Welcome emails are one of the 8 types of emails you must be sending your customers, but many brands only send one welcome email—if they send one at all! On average, sending a series of introductory emails yields around 51% more revenue than a single welcome email. People are at their peak interest level when they sign up to receive emails from your brand, and eight out of ten expect to receive a welcome email after they sign up for a mailing list. Capitalize on this new-subscriber momentum by creating a compelling series of introductory emails that convert these people into customers. Here’s how to do it.
Say Hello and Send an Introductory Offer
Your first email should be pretty short and sweet and obvious. Thank your new subscriber for signing up, and welcome them to your newsletter or offers/discounts emails. Tell them what to expect in a couple of sentences, how often they should expect emails, new products, great photos or subscriber-only deals. Ban.do is one example of a brand that sends colorful, visually exciting and engaging emails.
If you offered a discount upon signing up, now is the time to share it. Usually brands offer 10% or 15%, but it’s up to you! It’s never too early to start converting your subscribers to customers. Include a call to action to “Update Your Email Preferences” or “Update Your Information,” where your subscriber can click and be taken to a page to provide their demographics such as age, gender and location. This will help you segment your audience and you can then send more specific emails. It’s also advantageous for the subscriber, as they can get emails that are more tailored to them.
Introduce Your Brand
Most brands stop at the first welcome email—if they get there at all. Apparently only 39% of brands even send a welcome email at all. So you’re already ahead of the game if you’re at this point. Keep going! Create momentum with your new subscribers and build a relationship with them by sending a second email to properly introduce your brand and provide an interesting backstory.
This could include a photo of your brand’s founder and a short quote, to make the email more personal. It could also include a short story on the origins of your key products. Highway Robbery entices people to sign up with the chance to “win a free robe,” and then gives subscribers an interesting history of the brand in their welcome emails, by telling the story of the founders and how they got started. It’s clearly worked, as they get new subscribers every day.
Remind Subscribers About the Discount Code
Once you’ve got your subscribers, you need to put in the work to keep them engaged. That means sending more emails—personalized ones. Use those segmented audiences to send targeted, personalized emails that remind those subscribers who haven’t used their sign-up discount to do so. An appropriate time to send might be seven days after subscribing. Take this opportunity to include information about your loyalty program too, if you have one.
Showcase Your Best Products, With Social Proof
There’s a good chance that your best, most popular products are what encouraged your subscribers to sign up to your newsletters or offer emails in the first place. But in case it wasn’t, you need to make sure your subscribers are aware of your top sellers. This could mean sending a simple image-based email with a call to action driving readers to the popular item’s product page to explore it further and purchase. It could also include social proof in the form of customer reviews with short quotes and star ratings, social media posts featuring your products, or blog posts about your products.
Re-Engage With More Unique Offers
Remind your readers why they signed up to receive your emails to begin with and reinforce the benefits they bring. Your email newsletter is where you provide all of your exclusive offers and content, so be sure to live up to the promise you made in your first couple of emails. Highlight your special offer, whether it’s free shipping or unique items. Fashion retailer SSENSE includes prominent information on their “Price Protection Policy” in their welcome email, ensuring subscribers know about their price-matching and price-adjustment policies.
Conclusion
A series of well-timed welcome emails can do wonders for your brand, but of course it shouldn’t be the only way you stay in touch with people. Encourage subscribers to follow your brand on social media by demonstrating the value that that engagement will give them—for example, even more special deals, styling advice and interesting brand stories. Welcome emails are an excellent base from which to build strong engagement across all of your communication channels. They’re a crucial tool that deserve care and detail. For help solidifying and executing your welcome email strategy, reach out to us today.
