Welcome email series: What is it and why should you have one?
A welcome email series is a type of automated email marketing sequence that sends automatically when someone signs up to your email list.They might have signed up to access a lead magnet or to your newsletter from your website. Either way, sending a welcome email right after someone provides you with their email address is the perfect time to nurture that relationship and show potential customers how your business, products or services could help them.
When someone initially provides their email address, this is when they’re most engaged and most likely to engage further with your brand. Setting up a welcome sequence allows you to send an email as soon as they provide their details and offer them more information about who you are and how you can help them.
Gathering email addresses and leaving them on a list until you have a newsletter to send or something to sell isn’t the best way to nurture your email list.
What is a welcome email series?
A welcome sequence is a series of emails that you send to new subscribers to welcome them to your business and help them get to know you and your brand better.A single welcome campaign gives you a chance to say hello, whereas a welcome series enables you to introduce yourself properly and potentially provide an enticing offer to try and convert customers.
Welcome emails are a great way to introduce potential customers to your brand in more detail after they’ve shown an interest. It gives you a great opportunity to establish credibility, build trust, introduce your products or services and keep your business front of mind for your subscribers.
Each email should be built using a branded template that represents your brand and allows you to send professional looking communications that subscribers can trust and engage with.
Why do you need email welcome sequences?
Welcome sequences help your subscribers or new customers get to know, build trust and build a relationship with you so they eventually buy from you.
Offering more information, helpful advice or even an offer helps you establish credibility and allows you to nurture relationships so you can build and maintain an engaged, ready to buy email list.
Here’s what you could share:
More context about who you are, what you do and who you can help
An overview of the ways in which your product or service can help solve your customer’s problems
Tips or tutorials to offer more value
Any information you think potential customers might find useful in relation to your business, products or services
What they can expect as a member of your email list
Remember that people who have subscribed to your email list have already found your business somewhere so they have some knowledge of who you are, what you do and how you might be able to help them. The welcome series is designed to build on this and give them more reasons to buy from you. Moving someone from being aware of your brand to making a purchase requires more than one or two touches.
How many emails should you include in your welcome series?
It’s generally recommended that you send 4-6 emails in your welcome series. The exact number you choose will depend on your business and what you actually have to say. There’s no point sending an email for the sake of it, you need to use the welcome series as an opportunity to nurture customer relationships and provide contacts with more information about your business.
What should you include in an automated welcome series?
We recommend planning your welcome sequence out before building the automation and the email campaigns.This enables you to carefully look at what you’re going to include in each email and how you’re going to share your brand, knowledge, products and services with your new subscribers.
It also helps you to lead them through the decision-making process and help them understand exactly how you can help them and the problems your product or service solves.
Here’s an example of the content you could include in your sequence. This will depend on the nature of your business and your customers, but it provides a good place to start.
Email 1: An immediate welcome
Trigger this email so it sends as soon as someone signs up to your list. This is when they’re most engaged and it enables you to confirm that they’ve signed up and for you to deliver on the promise you made when you asked for their details in the first place.
You might have asked for their details in return for a lead magnet, a discount or simply more information on how you can help them.Failing to send an email immediately after they’ve signed up misses a huge window of opportunity.
All you need to do is provide a warm welcome message, along with what they can expect as a subscriber to your list. If you’ve offered a discount or a lead magnet, now is the time to provide that too.
Email 2: More about your business and who you are
Send this email one to two days after the initial email. This is your chance to introduce your brand in more detail and showcase the personality or the story behind your business. This helps to build trust and gives potential customers a better idea of how you might help them. It also sets you ahead of the competitors who don’t send a welcome sequence, keeping your business front of mind throughout their decision-making process.
Email 3: Offer value or information
This should go out one or two days after your next email.Instead of trying to directly sell to new subscribers, provide them with something valuable or helpful. It might be a top tip, a tutorial on how to use one of your products or a resource they might find useful.
Providing value rather than simply looking for a sale enables you to build trust and credibility. The two factors that are most likely to win you further sales in the future. This is relationship building and can help you turn potential customers into repeat and loyal customers.
Email 4: Social proof
Send this email two to three days after the last in the sequence. Share your customer reviews, case studies or success stories to show how your product or service works in the real-world and how it’s already helped potential customers.
This helps you to build credibility and trust that your business might be able to help subscribers and the proof from other customers cements this.
Email 5: A call to action
Use this email to gently invite your subscribers to take the next step in their journey. This might be a purchase, booking a call with one of your team or visiting you in person. Make sure this step aligns with your overall customer journey and the action you want them to take to make the communication as valuable as possible for your business.
Make it easy for subscribers to understand what you want them to do.
Email 6: A final check in
Depending on your business and your customers, you might want to add a final email to your welcome sequence as a final check in.
Either invite customers to get in touch if they need extra help, give them a link to browse your website or give them a last chance discount that expires.
This should be a friendly email that signals the end of your welcome series.
Some email tools will allow you to exclude people from this series if they take the next action. For example, if someone buys or gets in touch after email two, you might not want them to receive the rest of the emails.
There is usually a condition within the automation builder that allows you to do this and send customers who have purchased on a different journey. Anyone who hasn’t engaged by the end of the series can be added into your general newsletter list.
How do you automate your welcome emails?
Automating these emails helps to save time, instead of sending emails to customers individually when they sign up to your list.
You might be wondering how these emails are magically sent as soon as someone provides their email address. If you’re gathering email addresses already, it’s likely you’re using an email marketing platform. Many platforms allow you to send automated sequences as part of their service.
Popular platforms include:
All of these platforms have an automation tool that allows you to create a sequence that is triggered when someone enters your email list. You usually build the sequence and the emails in the automation tool, turn it on and your emails will send automatically.
These tools also allow you to monitor performance so you can see who’s opened an email, who’s clicked and even if someone has made a purchase. Monitoring these analytics over time enables you to tweak emails that aren’t working as well or tweak your offer or the information you provide.
Need help with creating a welcome series for your small business?
If you don’t have the time or the resource to set up a welcome series for your small business, our experts can help. We can set up an automated welcome email series to help you welcome subscribers to your business and help guide them towards a purchase.
Take a look at our email marketing automation service or contact our expert team for a chat about your requirements today.
