“First impression is the last impression”, we are hearing this proverb since our childhood. We shouldn’t apply this proverb only in our real lives, but also in the welcome newsletter which we will be sending it to our new subscribers, as this is the best opportunity to have a lasting impression on new email subscribers. Welcome emails are those type of emails that your subscriber want and expect to see in their inboxes. That’s the reason behind more opened rate in the welcome emails than the other emails. You have worked hard to get them to subscribe, and you have written valuable content that makes them want to come back to for more, so you are blogging regularly, and you have successfully encouraged them to subscribe. Now that they’ve walked through the door, they surely deserve a greeting message just like the greetings you receive when you enter into a posh restaurants or hotels. This is where emails come into play. Welcome emails get 86 percent higher open rates than other emails. So, if you aren’t sending a welcome email, you’re missing out an amazing opportunity to connect with your audience. Are you wondering how to write a welcome email to grab this opportunity? Stay with us till the end to delight your new email subscribers.
The Benefits of Welcome Emails:
Welcome emails are great, reminding the subscribers why they have subscribed for. This is particularly important when users opt in to your blog through more indirect methods, like check boxes on landing pages.
The reality is, people sign up for things and forget that they ever did. Reminders are always helpful, especially when they prevent people from thinking the blog subscriber emails they’re suddenly getting are spam, and make them as such.
The welcome emails set up expectations with your subscribers by clarifying the type of content they’ll be receiving about and how frequently will they receive those emails. Let’s get into the things to be considered while writing welcome email.
1) Recognizable Subject Line, Sender Name, and Branding:
Because this is the first email your subscribers will be receiving once they’ve opted in, the most important thing to consider when choosing the subject line, sender name, and branding of your welcome email is recognizability.
As a result, make sure you’re using your company or blog’s name and other branding elements like logos and screenshots to identify that the welcome email is coming from your blog. It’s also smart to recognize the action the recipient took in the subject line so it’s immediately apparent why they’re receiving the email in the first place.
For example, the following is the subject line for Digital Village’s welcome email:
Thanks for Subscribing to Digital Village! Your Next Steps …
“Thanks for subscribing” reminds the recipient that they just subscribed, and “your next steps” offers a sense of urgency to click through to the email. As always, feel free to test variations of your subject lines and sender names to determine what works best to generate clickthroughs.
2) Personalization:
Aren’t greetings so much more personal when they’re … well … personalized? If you’re lucky enough to have your email software connected to your contacts database and you’ve collected any information about your contacts aside from just their email addresses (like, say, their names), personalizing your welcome emails is easy as eating a piece of cake.
3) Thank You Message:
After you greet your new subscribers, show them you care! Like I said, these people have deemed your content worthy enough to receive emails about it — and that’s quite the compliment. Show them you appreciate having them as a new subscriber with a simple thank you. It’ll go a long way.
4) What Subscribers Can Expect:
Remember — even if you trigger your welcome email to get delivered right after contacts subscribe, some people need a little clarification about exactly what they signed up for, especially if they signed up without knowing any of the details. So tell them! What type of content should they expect to receive? How frequently will they get emailed about it — every time you publish a new post? On a daily basis? Weekly? Monthly?
Mention everything in your welcome email about these things and give your subscribers clear idea about what and when will they be receiving those emails to keep them mentally prepared.
5) Link to Email Preference Center:
What if the subscriber is unhappy with the frequency at which you’ll be emailing them? Or what if they (unfortunately) decide they don’t really want email about your blog content after all? Give them the opportunity to modify their preferences by linking to an email preference center landing page where they can change their frequency preferences or opt out of your blog(s) completely.
I also recommend linking to this page in the individual blog subscriber emails you send.
6) Relevant Call-to-Action
While your welcome emails should mainly be about welcoming new subscribers and providing information related to their new subscription, we’re marketers, right? It’s hard not to use the opportunity to inspire some kind of action or next step, so feel free to include a call-to-action for a relevant offer or action you want subscribers to take next.
Maybe it’s a CTA to download your latest free educational ebook, register for an upcoming event, or simply check out some of your most popular blog posts.
The choice is yours — just make sure it’s subtle and relevant.
7) Personal Sign-Off
It may seem obvious, but a welcome email should come from an actual person. Our welcome email, for example, currently comes from yours truly because I manage our blog’s email subscriptions.
You can extend this logic to your sender name as well to make things even more personal.
8) Social Media Follow Buttons
If your subscribers were interested enough in your blog to subscribe to your emails, it’s safe to assume that many of them might welcome other ways to connect with you. Therefore, use your welcome email to help increase your social reach by including social media buttons for your social media accounts.
So, these were the things which you should consider while writing a welcome email to delight your new subscribers.