The Perfect Welcome Email: Why and How
The perfect welcome email is something that is easily overlooked. We spend so much time planning and working to gain search engine traffic to our websites. We carefully craft content to encourage conversion, and if we are successful and we persuade a potential customer to send us an inquiry form or request for a quote form, we have been successful, right? The correct answer is that we have been partially successful, but a compelling welcome email can help to solidify your relationship before anyone from your firm even speaks to them.
Here are some simple suggestions that will help you craft that compelling welcome email for new subscribers to make them feel welcome and begin a positive relationship from the very beginning. A great resource for this is in the infographic on the “Anatomy of a Perfect Welcome Email” from Campaign Monitor here.
Here are some suggestions to make your welcome email special.
Email Subject Line
A great place to start is a thank you for signing up. Consider including a discount coupon for the first purchase, or an offer of a free service to start. Beyond the thank you, a statement of a question that a customer might be asking, like “Is SEO For You? and the offer to provide the answers to those questions is also compelling content for the subject line.
Benefits Of Doing Business With Your Firm
Without repeating your website text, which most of your email opt-ins will have at least scanned, briefly outline the uniqueness of your business. Remember to highlight the benefits for them, by not just stating, “Local Business” but adding “As a local business, we enjoy providing custom individual service to all of our customers”.
Call To Action (CTA)
It is best to assume that most inquiries wish to do business with you very soon. Use this opportunity to direct them to the best way to purchase your products or services online or the most direct route to find more information or connect with your firm. Be careful about using a high-pressure approach to your CTA. Email is an unforgiving medium because it does not allow you to read the customer’s reaction to your sales approach. Keep the tone one of trying to help them get started and save the sales pitch for a follow-up phone call, meeting, or notification of sales or special offers via email in the future.
Conclusion
Welcome emails are the start of what all parties involved hope will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Be transparent, helpful, and do not overstay your welcome by re-stating website content or writing an email that is too long to be read in 30-45 seconds. Don’t be afraid to link to social channels where prospective clients can find out more about your company’s “personality”, and many welcome emails link to client surveys asking for feedback on the client’s website experience and ease of contacting you.
In summary, keep it short, be informative but not pushy, and don’t be shy (but don’t be pushy or arrogant) about talking about why your goods or services are unique. Getting a new customer relationship off on the right foot is an important step in that long term, a mutually beneficial business relationship that is ideal for all concerned.
Eric Van Cleave is the CEO and Digital Marketing Director for TIV Branding
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TIV Branding is a boutique branding firm in Sonoma County, California. We specialize in building brands by using traditional, social and digital channels in unison. If you would like to discuss a project or find out more about how we do what we do, please email us at info@TIVbranding.com.