What Makes a Great Substack Welcome Email (With Real Examples)
Because “Thanks for subscribing!” is doing absolutely nothing for anybody 😁
Before we dive in, here is the Substack Summer 2026 workshop and event schedule, in case you haven’t seen it yet:
I recently asked in a chat thread what some of your burning Substack desires are, and the topic of welcome emails came up multiple times. So, I’ve put together this post with as much knowledge and personal opinion as possible to help Substackers create a compelling welcome email.
Everyone who subscribes to you receives an auto-generated welcome email. If you haven't customized it, you’re missing a huge opportunity to tell your new readers where you want them to go and what you want them to do!
First things first…
If you didn’t even know you could customize a welcome email for new subscribers, this is where to find it.
Go to your dashboard » settings (bottom left corner) » and then locate ‘Emails’ in the left sidebar:
Once you’ve clicked on ‘Emails’, it’ll take you to the Welcome Emails section of your settings, highlighted in the big black box above. This is where you’ll see options to edit your welcome emails for free, paid, and imported subscribers.
NOTE: If you don’t have a paid subscription tier, you won’t see the welcome email option for paid subscribers.
When you click on the edit button (highlighted in the red box above), you’ll be taken to what looks like a post draft with Substack’s default welcome text. You’re free to delete all the default content and spice up your welcome email with your own copy.
Your welcome messaging can and should take your new subscribers on a journey…ESPECIALLY if your goal is to have them upgrade to paid eventually. So, below is my entire welcome email to free subscribers so you can see I’m telling them exactly where I’d like them to go:
Your Saturday mornings just levelled up!
Unstack Substack emails will touch down in your inbox on Saturday mornings. Each email includes a high-value tip relevant to your Substack journey.
Sometimes these tips end up becoming Substack hall-of-famers, like these few posts:
🟧 How To Stop Feeling Awkward About Asking Readers To Pay You
🟧 No Thanks. I Don’t Want To Read Your Substack
🟧 Substack Has Just Given Us One More Way to Stand Out
🟧 Don’t Be Surprised When People Aren’t Supporting Your Work
Here’s what paid subscribers are saying:
My main purpose here at Unstack Substack:
It is to help everyday Substack writers clean up their dashboards, improve their visual experience, and create content people actually love reading!
You now also have access to our FREE monthly Substack Sounding Board chats. These are live coffee sessions where we share ideas, inspiration, and yes…sometimes frustrations. 😁 You’ll be notified when the next one is on deck!
In the meantime, I highly encourage you to follow the arrows below for a robust description of everything you’ll find here…
That was my welcome email to free subscribers in its entirety.
You can see that I directed new subscribers to 4 post links almost immediately. Those posts are among my highest-performing of all time, and at least two of them are behind a paywall.
Next, I included two of many paid subscriber notes as social proof that people are enjoying my paid content. This hopefully encourages new subscribers to upgrade.
NOTE: If you’re wondering where to get those beautiful orange blocks with paid subscriber testimonials, Substack does that for you! Here’s where to find them ⬇️⬇️
If You Offer a Paid Subscription, You Should Definitely Be Using These
Looking for an UN-salesy way to convert your free subscribers?
And finally, in the closing paragraphs of my welcome email to free subscribers, I give them one more tidbit about what they get, then direct them to my hero post (also known as a welcome post). If you don’t have a hero post, you can direct them to your About page.
What should you put in your welcome email to PAID subscribers?
They just paid you for your writing/knowledge/skills. The VERY first thing should be a massive THANK YOU.
Then you can provide a brief recap of what their paid benefits include, or redirect them to where they can find a recap, as I have done in mine, pasted below:
A huge THANK YOU is in order!
Your support means EVERYTHING to me. A community without people is just ME standing here waving an orange flag to nobody. 😂
First things first…
For a recap of all your paid subscriber benefits, please visit our START HERE post.
I want us all to realize our wildest dreams here on Substack. This is my reason for fostering this rapidly growing community of 5900+ incredible writers! And now you’re IN IT with full access!
There are a multitude of reasons one might need help on this platform:
You don’t know how to run Substack to its fullest potential.
You hate technology and you’re just here to write!
You simply don’t have the time to care about all the bells and whistles behind the scenes because you have a life!
Save this email or bookmark MY WEBSITE if you think you might want to work together in the future.
In the meantime, happy (un)Stacking!
WHEW!!! That was a LOT of information, I know. And you do not HAVE to do any of this if you’re happy living a simple Substack life. There’s room on this platform for all kinds of simplicity among the complications.
Please don’t stress yourself out if you have a basic welcome email!!
And finally, here are a couple more resources I’ve already written about little tweaks you can add to a welcome email. Again, not necessary but always useful!
Now that I’ve completely overwhelmed you, I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
Also, if you’ve already written a killer welcome email, share what’s been working well for you!
This is like a GOLD MINE OF INCREDIBLENESS! 💯💯💯 thank you so much. I’ve saved this 💛 for future reference. A perfect way to know how to 🆙 level my ‘stack this summer. 🦋
I have a gif of the ever adorable Jeff Goldblum waving at you (or the cameraman at the sporting event he was at) in my welcome email. It will brighten your day at least a smidge - he's at his maximum adorable.