If you’ve been following me on Instagram at @lsue30, you might have seen my Story video on the importance of welcome emails. If not, this post will summarize the top 5 reasons why welcome emails & the longer email funnels in your e-newsletters are vital to engaging with your audience, raising brand awareness and increasing sales.
Welcome Emails Generate 5X more clicks & 4X more opens than regular e-newsletters
What this is means is that welcome emails have a whopping average 50% open rate that makes them 86% more effective than your standard monthly e-newsletter. In fact, over 74% of people who sign up for your newsletter expect a welcome email within a day of signing up. Subscribers who receive a welcome email engage with your brand up to 33% more. Do you see what you’re missing out on by not sending one out?
A Welcome Email with an Offer can Boost Revenue Up to 30%
A welcome email that has an offer to thank news subscribers for joining you, whether it’s a free ebook or a 10% discount for a limited time on certain products, can boost your revenue up to 30%. That’s an extra 30% of revenue that you wouldn’t be getting if you didn’t send a welcome email or sent one without an offer.
A Welcome Email is a Great Place to Tell Subscribers Why They Benefit from Signing Up With You
In addition to giving your new subscribers a gift for subscribing, you need to show them what the longer term benefits are of being a subscriber. The gift is the obvious benefit, but what are the hidden, surprising and/or recurring benefits? Hidden benefits could be subscriber only discounts, deals, contests & content (resources that subscribers would want). Surprising benefits could be unannounced events or offering access to helpful bonuses to supplement your content. Recurring benefits could be giving birthday or anniversary rewards, reoccurring events and annual discounts.
Welcome Emails are a Great Place to Get Subscribers to Commit to the Micro-Yes
Asking your subscribers for small requests (or rather the micro yes sequence) is a great way to build relationships with your subscribers quickly. The welcome email is a great place to start with these requests such as creating subject lines that entice subscribers to click, requesting a like or share. The micro yes in a welcome email isn’t asking for money and doesn’t jump into the hard sell. You’re just asking subscribers to do something small.
Use the Welcome Email to Point Customers to the Engaging Content You’ve Previously Created
In addition to showing customers the benefits of subscribing with you, the welcome email is a great spot to show them popular, engaging content that you’ve produced previously, whether it’s a blog series, a video, a contest or social media campaign. This popular content captures their attention, piques their interest & curiosity and builds desire to make a purchase within the first 24 hours of receiving the welcome email.
Now you have an idea of what you’re missing out on by not sending a welcome email, what’s the deal with email funnels? Below is the top 4 reasons you should consider sending an email funnel.
- Raising Awareness Establishes Trust
Reinforcing the welcome email, the first step in an email funnel is to raise awareness of your brand. Send your subscribers content that lets them get to know you & establish you as an expert in the industry such as educational blog content, case studies & testimonials that provide social proof of happy customers. Share videos that will put a face to the name and help subscribers really get to know who you are.
- Pique Their Interest
After you introduce yourself with content and subscribers know who you are, you want to be able to show them what you have to offer. How-to content in the form of an explainer video that shows them how to use your products or services will make the decision to schedule an appointment to talk about it that much easier. Creating informational blog content that proves to them how successful your product is will also go a long way at piquing their interest & proving to them that your product/service can definitely benefit them and meet their needs.
- Encourage Them to Buy
The third stage is where you can try to sell subscribers on purchasing your product or service. How do you do this? By focusing on sharing the benefits of your products/services and reinforcing positive customer testimonials & reviews to show subscribers what you can do for them. If they got most of the way through a purchase and then abandoned their shopping cart, maybe they just need some extra encouragement. Sending them a funny reminder might be the push they need to make the purchase, increasing your chances of making a sale.
- Reinforce The Loyalty
After a subscriber makes a sale, that doesn’t mean the relationship is over. You want to keep purchasing from you and to recommend you to friends and family. Sending thank you emails after a purchase is made will help to boost the relationship. Following that up with new product announcements and especially discounts on products they’ve bought before will definitely increase your chances of having a return customers. At this stage of the email funnel, it’s about adding value and that’s what your key messages should focus on.
Need help launching your next email campaign? Contact me to learn more!
