You only get one chance to make a first impression. When a potential customer expresses interested in your brand or product, enough to give you their email, the best way to convert them is via a welcome series.
Welcome series work. They simply do. People open welcome emails 5x more often than standard email campaigns and they are read 42% more than other marketing emails.
What is an Email Welcome Series?
An email welcome series is a sequence of automated emails sent to new subscribers immediately after they sign up for your mailing list. Unlike a single welcome email, a series allows you to engage with your audience over time, nurturing the relationship and gradually introducing them to your brand’s offerings and value proposition.
Depending on how you obtain the email (subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a deal, joining a webinar, etc.), you may want to draft a variety of welcome series. But as soon as you set them all up, they will continue to run!
Note: when someone is in your welcome series, they should not yet receive newsletters, promotion emails, etc. Depending on your email marketing platform, you might have the ability to automatically suppress these users.
What to Include in Your Welcome Series:
- Personalization: The initial welcome email is the cornerstone of your series. Keep it concise, friendly, and personalized. Address your new subscribers by name and leverage the data you collect during the sign-up process to personalize the series. Segment your audience based on their interests or preferences, and tailor the content accordingly.
- Set Expectations: Let your subscribers know the frequency of your emails and the type of content they will receive. This helps manage expectations and reduces the likelihood of unsubscribes due to email overload.
- Share Your Best Content: Use these emails to showcase your best content, such as blog posts, articles, or videos that demonstrate your expertise and provide value to the subscribers. Highlighting valuable content builds trust and credibility with your new audience.
- Introduce Your Brand: Dedicate an email or two to give subscribers an in-depth look at your brand’s story, values, and mission. Show them how your products or services can solve their pain points and enrich their lives.
- Call-to-Action (CTA): Each email in the series should have a clear and compelling CTA. Whether it’s to visit your website, follow you on social media, or claim a special offer, CTAs drive engagement and guide subscribers towards conversion.
- A/B Testing: Continuously test different elements of your welcome series (subject lines, content, and CTAs) to optimize engagement and conversions. This testing will help provide valuable insights into what resonates best with your audience.
Examples of Email Welcome Series:
The goal of the welcome series is to take your clients on a journey. Your welcome series will be unique to your business, but here are some examples depending on how your customers will interact with your company.
E-commerce:
- Email 1: A warm welcome and a discount offer for first-time shoppers to encourage immediate purchases.
- Email 2: Showcase popular products or product categories, along with customer reviews and testimonials.
- Email 3: Introduce a loyalty program or rewards system to incentivize repeat purchases.
- Email 4: Share personalized product recommendations based on the subscriber’s browsing history or preferences.
- Email 5: Highlight your commitment to customer satisfaction and invite subscribers to leave feedback or reviews.
Online Course:
- Email 1: A friendly welcome, providing login details and instructions on how to get started with the course.
- Email 2: Share a course overview, including the curriculum, key objectives, and what students can expect to learn.
- Email 3: Send a bonus resource or teaser content to engage and motivate learners to begin the course.
- Email 4: Provide social proof, such as success stories from previous students or testimonials.
- Email 5: Offer ongoing support, access to community forums, or exclusive content to encourage course completion.
Newsletter Subscription:
- Email 1: Thank the subscriber for joining and explain what kind of content they will receive from the newsletter.
- Email 2: Showcase the most popular and evergreen posts to give subscribers a taste of the content you’ll be linking to.
- Email 3: Invite subscribers to follow your website on social media or join a community group to stay connected.
- Email 4: Share exclusive content or a downloadable resource that complements recent blog posts.
- Email 5: Ask for feedback and suggestions to tailor future content to the interests of the subscribers.
What You Get From a Welcome Series:
The series isn’t just for your new customers. It also benefits you! Not only will you have an engaged audience (who will hopefully transact), but you also have gleaned valuable information. As the series of emails deploys, your email marketing platform can gather vital data about subscriber interests, when they open their emails, and when they click. This allows you to further customize your emails to deploy at the most optimized times.
Remember to continuously monitor and optimize your series to maximize its impact. With a well-executed email welcome series, you’ll nurture relationships, drive engagement, and convert subscribers into loyal customers!
Want to learn more? Check out our 2023 Digital Marketing Trends Report with marketing tips for email, social media, display advertising, and more.
