Build a Five-Email Welcome Series on systeme.io's Free Plan
About Alex: a pen name. There is no shop behind it, and no results are claimed. This is a walkthrough plus opinion, and I'll mark which is which.
In short
A welcome series is three pieces: a form, a campaign holding the emails in order, and one rule that says "when someone submits the form, start the campaign." Write the emails before you open the tool, because the tool only needs words pasted in. (That order is my opinion.)
What you get from reading it:
- A five-email plan with a delay for each, checked by arithmetic
- A campaign and one rule, described the way systeme.io's help describes them
- A test log you can run with your own inboxes
Say your signup page works and one welcome email goes out. Then you notice that one email feels thin: the person asked for something, you answered once, and the conversation ended. A short series lets the first email deliver the promise and the next few finish the job properly.
That costs you more setup, so I'll say where it stops being the minimal path. Build Your First Email Signup Page and Welcome Email on systeme.io's Free Plan is the one-email build. This guide is the longer one and leans on it for the shared parts. Maya, a made-up seller of budget spreadsheet templates, carries the examples. She is imaginary, and so is everything attached to her.
Should you build a series or keep one email?
Two facts decide it, both from systeme.io's own pages (fetched 25 October 2026, re-read 26 October).
The rule budget. The pricing FAQ says the free plan has 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign, with unlimited email sends and 2,000 contacts. The one-email build uses your only rule with a Send email action. This build uses the same single rule, with a Subscribe to campaign action, and your only campaign. You do not get both. Pick one.
Why a campaign at all. A rule can hold an email, but the test-email help says you cannot send test emails for emails created directly inside automation rules. Campaign emails have a "Save and test" button. As far as the help shows, delays between emails also live in the campaign, not the rule.
That is the series-specific reason for the campaign route, and it is also why the route is the more work.
Two things I could not confirm from any text: that the free plan offers the Subscribe to campaign action, and that one free campaign holds five emails. The help lists no restriction for either, and nobody has tried them in a free account.
The pricing page comparison table did not load as text, so I rely on the FAQ lines only. If your account refuses either, go back to the one-email build.
My judgement: if you have not yet written anything people want to receive, start with one email. Five is worth it only when you have a small lesson or a few useful steps to deliver.
Prerequisites, kept short
The one-email guide covers these in detail. The short version, from the help pages:
- Sender address. Gmail addresses cannot send from systeme.io since 16 July 2024. Yahoo, LaPoste, Zoho and Proton are prohibited or restricted, and Outlook, Hotmail and Live are technically allowed but not recommended. The help recommends an address on your own domain, which you authenticate in systeme.io, and says each sending address must be confirmed. That domain is a cost outside the free plan; I have not checked any price.
- Homepage. The deliverability help asks for a domain with an active homepage, not a parking page. Whether a one-page funnel counts is untested.
- Footer. The free plan cannot remove the "Sent with systeme.io" line, which is an affiliate link for systeme.io.
If any of those is a deal-breaker, the free-plan overview (systeme.io's Free Plan: What You Get and What You Don't) lays out the limits and a try-or-skip checklist.
Step 1: Write the five emails before you open the tool
The tool wants a subject, a body and a delay for each email. Opening it with nothing written means composing while a menu waits. So write all five in a notes app first.
Give each email one job and one useful thing. Maya's plan is a three-step lesson plus two follow-ups. The free offer behind it is imaginary: Find Forgotten Subscriptions in 10 Minutes.
| # | Wait after previous email | Days after email 1 | Job |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | short (see Step 3) | 0 | Welcome, what to expect, lesson step 1 |
| 2 | 1 day | 1 | Lesson step 2: sort each charge |
| 3 | 2 days | 3 | Lesson step 3: set a reminder |
| 4 | 3 days | 6 | Common problems and fixes |
| 5 | 4 days | 10 | Her own product, said once and plainly, plus one question |
The third column is the delays added up: 0, then 0+1 = 1, 1+2 = 3, 3+3 = 6, 6+4 = 10. The tool asks only for the waits, each counted from the previous email, so plan in that column and check with this one.
Here is the full text of Maya's email 1, so you can see the level of detail to aim for. It is an invented example.
Subject: Your forgotten-subscriptions
lesson, step 1
Preview: Ten minutes, one statement,
one pen.
Hi,
Thanks for joining. Over about ten
days you'll get five short emails:
three tasks, a problems email and one
question. At the end you'll have a
list of every recurring charge,
each marked keep, review or cancel.
The last email mentions the sheet
I sell, once.
Step 1 (about 10 minutes): open last
month's bank or card statement.
Circle anything that repeats. Write
each on a list with its amount and
date.
You're done when you have a list,
even a messy one. Don't judge yet.
Tomorrow: sorting the list.
Maya's Budget Sheets
[Your postal address: US CAN-SPAM
asks for a valid one in commercial
email. See the consent guide.]
Notice what it does not do. It has no sales pitch, it asks for one task, it gives a finish line, and it says what comes next. Email 4 answers what could go wrong ("I can't tell what a charge is"). Email 5 is the only one that mentions her product, once: "It's my own product, and you don't need it for what you just did."
Rules I would keep: promise on the signup page only what the emails deliver, put the same promise in the first line of email 1, and leave first-name placeholders out. Your form collects only an email address, and the test-email help says substitute variables do not populate in test emails.
If you cannot think of five jobs, write three. That is my judgement, not a rule. Do not pad the series to reach a number.
Sources: none for the writing. Hands-on verification: not applicable.
Step 2: Account, sender and signup page (use the one-email guide)
Do these in the one-email guide, in the same order:
- Create the free account and set up the sender (Steps 1 and 2 there).
- Build the signup page and thank-you page (Step 3 there).
Stop after Step 3 of that guide; do not build its Step 4 rule, because Step 5 here builds the only rule you get on the free plan.
Three details matter more for a series, so here they are again.
- The button. The form button's action must be Submit form, with the next step in the funnel chosen. The help for the automatic-email rule says the rule does not fire otherwise, and the same condition applies to a Subscribe to campaign rule because it uses the same trigger.
- The promise. Under the form, say how many emails and over how long: for example "five short emails over about ten days." Then the series cannot surprise anyone.
- Double opt-in. The help describes it as optional and set per form. When it is on, the contact must click a confirmation link within 24 hours or is deleted automatically, and all emails and automations are paused until they confirm. So with double opt-in on, the series clock does not start before the click. I would leave it off for a first build; that is a preference, and the consent article (Build a Consent-Based Email Course Outside Etsy) is where the reasoning belongs.
Open the page in a private window on your phone before moving on. Is the email field visible with the keyboard open? Can you tap the button?
Sources: help 280, help 1602, help 271 (via the one-email guide). Hands-on verification: pending.
Step 3: Create the campaign and add the five emails
From the campaign help (last updated 28 September 2026):
- Go to the Campaigns section under the Emails tab and click Create. A popup asks for a name, a sender email address and a description. Click Save.
- Click the campaign's name, then Create to make the first email. The popup asks for a subject, a sender name, a sender email address, an editor type (classic or visual) and a template.
- The classic editor is described as the one for a simple email; the visual editor is the drag-and-drop one. The help warns that changing editors while you work loses the content you wrote, so choose before pasting. I would take classic for plain text; that is an opinion.
- Paste in the email. Click Save and test to receive it at your test address. The help says to set that address under your profile picture > Settings > Emails > Testing, and that it must be confirmed before it can receive tests. Use an address different from your sender address, as the help recommends.
- Repeat for emails 2 to 5.
Because "Save and test" works for each campaign email, you can read all five in your inbox without waiting ten days. That is the practical gain of this route.
What I could not check: whether a free account lets one campaign hold five emails (V02), and how the screens look. If your screen differs from these lines, trust your screen.
Sources: S07 (help: set up an email campaign), S10 (help: send a test email). Hands-on verification: pending (V02, V04).
Step 4: Set the delays and activate each email
A saved email is not yet part of the sequence. The campaign help says that once an email is saved you must activate it to configure its delivery timing, and a new inactive email shows in the list with a gray dot, at the top, outside the sequence. I would treat an inactive email as one that will not send.
That is a cautious reading; the help does not use those words.
To activate: in the campaign list, click the three dots next to an email, then Activate. The popup has:
- This email will be sent after: you pick the email that comes immediately before this one. That choice sets the order.
- Delay: how long to wait. The help says it is counted from the delivery time of the email you picked, not from sign-up.
- Time / Days of the week: optional restrictions to specific hours or days.
For Maya's plan that means email 1 with a short delay after the contact enters, and then delays of 1, 2, 3 and 4 days, each after the one before. The help's own examples include "5 minutes after subscription" and "1 hour after the contact enters", so a short first delay is something the tool describes. Whether a zero delay is accepted I did not find.
Leave the time and day restrictions off in a first run. The help says every condition must be met before an email goes out, so a restriction can push an email to the next allowed slot. Its example: a 2-day delay plus "10:00 AM, Monday to Friday" turns a Thursday 3:00 PM send into the following Monday at 10:00 AM. Your table of days would no longer match what arrives.
When you are done, the campaign list should show five active emails, each pointing at the one before. I have not seen that screen, so check it against your plan.
Sources: S07, S08. Hands-on verification: pending (V03).
Step 5: Add the one rule that connects page and campaign
Page and campaign have not met yet. The rule introduces them. From the automation help:
- Go to Automations, then Rules, then Create.
- Under Trigger, click the + and choose Funnel step form subscribed. Then select your opt-in page by its title.
- Under Action, click the + and choose Subscribe to campaign. Select your campaign.
- Click Save rule at the top right.
On the free plan this is your only rule (pricing FAQ), so the one-email build and this one cannot both be live.
If you built the one-email version first, you will need to delete or disable its rule (the three-dot menu lets you edit, disable or delete) and decide which one you want. The rule limit is the pricing FAQ's wording, and I have not seen how the tool responds when you exceed it.
Two limits from the rules help to know now. A trigger can fire at most 20 times for the same contact; after the 20th the trigger is deactivated and rules are disabled for that contact. And rule task history is kept for one month, so last week's test may already be gone from a contact's profile.
Sources: S05 (automate an email sequence), S02 (how automation rules work), pricing FAQ. Hands-on verification: pending (V01).
Step 6: Test it like a stranger
Use two inboxes on different providers, both yours, and not the one you created the account with. Submit the form from your phone. Write PASS, FAIL or NOT_TESTED with a time next to each row. A PASS for a row you skipped is worse than a blank.
| # | Priority | Check | PASS means |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | P0 | Submit the form on your phone with inbox A | You reach the thank-you page |
| T2 | P0 | Wait for email 1 | It arrives from your own domain address |
| T3 | P0 | Tap the link and the unsubscribe link in email 1 | Both work |
| T4 | P0 | Read the footer | An unsubscribe link is visible; note the "Sent with systeme.io" line |
| T5 | P0 | Check which folder email 1 landed in, in both inboxes | Record it; Spam is a FAIL to look into |
| T6 | P1 | Compare delivery times of emails 1 and 2 | The gap matches your delay |
| T7 | P1 | Open each email on a phone | Readable, no leftover placeholder |
| T8 | P2 | Submit the same address twice | Record what happens; don't assume |
The priority column is my own label, not systeme.io's: P0 is worth fixing before you tell anyone, P1 soon, P2 for curiosity.
A made-up log entry, to show the format. It is not a result.
T2 FAIL Nothing after 20 minutes.
Cause: email 1 inactive.
Fixed. Retest 14:40.
T2 PASS Arrived 14:43 from
hello@mayas.example
T5 FAIL Outlook: Junk.
Gmail: Promotions.
Action: shorten, one link.
The unsubscribe line in T3 and T4 needs a note. The footer help describes a setting to show an "Unsubscribe from campaign" link and to write footer text, but that page is headed for paid accounts. I cannot say what a free account shows. If you cannot find an unsubscribe link in your test email, do not launch; in my judgement, that is a P0 failure.
A valid physical postal address is a CAN-SPAM requirement for commercial email in the US (FTC guide, read 26 October 2026; not legal advice). Rules elsewhere differ, so check where you and your readers live.
Fix one thing at a time and retest only the row that failed. The deliverability help also recommends starting slowly and sending at a steady rhythm, so I would not read much into the first few hours of a new account.
Sources: S10, S07, S18, S20, S02. Hands-on verification: pending (V04).
After real people are in the series: leave it alone
The campaign help describes several behaviours worth knowing before you edit anything live.
- Changing conditions later applies only to contacts who subscribe afterwards. People already enrolled keep the original timing.
- Adding an email in the middle reaches only contacts who have not yet passed that step. Adding one at the end goes to everyone still subscribed to the campaign, including people who finished long ago, and can send immediately because its delay is counted from the last email they received.
- Deactivating all emails and reactivating them resends them to all enrolled contacts. The help suggests building a new campaign instead.
- Unsubscribed contacts are not removed from the campaign. They keep moving through the steps without receiving emails, and if their status returns to subscribed they resume where they are.
My practical conclusion: finish all five emails and the test before sharing the page. Edit text freely only while the list is just you. Note that on the free plan a "new campaign" means replacing your only one.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause (from the help) | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Form submits, nothing arrives | Button action is not Submit form; rule not saved; email not activated; sender not confirmed | Check in that order, retest with a fresh address |
| Email 2 arrives right after email 1 | The "sent after" choice points at the wrong email, or the email was added later and its delay has already passed | Open each Activate dialog and check what it follows |
| An email arrives days late | A time or day restriction is on | Turn it off for the test |
| Test address suddenly gets nothing | A trigger fires at most 20 times per contact | Use a fresh test address |
| Sender address refused | Gmail and several free-mail addresses cannot send | Use an address on your own authenticated domain |
| Cannot add the rule | The free plan lists one rule | Check Automations > Rules for an existing one |
| Variable shows as text in a test | Substitute variables do not populate in test emails | Send a live email to yourself |
| Test email never arrives | Testing address not confirmed | Confirm it under Settings > Emails |
Questions
Can I run two series on the free plan? The pricing FAQ lists one rule and one campaign. By that wording, no.
What if the Subscribe to campaign action is missing? Then I cannot recommend this route. Use the one-email build and put the next messages in by hand or on a paid plan.
Do I have to use systeme.io? No. The writing in Step 1 works in any email tool, and I have not compared tools. If you are deciding whether to pay for one, Five Questions Before You Buy Another Paid Tool is the place to start.
Your next step
If your P0 rows are PASS, you have something real: a stranger can give you an address, and a series you wrote starts by itself.
What it needs now is people who see the form. How to Grow Your First Email List as a Product Seller is about where the offer should live. If you are still deciding whether your shop's problem is traffic at all, start from Why Your Shop Isn't Growing.
Sources and checks
The official systeme.io Help Center texts below were fetched on 25 October 2026 and re-read from the saved copies on 26 October 2026, together with the pricing page FAQ. None of the steps has been tried in a live account.
- How to automatically send an email when a lead subscribes (help 280, updated 27 April 2026): the rule, the Send email action and the one-email build the series is compared to.
- How automation rules work (updated 15 May 2026): rule location, the 20-trigger limit, one-month task history.
- How to automate the sending of an email sequence (updated 8 May 2026): Subscribe to campaign.
- How to set up an email campaign (updated 28 September 2026): campaign creation, activation, delay and time conditions.
- Setting up email campaigns: common scenarios (read 26 October 2026): editing live sequences, delays for added emails, reactivation, unsubscribed contacts.
- How to send a test email (updated 2 February 2026): Save and test, the Testing address, no tests for emails inside rules, variables in tests.
- How to set up double opt-in (updated 13 April 2026).
- How to remove "Sent with systeme.io" and customize your email footer (updated 1 June 2026) and the personal-address help (updated 9 April 2026) and the deliverability pages.
- Pricing page FAQ: free-plan limits. The comparison table did not load as text.
- The US FTC, "CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business", read on 26 October 2026 through a page-fetch tool that returns extracts (no raw copy saved). Used only for the sentence that a valid physical postal address is required. Not legal advice.
Dropped, not confirmed. The earlier draft's claims about a first send going to 100 contacts then pausing, about accounts being deactivated after six months, about Etsy consent rules, and about welcome-series length from a third-party page were not in the texts I re-read, so they are not repeated here.
Opinion, not source. The order (write first), classic editor, leaving double opt-in off, three-versus-five emails and the P0/P1/P2 labels.
Unverified. That the free plan offers Subscribe to campaign; that one free campaign holds five emails; whether a zero first delay is allowed; the exact screen wording; what a free account's footer offers for an unsubscribe link; what the pricing page does when limits are exceeded; any domain cost.
- V01 The free plan offers the Subscribe to campaign action in an automation rule [PENDING]
- V02 One free campaign can hold five emails (no per-campaign limit was found in the texts; none tested) [PENDING]
- V03 The activation dialog shows the delay field, and a first email can be given a short delay after the contact enters [PENDING]
- V04 "Save and test" sends to the address set under Settings > Emails > Testing, and the unsubscribe link appears in a free account's footer [PENDING]
- V05 A real seller builds the series from this guide unaided [PENDING]
What this guide does not claim
That the build works as written, that any email reaches an inbox, that the free plan or its limits will stay as they are, that a list brings sales or income, or that Maya or her numbers exist.