First impressions in email marketing matter as much as interviews matter to us. They kick start a long term relationship based on trust and mutual interests. Also, emails are a formal model of engagement as we still use them at the office. This makes email marketing a unique platform for brands to communicate with their customers and prospects. A person subscribes to a mailing list only when they believe that the business is legitimate, and it won’t spam them. 

The welcome email is the most crucial aspect of any email marketing strategy, and email developers spend a good amount of time building beautiful email templates. They increase customer lifetime and value bringing up to 320% more ROI than regular messages. Today I am going to share how you can ace it.

Keep Your Promise

Marketers often promise freebies or discount coupons for roping in subscribers. It is quite possible that you are using this method, and it is essential to be punctual with sending the first message. This creates a positive impact on your new subscribers. If you message them a long time after they opted in for your mailing list, the chances are that they’d forget why they subscribed to your newsletter in the first place. You certainly do not like them to feel, “I have never seen this brand in my whole life”. 

Another thing you should ensure is to keep your promise and personalize the welcome emails. Adding the recipient’s name and mentioning why you are sending the message is equally important. Reinstating that you have kept your promise and welcoming them with a warm message should be on your top priority while introducing yourself.

Surprise Your New Subscribers with Unexpected Perks

Living up to expectations is a must but going the extra mile please the game changer in all interpersonal relationships. You can include some unexpected perks with your welcome email that will make your customers feel surprised for good. When you welcome your subscribers, it is a good idea to include personal notes and addons that weren’t previously discussed with them. People often make such gestures on a very personal and hospitable note.

If you are offering consumables, you can ask your subscribers about their preferences and send them a free sample of a product related to the questionnaire. For membership-based digital products, you can gift your new subscribers with extended plans or upgrade their existing plans for a limited period without charging anything.

Set the Expectations Straight and Tell Them About Yourself

It is a good practice to tell your subscribers what to expect from you, including the mailing frequency. Give them an option to adjust the mailing frequency to their preferences. This helps make your subscribers feel they are in control and also reduces the unsubscription rate. Setting the expectations also helps you in familiarizing the type of content you are going to send in the future and understand better your audience’s preferences. 

Personalize Your First Email

Wooing subscribers isn’t possible without crafting a superb copy and using a jaw-dropping email template. Keep the subject line and preheader text relevant to the purpose of sending your welcome email. I am not a fan of personalizing the welcome emails overtly as it feels awkward when someone knows a lot of details about us in the first meeting itself.

Also, don’t mention anything that falls under the spam triggering category. Include the recipient’s name in the greeting and use a responsive HTML email template. It helps to keep elements accessible and you can also dynamic fields in them. 

Focus On Developing a Stellar Welcome Email Copy

A stellar welcome email copy begins with a warm subject line. Thank your readers and take the opportunity to introduce your brand straightforwardly. I recommend keeping the body short and to the point, as it is not a good idea to make your readers pour in a lot of effort right in the beginning. Mention the purpose of sending the message in the first line itself and keep the promised gift in the first fold of the email. 

On the other hand, letting your subscribers know about your brand is equally important. This could be an embedded video of your company’s story, a personal note from the founders with their realistic signatures and headshot, or even a thank you note. I find this combination as one of the best-performing ones when used with the promised gift.

You can share your social media handles and ask your subscribers to ‘whitelist’ you. The thumb rule for welcome email copies is to either be thankful, offer an incentive, or familiarize how your future communications will look with as minimum words as possible. Keep your sign-off polite and proofread your copy thoroughly. Here’s an infographic that’ll help you understand more:

Wrap Up

Your welcome email is where you shape your new subscribers’ opinions, and it impacts heavily on the subsequent open rates, CTR, and engagement rates. In this article, I have covered all the basics of crafting a beautiful welcome email. You can also experiment with your messages. You may include emojis, GIFs, or interactive email features and see what works best for you. 

The secret recipe for making a great first impression is to offer value, familiarize, incentivize future interactions, and keep the welcome email about the relationship instead of the product.

Author Bio

Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, which specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email Conversion, and Salesforce Email Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on the email marketing blog.