Big news: chances are more recipients will open your list's welcome message than any other email you ever send them in the future. We've long suspected that welcomes are more important than most marketers believe. Our theory is that response is driven by recency of opt-in. If someone just joined your list a few minutes ago, they're darn likely to open the first few messages they get from you.

Read how can you tweak your probably-standard welcome to take advantage of this extra level of reader attention: four specific tactics tested by real-life marketers.

Source: ExactTarget - MarketingSherpa