What is an onboarding series?

An onboarding series guides new users through product setup and initial adoption, helping them succeed and reducing churn.

Different from welcome series:

Welcome series: Introduces the brand to new subscribers (often pre-purchase).
Onboarding series: Teaches product usage to new users or customers (post-signup or post-purchase).

Goals of onboarding:

Get users to "first value" quickly
Teach key features and use cases
Reduce confusion and friction
Prevent early abandonment
Build habit and engagement

Typical onboarding sequence:

Email 1: Welcome and immediate next step. "Log in and complete your profile."

Email 2: Core feature introduction. "Here's how to use our main feature."

Email 3: Success stories. "See how others are using it."

Email 4: Secondary features. "Did you know you can also..."

Email 5: Support and resources. "Need help? Here's where to get it."

Email 6: Check-in. "How's it going? Any questions?"

Best practices:

Focus on actions: Each email should drive a specific behavior, not just provide information.

Track milestones: Skip emails about features they've already used.

Branch by behavior: Users who are stuck need different content than users who are progressing.

Celebrate wins: Acknowledge when they complete key steps.

Good onboarding turns signups into active users. Without it, many signups never experience your product's value and quietly disappear.