Welcome! Willkommen! Benvenuto! Bienvenue! Bienvenidos! However you say it - it’s important that you do.
We all like to be made to feel welcome, don’t we? And that feeling doesn’t change just because we’re online, rather than face to face.
A well thought out welcome email is likely to be the first piece of communication that a prospective customer receives from your brand. They’ve shown enough interest in your company to provide you with a way of getting in touch with them.
At that moment, they are highly engaged. It’s the very start of their relationship with you. The worst thing that they can be met with in return is... nothing.
There are many studies that tell us that welcome campaigns should, without exception, be included within every email marketing strategy. If you’ve yet to be convinced, how about if I tell you that welcome emails generate:
4 x Open Rate
5 x Click Through Rate
9 x Transaction Rate
8 x Revenue Per Email
On average, when compared to bulk campaigns (Source: Experian)
Are you convinced now?
Good, let’s move on and look at some great examples.
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ONE
Property Estate Agent - Bradford & Howley
To show how much they appreciate people taking the time to register for property updates, Bradford & Howley uses the simple, but effective tactic of saying ‘thank you’ to them.
Overview
1. The design is bold and straight to the point, which is very engaging, and the large, ‘handwritten’ thank you feels really personal.
2. The copy tells the person who has registered the benefits they will receive for subscribing, plus the opportunity to discover the potential price of their property which is shown to drive instructions.
3. A simple ‘Click here for a FREE Instant Online Valuation’ CTA straight after the benefits will encourage click through.
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TWO
Retail Department Store - Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue understands that the customer is most engaged when they first subscribe to a brand’s marketing. They take advantage of this fact by using their welcome series for data gathering and education about the company.
Overview
1. They use a progression graphic to inform customers that this is just one in a series of three welcome emails they will receive. This means that the customer is more likely to expect, and therefore open, the subsequent sends.
2. Each in the series has a different, single purpose, which is best practice for all email marketing. This one focuses on all of the different additional ways that the customer can engage with the brand, meaning that customers who are more interested in social than email have many ways to interact and stay up to date with key messages and promotions.
3. The customer is being given a solid reason to supply their phone number, and Saks benefits by having an alternative contact method if the customer misses an email.
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THREE
Food Online Community - Food 52
Food52 use their welcome email as a way to instantly build trust with their new subscribers. Everything is well designed to showcase personality, and reads like a conversation between friends, which is incredibly engaging and puts the reader at ease.
Overview
1. The clever use of affable pretext (the bit that shows up next to the subject line in the customer’s inbox) is such a tiny detail, but means that the customer gets a taste of what they can expect to read before they even open the email.
2. A large header image of the founders feels especially personal, and makes the customer highly aware that they’re joining a company with real people which inspires loyalty.
3. Coupled with the personal, friendly photograph, it is easy to believe that they are actually ‘happy you’re here’, meaning that the customer instantly feels like a welcome part of the ‘family’.
4. Encouraging the customer to download the app when they are at their most engaged is more likely to be successful; plus the click through tracking provides additional data to your customer profile which can be used for personalisation in future campaigns.
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FOUR
Travel Accommodation - Airbnb
Airbnb has a unique offering, and they use their welcome email to emphasise this point to their new subscribers in order to quickly introduce them to the key characteristics that make them different. They recognise that, because people subscribe when they are genuinely thinking about travel, driving them to the app and encouraging them to explore needs to be the key focus of their emails.
Overview
1. They are experts at inspiring ‘wanderlust’ with their simple but clever use of language - who doesn’t want to start an adventure?
2. A smart use of quirky imagery, with tasks set out in manageable chunks, gamifies their customer profiling tactics and makes it feel like something fun to complete. Plus, the request for a profile picture is very ‘social’ and tells the customer that they are joining a community of like minded adventurers.
3. Again, the use of language is exciting and suits the adventure narrative. The CTA encourages new customers to go to the app and start navigating their way round it straight away. All without seeming promotional. Since the customer is now used to clicking through, chances are they will follow this instruction.
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TIME IT RIGHT, AND DON'T FORCE THE SALE!
Finally, here’s a few of additional best practice tips that you should definitely look at to get the most out of your email.
1. They use a progression graphic to inform customers that this is just one in a series of three welcome emails they will receive. This means that the customer is more likely to expect, and therefore open, the subsequent sends.
2. Welcome emails should form part of your automated campaigns, so you don’t need to be on guard 24/7 to avoid missing subscribers! However, don’t just create one version that you set and forget. The most mature and successful email marketers consider context and run several welcome campaigns based on what prompted the sign-up.
3. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ve missed an opportunity to sell if your welcome email isn’t promotion driven. Remember that the email forms part of your lead generation and/or nurturing strategies. It sets the expectation for all future communication. If you start off too pushy, you could make them disengage.
4. Think about when you go into a shop. We like to know that there is help available when we need it. But we don’t want to feel like we’re being sold to as soon as we step foot through the door. A welcome email should respect that this is the customer’s first ‘step through the door’, so apply the same rules
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TAKEAWAY
You have an ideal opportunity to take advantage of this early period of high engagement to go on an info gathering spree and point customers towards the paths that you would like them to go down. So tread carefully.
The way that you welcome and show appreciation to new customers sets out your stall and informs the person of what they can expect from this new relationship they’ve signed up for. Done well, the lifetime value of the customer will far outweigh any upfront effort. The old adage is as true online as it is in person - you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
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MARKETING AUTOMATION POWERED BY EMAIL
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Source: Pure360