8 out of 10 customers expect to receive a welcome message after they sign up for a mailing list.
Let’s agree, that’s a huge unrevealed potential and opportunity to approach your new subscribers who’ve just confirmed that they are into you.
If you still don’t send these emails because of whatever reason, you should definitely ditch your modesty and start proudly introducing your brand with awaited and well-performing welcome messages.
But let’s first things go first.
What Is a Welcome Email?
A welcome email is the first interaction your business has with your new subscriber after he/she confirms having an interest in you. The main goal of this message is to confirm a new registration and welcome a new subscriber aboard.
You should send this email when your site’s visitor submits the signup form of your newsletter. Usually, retailers use an automated workflow so they wouldn’t miss welcoming anyone and sending “thank you for signing up” email.
To automate your welcome messages, you will need to find a marketing automation platform that provides such a workflow. To create visually appealing and effective welcome emails, many businesses use specialized tools like an Email Editor. These tools can significantly streamline the process of designing professional-looking emails that make a strong first impression. For example, Expressa.io‘s Email Builder offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface along with customizable templates, making it easy for both marketers and developers to craft engaging welcome emails without extensive coding knowledge.
For a proper introduction of your brand, you may choose one email or a series of 3–5 welcome emails to send. At Omnisend, we see that a series of three emails generates better results. They can bring you more than twice higher engagement rates, as well as higher revenue.
To grow your professional network and create worthwhile relationships, you should also think about using Linkedin introductions.
Why It’s Important? (Backed by Data)
Many different reasons make a welcome email stand out from our entire digital marketing toolkit.
- First of all, data shows that it’s worth sending. 74% of email subscribers expect to receive a welcome email just after subscribing to a new newsletter.
- This high interest also reflects in this email engagement numbers. Welcome emails have an average open rate of 52.09%. That’s almost three times bigger than an open rate of a simple newsletter (18.3%)
- New subscribers tend to read those emails and even buy when incentivized by them. An average conversion rate (2.24%) overcomes the vast majority of other automated emails sent by ecommerce businesses.
Apart from those numbers, a welcome email reveals many opportunities to approach your new subscribers. So what else can you achieve with that?
The 6 Main Benefits of Welcome Emails in Ecommerce
- By sending a welcome email, you increase the credibility of your brand. Many customers don’t trust newly discovered brands. A welcome email can help warm up new members faster and push them further through the sales funnel.
- A welcome email is a great tool for storytelling. It can help you tell your brand story, reveal some interesting facts, a key selling proposition, or a “behind the scenes” look.
- Many retailers often include an incentive to buy into the welcome emails. Some small discounts or free shipping for the first purchase. A conversion rate of 2.24% shows that this strategy actually works.
- Welcome emails also help to get more touchpoints with new subscribers. Brands invite new subscribers to follow them on social media, or respond to a survey with their personal data and complement their customer profile.
- Sending a welcome email is a brilliant opportunity to showcase your products, to introduce your brand with your best offers and product categories.
- That’s your chance to show appreciation to your customer and send “thank you for subscribing” email. Follow the link and learn how to do it best.
As you can see, there are many goals that welcome email can help you to achieve. Of course, you should prioritize your goals and don’t try to achieve all of them with a single email.
Let’s look at some great welcome email examples, how retailers employ welcome emails in their marketing strategies.
The 7 Top-Notch Welcome Email Examples
#1. Use clear 1-2-3 steps to onboard
It’s always easier to absorb information when it is clearly structured. 1-2-3 steps are a good solution when you have more than one thing to say or want to encourage a newbie to take certain actions. A great example is the AirBnB welcome email.
Please note that you should only use one Call-To-Action button on the page if you want it to be effective.
A structured list could be used also as a way to introduce the benefits of becoming a member of your community. In addition to that, Michaels asks to fill the survey about personal interests and demographic data. It will definitely help when segmenting the customers and organizing personalized campaigns.
I also like this example of Vente-Privee.
I find it a little bit too overwhelming with different kinds of information (a search field, and too much information about the delivery voucher).
However, I like their welcome greeting message and the way they introduce the benefits of becoming a member of their community.
#2. Tell Your Story
Storytelling in marketing is as old as marketing itself. A fascinating brand story is exactly what seals the deal when customers are choosing from a few alternatives.
A welcome email is a perfect media to tell your story, and introduce your values or key selling proposition.
One of the most beautiful examples of how to introduce the brand and the product itself is a welcome email from AWAY.
First of all, this brand shortly introduces the team’s beliefs, then point by point explains why their product is unique and offers a free trial at the end.
#3. Offer a Deal
By offering a discount or some sort of an incentive, you can create good will between your business and your new engaged subscribers. It often breaks the ice for the first purchase.
For example, the Modkat goes straight forward, the email welcomes the new subscriber, briefly introduces the mission of the brand and offers a deal with a clear CTA button.
Never underestimate CTA button.
When you have an almost perfect welcome email design, it is time to look once again at the CTA button. Does it clearly reflect what you expect your recipients to do? Is it bright and in a convenient click position? Do not place the call-to-action button at the very end of your email – it should be visible on the screen without the need to scroll. Make it short, simple and bright.
Designing an effective CTA is an art, but you definitely can test various options and discover which ones work for you. A great way to do this would be to use a tool like Rebrandly URL Shortener to create custom, trackable, short URLs to add to your CTA buttons. That way, you can compare the click data for each button and see what’s working best.
#4. Showcase Your Products with Eye-Catching Images
A welcome email shouldn’t be shy or modest. It’s your chance to introduce yourself to interested subscribers the best you can.
So use your trump cards: beautiful images of happy customers, your most popular products, free returns warranty, etc.
This is an example of how Crocs showcases its products:
#5. Send a Series of Welcome Emails
As I already mentioned, data shows that a series of three welcome emails generate 90% more orders than a single welcome email.
Moreover, by on-boarding your new subscribers with three emails, you can add more information about your brand. Approaching your customers more than once will help you to create and reinforce a solid first impression and boost your sales.
See how welcome series emails look in the example below:
The first email welcomes the subscriber on board, shortly introduces the benefits of joining the community. Also, we can see a photo of the founder and her short quote which makes the email more personal.
The second email tells the story about the brand and how the products are being produced. It shows some details “behind the scenes’.
In this example, the third email is for social proof and the discount for the first purchase.
All these emails are sent within four days after the signup. See how the entire workflow looks like below:
The 10 Welcome Email Subject Lines You Can Steal Today
For welcome emails, you don’t necessarily have to look for a unique subject line. Most often, merchants use “thank you for subscribing” text, or simply – “welcome to [brand name]!”.
However, I checked my inbox where I subscribe to hundreds of brands and came up with a list of 10 subject lines that are simple yet effective.
- Welcome to [brand name]. Here’s what to do next.
- Welcome to the A-List!
- Welcome to [brand name]! Enjoy £10 off your next order
- You’re in. Welcome to the family.
- Hi Karolina! Thanks for subscribing!
- Welcome to [brand name]! Get 20% off your first order!
- ✨ Welcome to [brand name] – here’s 15% off
- Welcome to the club! ❤️
- Welcome! Thanks for signing up!
- We are [brand name]. Let’s meet up!
Don’t be afraid of using emoji in your subject line. This small icon helps you get noticed.
Key takeaways:
- Introduce yourself the best way you can. Tell your story. Showcase your products and offers. Give your new subscribers that “good decision to join” feeling.
- Whatever your key goal of the welcome email is, you should stick to a clear structure and bright CTA button.
- Support your email with high-quality images. Only good imagery will create the right effect.
- Incentive matters. No matter either it free shipping of a small discount for the first time users, it helps “the hot lead” to convert.
- Consider sending a series of welcome emails. Altogether they perform better than a single email. Both, in terms of order rate as well as brand awareness raising.
- Be polite to your customers.
Trust me, welcome emails (or a series of them) generate great results and are must-have tools in your marketing toolkit. And what is most important, you can see those results in a short period of time.
This article originally appeared in the Omnisend blog and has been published here with permission.