We all know that welcome emails are essential. The very first interaction with new clients sets the tone for all the further communications. We need to win at this Stage as there may be no second chance to “talk” to new customers. Which is why we need to work thoroughly and use only the best welcome email templates for our welcome series. In this article we take a look at How Does Welcome Email Series Help with Building Brand Awareness?
Emails of this type help us stand out among our multiple competitors if properly done. They help us become outstanding, memorizable and recognizable among the multitude of similar companies, stores, providers, etc.
Let’s look closer at new email addresses in our contact list. A question: how did those people find us? Well, they could see our ads somewhere, click our links in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. — there are different ways. But they may still know our business not well enough, and have no clear idea what differentiates you from competitors.
In details, what does it mean?
They trust us enough as they invited us in their inbox. This could mean, they are genuinely interested in our brand and in what we offer. But on the other hand, newcomers are kinda doubtful and insecure at this stage. They may think “ok, why not try”, but they’re not loyal clients yet.
New subscribers is a currency, so to say. Make them loyal clients, and it shall bring you profit. As we said above, welcome email is a keystone to build brand loyalty. But can one single welcome email fulfill that complex mission? As experience says, it happens. But success is not guaranteed. That’s why email marketers recommend arrange welcome email series.
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Why welcome email series performs better
A welcome email series is a sequence of messages we send over to subscribers, when they just opt in, to attract them, make first impression on them and show what our company is all about.
Our mission at this point is to get people addicted to our brand. But it consists of some points. Let’s figure them out.
With welcome emails, we:
- introduce ourselves;
- tell the brand story;
- inform newcomers about sales, content and frequency of email marketing campaigns;
- tell about the key pros of our products and services (whether it saves time, made of eco materials, includes next gen features or else);
- show how to use our tools etc.
This way we emphasize why we differ from competitors without humiliating others, set customers expectations for our relationship — and segment new subscribers. The latter is a good opportunity to implement email personalization.
Pretty clear, right? That’s why experienced marketers don’t recommend pile up everything in one single welcome email. Otherwise, it may be too oversaturated and make an impression of something annoying, even aggressive.
Andy Crestodina, the chief marketing officer of Orbit Media, said that first welcome-to-my-list emails get the highest Open Rate as recipient is at the peak interest. But this first message is a gesture of politeness, a kind of “virtual handshake”.
But when you burst with offers and sales right at the handshake moment — it’s not polite anymore. It reminds of the bad habits of traveling salesman — “hello, I have something stunning for you, look at these amazing Chinese flashlights!!!” How do we usually react? Mostly like “Sorry, but not today”.
So, let’s not hurry, do everything step by step.
How to arrange the welcome email series
First of all, we should figure the journey we want new subscribers to take. In other words, let’s think of what clients need to learn about us during the welcome period — and what actions we want them to take?
There are three crucial things here:
- how many emails we need in our sequence;
- what content should be in each email;
- what order of sequence is the best.
A little time and creativity are required to design and plan the engaging sequence that brings new customers and brand awareness.
The sequence of emails comes intuitively when we set our objectives. Naturally, personal introduction and brand story should come first. The rest depends on actions we want subscribers to take.
It may look like this:
Or the sophisticated chain the PS4 created:
The content of our welcome series emails depends on the specific goals every business has.
For instance, with the first email, we tell our brand story; with the second email, we explain how to use our products; with the third email, we ask new subscribers to set their preferences for receiving more relevant emails in the future.
Now let’s proceed to recommendations on how to make welcome email series really winning.
Best practices and tips for welcome email series
Design is where brand awareness starts
An effective email marketing has several elements that need to come together seamlessly. Which elements? Of course, we mean brand style elements that must be stuck to in each email campaign we send.
With welcome email series, we make people get accustomed to our company. Stick to your brand book — logo design, color schemes, font styles and sizes, indents, CTA buttons… After some emails, people will recognize your messages in their inbox folders at first sight.
Persuasive subject lines
Opinions on this point differ. Some marketers recommend starting with a straightforward subject line that immediately tells what content is in email. While others say we should be a little bit more creative and use email subject lines that even create a veil of mystery.
Opening copy
The opening text is as important as subject line. If you didn’t grab your subscribers attention with the first line of your email, they won’t read the rest of it.
There are no magic keys. Just be engaging, unique, and honest and always send only relevant information.
Personalization and segmentation
Personalization and hyper-personalization are among the 2019’s hot trends. The first question is — do you prefer when someone addresses to you by name? We guess the answer is positive as this is more emotional.
But here’s the second question — is personalization all about addressing by names?
Thousand times “no”. Personalize and segment emails by age, gender, geolocation, interests.
Normally, we send questionnaires our in the 2nd or 3rd email.
If you are asking yourself, why you should request recipients’ personal information, please remember that personalized emails always win.
CTA buttons
On average, an email has 10 buttons. Yet, all emails in welcome email series should have just one primary CTA in order not to confuse and distract recipients from the action we want them to make.
Prior to sending welcome emails, make sure that your CTA buttons mirror the buttons on your website. For instance, if you applied CSS-animation to your buttons, do the same to the CTA button in your welcome email.
Summing up
- We in the details showed how to make welcome email series that helps with building brand awareness.
- Yet there are some more tips we’d like to share:
- include a warm thanks. Show that you’re really grateful to subscribers for their trust. A simple “Thank You” is enough. The next step is to offer a gift;
- tell your brand story well. There’s a saying “a story well told is a story well sold”. Brand story adds emotions — and every decision we make is based on emotions. So, craft an engaging brand story for your welcome email series;
- set expectations and reinforce benefits. It’s a wise practice to remind that people made a smart decision by adding themselves to your database;
- specify sender’s name! Remember that it’s much more comfortable when people deal with real people, not some soulless systems. Set your company name as the sender name;
- first welcome email should be sent right away after the registration form gets filled out;
- tease subscribers —email teaser campaigns are a great opportunity to build anticipation. You don’t want people to lose interest after the first set of messages? In addition to telling what to expect, spice it with a bit of mystery. And mystery creates curiosity. It works!
These are the basic things to know about welcome email series. The last thing we’d love to add is that you need to justify recipients’ trust. Promised to send emails twice a week? — Do send them twice a week.
Asked recipients to set their preferences? — Process this data to provide customers with relevant information only.
We hope this article about How Does Welcome Email Series Help with Building Brand Awareness? has been helpful and be sure to leave your comments below, and we sincerely wish you the best of luck!