What Makes a Hero Welcome Email? [Infographic]

Every time you submit your information online, it can be a bit nerve-wracking. What’s to become of your request? Will you receive any confirmation or response? This uncertainty you face yourself is certainly the same type of uncertainty your new subscribers face—particularly if you don’t send a welcome email.

Your welcome email can be the hero that rescues subscribers from this uncertainty. It allows you to express gratitude, establish expectations, and acknowledge their trust in your brand. And, ultimately, sell.

A warm welcome email sets the tone for your brand-to-subscriber relationship. Somehow, many marketers still overlook this vital email marketing program component—even though welcome emails generate four times the open rate and five times the click-through rate of a typical email marketing campaign.

The right welcome email (or series of emails) can turn a new subscriber into a new customer and drive incredible, continued engagement with your brand. Let’s look at how you can craft a great welcome email (hero).

What Makes a Hero Welcome Email?

1) A Brand Showcase

?Welcome emails should be comprised of all necessary information about your brand—including your location, contact details, relevant links for questions, etc. It should also maintain the tone, feel, and personality of your brand—namely, your value as a brand to your subscribers and customers.

2) Intriguing Content and Calls to Action (CTA)

Whether it’s an incentive towards a purchase (think discounts or free shipping) or access to a great piece of content, the call to action of your welcome email will get the most attention, so make it count. You should not include too many CTAs, and the ones you do add should be obvious and geared toward a positive engagement.

3) Personalization

Create versions of your welcome email that are specific to how folks joined your list and their preferences for receiving content. Namely, if subscribers join via a form on your site, directly from your purchase process, or through third-party sites, your welcome email content should vary along those lines as well. You can also use your welcome email as an opportunity to gather more information as well.

4) Whitelisting Requests

Add ‘Safe Sender’ instructions to the email to ensure better future deliverability. You can even add an image or animated GIF to explain how to whitelist your emails in a small portion of your email footer.

5) Channel Integration

Include social sharing buttons in the footer to enhance brand visibility on other channels. (You can also incentivize this sharing process to boost subscriber shares on social media platforms.)

For a better understanding of how welcome emails can become your email marketing program hero, take a look at the infographic on The Indispensable Welcome Emails Created by InboxArmy.