Lifecycle
5 min
The first ninety seconds of a lifecycle email
Nobody reads your welcome sequence. They skim it while deciding whether this was a mistake.
Marta Reis

Nobody reads your welcome sequence. They skim the first line while deciding whether signing up was a mistake, and then they either do something or they leave.
That means the job of the first email is not to explain the product. It is to get one action completed that makes the product make sense.
Pick the single action that best predicts a second session. Build the entire first ninety seconds around it. Everything else can wait for email three.