Greetings are an important part of any interaction, whether it is digital or physical. We often overlook the fact that there are greetings in every culture, language, and form. So why shouldn’t there be one for your brand’s subscribers.
We don’t mean just saying hi, but actually welcoming your subscribers onboard and within your mailing list. This is exactly what we’ll discuss today in some detail, to help you understand why welcome emails are so important for your brand and email marketing strategy.
We will also discuss some welcome email quick facts, statistics, strategies, content, and goals to help you get the most out of your welcome emails.
But first…
What Exactly Is a Welcome Email?
A welcome email is typically the first email sent to a customer, subscriber, or prospect when they engage with your brand or convert on your website. It is the first email they get when they sign up to your email marketing list.
If you use a lead magnet on your website with an opt-in form, a welcome email may contain the content or link to the resource you offer as your lead magnet. Welcome emails are crucial to any email marketing strategy; however, most businesses often overlook its importance and benefits.
The first email they send to subscribers is commonly a standard email with the link to the resource or perhaps your newsletter. Many brands fail to write up a welcome email or series of welcome emails because it may not seem like a priority for their overall email marketing strategy.
They may think that the difficult part of acquiring the lead is already over, so why bother with an elaborate welcome email when they already got another subscriber on their email marketing list. They fail to recognize the disservice they are doing to their brand and business in not sending out welcome emails.
reasons why welcome emails are so important
Subscriber Expectations
One key reason why sending out welcome emails is so important is because your subscribers expect to receive one. When most people sign up on your website, perhaps for your newsletter, they expect a welcome email to confirm their sign up or registrations to your newsletter or website.
They expect you to acknowledge their effort and are often eager to get a look into what they signed up for. If you don’t send them a welcome email, especially when they expect one, they may quickly lose interest and forget about your brand.
Worst still, they may get confused and disappointed that they didn’t get an acknowledgment and were not “officially” welcomed to your mailing list.
Better Open Rate
If you have any experience with email marketing campaigns or if you regularly send out newsletters, you’ll know that not all of your subscribers open the emails that you send. Your email open rate is likely never close to 100%.
There may be any number of reasons for this and there are plenty of ways to improve your email open rates as well. However, there will always be a portion of your subscribers who still won’t open your emails.
Some industries like the beauty industry, have an average email open rate of under 20%, which is quite low by any standard. However, welcome emails are different from your average email marketing campaign.
On average, welcome emails have an open rate of around 50%. This means that welcome emails are over 80% more effective than newsletters when it comes to subscribers clicking and opening emails.
Such figures can be difficult to ignore, especially if you are a marketer or business that relies heavily on email marketing.
Improved Engagement
Not only do the majority of your subscribers expect a welcome email, but such emails are also an excellent way to improve subscriber engagement. Executed correctly, welcome emails can be highly effective in setting the tone for the type of brand-subscriber relationship you want to create.
These emails are the first piece of correspondence between your brand and the audience, which means they allow you to briefly explain the type of future correspondence subscribers can expect. You may convey the frequency of emails or the type of content that may be in-store for the subscriber.
You can also use welcome emails to introduce your brand, offer value, or pique interest in fresh subscribers who may not be that interested in your industry. A welcome email is like a blank canvas, that has the potential to engage audiences in ways you see fit for your brand or email marketing goals.
Quick Facts About Welcome Emails
- Welcome emails have 4 times better open rates than regular email marketing campaigns.
- 45% of the purchases happen on the first day of opting in by subscribers.
- Average open rate of welcome emails is a whopping 50%.
- Welcome emails have around 60% higher open rates than other promotional emails.
- Around 57% of brands send welcome emails to their fresh subscribers.
- Subscribers who receive welcome emails are 33% more likely to show engagement.
- Welcome emails have a 5 time higher click-through rate than other email marketing campaigns.
- These emails generate 320% more revenue compared to typical promotional emails.
When Should You Send a Welcome Email
In general, it is best to send out an automated welcome email as soon as a website visitor or prospect subscribes to your mailing list or some form of opt-in. Sometimes, brands use a series of welcome emails when they have a lot of content to cover of various campaign goals to achieve.
A series of welcome emails ensure that you won’t confuse or bore your audiences by packing too much information in a single welcome email. A typical series of welcome email contains 2 to 3 emails and it is best to limit your welcome emails at 3 emails.
The most common way to send out a series of welcome emails is to send one each day or with a maximum gap of one day in between. You could also send all 2 or 3 emails on the same day with a time gap of a few hours, however, this is not recommended or highly effective.
In reality, the number of emails you send in a series of welcome emails and how you space those emails largely depends on the type of industry you are in. Still, here is a common and effective way to send out a series of welcome emails.
Fist Welcome Email
Regardless of the industry you are in or the type of business you have, the first welcome email should reach your new subscriber as fast as possible, ideally within the first few minutes after they subscribe. The subscriber is expecting this email and you shouldn’t keep them waiting for long.
The first email will set the tone of your correspondence and relationship, so make sure you leave a lasting impression. The content for the first email may have some promotional or sales-like elements, however, the important part is that it has to be informational.
You want to give valuable information that will lock the subscriber’s interest and ensure they remain engaged with your brand.
Second Welcome Email
The second email should go out the day after the first one, at a time that is best for your subscriber. One day is enough to give audiences a decent gap between emails, while being soon enough that the subscribers don’t forget about your brand.
Typically, e-commerce businesses would target the evenings, after work so they can better engage their subscribers at a time when they are free. Whereas businesses that operate within typical 9 to 5 work hours may send their second welcome email in the morning or at lunch, so their subscribers can engage accordingly.
The second email can serve as a further introduction of your brand, products. services, or solutions. However, it is important to note that if a subscriber converts and makes a purchase after your first email, you may no longer need to send them a second or third welcome email.
You need to automate this short-stop and remove such subscribers from your welcome sequence because it may confuse them or worse, annoy them.
Third Welcome Email
Sending out a third welcome email requires some careful consideration. You need to respect your subscriber’s time and inbox. A third welcome email may look needy, desperate, or spam-like – all things that every brand should avoid at all costs.
You can reference a subscriber’s open rate and click-through rate for the previous welcome emails to gauge whether you should send a third email one day after your second one. To engage or entice subscribers to take action, brands often include a coupon, discount, or special promotion in their third welcome email.
However, this will depend entirely on your business, audience, and other such factors. There is nothing wrong in a third welcome email containing further informational or promotional content for subscribers.
What You Should Put in Your Welcome Email
“Content is king”, this is a widely known and used phrase in digital marketing, more specifically in email marketing, and it will always remain true. Without good content, even the most perfect email marketing campaign can fail, while a poor email marketing campaign can still be successful simply because of good, compelling content.
The content of your welcome emails will depend on your business, audience, and the type of relationship you want to create between your brand and its subscribers. However, following are some general ideas for good content of your welcome email.
Your Lead Magnet/ Opt-In
This is a fairly obvious and necessary one. If you have promised some kind of resource, gift, or promotion in return for the prospect’s email and subscription, it should always be included in your first welcome email. If you delay what you promised or decide to send it in your second or third welcome email, it will only annoy your subscribers. Stay true to your word and immediately deliver what you promised to build trust and keep prospects satisfied.
Request Your Email Address be Added to Safe Senders List
Deliverability is the ability of your emails going through to subscribers’ inboxes. While it is easier with subscribers, it is still an issue. Spam filters of email providers may prevent your subscribers from getting your emails, bringing your deliverability down and creating a boat load of other issues.
To prevent this from happening, you should include a friendly reminder in your welcome email and ask your new subscribers to drop your email into their primary inbox. This will help make sure that they continue to receive all your awesome emails in the future. It can hugely impact the deliverability and performance of all future email marketing campaigns.
Tell Your Brand Story
A welcome email is often the first point of direct contact between your brand and the subscriber. Unless you are a large and popular brand, it is likely that most of your new subscribers are not fully aware of your brand, business, solutions, and story.
They may have just visited your website for the first time, viewed your opt-in, and joined your email list without giving it too much thought. They may not know who you are, where you come from, or what differentiates you from the competition.
Include Your Social Media Accounts
Just because someone opts-in to your mailing list or visits your website does necessarily means that they will automatically visit and follow your brand on various social media platforms. A welcome email is a great place to remind your new subscribers that they can follow and engage with your brand on their favorite social media platforms as well.
In fact, most of your email marketing campaigns should have buttons or links to your social media accounts. Just try not to push too hard or make them the focal point of your emails.
Tell Subscribers What to Expect
As mentioned previously, welcome emails are the best place to establish they kind of relationship you want to maintain with your subscribers. It is important that you give indications of the type of content subscribers can expect from your emails in the future. You should also mention how frequently you will send emails to set their expectations. Just make sure that you don’t over promise things you can’t deliver, because this will only disappoint subscribers later and hurt your email marketing efforts and brand.
Goals With Welcome Email
Any email marketing campaign needs to have goals in order to be measurable and successful. Welcome emails are no different. It is important to clearly understand what you want to achieve from your welcome emails.
Improved Subscriber Engagement – By now we know that welcome emails have better engagement than most other email marketing campaigns. They have a higher open rate, click-through rate, and greater potential for conversions and revenue than typical campaigns. These engagement benefits make welcome emails highly effective, and you can set goals accordingly for your welcome emails. Unlike most other campaigns, welcome emails are capable of killing many birds with a series of stones.
Saved Time and Effort – Since automatic welcome emails are great at setting the tone of your relationship with your subscribers, they can save you a tone of time and effort it takes to do this manually. You won’t have to separately connect with every lead to learn where they are on their buyer journey.
Enhanced Content Relevancy – Your welcome email should not only set the tone for future correspondence, but it should also learn about subscriber preferences. By allowing subscribers to choose the frequency and the type of emails they prefer, your welcome email can allow you to send more relevant emails in the future.
Increased Customer Loyalty – Welcome emails can demonstrate to your subscribers that they are a part of your club or family. With the right content and connection, you can create a sense of loyalty in your new subscribers that keeps them invested in your brand. It may take you time to perfect your welcome email, but one you optimize it, you can expect it to increase customer loyalty for your brand.
Improved Segmentation – Another advantage of allowing subscribers to set their preferences in welcome emails is that this will help improve the segmentation of your email marketing list. Once you know what new subscribers want, you can easily segment them and plan your future email marketing campaigns accordingly.
Welcome emails are incredibly important for any brand or business and the mentioned reasons and statistics make it abundantly clear. Not every person is a born marketer but by following the mentioned timing and content for your welcome email, you can make a huge impact on your overall email marketing strategy.
If you want to learn more about why welcome emails are so important, tips and strategies to create them, or if you need help with the email marketing and management of your brand, please visit our website today.