An automated welcome email is essential for leaving a good impression with your prospects. Built up in several stages, the aim of a welcome email is to introduce your prospects to the world of your brand while reassuring them about the services you offer (purchase, delivery, exchange, refund, etc.). Reduce the disincentives to purchase and highlight the benefits they will gain by buying from you.
In this article we explain how to create a formidable email automation campaign
Build your automated welcome email:
The welcome email is unique to each company, as it depends on its sector of activity and its marketing strategy. Whatever the case, the important thing is to build it up over time and to ensure that the messages are consistent with each other
Keep these 4 objectives in mind
Highlight the benefits
Automated welcome emails are an excellent way of presenting your brand values to new customers and reinforcing your company’s reputation. Indeed, a welcome email creates a solid and lasting relationship between your company and your customers. What’s more, they give them the initial information they need about your products and services, which is essential if they are to make purchases in complete confidence
Finally, these automated emails are also an excellent way of promoting your e-commerce and building customer loyalty through marketing automation
Reduce buying disincentives
Welcome emails can be an excellent way of reducing friction in the buying process and building trust with customers. By sending a welcome email as soon as someone signs up to your e-commerce list. You can start to establish a relationship with them and pave the way for future transactions. In addition, a well-designed welcome email can provide valuable information about your brand and the type of experience they can expect from your e-commerce. By taking the time to carefully craft your welcome email, you can increase trust in your brand and reduce the likelihood of lost sales
Simplify taking action
One of the crucial steps in building your automated welcome email is to simplify the order process. By offering a special offer or highlighting trendy products by category, you can encourage recipients to click on your e-commerce link and finally make the purchase. However, it’s important not to overestimate the value of the offer. If recipients expect a big discount but only get a small one, they will be disappointed and unlikely to return to your site. Instead, make a reasonable offer and present it clearly and concisely. This way, you can grab recipients’ attention and increase the chances that they will buy from you
Add urgency to your welcome email
For example, an offer with an expiry date in your welcome email. Is this offer only valid today? Create a sense of urgency
In e-commerce, offers and trendy products are constantly changing, so people often have the impression that they have to buy something now or never see this offer again. This is in fact a very common and effective marketing tactic. Rush offers motivate people to act now, which is exactly what you want your new subscribers to do. So don’t be shy: use phrases like “offer available today only” or “limited quantity” to entice your subscribers to buy your products
This welcome email template is just a suggestion – the possibilities are endless. Once again, it all depends on your commercial objectives and the profile of your target audience. So there’s no substitute for a series of tests and improvements and, as we’ll see later, for gradually moving on to a higher level of detail
The benefits of the welcome email
An excellent open rate
Sending a welcome email to the subscribers on your list as soon as they sign up is an excellent way of welcoming them and starting to establish a relationship. People who sign up to your emails are interested in what you have to offer, so they’re more likely to open and read your welcome email than other types of messages. What’s more, a well-crafted welcome email can set the tone for future interactions and help turn new subscribers into lifelong fans. So take the time to write a thoughtful welcome email and you’re sure to get great results
Optimise customer relations
New subscribers to your website are potential customers who haven’t yet had the chance to discover your products or services. By sending them a welcome email, you can create a special relationship with them and win their loyalty. These emails also allow you to present your company and your offers in more detail than in a standard advertising message. With a little creativity, you can use this email to build a strong relationship with your new customers and increase your chances of success
Increase your revenue
New subscribers are an important source of potential revenue for a business, as they represent potential new customers
That’s why it’s important to maximise conversions from new registrants by encouraging them to buy your products or services
One of the most effective ways of doing this is to send them a welcome email. A welcome email allows new subscribers to familiarise themselves with your company and your products. This increases the chances of them making a purchase
What’s more, the welcome email can contain special offers that will encourage new subscribers to take action. By using this technique, you can significantly increase your revenue by converting new subscribers into paying customers
Allows you to collect customer data
A welcome email is an excellent way of collecting customer data and segmenting your audience. By offering new subscribers a discount or an incentive to sign up to a specific list. You can encourage them to provide their email address and other information that can be used to segment your list. This data can then be used to improve your marketing efforts and maximise your revenues. Welcome emails are also an opportunity to build relationships with new customers and create a favourable first impression. By taking the time to write a well-crafted and personalised message, you can set the tone for a long and fruitful relationship
Getting your welcome email off to a good start
Your site may include different types of registration: opening an account, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, etc. Your welcome email can be set up as soon as a new member registers, because all you need is their email address. Depending on the “entry point” used by your prospect, you can also create different welcome emails, so that each one adapts as closely as possible to the customer experience
Start by thanking them and telling them what they’re going to receive in your next emails. Use a friendly, personal tone, adding any information they have given you beforehand. Your prospects are used to receiving impersonal automated emails, so take the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Use the {name} personalisation tag to retrieve the prospect’s first name. But these tags can be much more varied, especially if you manage to get your prospect to come back to your website, so you can get to know their tastes better thanks to the pages and articles they’ve consulted, which will be useful for personalising your dialogue with them
Finally, to help them discover the world of your brand, invite them to consult your trendy products or your current offers. To thank them for signing up, you can also offer them a promotional code or free delivery, for example. However, don’t overdo it in the first email – a welcome campaign can contain around 5 emails – you won’t know what to say afterwards and you risk becoming boring..
Call to action email template
An effective welcome email because the message is short and highlights the button, known in email marketing as the “call-to-action” button
This helps to focus attention on the most important element of the email in order to optimise conversions. An email that is too long or offers too many different options can quickly lose its readability. Note, however, that this template remains simple because only the {name} tag is used to personalise the first name
Email template has several sections
- A catchphrase as a welcome message for your new contact with a first level of personalisation in the first name
- A promotional offer to emphasise the benefit of the purchase
- Your prospect’s favourite products, if they consulted your catalogue after registering (high level of personalisation) or the 4 trendiest products in your shop, calculated according to current best-sellers
- A “call-to-action” button to encourage them to return to your site, either to generate a conversion (a purchase), or to enrich the behavioural data you have on your new member
- New arguments to reassure and remove other possible disincentives to purchase
How can you improve your welcome email?
Finally, every strategy is built up over time, based on the feedback you receive and the lessons you learn. Carry out A/B tests to compare the best-performing version, by testing the subject line, timings or design. Improve your welcome email by adding conditions that will enable you to offer an ever more personalised customer experience
Our example
As we can see here, the welcome message branches out more and more according to the behaviour imagined in advance by your prospects. You write a story with different chapters depending on how your audience reacts. You can also go further by developing an omnichannel welcome email. If your prospect’s information allows you to do so. Your prospect doesn’t open your emails? Send them an SMS – they may not check their inbox very often. They open but don’t click? You could launch a more aggressive offer to whet their appetite
More info here on how to evolve your scenario with ProbanceOne: Evolve my scenario
In any case, make sure you manage the end of your welcome emails and the marketing pressure. And yes, it is not necessary to continue your discovery promotions if your customer has just made a purchase. In this case, the cross-sell scenario would take over
At first sight, the welcome email doesn’t seem that important, but when it’s automated with the right data. Automating your welcome emails is a formidable marketing automation strategy.
