How to Write a Welcome Email: A Step-By-Step Guide

It’s an opportunity for transparency and getting to know your customer better, ultimately allowing you to get your new relationship with the subscriber off to the best start with the right email content.

What is a welcome email?

The primary purpose of a welcome email is precisely what it says on the tin – to welcome a new subscriber to your mailing list. Instead of having them sign up or opt in and then waiting days or weeks to hear from you with the next campaign, you can send an individual email, which is usually automatic, to thank them for signing up and welcome them on board, giving them a glimpse of what they can expect in future emails.

Source

Signing up for an email list of a company you’re excited about, only to get nothing from them immediately, can be frustrating. Because of this, reaching out and getting in touch with your customer as soon as possible can be very effective as a start of your email marketing campaigns.

A welcome email can be the first in an email sequence – a set of emails sent out with a specific purpose to a specific email address. This email series can be created to onboard customers, prepare them to purchase, explain the value of your product, or something else.

Features of the best welcome emails

When writing a welcome email to send to your new email subscribers, there are several features that you will need to make sure to include:

The best welcome email examples are welcoming

The clue is in the name, so your welcome email should be welcoming. When subscribers read this email, you want them to feel welcomed and that they have become a part of something. 

When sending a welcome email, it is a chance to welcome new subscribers on board and show your gratitude to them for taking the time to sign up for your mailing list.

While welcoming and thanking somebody for getting involved might seem like simply being polite to your subscribers, it’s true that having good manners can help you further build a solid relationship between your brand and its target audience. 

It’s all part of improving the customer experience, which has been shown to have significant importance in and outside of your email marketing strategy:

• Up to ninety percent of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
• 80% of today’s customers state that the customer experience is just as important as the products or services they buy.
• More than sixty percent of customers say that they are more likely to become brand ambassadors for a company that makes them feel valued and appreciated as customers.

So, make sure that your email body and email design make your readers feel like they’re meeting a new friend instead of being just a part of an email campaign.

Best welcome email subject line

With billions of emails sent every day, the last thing you want is for your welcome email to end up getting completely lost in your subscriber’s inbox or going unnoticed in a sea of emails. 

You can expect that most of your subscribers are receiving emails from other senders. This means that yours will probably not be the only one they get that day or even that hour. Email communication has become very prevalent, which is both good and bad for customer relationships. The problem is, most businesses don’t send relevant email content, which is your chance to shine.

The subject line is important to ensure that your welcome email is noticed. Around half of the email users say they read the subject line first and use it to judge the entire email, including whether it should be opened. Because of this, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing an effective subject line for your welcome email.

• Keep the subject line concise, short, and to the point to grab the potential customer’s interest immediately.
• Use a personalized message, such as addressing the subscriber by their name.
• Consider adding emojis for extra attention-grabbing if it fits with your branding.
• Avoid the word ‘newsletter’ – be more creative!

Why should you write a welcome email?

A welcome email is typically the first email a subscriber will receive from your brand after filling in a form and adding their contact information to your mailing list. Most of the time, companies send automated welcome emails so that they can be sent out within minutes of the new subscriber signing up. 

There are plenty of benefits to sending a welcome email to new subscribers. More than seventy percent of customers who subscribe to email lists expect to receive one when they sign up. This type of content is therefore actually expected from your current and prospective customers.

When first signing up, new subscribers and leads will likely engage with your brand message quickly. The highest levels of engagement are often seen within the first two days after subscribing. 

Because of this, the sooner, the better when sending welcome emails. Welcome emails tend to perform better and have higher engagement rates than general marketing emails. 

In fact, welcome emails can have more than a ninety percent open rate and generate more than three hundred percent revenue per email compared to other marketing emails.Consider them a sneak peek of the email experience your customers will receive once they spend some more time on your list.

Some of the main reasons to send a welcome email include the following:

1 – Chance to introduce yourself

A welcome email is an ideal time to introduce your business and brand and provide new subscribers with more information on who you are and what you offer. You can use the welcome email to give more information on what they’ve just signed up for, what kind of updates they will receive in the future, and why your emails are valuable enough for them to open. 

You can also use the opportunity to ask the subscriber to add you to their contacts to prevent the risk of being caught by spam filters in the future and improve deliverability.

2 – Manage subscriber expectations

Another good reason to send welcome emails is that it will allow you to manage better and set your subscribers’ expectations. You can use a welcome email to clarify to your subscribers how often they will hear from you in the future, the topics they will hear about, and how they can manage their preferences. 

Ultimately, this will help set you up for better open and engagement rates as subscribers know what to expect.

You can avoid any issues with subscribers who may have expected something different when they signed up. It also allows you to send an unsubscribe button to your new subscriber in case they have signed up by accident or change their mind when you provide them with further information. 

While it might seem counterproductive, it helps to ensure that you only have interested and engaged subscribers on your list.

3 – Opportunity to reward subscribers and generate sales

If you’ve been shopping online and entered your email to get a discount code, you’ve just received a welcome email. One of the best things about the welcome email is that you can use it to provide value to your subscribers right off the bat. 

For example, if you are running an eCommerce store, you can run a promotion on the website promising some money off the first order for anybody who signs up for your email list. And when they do sign up, send them the discount code in their welcome email.

Outside of eCommerce, lead magnets such as downloadable guides or templates are a common option. These can also be sent in the welcome email. Including them in this correspondence, which is usually sent automatically within minutes of a new subscriber signing up, will also get your relationship with them off to the best start by showing them that your brand keeps its word.

4 – Increase your subscriber knowledge

Finally, sending a welcome email can be an ideal way to get to know your subscribers better, just as it is a good way for them to learn more about your company and brand. When you send a welcome email, you can add a link to a short survey, for example, asking subscribers to answer some questions you may not have felt appropriate to include in the signup form. 

This could be anything from their interests to further demographic information such as their gender, age, marital status, parental status, and more, allowing you to segment your subscriber lists more efficiently and ensure that everybody on your list receives the most relevant and interesting email content for them.

A welcome email can do much more than welcome your new subscribers to the list. Use them to set the tone for your future relationship, introduce yourself, set expectations, get to know your subscribers, and more.

Wrapping up

Even though it is just the beginning of an email series, a welcome email has a massive impact on how your customers will perceive you. Do it right, and you could win a loyal customer with a single email message. Do it wrong, and all your hard work to acquire that email address goes down the drain.

And once you’re ready to start your email program, you want to make sure you’re sending out emails to legitimate addresses. The best way to do so? Verify your email lists to make sure you do not have any fake, duplicate, or incorrect addresses on your lists.

Sign up for Bouncer today and start validating your email lists for free!

Frequently asked questions

What is the best welcome email?

The best welcome email is one where you introduce yourself and your company and tell the recipient what they can expect from you in terms of content for the future. Make sure to use high quality images, be polite and promise some sort of an incentive for sticking around.

How do you write a welcome email?

The best way is to start with being polite and actually thank the customer for joining. Then make sure to tell them what kind of content you usually send and what they can expect in the future. Keep the email short and to the point and don’t go overboard with writing.