Set up a welcome email sequence

Before you start

• An email list that people join through a form, an import, the API or by hand. See Double opt-in list and Signup form on WordPress.
• A sending mailbox under Settings → Mailboxes.
• The scheduler and queue services running. A background job queues the series when someone joins. The per-minute queue run sends each step when it is due. See Services, queue worker and scheduler.
• No licence check. Queue messages work on every plan.

A welcome sequence is a set of queue messages, one per email. The confirmation and welcome emails that NetSendo sends on signup are separate. You edit those under Address List → System Emails.

Steps

1. Open Address List → Add Email Message.
2. Under Message Type, choose Queue (Autoresponder) ("Sent automatically after X days").
3. Fill Message Subject and Message Content for the first email. Add an unsubscribe link, for example <a href="[[unsubscribe]]">Unsubscribe</a>.
4. Open the Settings tab. Under Audience, tick the list people join. A queue message needs at least one list.
5. In Sending day (since signup), type 0. 0 is the signup day, 1 the day after, and so on.
6. Under Sending time, choose one option:
   • At the time of signup (hour) sends the step that many days after the exact signup moment. With day 0, it goes out at the next queue run.
   • Pick a time sends it at a set hour on that day, for example 09:00. The hour is UTC unless you tick Send in subscriber's timezone.
7. Click Test and send a copy to yourself, as for a normal campaign.
8. Click Activate (Save). Save as draft keeps the step inactive.
9. Create the next step. In Address List → Email Message List, click the Duplicate icon on the first step's row, click Duplicate again to confirm, then click Go to edit duplicate. The copy is a draft. Change its subject, content and Sending day (since signup), for example to 2.
10. Click Activate (Save) on the copy. Repeat for every step, for example days 5 and 9.

Who gets the series

• Everyone who joins the list from now on. That covers a form without double opt-in, the API, Add Subscriber, and a move or copy from another list.
• Imported people, depending on the import option Autoresponders and automations. The default, Only for new signups (recommended), starts the series for people new to the list. Do not trigger at all (silent migration) starts nothing.
• On a double opt-in list, a subscriber gets nothing until they click the confirmation link.
• People already on the list get only the steps whose send time is still ahead. The steps they passed are marked Missed and are not sent automatically.
• If one step targets several lists, days count from the oldest signup. Joining a second list does not restart the series.
• When someone leaves the list and joins again, the series starts over. To stop that, open the list's Settings tab and turn off Reset autoresponders on resubscription.

For branching, such as "if they opened step 1, wait 3 days, then add a tag", use Automation → Email Funnels instead. A funnel can start on list signup and has delay, condition and email steps.

Check that it works

1. In Email Message List, each step shows the type Queue with its day, for example (Day 2), and the status Active.
2. Add yourself as a test subscriber: open Contact Lists → Add Subscriber, enter your address, tick the list and save.
3. The day-0 step goes out at the next queue run; the scheduler starts one every minute.
4. On a step's row, click the Queue Statistics icon. It shows how many people are planned for Today, Tomorrow and later, and how many are Missed (time passed).
5. The row also counts Sent, Planned, Queued, Failed and Missed.

If it doesn't work

The step shows Inactive

It was saved as a draft or turned off. Click the Activate queue icon on its row, or open it and click Activate (Save).

Nobody gets the day-0 step

The scheduler or the queue worker is not running, so nothing is queued or sent. Follow Emails are not sending.

New double opt-in subscribers get nothing

They have not confirmed yet. The series starts when they click the link in the confirmation email.

Existing subscribers did not get the first steps

This is intended: turning on a series never mails your whole list at once. To send a step to them anyway, open Queue Statistics on its row and click Send now to missed. The email goes out at once, not on the step's day.

Several steps arrived at the same time

NetSendo counts days from the signup date stored on the list. If that date is older than the step offsets, every step that is already due goes out at the next run. That happens, for example, when someone confirms double opt-in days after filling in the form.

A step reached people it should not

Each step is a separate message with its own Audience, Don't send to subscribers from lists and Narrow by custom fields settings. Check the Settings tab of every step.

Do it with an AI assistant

The NetSendo MCP server can build the whole series:

• create_campaign creates each step. Use type autoresponder, a day, and optionally time_of_day. It creates each step as an inactive draft.
• set_campaign_active turns each step on.
• get_campaign_recipient_count shows who is planned and who missed it.
• send_campaign_to_missed sends a step to people who missed it. It asks for confirmation.

Example prompt:

On my list "Newsletter", create a welcome series of three queue emails: day 0 "Welcome", day 2 "How to get started", day 5 "Our best articles", each with an unsubscribe link and my default mailbox. Show me the drafts, then activate all three.