Your welcome email: the one they actually read

This is Part 1 of my email marketing series for salons and clinics. The overview covers the UK rules and choosing a platform, so read that first if you haven’t got those in place yet.

The welcome email, sometimes called a subscribe email, is the automatic email someone gets the moment they join your list. Most salons I look at either don’t send one, or send a two-line “thanks for subscribing” from the platform’s default template. Three weeks later a newsletter arrives, they’ve forgotten signing up, and some report it as spam.

The emails people get straight after joining tend to be opened and clicked more than anything you send later, because they’ve only just asked to hear from you. I won’t quote you a percentage, because most figures online come from big shops, not salons. Check your own reports a month in and you’ll see it.

It also sets the terms of the relationship: who you are, what they’ll get and how often. Get that right and every email after it has an easier job.

The welcome email is marketing. It might be warm and chatty, but it promotes your business and encourages people to book, and the ICO’s guidance on identifying direct marketing treats a message that actively promotes your services as marketing, whatever the tone. So the usual rules apply:

A booking confirmation is different. It’s a service message, so don’t slip an offer into it, and don’t add someone to your welcome series just because they booked unless they consented or meet the soft opt-in.

Immediately. Not the next morning, and not with your Friday newsletter. If someone signed up for a code, they may be sitting on your booking page waiting for it, and if it doesn’t arrive within a minute or two they’ll look elsewhere.

The subject line should tell them the thing they asked for is inside. This isn’t the place to be clever. The preview text, the short line most inboxes show after the subject, is your second chance. Leave it blank and many inboxes pull in the first words of your email instead, which is often “View in browser”.

Only use someone’s first name if you asked for it, and set a fallback such as “Hi there” for anyone who left it blank.

If they joined for a code, put it near the top in live text they can copy, with how to use it and when it runs out. If they joined for a guide, link to it straight away. Nobody should have to scroll past your life story to get the thing they came for.

Two or three sentences: your name, your business, where you are and what you’re known for. A photo of you in your treatment room does more here than your logo.

Tell them what they’ll get and how often, then stick to it. “Every other Thursday I send seasonal skin advice and any last-minute appointments” means your next email is expected rather than a surprise.

One button. Usually that’s booking, but for a higher-value treatment it might be a consultation. Give people five links and most of them will click none.

Ask a simple question they can answer in a line, and ask them to add your address to their contacts. You learn what your clients actually want, and inbox providers tend to treat mail that people reply to as mail they want.

One email is good. A short series is better, because it gives you room to build trust before you ask for a booking. I’d send four or five over about two weeks, never more than one every two or three days. Here’s how I’d plan it for Wren Skin Studio, a made-up skin clinic in Bath run by a made-up therapist called Hattie. Priya is the equally made-up new subscriber.

Give them a reason to choose you over the clinic down the road. Keep it personal rather than a list of certificates.

Show that it works for people like them, with a real review used with permission or a short client story. Aesthetics clinics, this is advertising, so the restrictions on prescription-only medicines apply here too. The ASA’s Botox FAQs explain what you can say.

Pick the one treatment you’d recommend to most first-timers. Say who it suits, how long it takes and what it costs, and answer the questions people ask before a first visit.

Catch the people who meant to book and forgot. If you don’t use an offer, make this a simple “can I help with anything?” email.

Adjust the timing to your treatments. For higher-value skin or aesthetics work, which needs more reassurance, I’d stretch it over three weeks.

You don’t need a welcome offer at all. If you do use one, think about what it teaches people about your prices. A big percentage off tells people your full price is negotiable, and it attracts people chasing the discount rather than looking for somewhere to stay. A first-visit add-on, such as an extra treatment step or a mini product, gives people a reason to book now while your price stays where it should be. Spell out the terms: who it’s for, which treatments, when it ends, and whether it’s one per person. Then make sure your team knows about it, so nobody on the desk looks blank when a new client mentions the code.

Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time, or only on particular terms for a limited time, to push people into a quick decision. The CMA had already warned online businesses about countdown timers and offers that “end” only to be replaced by the same deal. For your welcome series:

Nothing irritates a new client faster than “have you booked yet?” emails after they’ve booked. If your email platform is connected to your booking system, you can usually set the automation to stop once a booking comes in. If it isn’t, tag people when they book and set the series to skip anyone with that tag. Platforms handle this differently, so check your own help pages. People who book move onto your regular newsletter instead.

If someone clicks the lash link, tag them as interested in lashes. If they reply to email 1 about breakouts, tag them for skin. Later, your lash clients get lash news and your skin clients get skin news. Part 4 goes further into this.

My guide to email design for salons covers layout in more detail.

Every platform labels things differently, but the pieces are the same everywhere.

Many booking systems have marketing tools built in, and Mailchimp, MailerLite and Flodesk all support automations like this, though features vary by plan. If you’d rather hand it over, it’s something I can set up with you, so get in touch.

Don’t judge your series on opens. Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads emails in the background in a way that can count as an open even when nobody has read them. Watch these instead:

Check it every quarter so a dead code or old price doesn’t sit there for months.

Four or five over about two weeks works for most salons and clinics. A single welcome email is still far better than nothing, so start there if that’s all you have time for.

No. First access to cancellations, a useful guide or a first-visit add-on can work as well as money off. If you do offer something, keep it modest and give it an honest end date.

Only if they gave consent or meet the soft opt-in, meaning they were given a chance to opt out when they booked and you only email about your own similar treatments. Their booking confirmation is a service message and shouldn’t carry an offer.

Yes, as long as it counts down to a real deadline that you stick to. A timer that resets, or an offer that ends and comes straight back, is the kind of false urgency the DMCC Act bans.