Send the first message immediately rather than on a schedule. It should deliver whatever was promised at signup, confirm what they will receive and how often, and give them one useful thing. Setting the expectation about frequency in that first message measurably reduces unsubscribes later, because most people leave a list because it sent more than they anticipated rather than because the content was poor.
Three to five messages over two weeks is the right shape for most first year businesses. Longer sequences are built by businesses with more to say than a new company has, and a subscriber who receives nine messages in their first fortnight is being processed rather than welcomed. The content should be your best existing material rather than something written specially, since the purpose is demonstrating that following you is worthwhile.
Structure it as usefulness first and offer last. The common mistake is arriving at a pitch by message two, which converts the relationship into a transaction before any value has been delivered. A sequence that helps three times and then mentions what you do earns the mention, and the conversion rate on that final message is considerably higher than an early one.
Write it once and let it run, which is what distinguishes it from a newsletter. Every subscriber receives it from their own starting point, which means it works while you are doing something else and continues working for people who join a year from now. That durability is why this is the one automation genuinely worth building early.
Then review it every six months, because it ages invisibly. Prices change, links break, offers expire, and the tone drifts from how you now write. A sequence nobody has read in two years is quietly introducing new subscribers to a version of the business that no longer exists.
Check what happens for somebody who joins and then buys midway through the sequence, because the default behaviour is usually that they keep receiving messages introducing you as though they had not. Moving people out of the welcome sequence when they convert is a rule you have to set deliberately, and its absence produces the specific irritation of being sold something you already bought.