4 tips for sending effective welcome emails

By Chris Christoff, Co-Founder of MonsterInsights, a leading WordPress plugin for Google Analytics.

Business owners and marketers in all industries understand the value of email marketing. Email is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and increase your sales.

What if I told you that the success of your entire messaging strategy is largely determined by the first message you send to new subscribers?

Today we're talking about those first meetings, also known as welcome emails. Welcome emails help build trust with new subscribers while showing that your value proposition is more than a cash-for-product transaction. Normally, these messages are sent to users after they have joined your prospect list or purchased a product.

If you want to write compelling emails that drive more clicks and engagement, keep reading. I'm going to go over four tips you can use to start sending powerful welcome emails.

Start with a perfectly clear subject line.

All good emails start with a catchy title. If someone isn't intrigued by the first line of your message, why would they bother to open it to read the rest of the email?

There are several ways to make your subject line clear and interesting. First, make sure your sender name is correct. This small step can help ensure that subscribers know exactly who you are. Companies that don't bother to make this adjustment tend to have their emails ignored, or worse, marked as spam.

I also like to include the words "thank you" in the subject line of our first email. "Thank you" or "thank you" are powerful words that can grab the attention of new subscribers. You'll also want to add a little teaser that lets readers know what to expect when they open your post.

For example, when a visitor signs up for a free product demo, the subject line might say, "Thank you for participating! Here's your demo link!" I recommend thinking carefully about your readers' needs and how you can start delivering value the moment your email hits their inbox.

Introduce yourself and set your expectations.

Once subscribers start opening your welcome emails, you need to introduce yourself and set your expectations. When you introduce yourself, make it personal but also related to your industry.

So the owner of an email marketing SaaS can start their welcome email by telling users how they struggled to generate leads. As a result of their problem, they created a product to help others in similar situations.

This type of storytelling is a great way to build relationships with your subscribers, which will likely encourage those people to open future emails.

It's also crucial that you set realistic expectations for your subscribers. You don't want to tell people that downloading your social media plugin will result in thousands of new followers overnight. Instead, you should focus on ever-growing social channels, not a specific number or super-specific result.

If subscribers see that you really want to help them and you're not overpromising, they'll likely continue to engage with your emails.

Do not wait to send your welcome email.

One mistake some business owners make is that they don't automate their welcome email. Users have to wait hours, sometimes days, to receive a simple welcome message after providing their name and email address. There are quite a few problems with this technique.

People are much less likely to trust you if you wait days to send your email. They may get angry and decide to unsubscribe even before you send them a message.

You also risk losing potential customers because they found a competitor who immediately welcomed them after joining their mailing list.

It's also possible that their passion and curiosity for your brand has faded. If you had contacted them as soon as they signed up, they might have converted on the spot. But because you waited, they lost interest and had time to wonder if they really needed your product.

The solution to this problem is simple: create an automated welcome campaign for new subscribers. This strategy relieves your marketing team because the first message or two are on autopilot.

...