Before the internet, we all thought about buying, selling and engaging with people and brands in a very different way. We understood the process, the interaction, the communication that was inherently connected to these types of activities.
A lot has changed, but guess what? It turns out people still expect those same “courtesy and engagement components”, even if they’re now interacting with your brand online.
Online marketers that are winning in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace have never lost sight of this simple truth and continue to incorporate the always important human experience into the online customer experience. Your welcome messaging — and automated welcome series — should be seen as a warm and personalized greeting to your online brand. Let’s explore some best practices regarding the all-powerful, always in style “welcome email”.
What critical elements do I need to include in my emails?
Although there are many things to consider when creating your welcome series, we’ll focus on three high-level best practices that every marketer can leverage.
When you create your welcome messaging, we recommend the following:
- Say thank you! Just as any good business owner would, make sure to extend a warm thank you to your new customer for joining your email list, making a purchase, etc. This can be a simple sentence in the message, or you might take it a step further and extend a special offer or coupon. Get creative with this!
- Be sure that your new subscriber/customer understands the best ways to engage with your brand and how to learn more about your content, products and/or services. For publishers, this might include providing links to top stories or the most shared content. For retailers, this may be hot selling products or timely promotions that you don’t want your new customer to miss. For online gaming brands, this could be links to top tips and tricks, leaderboards or the latest virtual goods. Don’t forget to include links to your social media presences and community/blog areas as well.
- Keep your welcome messages short. In the same way that customers don’t enjoy hearing a 10 minute welcome greeting from a salesperson, they certainly don’t want to read a long, droning welcome email either! If you have a lot to say, consider creating a multi-message Welcome Email Series. And that leads us to…
Should I send a single welcome message or welcome series?
If you have a website that is overflowing with extensive content or a complex product line that can’t easily be summed up in a clean sentence or two, you may want to consider an email series to welcome your readers. A well-planned welcome series has several key benefits:
- It’s an efficient process for marketers to introduce and share multiple highlights regarding their brand, content and products.
- It’s an intuitive way for new subscribers to engage with multiple elements of your site or product without being overwhelmed.
- It allows new subscribers to easily share content with friends and family by including Share to Social links at the content, product or article level.
A welcome series is not a fit for every online business and/or new customer experience; however, it’s a great option to consider if you’re struggling with organizing and introducing your brand in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your new customer in a single email.
Need proof? Learn how Sony’s multi-message welcome series warmly greeted their new Sony Card members and boosted email engagement by 157 percent.
What About Automation?
Whenever possible, we love to help our clients automate their welcome messages; the efficiency, consistency and engagement results can be outstanding! Remember “automation” doesn’t mean “non-targeted, one-size fits all, robotic” messaging. Make sure that elements of the welcome message are dynamically personalized and relevant to your new member.
What did your new customer buy? What content did they express an interest in when they joined your newsletter? Where do they live? All of these elements can be referenced and included in your automated welcome email series and can make a significant difference in how well they perform.
Be creative, be fun, and whenever possible, focus on personalizing the experience for your new member. The possibilities are virtually endless!