, set expectations (e.g., product releases, sales), and connect with customer emotions. For SMS, sending a virtual contact card ensures your subscribers instantly recognize who is texting them.

Personalize the Experience

Leverage conversational templates to collect customer preferences for better targeting, use LiveSMS to connect subscribers with a live agent, or tailor your messaging specifically for returning subscribers so you don't give away unnecessary discounts to those who have already purchased.

Improve Deliverability

For email, sending an immediate, highly anticipated message that the user engages with helps establish a positive reputation with their inbox provider, improving overall deliverability.