Why do you need a welcome email series?
Email marketing is undoubtably one of the most necessary marketing tools a small business can have. As a small business marketing agency, we strategize and implement marketing tactics that create a solid foundation for the business and email marketing is one of those tactics.
There are many ways to go about sending out emails to your distribution lists such as email series and one-off emails. One of the most important emails, and arguably the one with the best ROI, is your welcome series.
What is a Welcome Series?
A welcome series of emails is just that, its welcoming the new email sign up to your business. Welcome series are generally a sequence of automated emails that are triggered when a person opts into your marketing emails. They teach that person about your company, encourage engagement and even drive the person to buy. The main goal of a welcome series is to take the person from an interested party to a customer. Welcome series can also be described as a nurture sequence - nurturing a relationship with a person that eventually encourages them to buy.
· Welcome emails can have up to a 91.43% open rate.
· On average, welcome emails have 4x the open rate and 5x the click-through rate (CTR) of a standard email campaign.
· Welcome emails generate an average of 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails.
Cadence of a Welcome Series
In our professional opinion, a welcome series should include four to 6 emails.
Welcomes series are sent frequently to one another. At STAK Marketing, we think the emails in a welcome series should be sent one every day or one every other day. You want to find the sweet spot of staying top of mind without coming across annoying.
Getting People to Sign Up
There’s a few ways you can get people to sign up to your welcome series emails. The easiest, and most common way, is having a popup on your website encouraging people to sign up. Additionally, it’s great to have a spot that lives on your website (generally in the footer) where people can sign up for your list. You can also manually add people to a list.
No matter which way you obtain these signups, it’s imperative to add them ethically. Meaning, you’re only sending emails to those have opted into the emails.
Types of Emails Within a Welcome Series
It’s not uncommon to get different opinions on what type of email to send when in a welcome series. We’re the first to tell you marketing can be very subjective from one agency to the next. However, in our experience working with small businesses, the following outline generally gets the most traction for our clients:
1: Introduction Email: The first email should be triggered the moment a person signs up for your email list. This email welcomes them to your business and shares who are you are as a company. This email can also include your value proposition – what makes your company unique and what pain points does your business solve?
2: Top sellers: Now that you’ve warmed up your audience with an overview of your business, show them what your top sellers are. Show them the products that they can’t’ live without and encourage them to click “add to cart.”
3. Promo: Here’s where you can convert the audience if they haven’t purchased already. This email entices the person to buy with a one-time-only welcome promo code. They’ve learned why your business is great, they’ve seen your top products, they just need that last shove to buy. The promo can be that push that they need.
4. Engagement: Now that we’ve assumed the person has purchased, we want to focus on retention. A great way to do this is to encourage them to follow your business on social media. It’s a great way to engage with your customer and keep your business top-of-mind.
Other emails in a welcome series you could include:
- Referral promos – incentivize for spreading the word
- Download your app (if applicable)
- Testimonials – share who loves your company and why
Best Practices for Creating Emails
- Logo in header
- Tight and consistent branding
- Double check your links are working
- Catchy subject line – what’s your hook to get them to open?
- Keep your voice on brand
- Send to only those that sign up
- Keep the amount of text light and not overwhelming
- Use eye catching, high-res, imagery
- Include a call to action – what do you want them to do?
Welcomes Series are one of the many ways a small business marketing agency helps their clients stay connected with their current and potential customers. Although, a welcome series isn’t the only series of emails that is critical to a business, it can be the most important.
Keep STAKing,
Michelle Johnson
Owner & Founder, STAK Marketing
Michelle Johnson is the owner, founder and Chief Marketing Guru at STAK Marketing. Our passion at STAK Marketing is to create beautiful STAKs of marketing strategies that help small and mid-sized businesses grow and reach their goals. STAK Marketing's expertise ranges from SEO to branding, e-mail marketing to website design, PR to advertising and much more - making STAK Marketing a one-stop-shop for all your small business marketing needs.