What are you doing to personalize your welcome email?

One approach worth trying: a dynamically generated welcome image rather than a static photo of yourself.

You build a template once - could be a branded card with their first name on it, or something data-driven like their signup source or plan tier - then use a merge tag in your ESP to pass their details into an image URL. When they open the email, the image renders with their specific data baked in. It looks personal because it is - their name is actually in the visual, not just in the copy above it.

Tools like @OKZest do this without needing design work per subscriber. You set up the template once and the URL handles the personalization automatically. Works with any ESP that supports image blocks. For welcome emails specifically, seeing your name rendered in the actual image (not just "Hi Joshua,") does tend to feel less like a mass mailout.

Uh, even that doesn't seem to work now.

I've been reading about this and the best example I found was from a guy who spent a few seconds shooting a video and sending a personalized message like "Hey Joshua, Darko here. Thanks for signing up, blah blah..."