The Easiest Thing You're Not Doing.
How to make the most of every new connection.
Weekly insights on thought leadership, tech, and travel. Practical ideas that make your work and life easier.
Imagine someone walks up to you at a conference and introduces themselves.
You smile, nod, and then… walk away without saying a word.
Weird, right?
Of course, that would never happen in person.
But online, it happens all the time.
Someone joins your email list, signs up for your newsletter, or connects with you on LinkedIn.
They’re interested in you. Maybe they want to buy, sell, collaborate, or just think you look really cool. (Obviously, it’s the last option at minimum.)
And the typical response is… nothing.
With emails, there might be a template response. Heavily branded by the email platform, not you. With social media, there’s no response at all.
Welcome messages get 4-5x higher open rates than regular emails. People are paying attention right now. A little effort here goes a long way.
Here’s where to start.
Substack. Growing in popularity, the platform lets you craft a welcome email. You can thank subscribers for joining, set expectations, and give them something useful right away. (Are you on Substack yet? If so, we should connect!)
Kit or your email platform. There are more options, like building a short sequence. A few emails that build trust and share your best stuff before you ever ask for anything. Set it up once. It runs forever.
LinkedIn. The biggest opportunity for everyone, especially if you’re growing a business or a network. When someone connects, send a short message. Reference something from their profile, ask a genuine question, or just say “hello”. Some powerusers see the value in this and have hired a VA to help with initial welcomes. Then they take over if the conversation keeps going.
And I’ll be honest - I’ve been dropping the ball on the DMs lately. As I’ve continued to post daily on LinkedIn and engage in comments, I’ve missed my 1-1 conversations.
Writing this is a reminder for me, too.
That initial connection point is low-hanging fruit. Loads of upside.
The “welcome moment” is right there.
Worth making the most of it.
✈️ Carry On
with Pamela Wilton
Stay in touch. Stay visible. Stay helpful. Have fun.
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This is such a wonderful reminder for all of us. Thank you. Off to take a long hard look at my comms this week. As a marketing person, turned artist I know how important this all is but it’s so easy to forget