How to Strategically Plan Your Welcome Email
This article is the first of the three-part series about how to start building a powerful framework for your welcome email whether it is for new subscribers, customers, or fresh leads. At the end of this series, you’ll learn how to create a welcome email that your readers will never forget.
So where shall you begin?
Start with a hefty automation software that makes creating welcome emails less hassle and more efficient.
With automation, welcome emails bring in more conversion than they used to. Plus, you get to monitor who reads your email, who ignored it, who unsubscribed from your list and other analytics useful to your email marketing campaign.
Powerful automation tools such as Infusionsoft make it easier to handle welcome emails. Emails are targeted so an action is done after a certain reader behavior is triggered.
For instance, when a person signs up for your newsletter, the automation system will instantly send a personalized, automated welcome email which you pre-built for sending. Infusionsoft will then automatically customize the email for a personal touch.
Automation eases out the hassle of crafting welcome emails one by one or having to send them individually to people. It cuts costs and efforts needed just to welcome new people on board.
“Welcome to our company” is a cliché — and it doesn’t work
Saying “welcome to our awesome company” is not enough. Matter of fact, the phrase is plain blunt, lifeless and gray. Yet, still a lot of companies continue to use that on their welcome emails.
Realize that a welcome email is the keystone of your company’s communication with people. It’s basically the lifeline of your email marketing cycle; the beginning of a new relationship.
As creating a welcoming email is the first step to raving brand fans, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. The output must standout. Think of a welcome email like a teaser to a good movie and people love enticing teasers. Now it’s up to you and how you will craft a welcome email that will leave them in awe and excited of what you have to offer in the future.
Keep in mind to read the last part of this series where you’ll learn to build welcome emails that readers never forget.
Unity, unity, unity. Think brand voice consistency
Just like anything else on your company, your welcome emails’ voice should be consistent with your brand’s. For example, if you use witty, friendly voice for your company’s brand, then the same voice should be applied to your welcome email.
Customers love to hear from the brand they love – it’s the very reason they sign up on your list in the first place. It adds up credibility when they “hear” the unity of your brand’s voice in your welcome emails.
You need to be very strategic on your subject line – and that’s non-negotiable
The subject line of your welcome email is the first thing that the reader sees. Countless of Internet marketing researches have proven that investing time to creating the perfect subject line is crucial.
First off, the sender’s name field should be recognizable so that the reader knows the email comes from the one they signed up for.
A/B testing must be implemented when it comes to your subject lines. Create various versions of subject lines. Analyze which subject line has the most open rates, click through rates, conversion and use it for your welcome emails for fresh leads.
Make use of images – whenever needed
Researchers concluded that welcome emails with enticing graphics make more conversion than plain text emails. You can add images to the intro, letter body or closing section. The images used should resonate the message of your email.
Make sure that these graphics do not overpower the message you are trying to convey. While you want to be visually captivating, your end-goal after all is for the reader to hit that call-to-action button.
Speaking of which, call-to-action buttons must be easy to the eyes and contain powerful text to persuade the reader. For instance, if the action needed is for the reader to confirm their subscription, the call-to-action button could be: Confirm Your Subscription Now.
It should be a warm welcome
You know those days when you want to impress somebody the first time you met them? Or, those moments when a relative you haven’t met yet is to visit your house? You wanted to leave a good first impression, right? So, you prepare for it.
The same principle applies on welcome emails. The message should be warm, friendly, and most of all, exciting. Think of crafting a message that makes them trust and look forward to hearing from you again. Always keep in mind that your welcome email is the initial phase of a future relationship.
Be responsive. Literally.
Every now and then, there are such queries and messages from your followers that can’t be properly answered by automation and this is when manual responses come to the rescue.
The initial phase, which is sending the welcome email can be done through automation. You can set the next action such as pointing them to a fresh article and automation rolls its way to the next process. You can point the reader to a complimentary coupon, and automation works for that too
But in such scenario where the reader sends a direct response which isn’t triggered by any of the automation flow, this is when manual responses is necessary.
Be responsive. We mean mobile.
Responsive design should be a necessity not just for welcome emails but for every email marketing campaign. In general, responsive design allows your email to be conveniently opened in any type of device.
The continuously growing number of Smartphone users suggests that more and more people are likely to open their emails from their phones; hence, your welcome emails should adapt to the responsive design trend. What is more, those who open their email from their mobile are likely to make a call or purchase from their phones.
Up next: The second part of these articles series is about the red flagged actions when it comes to crafting welcome emails.