Cheat Sheet to Get Highest Open Rates with Welcome Emails
Research and studies have repeatedly emphasized the benefits and effectiveness of welcome emails. The open rates of welcome emails are often times as much as 50% higher than other email message types.
Why?
The simple reason why welcome emails work is because prospects want to know about your product/services and discover various offers that are in store. Since your prospects are already interested in you, and they signed up for you, you get better chances to build relationship with them.
Secondly, they anticipate welcome emails as soon as they subscribe or sign up with you as a token of gratitude from you. That’s why the sooner you send it, the better results it produces.
Here we have created the ultimate cheat sheet containing what a welcome email should include, which elements draw open rates and generate revenue, common email blunders to avoid, and how to write effective call to action messages. So, keep scrolling, keep them handy.
Grab the opportunity to highlight the best assets of your website
Take advantage of the prize you possess now – their interest in your product/website/services and thus, their attention. It’s time to make the optimum use of this opportunity, and talk about (yes, subtly promote) the coolest features and offers of your business.
Emphasize what you can offer them that your competitors are not offering, at present. Shower them with more free resources to download, and your genuine appreciation for subscribing with you.
A compelling call to action to guide them what to do next
Your welcome mail should appear as the first interaction with your prospects on the context of thanking them, however, it ideally is your first email to prompt your prospects to take some kind of actions.
That’s why a compelling and guiding call to action is a must to make your readers click, open the mail and take an action – such as, click some recent or popular blog posts, visit your revamped website, install a beta version of your mobile app, register for a webinar or an event, or download an e-book, to name a few. Remember, it’s your well-written, focused, concise and no-frill CTA that can drive action effectively – so, just make sure it’s there in your welcome mail.
Personalized treatment
Personalized treatments can not only benefit you with higher open rates, but chances of conversion, too. So, start with personalizing the welcome message by their name and shun away from common blunders of “Hi there” or “Hello subscriber” greetings.
Such greetings make your mail appear as automated messages sans personal touches and they feel uninterested in opening such mails. Instead, use a dynamic tag to fetch their name from the database and send greetings by their name to make it look more personal. This is just the beginning.
Next, ask them what kind of content they prefer, what type of offers will make them happy and the frequency in which they want to be mailed – whether weekly, monthly, bimonthly or as you create a new whitepaper or e-book. Once they are able to define the frequency, the fewer subscribers will want to unsubscribe or mark your mail as spam.
Introduce your social profiles
Your welcome emails present the best opportunities to gain followers on your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or even subscribe with your YouTube videos since they are interested and want to know more about you.
When they have signed up to get your mails or want to read your blog posts, they are more likely to trail you on your social pages and profiles, discover special offers and announcements you share exclusively for your social followers and check out your educational or seasonal videos – therefore, placing all the social buttons on your welcome mails will increase open rates as well as your social reach.
Surveys and polls
One major purpose of welcome emails should be to make them think that you are genuinely interested in what they want from your products, services, email campaigns, or the content they want to read.
Create a survey by including a few questions they are most willing to answer, in order to bring customized offers for them. And yes, do not forget to ask their feedback on your brand – make them feel important while you gather the information you need to optimize your product.
Other than these elements, you must include a link to unsubscribe from mails. By letting them unsubscribe from your mails will sure do facilitate your prospects to leave you, but they are unlikely to report your mail as spam which will permanently divert them to trash can.
Until they want to restore them to inbox – but, how many of us mark spam mails ‘not spam’ and redirect to our inbox? On the other hand, the ease of unsubscribing from your mails can encourage them to sign up and join you again, as long as they feel free to leave as and when they want.
So, are you ready to put these welcome emails ideas into action? Tell us what you think – we are eager to hear you always.