Foothold

Slack onboarding template

Slack onboarding template: copy-paste day 0, day 3, and day 7 messages

This is the actual three-touch template that runs inside Foothold for paid Slack communities. Copy any of it — the templates work whether you automate the flow or send the messages by hand. The structure is what matters: a short day-0 DM with one specific ask, a goal-keyed day-3 nudge if the checklist is incomplete, and a day-7 operator scorecard email that takes a single screenshot to share with a co-founder or board member.

TL;DR

Three messages, in order. Day 0 within an hour of join: one specific ask. Day 3: a goal-keyed nudge, conditional on the day-0 checklist being incomplete — not a blanket reminder. Day 7: a one-page operator email, four numbers, three names. The full templates are below; Foothold runs them automatically if you would rather not hand-write the day-3 nudge for every cohort.

The three-touch template

Each touch has one job. Treating any of them as a chance to add “a few more useful links” is the most common reason onboarding flows underperform. The new member did not ask for a tour of the workspace; they asked for a way in. One door per touch.

Day 0 — welcome DM (within an hour of join)
Hey {{first_name}} — welcome to {{community_name}}. I’m {{operator_name}}, the person who runs this place. The fastest way to get value out of the community is to do these three things in your first week. They take about ten minutes total: 1. Post a one-line intro in #intros — what you work on and one thing you’re trying to figure out right now. 2. Pick a goal track so I can point you at the right threads: · Find peers in your stage · Get feedback on something you’re building · Hire / be hired 3. Subscribe to two channels that match your goal — reply with your goal track and I’ll DM you the two channels. If you get stuck or hit something confusing, reply to this DM. I read every reply.

Why this works. The intro post is the single highest-leverage activation event in week one — new members who post in #intros are 4–6x more likely to post again than those who do not. The goal-track question gives you a piece of structured data per member that day-3 conditions on. The “reply with your goal track” pattern produces a real reply — and once a new member has replied to a DM in Slack, the bar to post in a public channel drops noticeably.

Lines to delete if you customise. Anything that reads as a feature tour (“our community has 18 channels covering…”), anything that asks for a calendar booking in week one, anything that links to a long-form pinned doc. The new member will read it later when they have a reason to.

Day 3 — goal-keyed nudge (only if checklist incomplete)
Hey {{first_name}} — quick check-in. I noticed you haven’t posted in #intros yet. Since you said you’re focused on {{goal_track}}, here are two threads from this week that I think are directly relevant: · {{thread_1_title}} — {{thread_1_link}} · {{thread_2_title}} — {{thread_2_link}} A reply on either of those is a faster way in than a fresh intro post. If neither is the right fit, just reply “skip” and I’ll find different ones next week.

Why this works. The day-3 nudge fails when it is a blanket reminder — “Hey, you have not posted yet” — because the new member already knows. What they need is a smaller bar than “write your own post.” A reply to a relevant existing thread clears that bar at a fraction of the friction.

Critical constraint. Send this only if the day-0 checklist is incomplete. Members who already posted in #intros do not need the nudge and reading one will train them to mute the bot. If you are sending day-3 nudges by hand, the cost of forgetting this filter is high.

Day 7 — operator scorecard email (to you, not the member)
{{community_name}} — week ending {{date}} Joined this week: {{joined}} Activated (posted 1+): {{activated}} ({{activation_rate}}%) At-risk (no post by d7): {{at_risk}} Stalled (no Slack open): {{stalled}} People worth a personal DM this week: · {{at_risk_member_1}} — goal track: {{goal_track_1}} · {{at_risk_member_2}} — goal track: {{goal_track_2}} · {{at_risk_member_3}} — goal track: {{goal_track_3}} Trend vs last week: {{week_over_week}}.

Why this works. The four numbers are pasteable into a monthly retention report or a board update. The three names are an action list — not a dashboard you have to log into. Most community tools fail this test because they give the operator a dashboard with twelve charts and no specific next move. The right product gives one email per week with three names and the operator knows what to do.

How to use this template

Three options, in increasing order of leverage:

  1. Hand-send. Copy the three templates into a Notion or Google Doc. Pin a #operator-only channel reminder for day-0 and day-3 windows. Send the day-7 scorecard to yourself by hand on Friday afternoon. This works at < 50 new members per month and breaks above that.
  2. Slack Workflow Builder for day-0 only. Workflow Builder can fire a fixed message on a team_join trigger. It cannot do conditional day-3 logic and cannot generate the day-7 scorecard. Free, ships in 30 minutes, covers a third of the system.
  3. A purpose-built bot — Foothold. Runs all three touches with the conditional day-3 logic and the day-7 email built in. One-click Slack OAuth, 14-day trial, no credit card. $49–199/mo depending on member count.

Related: Slack onboarding bot — what it does, what to look for. A good first DM to a new Slack member — annotated examples — the longer-form essay on what changes between a DM that gets a reply and one that gets muted. The paid-community onboarding 6-step playbook.