Welcome emails are your chance to make a great first impression. They also set the tone and expectations for your future email marketing. 

Which is why it’s important to send well-designed and engaging welcome emails.  

Especially when your welcome emails are opened much more regularly and new subscribers actively go looking for them after signing up for your email list. 

That’s why we’ve created these 5 welcome email templates below that you can use as your welcome email (or any other email for that matter) today. 

Welcome email templates

1) Fashion template

This welcome email template is perfect for apparel brands and other fashion stores. 

It features a clean and modern design with a simple patterned background. There is space to reward new subscribers with a coupon code at the top to incentivize their first purchase. 

Of course, you can customize every element of the email design. 

This includes changing the copy, images, offer, and colors so that it matches your own brand and styling.

• Get the template on SmartrMail here
• Get the template on Figma here

2) Tech template

A more tech-themed welcome email template, this one is perfect for electronics stores or sellers of other digital goods. 

This template features a darker design but maintains all of the same key elements as the last one including featured products, a welcome message, offer, and a few call-to-actions (CTA) buttons. 

In addition to customizing the design of these welcome email templates, you can also add or remove elements as you please. 

For example, you could add additional products, include a link to your latest blog post, or remove the discount code for customers who have already made a purchase. 

• Get the template on SmartrMail here
• Get the template on Figma here

3) Jewelry template

If you run a jewelry store then this is the perfect template for your welcome email. 

The simple yet elegant background lets your jewelry shine and be the main focus of your email campaign.

If you’re looking for more inspiration for your jewelry store, then be sure to check out our collection of jewelry email examples here.

Or if you just want to get your welcome campaign up and running, then you can start using this template through the link below.

• Get the template on SmartrMail here
• Get the template on Figma here

4) Stationery template

This stationery-inspired welcome email template doesn’t just work great for back-to-school emails. 

Just like with all the other templates, you can easily adapt it for any number of other products and services you offer.

If you decide to use the template ‘as is’ though, be sure to replace the placeholder text with copy that’s relevant to your store and audience.

• Get the template on SmartrMail here
• Get the template on Figma here

5) Health food template

This welcome email template has a fresh summer vibe which makes it a great candidate for any store selling health foods or recipes. 

Of course, like every other template on this list, you can customize this template however you like and include your own best offer to increase your conversion rates.

If you like the layout but not the colors, you can easily just change up the color scheme, or vice versa. 

You can also change the background image, include extra social links in the footer and even use it for other campaigns besides your welcome email if you want. 

• Get the template on SmartrMail here
• Get the template on Figma here

How to use these templates

To start using any of these templates as your welcome email, you simply need to add SmartrMail to your online store. 

Once you’ve added SmartrMail to your Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Maropost Commerce Cloud, or PrestaShop store, you can then start using these templates with SmartrMail’s 15-day free trial. 

During the free trial period, you can set up your welcome email automation and have it send to your new subscribers when they sign up for your email list. 

If you want to, you can also send emails you create with the templates to existing subscribers. 

After the 15-day free trial period, there is also a generous free plan available for stores with under 1,000 subscribers.

Sign up for SmartrMail here.

Creating a winning welcome email campaign

Getting the best results possible from your welcome campaigns involves more than just using a great-looking welcome email template. 

You’ll also want to know about all the best practices when it comes to automating your welcome campaign which you can learn about in our comprehensive guide on welcome email strategy.

To boost your open rates and make sure your welcome emails get read, you’ll also need to give your campaign a great email subject line. That’s why we’ve put together a list of 50 welcome email subject lines to help inspire your own.

Lastly, if you’re still looking for more inspiration for your welcome email design, be sure to check out our collection of welcome email examples here. 

The post 5 Free Welcome Email Templates You Can Start Using Today appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Not only are they one of the first emails your customers will receive, and therefore your chance to make a great first impression, but they are also among the most engaging emails you’ll send.

Compared to regular emails, welcome emails enjoy an 86% higher unique open rate, 336% greater transaction rate, and make a whopping 320% more revenue on average. 

Your customers also expect to receive a welcome email with three-quarters expecting to receive one immediately after signing up for your email list. 

With so many people opening and reading your welcome emails, you’ll want to make sure you put your best foot forward. 

That’s why we’ve put together this list of 10 of the best welcome email examples we’ve seen to help inspire your own email design.

Welcome email examples

1) Starbucks

Starbucks takes the number one spot not because it has a standout email design but because it’s an excellent demonstration of welcome email best practices.

The first thing that draws your attention is the simple yet effective “we’re glad you’re here” message that provides a warm welcome to new subscribers. Immediately beneath this they also set expectations for what email content people should expect to receive.

These are both elements you’ll want to replicate in your own welcome email. 

Additionally, the email contains call-to-actions for how people can make the most of their Starbucks experience and includes links to their social media profiles. 

The image of the coffee cup with welcome written on it is also a great way they’re managed to tie in their product in the email design.

What we liked about this example 

• Nails all the welcome email best practices
• Good use of imagery
• Warm welcome

2) LUSH 

LUSH’s welcome email is another example that gets the best practices right. 

There’s the welcome and thank you message, the setting of expectations, and some call-to-actions. 

The “your inbox smells better already” line is a great example of them working their product into their email copy as well. 

What stands out about this welcome email and what takes it a step above the Starbucks example is the inclusion of a video. 

Including a video in your welcome email, or any email campaign for that matter, is a great way to boost engagement rates and let you showcase your products and store. 

What we liked about this example 

• The inclusion of a video makes it more engaging
• The link “your inbox smells better already”
• Satisfies all the welcome email best practices

3) Food52

Food52’s welcome email takes a slightly different, yet incredibly effective, approach. 

While they’re still giving customers a warm welcome and setting expectations, they’re also adding a personal touch by including a photo of their founders and touching on their company mission.

Presenting the human side of your store not only builds trust but also builds up your brand image in the minds of your customers. 

Over the long run, taking a brand-building approach with your email marketing will help improve your overall conversion rate. 

What we liked about this example 

• The message from the founders
• Photo of the founders in a kitchen
• The signature signoff 

4) Casper

Casper’s welcome email is an example of another brand talking about its mission and company values in a less personal way.

While they might not be including an image of their founders or talking about what the original source of inspiration behind Casper was, talking about their commitment to providing their customers the “most comfortable sleep possible” will still go a long way at building up their brand. 

They do this by sharing their main unique selling points (or USPs): good design, rated #1, and their 100-night trial.

The other thing worth mentioning about this welcome email example is its design. 

The design is simple yet on-brand and pleasing to the eye. This makes the experience of opening and reading it more enjoyable which creates a great first impression. 

What we liked about this example 

• The email design
• The inclusion of their unique selling points
• How they talk about their product

5) Away

Instead of, or in addition to, talking about your brand, you can also talk about your products in your welcome email. 

After all, it’s your products that customers will end up buying and welcome emails are a great opportunity to showcase them. 

Because Away has a relatively simple product offering, they’ve listed all the main features of their suitcases in their welcome email. This ensures that people know what makes their suitcases stand out from their competitors’ and why customers should purchase theirs. 

This is something definitely worth considering with your own welcome emails.

What we liked about this example 

• How they talk about their product’s features
• The call-to-actions

6) Glossier

Glossier’s welcome email is a good example of one that showcases products when they have a much more expanded and varied product offering. 

In this example, they’ve opted to highlight some of their most popular products. 

This is an effective way to ensure that the products appeal to the greatest number of people possible and therefore enjoy a high conversion rate. 

If you want to do something similar with your welcome emails in SmartrMail, you can include a recommended product block. You can then set it to the ‘Best Sellers’ product feed. 

This will then automatically add some of your best-selling products to your welcome email but also customized based on the individual customer’s preferences. 

What we liked about this example 

• The inclusion of a selection of their most popular products
• The use of images of customers using their products

7) Michael’s

Switching gears a bit, Michael’s welcome email is centered around providing customers with a special offer. 

Not only is this a great way to increase conversion rates by incentivizing additional purchases, but promising a special offer in exchange for signing up for your email list will also grow your list quicker. 

Of course, the welcome doesn’t just contain the offer, but also the other essential elements like a welcome message, setting expectations, and call-to-actions. 

What we liked about this example 

• The large ‘thank you’ message
• Get all the best practices right
• Clear call-to-action buttons

8) Jen Sincero

This welcome email example from Jen Sincero is essentially a plain-text design that might be something you consider replicating. 

This kind of email design can come across as less of a marketing campaign and more as a personal email from the founder. 

The reason why it’s included on this list however is not its email design, but that it’s rewarding new email subscribers with a free PDF. 

This demonstrates that your email list opt-in incentive doesn’t have to be a sale offer or discount code. Downloadable content like guides, ebooks, etc. can work just as well, if not better at incentivizing sign-ups and don’t sacrifice margin in the process.

What we liked about this example 

• Doesn’t look like a marketing email
• Offers something different from the usual coupon incentive 
• The signature signoff 

9) Kate Spade

A radical departure from the last welcome email example, this campaign from Kate Spade stands out with its unique email design. 

While it does include a 15% discount offer, it’s clear that the main goal of the welcome email is to welcome customers and thank them for signing up. 

Making this message the most prominent part of your welcome email design will make your customers feel more appreciated and less of just a means for more sales. 

What we liked about this example 

• The email design
• That the thank you message is more important than the special offer

10) Huckberry

Lastly, this welcome email from Huckberry incorporates an element that’s been missing from all the other examples on this list so far: social proof. 

This example includes social proof in a couple of ways. 

First, it mentions that they have over 1 million customers in their ‘community’ and second, it also includes a 5-star review from a customer at the bottom. 

Including social proof like this in your welcome emails will go a long way in building trust and increasing the conversion rate of your campaigns. 

What we liked about this example 

• The inclusion of a 5-star customer review
• How it talks about joining a ‘community’ and just an email list
• The ‘we got your back’ section

Own your welcome emails

Now that we’ve gone through 10 great examples of welcome emails, you’ll hopefully have plenty of ideas and inspiration for your own welcome emails. 

But creating a high-performing welcome email campaign takes more than just getting your email content right. 

For example, you’ll want to give it a good subject line to ensure people open your email to begin with. That’s why we’ve also put together a collection of welcome email subject lines and strategies. 

For absolutely everything you need to know about welcome emails however, be sure to check out our comprehensive welcome email guide here.

The post 10 Unique Welcome Email Examples to Inspire Your Own appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Not only do 3 out of every 4 people expect to receive a welcome email immediately after signing up for an email list, but the email automations generate an incredible amount of engagement. 

Compared to regular email marketing, welcome emails enjoy an 86% higher open rate, 336% greater conversion rate, and make 320% more revenue on average. This makes them one of the most effective forms of marketing automation you can set up. 

But these results are not guaranteed. 

To create a truly effective welcome email campaign, you need your email subscribers to actually open your welcome emails. After all, it doesn’t matter what email content you send if your subscribers aren’t opening it.

And when it comes to increasing open rates, the biggest single factor is your subject line.  

For a third of your email list, your subject line is the determining factor in whether they open the email or not. Two-thirds of people also mark emails as spam based solely on its subject line.

So to give your welcome email marketing campaigns the best chance of success, we’ve curated this list of 50 of the best subject line examples we’ve seen actual senders use in the past.

We’ve broken these examples down into various categories so we can go into the strategy behind them as well. 

Subject line examples for welcome emails

Personalized examples

Personalized emails receive on average a 29% higher open rate than non-personalized emails and personalization is just as much about the subject line as the email content. 

The easiest way to personalize your email subject lines is simply to include your subscriber’s name. Like in the examples below. 

• {{NAME}}, you deserve the best – Famous Footwear
• Welcome to Uber, {{NAME}} – Uber
• {{NAME}}, welcome to your YouTube Community tab! – Youtube
• {{NAME}}, let’s get you moving! – Zumper
• Welcome to Teachable, {{NAME}}! – Teachable
• Welcome to TheZebra.com, {{NAME}}. Your quotes are here! – TheZebra.com
• Thanks {{NAME}}. Welcome to Reitmans! – Reitman

Examples with emojis

Adding an emoji to your subject line is a great way to make it stand out in people’s inboxes. Studies have consistently shown that open rates improve when marketers add an emoji in their subject lines. 

However, adding too many emojis, or adding irrelevant emojis, have also been shown to increase the number of complaints emails receive. So if you decide to use an emoji, keep it to a maximum of two and relevant to your brand. As in the example below. 

• Hello from your new friend in the kitchen ? ? – Equal Parts
• ?  There’s more to unlock, {{NAME}} – StubHub
• Welcome to Made In! ?? – Made In Cookware
• ? Hey girl, welcome to the Showpo party! – Showpo
• Welcome to Dense Discovery ? – Dense Discovery
• ?  Welcome to Pixelbuddha — the Most Freebie-Friendly Community – Pixelbuddha
• ?  {{NAME}}, the fun’s just begun! – Carnival Cruise Line
• Welcome to HireClub! ? – HireClub
• You’re in. Get 15% off an L16 ? – Light
• Welcome to the party! ? – Meet Blume
• A welcome note from me ? – kidly

You can learn more about the best practices when using emojis in subject lines here.

Examples that ask a question

Asking a question is a great way to pique your subscriber’s curiosity and entice them to open your welcome email. If you follow it up with some engaging email content, it’ll also help with improving your click-through rates.

These some welcome email subject lines we’ve come across that contain questions.

• Ready to meditate? – Headspace
• Are you feeling lucky? – Moo
• Interested in opportunities? – Remote
• Did you say “beard”? – Welcome to Beardbrand! – Beardbrand
• Ready to step up? Welcome to Activité – Withing’s
• New to Our (Curious) World? – Fossil

Promotional examples

Welcome emails are the perfect opportunity to include a promotional offer as your customers are often the most engaged when they sign up for your email list. 

This means that any promotion you include will likely see a very high conversion rate. Especially if you mention it in your subject lines as well. 

• A Welcome Offer: 15% Off – Eillen Fisher
• Your welcoming 10% off! | Trends, the latest updates and much more – Mango
• Welcome (inside: free shipping!) – Free People
• Welcome to Hayneedle! Your exclusive discount is here … – Hayneedle
• Welcome! Get $25 Off Your 1st Order – Good Eggs
• Welcome to Zalando! Enjoy £10 off your next order – Zalando
• Welcome! Here’s Your Discount Code – Tattly

Examples with a call to action

Welcome emails are also a great opportunity to get your new subscribers to perform a particular activity so you can engage with them further. 

This could be getting them to complete a customer account, fill out their preferences, or any other call to action relevant for your brand.

• 4 Ways to Get Started with AWS – Amazon 
• Welcome to nDash: Important Next Steps – nDash
• You got Ellevested! Here’s what’s next – Ellevest
• Log in to your Wayfair account – Wayfair

Simple, yet effective subject lines

Sometimes simply welcoming your new subscriber in your subject line and thanking them for signing up for your email list is all that’s needed. 

That said, you’ll want to avoid the plain old “Welcome to {{Brand}}” or “Thanks for Signing Up” subject lines. Instead, try to put your own spin on it and why a way of welcoming people that’s a bit more unique. 

The examples below should hopefully provide some inspiration. 

• This was a good decision. – Rue La La
• Welcome to the Flock – Allbirds
• You + Grammarly = The Dynamic Duo – Grammarly
• Welcome to Holland & Barett… Let’s get to know each other… – Holland & Barrett
• Well, Hello There! Welcome To Our Inner Circle – Stila Cosmetics
• Hey, you’re in! – Ritual
• Welcome. Now the real fun begins. – Redbubble
• Welcome to the jolliest club! – Falviar
• You’re on the list! – FabFitFun
• Welcome to the Inside – Bespoke Post
• Welcome to the world of Magic Spoon – Magic Spoon Cereal
• Welcome to Food52! Make yourself at home. – Food52
• Welcome to On Running – here’s what you’ve been missing. – On Running
• Welcome to the Snuggle Bugz Community! – Snuggle Bugz
• Welcome To The MIELLE Family! – Mielle Organics

Over to you

Now that you have plenty of subject line examples for welcome emails to get inspired by, it’s time to start coming up with your own. 

If you want to learn more about subject line best practices and ways to make them stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes even more, check out our guide on writing the best subject lines.

Your welcome email strategy

Of course, your subject line is only a small part of your overall welcome email campaign strategy. 

To fully realize the power of welcome emails, you need to know how to properly structure your welcome series and develop your strategy. 

For that, we have a comprehensive guide that takes you through everything you need to know about welcome emails, what email content to include, how many emails you should have in your welcome series, and when you should automate them to send. 

The guide also takes you through how to compose your welcome emails as well as the process of getting them automated. 

Check out the guide on welcome emails here.

If you’re looking for some email design inspiration, be sure to also check out our collection of welcome email examples here.

The post 50 of the All-Time Best Welcome Email Subject Lines appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

After all, the best way to start a relationship with a new customer is to welcome them with open arms. And when we’re dealing with people online, the best way to give them a warm welcome is with a dedicated welcome email series. 

But whether you’re new to commerce email marketing or have just never got around to setting up your welcome emails, you likely have plenty of questions running through your head:

What exactly is a welcome email series? What is the difference between a welcome email and a welcome series? What are the best practices when setting them up? When should you automate them to send? 

This article will provide you with the answers to all these questions and then some. 

From what welcome emails are, to why they’re important and how you set them up in SmartrMail, this article will cover everything you need to know about one of the most powerful email automations. 

What are welcome emails

First things first: what exactly are welcome emails? 

In short, a welcome email is simply an email that is automatically sent as soon as someone signs up to your email list. 

You will almost certainly have received plenty of welcome emails in the past. 

In their most basic form, they simply welcome you to the email list you’ve just signed up for.

It doesn’t have to be a single email

Many stores and brands will just automate a single welcome email to send, however the most successful welcome emails include multiple emails spaced out over a particular period of time. 

This is known as a welcome series. Where in addition to an email being sent immediately after someone signs up to an email list, subsequent emails are also automated to send later on. 

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to how many emails should appear in a welcome series, or the timeframe they should be sent across. 

Depending on the needs of a particular brand, a welcome series might be spread out across several weeks and in some cases, potentially months.

While you don’t have to develop a welcome email series this long, having at least three or four emails in your series is important to make the most of your welcome email automation. 

Why welcome emails are essential

Welcome emails are an incredibly important automation, especially for online merchants. 

And it goes well beyond just making a good first impression. 

Your subscribers are rarely more engaged and receptive to your email marketing than they are when they first sign up for your email list. This makes welcome emails the perfect way to capitalize on this opportunity and introduce people to your brand. 

The hard stats bear this out too. 

Welcome emails have an 86% higher unique open rate, 336% greater transaction rate, and make a whopping 320% more revenue on average. 

Even if your new subscriber has already made a purchase, a good welcome series will help convert a one-time shopper into the important category of repeat purchasers. 

Your customers expect to receive a welcome email

You also don’t have to worry about feeling like you’re spamming people by sending a welcome email. 

Three-quarters of people expect to receive an email immediately upon signing up for your email list. So if you haven’t automated a welcome series, then most of your email subscribers will be left disappointed when they go to look for your email in their inbox. 

The opportunity to establish and build a relationship

You don’t want the opportunity to go to waste when so many of your subscribers are actively searching for, opening, and clicking on your welcome emails. 

By setting up a great welcome series, you’re laying the groundwork for establishing and nurturing the relationship with your customers. 

This will keep your brand top-of-mind and get people to identify with your brand’s identity meaning that when they decide to make a purchase, it’ll be more likely they choose to do business with you. 

Welcome email campaign structure

As we’ve already touched on, your welcome email campaign should consist of more than a single email. Instead, it should be a series of at least three different emails. 

In this section, we’ll cover how to best structure your welcome series and what content to include in your emails.

Email content every welcome series should contain

There are a few fundamentals that every good commerce welcome series should contain, which are: 

• A sincere thank you for signing up to your email list
• An introduction to your brand
  • What separates your brand from your competitors?
  • What are your brand’s values and mission?
  • Who are you and why did you start your business?
• An overview of your product or service offerings
  • What products or services do you offer?
  • Why should people buy your products over other alternatives?
  • What are the benefits of purchasing your products or using your services?
• Educational content
  • Tips on how to use your products
  • Guides on how to solve problems your products or services address
  • Content related to your industry

As you can see, there is plenty of content your welcome series should contain. 

This is another reason why your welcome series should be split up into at least a few different emails so that you’re able to cover all this content without cramming it all into a single email. 

To help make better sense of all these points, we’ll go through each point one-by-one in more detail. At the end, there’s also a summary diagram that you can save for future reference.

1) A sincere thank you for signing up 

Regardless of your brand and what you sell, showing your appreciation to someone who has handed over their email address goes a long way. 

This should be included in the very first email in your welcome series (the one that’s automated to send immediately after someone joins your list). 

In addition to showing your appreciation, you should also communicate what your subscribers should expect in future emails from you. 

Ideally, you will have already been upfront about this before they sign up for your email list so they know what they’re getting into. Repeating this in your first welcome email is however a good way to ensure everyone remains on the same page. 

Starbucks’ welcome email demonstrates both these points well. 

2) Introducing your brand

After you’ve thanked your new subscriber for signing up and reiterated what they should expect from being on your list, the next thing most brands do in their welcome series is introduce themselves a bit more. 

By going into things like your brand’s values or mission statement and what separates your brand from your competitors, you’ll hopefully convince your subscribers that they should do business with you. 

A great way to do this while building a strong personal connection between your subscribers and your brand is to include a founder story. This is where you talk about the reasons and motivations behind why you or your brand’s founders started the business. 

Doing so humanizes your brand, especially if your audience is able to relate to the story, increasing people’s affinity with your brand. 

Yuppiechef’s email is a good example of this in action. 

Depending on how much detail you want to go into, you can either include this in your initial welcome email beneath your thank you message, or include it a second welcome email all on its own. 

If you opt for the latter option, a good time to send this email is a day or two after someone signs up. During this timeframe, your brand will still be fresh in the minds of your new subscribers but importantly, enough time will have passed since your first welcome email to avoid spamming them.

This email is also a good opportunity to mention other ways your subscribers can stay connected such as by following your brand on social media.

3) Overview of your product offerings

As your customer becomes more familiar with your brand, you should also familiarize them with your products. 

If you don’t have access to any data on what individual products your subscribers might be interested in yet, you can give them an overview of the various categories of products you offer or include some of your most popular items.

Such as in the example from Glossier. 

Or if your store is based around selling a small collection of similar products, you can outline all the various features of this product.

Away, the popular luggage brand, provides a good example of this kind of welcome email. 

As shown in their “The perfect suitcase” email.

If you do have any data on what your new subscriber is interested in, then you should use it to tailor the products to their interests. 

Especially when personalized email content delivers 6x higher transaction rates than non-personalized emails. 

This email should ideally be sent three or four days after your second welcome email on your brand. 

If you introduced your branding in your initial welcome email instead of in a separate second email, then you can reduce the delay in this welcome email to two or three days. 

4) Educational content

After you’ve sent your first two or three welcome emails, you can follow them up with some educational content. 

Educational emails make for the perfect natural pitches for your products where you can talk about how your items solve particular problems your subscribers might be facing. 

While the substance of your educational content is dependent on what your business is, some examples of potential email ideas if you sell laundry detergent include:

• How to remove difficult stains
• Toxins found in common laundry detergents to avoid
• How to keep your whites white
• How to reduce the environmental impact of your washing loads

If someone has signed up to an email list from a laundry detergent company, then chances are all of these email ideas will be something they’ll be interested in receiving. 

If you’re selling an environmentally friendly detergent that doesn’t have toxins commonly found in other detergents, then they all also give you the opportunity to promote your product.

Harry’s takes this a step further by asking a simple question in their educational welcome email and then provides links to relevant educational content for both possible responses.

Any previous blog posts you have could potentially make for great educational content for these emails. Otherwise, it’s worthwhile creating some content for use in your welcome series.  

The only real limit to how many educational emails you include in your welcome series is the amount of content you have. So by all means, feel free to include more than one educational email. 

As you get further into your welcome series, you should gradually decrease the frequency of your emails. 

For instance, roughly a week after your product offering welcome email is a good amount of time to wait until you send your first educational email. 

While you can then send more educational content a week later, afterward you’ll want to decrease the frequency to every second week. 

Segmenting your welcome series by purchase activity

While the above content is something just about every welcome series should contain, the most successful welcome email automations will tailor this content for two separate audiences with the help of two unique series. 

These two separate audiences are those who have signed up for your email list and haven’t yet made a purchase and those who have already made a purchase.

By setting up two separate automated email series and segmenting them by past purchase activity, you’re able to tailor the messaging to the two quite different audiences better. This increases the effectiveness of both welcome series compared to how a single series sending to both audiences would perform. 

To see how these two series differ from each other, we’ll go through them both in depth.

Welcome series for subscribers yet to make a purchase

In addition to introducing your brand, your welcome series for your new subscribers who are yet to make a purchase should also have the goal of enticing people to make their first purchase. 

The most common way merchants try to incentive someone’s first purchase is simply through including a coupon. Just like in the example from Riley. 

You don’t necessarily need to go for the hard sell straight away, instead you may want to hold off on offering a discount until the second or third email in this welcome series. 

However, as you get deeper into your welcome series for subscribers who haven’t made a purchase, you’ll want to gradually increase the incentive. 

This might mean offering a slightly larger discount every couple of emails, or offering to send a free sample or some other service that’ll help convert your subscribers into paying customers.

If you set up this welcome series the way we’ll take you through in the next section, then as soon as your customer makes a purchase, they won’t receive any further emails in the series. 

So any larger discounts you include later in your series will only be sent to those whom the earlier, smaller discounts didn’t persuade. That way you don’t have to worry about giving away too much margin to customers when it’s not required.

Welcome series for customers who have already made a purchase

One of the most common ways that merchants grow their email lists is by letting new customers opt-in to their email marketing during checkout. 

This is a great way to grow your email list   

It will also mean that your welcome series to these new customers will be different compared to the series for new subscribers who haven’t made a purchase yet.

While welcome emails to these new customers have the goal of converting them into repeat buyers, getting a customer to make a second purchase is far easier than getting someone to make their first purchase.

This means that you don’t have to go as heavy with offering coupons or other incentives in this welcome series. Instead, simply keeping your new customers engaged and informed of what you offer will help with enticing further purchases. 

The best way to keep your new customers engaged is by getting them to be active members of your community. 

This can take the form of encouraging them to not only follow you on your socials, but also share images of your products with particular hashtags, leave a review, or participate in other forms of social proof like joining competitions. 

Of course, you might still want to opt to include a discount further along in this welcome series if someone hasn’t made an additional purchase. 

Welcome series for subscribers signing up through a lead generator

In addition to signing new customers up to your email list as they check out, the other common way merchants collect new subscribers is by offering them something in exchange for signing up. 

Common examples of this include offering free ebooks, guides, and other goods you can deliver through email. 

If you are growing your email list this way, then it’s important to create a separate welcome series where you deliver what you promised your subscribers in the first email that you send immediately. 

While the initial welcome email will look somewhat different to the other two above series, the remainder of the welcome series should be similar to what subscribers who are yet to make a purchase receive. 

The email below from Jen Sincero that was triggered after signing up to download a PDF guide is a good example of this type of welcome email. 

Sample welcome email automations 

As promised, here is a summary of what emails your various welcome series should contain and roughly when they should be sent.

Beyond sending the first welcome email immediately after someone joins your list, keep in mind that these are just recommendations. Feel free to tweak the timing to suit your unique audience. 

If you decide to adjust the frequency of your welcome emails, remember that if you send them too frequently, you risk spamming and annoying your new subscribers. On the other hand, if you send them too infrequently, you risk your new subscribers being disengaged from your brand. 

It’s a balancing act that can take some time to get right.

How to set up a welcome email series in SmartrMail

Now that you know what a welcome email series is, why they’re important and what the best practices are, it’s time to turn our attention to how you can set them up. 

Fortunately, SmartrMail makes it super easy to set up your welcome series. All you have to do is follow the steps below. 

If you don’t have a SmartrMail account yet, you can sign up for a 15-day free trial here if you run your online store on Shopify, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Woocommerce, or Neto ecommerce platforms.

You can follow the instructions below or check out this short video:

Step 1: Navigate to Automations and Create a New Automation

To get started creating an automation navigate to the Automations page. For users with a legacy automation active, you will need to also navigate to the Automations tab.

Next give your Automation a name.

Step 2: Configure your Trigger Settings

For a welcome email you’ll want to create a list-triggered automation, create a new automation and select the trigger: Whenever someone joins a list

Next select a list. The most common welcome series would select All Subscribers.

You can also choose to exclude subscribers who are in another list or segment.

Note that once you select a list and save, you can no longer change the list that triggers the automation.

Step 3: Add an Email

For this welcome series I’m going to trigger my first email immediately after subscribers join my list, so I’ll place an email directly under the trigger. However if I wanted to add a delay before sending my email I would add a Time Delay.

Once you drag your email into the automation. You can give it a name for your own records and a subject line. Then click Edit to design your email.

You’ll be directed to our email composer where you can add content and create your campaign. Once you’re done, click Enable and you’ll be directed back to your automation in progress.

The design of this email is up to you, but typically in your first email you simply want to thank your new subscribers for signing up.

Step 4: Add a Time Delay

Next before we add another email, we will schedule it by using a Time Delay.

Time delays add a delay between actions in your automation. To add a Time Delay, drag it into your automation.

From there set the time you’d like to delay the next action until.

Step 5: Add another email

After the time delay is added we’re now able to add another email. Again you can drag the email under your Time Delay. Once you’ve done that, design and enable your email.

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 & 5 (Optional)

If you’d like to add another email to your series. Simply repeat steps 4 and 5 by placing another Time Delay and Email under your last Email placed.

Step 7: Enable Automation

Now that all your emails are in place. Click Enable at the top right of the screen. You’ll be promoted to confirm that you’d like to enable your welcome series.

That’s it. You’re done! Congrats on creating your welcome series with SmartrMail

Wrapping up

Welcome emails are one of the most effective commerce email automations that you can set up for your store.   

Not only do your subscribers and customers expect to receive them upon signing up to your email list, but they capitalize on the brief window of time where your audience is most engaged and receptive to receiving emails from you. 

When you set up multiple series for different types of subscribers that go beyond a single welcome email, you’ll bring in additional sales as you convince people to make their first purchase and convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers. 

And when they are so easy and straightforward to set up with virtually no ongoing effort required, there’s no reason not to set them up right now. 

Additional resources

If you’re looking for more examples of welcome emails or more tips on strategy, we have several additional posts you might be interested in:

• A collection of welcome email subject lines that subscribers can’t help but click on.
• Barnes & Noble welcome series breakdown. Where we explore the welcome series strategy of the iconic bookseller. 
• A collection of 10 welcome email examples to inspire your own designs.
• Welcome email tactics that turn prospects into leads in case you’re looking for more strategy ideas.

Still have questions about your welcome emails?

If you’re still unclear about anything related to welcome email best practices or how to set them up, the SmartrMail customer success team is always ready to help. 

If you’re already a SmartrMail customer on a paid plan, you’re more than welcome to ask any questions to have through the in-app support chat.

If you’re not a SmartrMail customer yet, we encourage you to sign up for our 15-day free trial. 

The trial is completely commitment-free and during it you’re able to jump on a free one-on-one call with a member of our customer success team where you can ask any questions you have and be shown how to automate your welcome series the way you want. 

TL;DR

Just looking for the main points? Here they are:

• Welcome emails are one of the most important email automations for merchants
• Welcome emails have an 86% higher unique open rate, 336% greater transaction rate, and make a whopping 320% more revenue on average. 
• Three-quarters of people expect to receive an email immediately after signing up for your email list.
• Successful welcome email strategies involve the use of more than just one, but multiple emails that form a welcome email series.
• The most successful strategies will also use multiple welcome email series, segmented by whether your new subscriber has already made a purchase or not, or whether they joined from a campaign that promised something in return like a free ebook.
• Regardless of which welcome series someone receives, the first welcome email should be sent immediately and thank the subscriber for signing up
• Additional welcome emails should be spaced out at increasing intervals and should introduce your brand and what you sell in more detail before moving to educational content where you can pitch your products.
• Discounts are good to include in your welcome emails as a way to entice new subscribers to make either their first purchase or for new customers, their second purchase. 
• Once your welcome series are set up, they require little ongoing work or effort, letting you build brand loyalty with your subscribers and generate sales effectively on autopilot.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Your Welcome Email Series appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Despite this, many small businesses underestimate the effect their welcome email has on the recipient’s perception of their brand. This results in countless lost sales and opportunities. The real tragedy here is just how easy it is to compose a stellar welcome email that’ll deliver a great first impression and generate additional sales.

So in an effort to rid inboxes of lacklustre welcome emails, here’s our guide to crafting the perfect one.

1) A Great Greeting & Thank You

The first element to any welcome email should always be a greeting welcoming the recipient to your email list. While the exact nature of your greeting will depend on your brand, in most cases it should be warm and friendly.

Don’t be afraid to be a bit creative here. As long as the greeting comes across as sincere and fits your overall branding, feel free to be as fun as you want.

As you can see, Virgin America’s welcome email is more fun and engaging than your typical ‘welcome to our mailing list’ greeting. This greeting definitely aligns with the Virgin brand. This also helps to reinforce their brand message and overall marketing strategy.

Additionally, you should also consider thanking your subscriber for signing up to your email list. In a world where email marketing is all-too-often abused by email marketers, showing that you appreciate and value their attention can go a long way.

While Starbucks’ welcome email does a great job at showing appreciation for the recipient signing up, don’t be intimidated by their creativity. As long as you show sincerity in your thank you message, your subscriber will be grateful for the sign of appreciation.

(Check out our list of thank you email examples for more inspiration.)

2) Deliver the Goods

If you promised something in exchange for signing up to your email list, such as a free ebook, then it is absolutely essential that you include it in your welcome email. Failing to do this will immediately put your relationship on the back foot and have already broken the trust your subscriber placed in you.

Even if you eventually deliver what you promised in a second email a short while later, there’s a good chance this email will be ignored. The importance of this cannot be understated.

You’ll also want to make sure that the link to download what was promised is in a prominent position towards the top of the email. Otherwise you risk the recipient not finding the link altogether and feeling disenfranchised as a result.

The link to download the free ebook in the email above is too small and too far down the email that it could easily be missed. Make sure you avoid the same mistake by locating your opt-in offer in a clearly visible position towards the top of your welcome email.

Remember that nobody signs up to an email list for nothing, there is always a reason behind the signup. Even if the incentive isn’t as obvious as a discount code or free ebook, people likely signed up to remain informed about new products or simply to get your monthly newsletter. As each business has a different value proposition, the exact reason people are signing up to your list will be unique to your business.

So even if there are no ‘goods’ as such to deliver, your welcome email is the perfect opportunity to restate your value proposition. Doing so reassures the subscriber that signing up wasn’t a mistake and reaffirms that they made the right decision.

3) Let Them Know What to Expect

You should always ensure people know what signing up to your mailing list entails before they sign up. That said, your welcome email is the perfect opportunity to restate what your new-found subscriber should expect.

By reminding people of how often they will receive new emails, and what these emails will be about, you can reduce the ‘I didn’t opt in for this’ feeling among subscribers later on. This can help prevent complaints and people marking your emails as spam, which can kill your deliverability.

The BBC’s welcome email is a great example of outlining exactly what the recipient should expect. After reading it, one knows exactly what emails they’ll be receiving in the future, what these will contain, and why they’ll be receiving them. Being so upfront also helps to once again reassure the recipient that their attention is valued and not taken for granted.

Don’t feel that you have to go into as much detail as the BBC did here. This example is rather long and if it were any longer, then it would just be overloading the subscriber with information. Just a few lines on content and frequency of future emails should be enough for most welcome emails.

4) Remind People of Who You Are

Re-introducing yourself might seem like a strange thing to do here. After all, someone who signed up only moments ago is going to know who you are. But by including just a few lines about what your business does and what your mission is, you help to cement the relationship with your subscriber.

The email above does a good job at this. Reading through their mission statements, one is filled with a good feeling about the company and is likely to be reassured of their decision of signing up to their emails.

The about us section in this email is fairly long for a welcome email. That’s because this particular business leans itself well to discussing the ethos of the brand. You likely don’t want this section to be as long in your email, otherwise you risk boring your recipient. Like many aspects of email, less is definitely more here.

5) Provide a Clear Call-To-Action

Call-to-actions (CTAs) are a quintessential part of email marketing, and welcome emails are no exemption to this. Considering those emails have some of the highest open rates of any type of email, you want to take advantage of all the attention they receive.

The number of CTAs you include is also important. While most emails contain more than one CTA, the most successful only have one clear CTA. To highlight this point, consider the multiple links in the email below.

Having ten different links means none of them draws your attention to it. And while you may think that having ten CTAs means there is ten times the likelihood that someone will click on one, this simply isn’t the case. Instead without a clear next step for people to take, they end up ignoring all the links and disregard your email.

Contrast this with the email below. This email create a clear path for the customer to continue along with the next step being clear: download the app.

6) Provide Contact Information

Finally, the last component to include in your welcome email is a way for people to get in touch with your business. While putting your physical address in your email footer is required by CAN-SPAM laws, you’ll want to consider adding more way to reach out.

Being approachable will not only be appreciated by your customers if they can’t find the answer to a question they have, but will also lay a foundation of trust. Adding links to social media accounts can help further cement this by making your business appear more established.

In the example above, the contact information is located in the footer, the best place for it. This is the part of the email most people will search for ways to contact you seeing as it’s the conventional place for contact details.

Also, by including this last, you aren’t detracting from the CTA in the body of your email. You don’t want people to ignore your CTA because of this section.

For this reason you might want to send a follow up welcome email a day later with links through to your social media profiles. This effectively eliminates the chances people will click through to your Facebook page instead of on your CTA button.

7) Don’t Stop At Just One Email

You’re not limited to just one welcome email. In fact it’s often recommended to send a series of welcome emails to ensure that your subscribers remain engaged.

As per the last point, you might want to dedicate an additional email to getting people to connect with you on social media. Other emails you can include as apart of your welcome series include surveys to gather customer feedback and emails asking for customers to give a review.

To learn more about crafting your welcome series, check out our post on the 3 Emails Every Ecommerce Stores Needs in their Welcome Series.

8) Optional Extras

There are a few other things commonly added to welcome emails that you might want to consider as well.

Asking to be whitelisted

Whitelisting is the process of manually adding a particular email address to one’s list of contacts they want to receive emails from. Doing so ensures that inbox services providers such as Gmail and Yahoo do not mark emails they send as spam.

If it’s essential that all your subscribers receive every email you send, then you can add instructions on how people can whitelist your email address. Below is an example of this.

Offering an incentive

If a person has just signed up to your emails, then they’ve either also just converted or are on the precipice of converting. For the latter, an offer could give them the push they need. Seeing as there’s also a chance they might become less and less inclined by the time they receive your next email, which they might not even open, it’s can be beneficial to strike early.

The offer can be as simple as a small discount or free shipping if you have an ecommerce store. If you decide to include such an offer, make sure you the message in the welcome is clear and towards the top so people see it.

Next Steps

Now that you know all of the essential parts that make up a great welcome email, it’s time to start creating your own! If you’re looking at an easy way to compose emails and send them automatically when someone signs up to your list, then take advantage of SmartrMail’s 15-day free trial. We’re an easy to use email marketing app for ecommerce stores. Click here to learn more.

The post The Essential Guide to Perfecting Your Welcome Email appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Experian found that welcome emails are opened 4X more often and clicked 5X more than regular promotional emails. But most importantly, welcome emails generate 8X MORE REVENUE!

With SmartrMail’s new auto-responders you can automate an unlimited amount of emails when a customer subscribes to your email list on your Shopify or BigCommerce store.

Regardless of how many emails you end up automating, ensuring you have these 3 emails in your welcome series will engage your customers and get you more sales for your store.

Email 1: Welcome + Coupon

Subject: Welcome to {Brand Name} | Enjoy 10% Off Your First Purchase

When: Immediately

Content: Keep this email short and sweet. The goal is to drive your customers back to your site to make a purchase while giving them a good first impression of your brand.

When designing the first email in your welcome series include:

• A sincere thank you
• Creative imagery highlighting your brand
• Strong and visible call to action
• Links to your social profiles

As this is when your customers are most excited about your brand and likely to buy from email, help push them across the line with a meaningful discount between 10-20% or a free gift with purchase. You can add a few popular products but be careful as overcrowding with content and branding will only distract your customers and lower your conversion rates.

Email 2: Branding + Most Popular Products

Subject: Explore {Brand Name}

When: 3 days after signup

Content: Now that you’ve welcomed your customer and made a meaningful offer, it’s time to start letting them get to know you, and your brand better. There’s more than one way to do this but try to hit at least a couple of these points:

• What makes your brand different?
• Why should the customer buy your products over others?
• What are the benefits of buying your products?
• Who are you and why did you start this business?

We really like how Elysium puts a face to their brand with their welcome email.

As you familiarize your customer with your brand, also familiarize them with your products. Since you don’t have much data on them yet, include a handful of your most popular products or staff picks (like the example above) for them to browse. This is also a great time to promote your social profiles by adding links in the footer, and if your customer still hasn’t purchased – include a section with the welcome offer too.

Email 3: Educational Content

Subject: {Blog Post Title}

When: 6 days after sign up

Content: In today’s marketing world, content is king. Whether you’re selling dresses or drones – your ecommerce store should have at least one blog post or page that educates your customers on the benefits of your products or the problems that it solves. Not only do these educational pieces lead into natural pitches for your products, the use of careful keywording boosts your SEO efforts and traffic to your site.

Even if your product is as boring laundry detergent, it can be hard to run out of content ideas:

• 5 Laundry Tips to Remove Oil Stains
• 8 Harmful Toxins in Laundry Detergent (and 1 brand that doesn’t have any)
• How to keep your whites white
• The differences in quality laundry detergent
• The 5 most environmentally friendly laundry products

You get the idea, the list goes on…

When sending your welcome education email include a bold image and text introducing your the article and strong call-to-action to “Read More”. You can also add a few relevant products to the email along with your social links. If you’re closing your welcome series on this email, let your customer know the other emails they can expect to get from you – such as weekly product recommendation emails and holiday specials.

Read: 10 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Email Marketing Tips

Closing Note:

There’s no magic number when it comes to implementing your welcome email series, but at the very least you should implement these 3 emails. Since you don’t have the data yet on your customers it’s important to add your popular products as they’ve already been vetted by your current customers.

If you want to lengthen your series, you can add a twist by including product emails with customer testimonials, product reviews, or social posts raving about your store.

With SmartrMail you can automate an unlimited amount of welcome emails and add products 5x faster than you can on MailChimp with our Shopify and BigCommerce product lookup. You don’t have to stop there either, automate product recommendation emails and abandoned cart recovery to save you time and supercharge your sales!

The post 3 Emails Every Ecommerce Store Needs in Their Welcome Series appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.