Craft the Perfect Welcome Email: Beginners’ Guide + Examples

This article was last updated on September 1, 2020

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” The author of this famous quote may be debatable but the meaning it carries is certainly not. First impression matters not only for people but for brands, as well. In the world of email marketing first this translates to: the Welcome email!

We’ll talk about how to get off on the right foot with your new subscribers, so you can put a solid foundation of your future customer-brand relationship. We’ll go through all essential elements of the perfect Welcome email message, so let’s get started.

The greeting

Every Welcome email should start with a greeting. Express your excitement, express your gratitude that your newly subscribed have made the decision to join you aboard. Whether a simple “Hello!”, “Welcome!”, or a big longer “Thank you for signing up!”, your first line should sound genuine and truly welcoming.

Introduce yourself

Remind your newly subscribed who you are, what you do and what your mission is. This information doesn’t need to be long. You wouldn’t want to bore your recipients. Tell it as brief and clear as possible, maybe in a sentence or two. This piece of information should sound already familiar, so your recipients can recognize you as somebody they know.

Tell your recipients what to expect

“This is not what I opted for!” is a reaction that can be avoided from the very beginning. Telling recipients what to expect from you is a part of the Welcome email that is essential both in terms of:

• content: what kind of emails should they expect – discounts and sales, new blog posts, new product releases, company news, etc.

• frequency: how often will they receive emails from you: monthly, weekly, daily, every Tuesday, etc.

Encourage the newly subscribed to take action

This is the most valuable part of your Welcome email’s content and here is why.

Studies have shown that Welcome emails generate incredibly high open rates because they are expected. Wanna throw an eye on the statistics? In fact, people might actually open their Spam folder to look for your Welcome email. This is how the recipients are used to getting those.

In short, you’ve got bigger chances to appeal through your Welcome message, rather than through all the other email campaigns you’re about to send later. Therefore, this is the perfect time to encourage your recipient to take action and set a strong foundation of your brand-customer relationship. Here is what you can do:

• Ask to get whitelisted.

  Basically, this means to ask your newly subscribed to add you to their trusted contacts, aka the contact list. This is the only way to be sure that your message will always get through their email client’ spam filters and be received in the inbox… no matter how careful you are in avoiding spam words.

  

• Walk through a step-by-step process.

  Even the most complicated products or services look easy to understand when split into small portions or numerated steps.

  

• Prompt to add profile information.

  The more you know about your users, the better you’ll be able to segment your email list and send relevant content. The Welcome message is the best place to ask your recipient for extra info.

  

• Navigate to a video.

  This could be an explainer video of how your service works, footage of happy clients’ testimonials, ideas of how to get started with your product, or anything about your product/service that is useful and relevant to the recipients.

  

• Give a free trial.

  Of course, this practice is suitable for services or companies selling software and it works really great. Encourage your recipient to use your service or product for free and then make a decision whether to buy.

  

• Offer discount, or free shipping for first order. 

  If the recipient doesn’t have previous experience with your brand, it is normal that they have doubts about your product quality, delivery prices, etc. It’s a common practice to either offer a first-order discount code, or free shipping.

  

• Invite people to follow you on social media.

  Social media buttons are elements that need to be included in (almost) all your email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is effective on its own but cross-channel marketing strategy will boost your results even more.

  

• Prompt the users to contact you.

  Whether to ask a question about a product, or seek technical help, let your recipients know that you are available. If you have working hours, include them in this section, as well.

  

Now, roll up your sleeves!

Crafting the perfect Welcome email is not such a hard task but truly thoughtful. This email message might be the most important one among all messages you’ll ever send to your subscribers. So, make it count!

If you want to share your thoughts on what else to include in your Welcome email, please do in the Comments’ section below.