Most businesses know they need to have a welcome email; it’s one of the most engaging emails you will send with open rates in excess of 50% and unique click through rates 105% higher than any other form of email.
But with that said I still see some very poor attempts at this first point of contact with the customer. Below are some hints and tips on how to create the perfect welcome email:
Sign-up
Ensure your newsletter sign-up form is easy to find and fill in. You should also clearly detail the incentives and benefits of signing up.
Timing
It’s important that your welcome email is sent immediately after your customer has signed up, strike while the person’s interest is at its highest. If you leave it to late, people will presume something has gone wrong and this might put doubt in their mind with regards to your brand.
Subject line
Even with engagement so high with a welcome email it is important to get the subject line right, personalise with the customer’s name and remember to give customers a reason to open, include the incentive where possible.
Content
Here are 3 recommendations for the perfect welcome email content;
- Remind the customer how they signed up – make it clear how and why you got there email address.
- Offer an incentive – while you’ve got the customers attention offer a discount for a repeat or first time purchase.
- Gather more info – include a link to gather more specific information from the customer leading on to better segmentation and targeting in later communication.
Frequency
Instead of cramming all the above into one email, a series of welcome emails can work well.
- First email – immediately after sign up thanking and welcoming the customer
- Second email – 2-3 days after sign up offering an incentive
- Third email – 5-7 days after sign up asking for more information
There can also be room for some cleansing at this early stage, sending an email to non openers of the first email with the incentive and the opportunity to unsubscribe would be good practice. It’s better to remove people who no longer wish to be on the database now, rather than later.
Testing
Its easy once the welcome programme is set up to just forget about it and leave it, but there’s always room for improvement. Set up a testing plan to constantly push for higher engagement rates. Test the subject line test and tweak the call to action, to make the most of this first point of contact with your customer.
As one of the email marketing consultants here at GraphicMail I would be happy to review your current welcome programmes. If you would like to talk about welcome emails further, please to get in touch.