Today we are going to be covering a very straightforward topic: What to say in a welcome email. Whilst this may seem straightforward if you think about it - It’s a welcome email, say hello - a lot of us have taken this opportunity to overwhelm the reader. It’s like people view this first email as an ideal time to drop ALL of the information and hope and pray that it gets read! Unfortunately, this is not how it should work.
Welcome Emails Deliver
Did you know that welcome emails have a 91.43% open rate and can boost revenue by 30%? With the highest open and conversion rate of all of the emails, these need to be carefully crafted to ensure you can reap the benefits of this amazing channel.
It’s no surprise that automated emails, triggered based on a user's engagement with your brand, perform the best of all of the emails being sent. This is because you are capturing your buyer’s attention when they are engaged. As soon as someone hits that subscribe button on your site, they are granting you access to their inbox. This is the time to maximize on the relevancy that your brand has which will be rewarded with higher open and click through rates.
For those of you in e-commerce, throw a discount code at them, and they will love you even more. How many of us have handed over our email address just to cash in on that 10-15% off coupon for our first purchase? I know I do it on the regular and it always feels like a win!
The Yellow House Checklist
- Keep it short and sweet. Use bullet points and bolding strategically to make it easy to skim all of the content for those of us perusers.
- Thank the user for giving you their email address. You now have access to their personal communication channel. That is a big step. And make your thanks authentic.
- Tell the readers what to expect from you. Get inside the client or subscribers head and ask WHY they want to give you their precious email address for the first time. In fact, ask your clients. Run a quick survey of your existing subscribers and see what they want to hear from you! Or better yet, include this on your subscription preference management page!
- Leverage what you know about the customer. Make sure you capture first name and email on the form and USE the first name to make the email feel authentic
- Add some personality. Try not to sound like computer generated text. Say something unexpected - use this opportunity to develop your brand story
- Make your call to action very clear and limit the amount of links in your email
- Continue the conversation elsewhere. Invite them to follow you on social media so they can engage with more of your content.
Don't stop there. Deliver on your promise.
Remember in point #3 you told the subscriber what to expect in the welcome email? Now you have the hard job of delivering. Just because you have sent one email, those leads aren't considered nurtured. An entire program designed around demographic and firmographic details combined with a personalized approach based on the leads search history and data gathered around their interests is key.The first email is like meeting someone in real life. You have 30 seconds to make a first impression, once they have opened your email, before they delete, block or read on. How do you plan to use it?
Other Automated Campaigns to consider
With Automated Emails generating 320% more revenue than non-automated emails, you need to think past just automating the first touch. Personalizing the customer journey for various behaviour and customer segments, automation will help you easily deliver the right message at the right time. I'm not going to go into great detail right now, but automated campaigns are always a good idea. Here are a few examples of other campaigns you could employ:
- Event-based emails
- Lead Magnet nurture programs
- Seasonal Events
- VIP nurtures
- Customer Onboarding
- Abandoned Cart
- Transactional Emails
- Post-transaction customer engagement
- Customer Win-Back
- Cart Abandonment
- Survey or Feedback
Not sure where to get started with your email program? Talk to us! We can help you set up your nurture programs, audit your existing emails, or help you with many of your marketing automation questions!
