Design That Converts: A Quick Guide to Welcome Email Templates
A great welcome email can boost your marketing efforts. The welcome email makes email campaigns look more professional and gives your company more credibility. More importantly, it may put you on the way to more sales and more customers.
There are a bunch of free templates to choose from. But you should create something customized to make your business stand out.
Let’s take a closer look.
Welcome Email Template Basics
An effective template needs to hit three points in order to resonate with your customers.
Immediate Engagement
Don’t beat around the bush. It might even be counter-productive. The email needs to grab your subscribers’ attention the moment they open it. Otherwise, it’s off to the trash folder.
Value Proposition
Remember, you promised something to your customers or subscribers before they signed up. A 25% discount for example. Now is the time to follow through.
Maybe even spice it up a little bit with an additional offer. Why not throw in a freebie?
The Next Step
Regardless of your strategy, the template should lead a subscriber to take the next step. Be it a purchase, download, or new account, the recipient should know to proceed.
It’s a careful balance between copywriting and design. Nailing just the right tone usually takes some trial and error. You might want to test out a few different templates to see which one performs the best.
Sending a default welcome email is better than sending no email at all. But the goal ought to be the most effective customer engagement. So, take your time and design a template that reflects the voice and philosophy of your brand.
Tips and Tricks to Optimize Welcome Email Templates
There are a few strategies and design tweaks that you can employ to encourage subscribers to engage.
Send ASAP
The longer you wait, the less likely you are to get any results. In fact, real-time welcome emails convert far better than messages sent a few hours after sign-up.
The principle is simple. Your customers sign up to get a discount. You encourage them to use the discount in the next hour and they instantly get a welcome email. You may even sweeten the deal to encourage immediate action.
Branded Images
As the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words. The best way to keep your email short is to make use of images.
The included image should be inviting and in line with your website/brand. Ideally, everything should work well with your other promotional templates.
The idea is to keep things clean and to the point and use inviting messages that sound personal.
Prompt to Action
Here’s your opportunity to ask your subscriber to perform a small task. Don’t be too ambitious with the task or you might scare the subscriber off.
Filling out a simple form or taking a small survey is enough. You can use the data for customer targeting and segmentation later.
Email Name
You’ll want your email to do more than saying welcome. It’s about taking action and creating additional value for you and the subscriber.
A good headline may look something like this:
Welcome to <Your Brand>! Get XX% Off Your Promo Code is Inside
Think carefully about what you want to achieve with the email and create a strategy, which you’d use as a guide for the content and template design.
Track Email Performance
Dive into the analytics and resend the welcome emails to those who didn’t open and click. Again, it’s best to do it asap, but don’t spam your subscribers.
Even better, you can send them a follow-up email and ask if there were any problems.
A Few Good Examples
Here are a few welcome email templates for inspiration. You can adapt any of them for your own welcome email template.
Uber
Uber’s welcome email has it all. It is well laid-out and easy to read. It offers a freebie and prompts you to download the app. Plus there’s a simple 1-2-3 guide about the service.
The subject line - Your Free Uber Ride is Waiting – alerts the subscribers to what to expect.
Glossier
This email is an example of a friendly approach, including an inviting image. It has a link to the latest products and urges the subscribers to connect via Instagram.
Musto
Musto’s welcome email targets recipients from different angles. The first thing you see is the clever wordplay in the headline.
Take a look at the images that create a welcoming feeling. And there’s an easy-to-remember promo code.
Kelty
The welcome email from Kelty uses images of available product categories. It features a button with a link to the online store.
For subscribers who are not ready to buy, there is a link to the company’s blog at the bottom of the email.
Conclusion
The statistics may vary but most of them indicate that only about half of all brands choose to send welcome emails. This is despite the fact that welcome emails are 86% more effective than regular newsletters.
It’s as good a time as any to start tweaking your welcome email template. This write-up has given you the tips, you just have to do the work.