What should happen after someone joins my email list?

Continue the conversation.

Someone has just landed on your page because you've promised to help them with a specific problem.

They've given you their email address.

Don't suddenly change the subject.

Take the problem you introduced on your landing page and continue helping them solve it over the following days.

Not the biggest problem in their entire business.

Just something small, specific and useful.

Because those first few emails are doing something much more important than delivering information.

They're teaching someone whether your emails are worth paying attention to.

I want to give people two different types of value:

Tangible value is the useful stuff. An idea they can use. A problem they can solve. Something that makes their life or business a little better.

Emotional value is how the emails make them feel. Understood. Excited. Curious. Entertained. Like somebody actually gets the problem they're dealing with.

Combine the two and something interesting starts happening.

People begin opening, reading and clicking because they actually want to.

That's what those first few days should accomplish.

Not:

"How quickly can I get this person onto a sales call?"

But:

"How do I make this person want to open my next email?"

Get that right and everything you want to do with email afterwards becomes a hell of a lot easier.