Create Warm, Welcome Email Flows That Convert 1.9X Better Than Average

You’ve heard a million times that you need to capture store visitors with a great offer. Right? 

If not, you might want to read this article first. 

But what do you do once you’ve collected an email address?  

Let’s take a little detour and imagine that you’re handed a million bucks. What do you do with it? Do you waste it on cheap thrills; or invest it so it can compound over time? Your financial advisor would most likely recommend the ladder. (Unless there’s a world pandemic, in which case, stash it under your pillow.)

Coming back to emails, you can use this same logic for investing in your database: 

• Do you bombard a new subscriber with ever-increasing sales in the hope that something works ASAP? 

Or

• Do you put in a little effort at the beginning to build a  new, stronger relationship and establish the foundation for a high lifetime value customer? 

 🧐

We vote for the second (obviously): Delight new subscribers to turn them into permanent brand advocates. 

In this blog post, we’re going to study  Big Life Journal’s welcome experience. Big Life Journal creates journals and worksheets to help children develop a growth mindset. 

Their segmented welcome experience tailors communication for each subscriber depending on a number of factors. Subscribers receive a maximum of eight emails over a 10-day period. (Keep in mind subscribers drop out of the welcome flow as soon as they complete a purchase.)

You’ll see how Big Life Journals leads with high-value content to become their customers’ go-to resource. 

We’ve broken down their strategy into four key themes that help you immediately plump up your own welcome experience, turning your customers into raving fans: 

1. Offer thoughtful and engaging content for free
2. “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”… AKA continue adding value
3. Make it very easy for your customer to buy
4. Personalize content to make it relevant

In their 2019 benchmark report, Klaviyo calculated the average KPI’s for Welcome Emails across 13 different industries. 

Here’s how those rates compare with Big Life Journal’s Welcome Series: 

Your first impression counts. If you open with a coupon, you’re telling your future customers they can expect this type of discount-focused relationship moving forward.

Sometimes discounts are the way to go, but make sure whatever you offer is relevant to your ideal customer. 

Let’s look at our example. 

In exchange for an email, Big Life Journal offers a free PDF resource for download via a pop-up: 

The message introduces customers to the brand by being very friendly and human. It also offers 35% off several low-entry products to encourage new subscribers to try a product immediately. 

Finally, Big Life Journal is very transparent and tells new subscribers what to expect: free, high-quality content delivered to their inbox every Friday. 

Takeaways: 

• Create a high-value, relevant offer in exchange for an email address
• Give new subscribers a warm welcome (show off your brand personality)
• Share engaging content to entice readers to open future emails (high engagement!)
• Clearly highlight your brand values 

Think of these next emails as an opportunity to prove that you’ll continue to care and share interesting content… forever! 

Subscribers receive another free PDF one day after joining the list. This email strengthens the relationship with new readers by proactively sharing additional information and empathizing with their struggle. 

Takeaways: 

• Think which “How-To”  content you could share to nurture your new lead 
• Demonstrate that you empathize with your customer’s pain points
• Establish yourself as their go-to resource 

If you have a range of products for customers to choose from, do everything you can to facilitate their first decision. 

Big Life Journal sells a lot of different resources but has two best selling journals. We highlight these two products very clearly in this email so the customer doesn’t get overwhelmed by all the options. 

Takeaways: 

• Highlight your top sellers so a new customer doesn’t have to think too hard 
• Explain the difference in categories so they can easily find what they’re looking for
• Share case studies or reviews to add social proof

Learn as much as you can about your customers, so you can hit as close to home as possible. 

You saw in the example pop-up from theme one that we ask subscribers to share whether they’re educators or parents. This enables us to segment subscribers and personalize their email content accordingly. 

For example, in the best-sellers email mentioned just above, educators see a teacher’s testimonial, while others receive parent reviews instead.

Takeaways: 

• If you have different types of customer profiles, segment them for more relevant messaging.
• If you have Men’s vs. Women’s collections, show gender-specific photos 
• If you have products for different age groups, find out which age your subscriber is interested in so you aren’t sending irrelevant content.
• If you don’t ship everywhere, think of segmenting shipping vs. non-shipping countries and clearly communicating alternatives.

Now that you’ve seen what we did for Big Life Journal’s welcome emails, apply this strategy to your brand. Think of how you can customize an extremely valuable experience that will blow away your new subscribers. A warm welcome email can go a long way, even turning your subscribers into loyal brand advocates.