The Under Appreciated Power of Welcome Emails

Welcome Emails are the most important email you can send to your new subscribers. They are also the email that your competitors often overlook – only 57.7% of brands actually send a Welcome Email.

They are the first impression someone has of your business, so you really want to make sure they are both engaging and informative.

Whether you’re building a new SaaS company, running a service business, or publishing a niche newsletter, sending a Welcome Email is a great way to set expectations and add a direct line of communication to someone within your organization.

No one wants to feel like just another dollar sign hitting a company’s bank account. Your Welcome Email is the perfect opportunity to reassure new subscribers that you are the correct solution for their problem—that your product or service is exactly what they were searching for.

How to create the perfect Welcome Email

There are a few key things to keep in mind when creating your Welcome Email:

• Thank the subscriber for signing up and set expectations going forward

• Personalize it if possible (address subscriber by name)

• Remind the subscriber of who you are and what you intend to help them with

• Include a call-to-action (CTA) that encourages the subscriber to take the next step

• Offer help with next steps

• Keep it short and sweet

Thanking your new subscriber is very important. It shows them that they matter to you on a human level. This simple gesture goes a long way in setting expectations going forward. You want to be remembered and known as a company that will keep your customers needs and thoughts top of mind.

And be personal! If you collected their name as part of the sign up process, refer to them by that. Any chance you can show your subscribers (even if automated through the use of something like a merge tag) that you are communicating with them on a 1:1 level will lead to higher engagement and brand sentiment.

Immediately after thanking them for joining your list and being interested in your product, kindly remind them of who you are and how you can help them. While Welcome Emails have very high open rates, it’s possible that your new subscriber may not open it immediately. A gentle reminder doesn’t hurt (and will also help if they ever need to search for you in their inbox again).

Now that they’ve opened and read your email you need to give them something to do next. Include a single CTA that encourages your new subscriber to continue through your onboarding flow or to check out other resources you believe will be beneficial to them. Adding multiple CTAs at this point may cause unnecessary confusion on what the logical next step is. 

At the end of your Welcome Email, offer personal help with anything they may need. This could be as simple as inviting them to reply to the email with any questions or go as far as offering time on your calendar to discuss things further.

And finally, keep it short and sweet. You just met each other! No need to send them a novel and risk them deleting the email before getting to the next steps.

Why do Welcome Emails matter?

A study by Experian has shared that Welcome Emails have an eye-popping 57.8% open rate and “five times the click rates compared to other bulk promotions”. This makes them 86% more effective than other typical emails.

And to top it off, 74% of new subscribers actually expect to receive a Welcome Email after signing up for your list.

We send a Welcome Email from both Loops when we receive a new waitlist sign up as well as Workspaces (a weekly newsletter we publish) when we receive a new free subscriber.

Welcome email example via Chris Frantz from Loops

Above is the actual Welcome Email we send when a new subscriber joins the Loops waitlist. 

This Welcome Email has a 76% open rate and has led to countless conversations that have resulted in paying customers. 

It might not look like much, but that’s the point! Offer as much help in as little text as possible so that you can get out of the way and let your new subscriber take the necessary next steps.

Measuring the results of your Welcome Email

We’ve touched on this before, but there are more important metrics to track than your email campaign’s open rates. You now already know that your Welcome Email will likely be the most read email you ever send. Now is the perfect opportunity to begin tracking what truly matters – KPIs that affect your product goals.

It’s important to include a single actionable CTA in your Welcome Emails. This could be an action such as inviting their coworkers to your product, setting up their profile, or setting up their onboarding demo (in Loops’ case).

Make sure the CTA is not only easy to begin right away but also that it is truly the next step in your desired onboarding of this new subscriber.

A high Welcome Email open rate doesn’t mean anything if your new subscribers aren’t taking the necessary next steps that fully integrate them into your product.

Set up your Welcome Email today

There’s no time to waste!

A Welcome Email is the most powerful and personal email you will send on behalf of your business. Take the time to craft the first message your new subscribers will receive and open up a personal line of communication going forward.

Not only will your subscribers thank you but your bottom line will as well.

So… what are you waiting for?

Don’t have an email service provider yet? Let Loops take care of your Welcome Email for you!

Simply looking for inspiration for your Welcome Email? We've got you covered.