Welcome emails are very important.

In most cases, it’s the first impression a new subscriber will have of you.

A welcome email should also generate as many replies as possible to help improve delivery.

So, why do I have so many people replying Madagascar to my welcome email?

Because I ask for it. But why?

A welcome email should generate as many replies as possible to help improve future email delivery.

My thesis:

People don’t have time to give thought-out answers to open-ended questions like “Why did you subscribe?”

But they do have time to give a one-word answer.

I incentivize it by adding a storytelling element, telling new subs that Madagascar is the secret code needed to join our Steal Club.

So far, it’s working! I get at least 5 of these a day 😅

🕵️‍♂️ How to Steal it?

Encourage replies at the end of your welcome email by asking a question.

Ask for a "one-word" reply to get more engagement. Try to align the prompt for the reply with your newsletter's topic.

For example, if you talk about SaaS marketing, you could write something like “Reply with IDEA, and I’ll send you one random marketing idea for your company.”

This will help improve your future email deliverability.