What to email your waitlist, from sign-up to launch

The short answer

Send three emails: a welcome the moment someone joins, a short update now and then while you build, and one email on launch day. If you have a fixed date, add a heads-up a week before. That is enough. A waitlist goes cold when people never hear from you, and it gets annoyed when you write with nothing to say.

The welcome, when they join

They just gave you their email address. Tell them they are on the list, what you will send and how often, and ask one easy question. A waitlist welcome email template is there if you want a start.

Subject: You're on the list

Hi Sam, thanks for joining. I'm building [product] on my own, so you'll hear from me when something has really changed, not on a schedule. If you tell me what you want to use it for, it will shape what I build first. Reply to this email with a line or two.

Updates while you build

Send one when you have something to show: a screen, a decision, a change that came from what waitlist people told you. Every few weeks is plenty, and once a month is fine. Skip a month when nothing happened rather than sending filler.

Subject: Sign-in with Google works now

Hi Sam, a short one. You can now sign in with Google, and I removed the screen that used to come after sign-in, because nobody knew what it was for. Next is invoices. If that is the reason you joined, tell me.

Leave out apologies for being quiet, roadmaps with dates you cannot keep, and fake urgency like "only a few spots left" unless it is true.

The heads-up

If you have a launch date, tell people a week ahead: the date, what they get for having waited, and what they need to do. One short email.

Launch day

One link and one thing to do, both in the first two lines. Say what the product does in a sentence.

Subject: [Product] is open

Hi Sam, [product] is live today. You can sign up here: [link]. When you have tried it, tell me what was missing.

A few days later, send a second one: the link again and one question, "What is stopping you?" Write it so it still reads right for someone who already signed up, because an email to a list goes to everyone on it.

What to avoid

• Writing to people who did not agree to hear from you. A bought list is not a waitlist.
• Weekly emails with nothing in them.
• Long emails. If it needs scrolling, cut it.

How Kicklace does it

Add a list for the waitlist on your Lifecycle map. People join it from a form on your site: your own form, marked with data-kl-list and heard by the Kicklace tag, or a form Kicklace hosts for you (Your website and its forms). Every sign-up keeps the exact sentence the person agreed to.

The list's card holds two emails:

• When they join, the welcome.
• A regular email, every week, every other week or every month at 9:00. Its news can come from a variable that fills itself when it goes out, such as what shipped from your deploys, what changed on your website, or lines and links you add yourself. Where Kicklace fills any of it, you read it first, and when there is nothing new, that one is skipped.

On an empty list, Write it for me writes both in your voice. For launch day, Send one now writes a one-off to the list. Preview it as real people on the list, then send it now or pick a time. Nothing sends until you switch it on.

One limit to know. Through Kicklace's own sender you can send 50 emails a day until your own domain is verified, then 500, and an email to a list that would go past what is left today is refused before it starts. If your waitlist is longer than 50, verify your domain first. Email says how.

Every list email carries a one-click unsubscribe and your postal address, which you set once under Settings → Styles. Kicklace is free up to 1,000 contacts (pricing), and the demo shows it on your own site with no sign-up. After launch, see product update emails.

FAQ

How often should I email my waitlist?

When you have something real to say. Every few weeks while you build is a good default, and once a month is fine. Do not go quiet for months, because people forget why they joined.

Can I add people from another tool?

Only if they agreed to hear from you. An import asks you to type the sentence they agreed to, and keeps it beside each person. Moving from another CRM has the steps.