Welcome Emails: Great Examples and Best Practices

This type of emails is certainly the one to be never underestimated. Need proofs? Well, the bare numbers here say more than a thousand words. According to studies provided by Hubspot, welcome emails drive 50% of opens in email marketing! But some brands and companies even reach the 80% level. We all want our campaigns to show high CTR and CTOR, don’t we? So let’s talk about welcome email campaigns right now.

The first impression really matters. Welcome emails are the very first messages clients receive from you. So, they tune all your further relations.

That’s why we need to pay closer attention to welcome email templates to make the best impression on newcomers.

We’ve made a brief compilation of the best bulk welcome campaigns. Each of them has its unique feature to be really performing and noticeable. So, let’s get started!

Welcome emails and their missions

Let’s proceed with the best welcome emails and their primary missions.

Example 1. Sur la Table

This welcome email priority: to express gratitude and appreciation

Yep, this is important. As email marketers, we shall spend enough time to create emails, storm our brains for fresh ideas to impress people… But a bit later. Now we have just to say “thank you” for new subscribers. They trust you, they shared their personal data with you… so be grateful in turn!

Look how Sur la Table expressed their deep respect — and welcomed customers with appetizing images and offers. Just yummazing.

Example 2. Planet Blue

This welcome email priority: to tell the brand history

Why do we get registered with your website or subscribe to your emails? We either heard about you from our friends, or bought from you in an offline store and gave you our email address, or saw ads online. Now it’s time to get a bit closer. Look how Planet Blue tells its story in a special and pretty glamorous way that will certainly attract the attention of ladies that appreciate the fashion and style!

Example 3. Pandora

This welcome email priority: to introduce CEO

Pandora online radio found one more way to welcome new clients — they added a photo of their founder Tim, and then mentioned how they are working on personalization to satisfy each listener’s taste. So welcome aboard and stay tuned!

Example 4. Great Little Trading Co.

This welcome email priority: to treat client in a special way

Another great way is to add more personalization. There are many levels to implement it. But just mentioning one’s name may be pretty enough, though it seems too simple. But simple things work, too.

As for me, “Hello Rebecca” is much better than “Hi there”. Am I right?

Example 5. Nest

This welcome email priority: product presentation

Welcome email is a good opportunity to motivate customers to start using your products. If required, include manual, video tutorial etc. — …but Nest just introduced the most unique new features of their app. Quite motivating to try them. And “Welcome to the family” is an additional reason — people like to be a part of a bigger entity!

Example 6. L.L.Bean

This welcome email priority: remind newcomers they’ve made a right choice

Let clients know what benefits they will get with you and what they should expect. Make consumers feel sure about the decision they have just made.

100 years of experience… well, sounds serious and trustworthy :)

Example 7. Z Gallerie

This welcome email priority: to endear newcomers

How can we strengthen clients’ trust and make them shop from us again and again? Well… A special discount helps here.

We usually mention it in the subscription form. But reminding about it in welcome email is a really good solution! A pleasant surprise…

Clear “5% off” works well. People will love it!

Example 8. Bose

This welcome email priority: to inform about newsletters content

Notify subscribers about the frequency and topics.

Bose is a good welcome email example as it mentions the categories of newsletter content including articles on the new technologies and innovations plus special offers to buy.

Example 9. Nike

This welcome email priority: to intrigue clients

The more we intrigue our customers, the more chances they will like and appreciate our emails.

Share something (I mean just the beginning of it) and add Learn More button. In most cases, people are likely to follow your call and click it to know everything to the end!

Example 10. TuneIn

This welcome email priority: to encourage customers to start using your products NOW

The last but not least — an example that makes one’s hand to click and try! Who would refuse to listen to the HiFi live radio? And just “a click away” is really close…

And some best practices…

So, we took a look at some best welcome emails. Yet, there are more tips worth talking about.

Subject lines

Specify the goal and sender’s name in the subject line. The second should be mentioned for those who know your name while the first is important for those who may not recognize you yet but they know they have to receive a welcome message to start shopping. Let your subject lines be clear and concise.

CTA buttons

75% of newcomers who open your welcome emails want to shop from you right away. So work on your CTA button design to make it noticeable with clear text.

Signature

We have seen the CEO sharing the brand stories. This is just one of the possible solutions but you should introduce yourself anyway! Add your name and position here. Including your photo is good, too. Everyone likes to communicate with real people, not soulless machines. Even via email channel!

Social icons

It will be interesting for newcomers to follow you on socials. So don’t make people look for your accounts on Twitter or Facebook themselves. Provide social icons with proper links!

Summing up

There are no useless elements here. Every detail matters. And the most important thing is your imagination — this is the key to success!

Welcome emails OR is the highest. So, impress customers with attractive, informative emails. Find inspiration from the examples above, stick to best practices and boost your business up to the higher level!

Sincerely wish you the best of luck!

Authors bio

Hanna Kuznietsova is the chief content officer at Stripo.email. Working with email is one of Hanna’s passions; she loves analyzing email and conducts research to write about the latest trends in email marketing on the Stripo.email blog.

Welcome Emails: Great Examples and Best Practices was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.