This blog is the third in a series on email marketing. In the last post in this series, we went over how to set up your email marketing campaign with an autoresponder. You can also check out the first post in this series, which is “What is an Email Autoresponder?”. In this third post in the series on email marketing, we are going to go over creating your welcome email. It’s important to have a welcome email to let your subscribers know why they are on your list, and why they should stay subscribed. With your email list, you’re turning casual visitors into subscribers who will (hopefully) return to your website. The end game here is to get them coming back to buy your products and services.
What is a Welcome Email?
Your welcome email is what gets automatically sent to subscribers after they have signed up for your email list. Welcome emails have a high open rate (about 60% of welcome emails sent are opened by recipients). Your welcome email begins the (hopefully) long and prosperous relationship between you, your business, and your loyal customers and readers. If your welcome email just says, “Thanks for subscribing!”, you are missing out on an excellent opportunity to wow your subscribers with a solid message filled with helpful links and freebies.
8 Things to Include in Your Welcome Email
- Read This: Give them something to read. Links to your best, most popular blogs. Get your new subscriber reading your posts if they haven’t already.
- Interact: Get interactive by asking your new subscriber a question. For example, “What are you struggling with?” is a fabulous ice breaker. Ask them to just reply to your email with their answer, and make sure you follow up with a valuable answer. You can add, “If you’re not struggling with anything, just reply to say hi. I love meeting my subscribers!”. The replies you get can be turned into blogs. Use them for your blog ideas, and your readers will love them.
- What to Expect: Be completely transparent about what to expect from your emails to come. Let your new subscriber know what they can expect to gain from your regular emails. Doing so builds trust and lowers unsubscribes. Let them know how often you will send out a newsletter, and what’s usually included.
- Follow Me: Include your social media links: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and any others you’re on. Invite your new subscriber to follow you.
- Get to Know Me: Ask your subscribers to read your about page, which, of course, you have invested some time into creating (or hired a writer to do it for you). Right? Just include a link to your about page letting them know they can read more about you there.
- Prove it: Show proof that others love your email list. Include a quote or two from current subscribers praising your email newsletters, or brag about how many subscribers you have.
- Surprise Freebies: Surprise them with another free bonus. Include a link to a free report, eBook, audio recording, or a helpful checklist.
- Subject: Don’t neglect the subject line. Include something your new subscriber will recognize, such as “Thanks for Signing up!”.
Remember to be yourself. Let your personality shine through in the copy of the email. Add some humor. If you need help writing your welcome email you can hire a freelance writer who will write one for you.
There’s nothing worse than creating an awesome welcome email for your subscribers, and then those aggressive email filters mark it as spam. An email list is no good if it’s never read, and it’s frustrating for your readers who want to read your emails! The solution? After subscribers sign up for your email newsletter they are brought to another page on your website. You need to have this page describe what they need to do to make sure they receive your emails and that they won’t get sent to their spam folders. Ask your new subscriber to whitelist your email address by adding it to their address books. If your email is already in their address book, it will bypass their spam filters.
Now you’re ready to set up your welcome email to be automatically sent to anyone who subscribes to your newsletter.
This is the third blog in the email marketing series. Check out the others, if you haven’t already:
