A welcome programme is an automated set of activities that are designed to guide a prospect through the initial phases of interaction with your organisation. Remember, at this point the individual has agreed to sign up for more information and has therefore expressed some level of interest in what you have to offer.

Therefore the objective during implementation should be not only to provide the prospect relevant and desirable information, but also to instil a positive image of who you are and what you represent. First impressions count!

Below are some tips that you should keep in mind when designing your pre-crafted content for an automated welcome programme:

With a welcome programme in place, your automated campaign should next make the step into producing some actions on the behalf of the customer. Remember, if your campaign objective is to produce leads (in B2B) or sales (in B2C), then the ROI is dependent on you bringing customers to a point where they make the choice - to buy, or not to buy. Those who buy increase the ROI of the campaign, those who don't need to be segmented further into "potentials" or "deadwood". The latter adds cost to the campaign.