Do you sign up for a lot of email lists, or are you discriminating about giving your email address? Hey, you’re here, so I’m going to assume that you sign up for useful emails!
I should admit that right at the start of this email that I sign up to a lot of email lists. As a result, I get to see a lot of welcome emails.
After you receive that first email from the sender, you know more about the company, the individual, or brand. With the first open, and all consecutive emails sent through a welcome series; you learn enough to determine whether you want to stay or not.
You might stick around to see what’s next, or you may unsubscribe for various reasons. Sometimes the email is boring. Sometimes the company sends too much email. Sometimes, the sender emails so sporadically that you forget who they are or why you ever signed up in the first place. In all cases, they fail to hold your interest.
Since this can be the case with email marketing, it pays to examine the welcome email and see if you can determine elements that hold your interest… and then try to copy some of those ways you can hold attention of our new subscribers.
There are some elements of awesome welcome emails that you should be using in your welcome email or welcome series to new subscribers:
- Welcome them warmly.
- Remind them of perks of being on your list.
- Offer a deal or coupon code.
- Use a strong call to action: download an app, allow the user to set preferences, click a “shop” button (or allow them to choose to shop for either men or women, etc.)
- Make sure you’re mobile friendly. (79% of smartphone owners are more likely to use it for email than to make calls.)
- Include social media buttons.
- As a retail shop, design your emails to include navigation bars so readers can actually start shopping different departments — just like your website.
- List what to do first, second, and third.
- Link to other products and info.
- Share a little about yourself and your team, your mission statement, etc.
This welcome email provides a great opportunity to connect some web content dots and build in warmth and engagement.
Have you ever met someone new and started up a conversation? Granted, this comes easier for some people than others, but if you’re friendly, you usually start by talking about the obvious. The event you’re attending or the food that is being served. Then, you take the conversation a little deeper. Perhaps one of you comments on the conditions of the soccer field, or the music program, or the ingredients on the table, and then… something else happens.
You make a connection that helps you get to know each other better.
The welcome email makes or breaks all your your email campaigns of the future because it sets the tone for your relationship.
Think of a real conversation you’ve had that started on one level and ended with the beginning of a friendship or a promise of a possible future action on the part of either of you.
Good networkers naturally do this. They ask questions that get the other person talking. They look for ways to share a book title, or a mutual friend’s name, or even a laugh. They may even try to discover how they can help their new acquaintance.
That’s what you want to do with your very first email. Right at the start, when you have the chance connect on another level with your content, make sure you do exactly that!
Not only does it break the ice, it brings the new subscriber into your community. As Jay Baer advises marketers, “You need to instead build a touch-point corral that allows you to surround your customers with messages from multiple venues and modalities.”
Besides including engaging elements within the email itself, think of other possible content you could share. Use content you already own to introduce people to your brand and to kick off a new relationship:
- A Pinterest board.
- A Facebook post that triggered a lot of comments or links to popular articles on your blog.
- A curated list of books, movies, quotes with an interesting theme.
- A useful infographic.
- Some recent tweets.
- A picture of your cat — for the ultimate connection!
Begin your relationship with something that allows you to meet your customer on different social channels or around a broader variety of interests… Then communicate authentically.
A welcome email is a great place to start off on the right foot, when your subscribers are highly engaged and interested. Don’t waste the opportunity to bring them in closer.
Why not take the first step in claiming your corner of the market? For a memorable first touch, get the FREE brand assessment before sending that welcome email campaign!
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