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Email Marketing
The Power of the Welcome Email Message
The most prominent email senders such as large brand retailers who regularly broadcast aesthetically pleasing emails with relevant content and powerful subject lines often fail to benefit from one of the most basic marketing opportunities email marketing has to offer: the welcome email message.
The welcome email message is an email designed to engage new subscribers immediately after they sign up for an email subscriber list. The welcome email is probably the best opportunity an email marketer will ever get to engage new subscribers, because the subscribers have just expressed their interest in forming a relationship with them.
A welcome email message should be sent immediately after the new subscribers have signed up. Good email subscription practices also dictate that email marketers and businesses guarantee subscribers that they will receive their first regular email or email newsletter within 10 business days of signing up.
For example, this guarantee could be in the form of statement in the welcome email message that could read as, “Your subscription will be processed within 10 business days.” The more time passes between the time the new subscriber has signed up and the time the first email message or email newsletter has been received, the greater the chance that the initial subscriber enthusiasm and prime selling opportunities fade. In fact, if enough time goes by, subscribers may forget that they subscribed and will flag the email as spam.
Lost Business Opportunities
There are several lost business opportunities that can be associated with not promptly sending a welcome email message to new subscribers. First and foremost, the sender is missing out on an opportunity to use the welcome email message as a relationship-building tool. Subscribers who have actively pursued a subscription to an email newsletter or commercial email may become disappointed when they do not receive the email within a week or two. This creates a bad first impression and can hurt the sender’s brand. In addition, email senders who are not sending a welcome email message to new subscribers are missing out on an “up sell” opportunity or a chance to promote other products and services they sell.
Sender Benefits
There are many other benefits to sending a welcome email message to new subscribers besides losing out on relatively inexpensive opportunities that generate more business:
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High open rates. Studies have indicated that welcome email messages have significantly higher open rates then regular emails.
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Reduced spam complaints and unsubcribes. Welcome email messages reduce spam complaints and unsubscribes when the regular email messages or newsletters are sent within 10 business days, because there is a greater chance that subscribers remember they signed up. |
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Deeper engagement. A welcome email message offers a great opportunity for businesses or brands to engage with new subscribers using incentives, discounts, rewards, loyalty programs, links to products and catalogs, and other revenue-generating tactics. |
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10 Tips for Developing an Effective Welcome Email Message
An effective welcome email message provides email marketers, business owners or large enterprises with many opportunities to engage with new email list subscribers when they sign up. Here are some tips for crafting an effective welcome email message:
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The welcome email message should be professionally designed and constructed with simple html (no CSS) that leaves the message intact when rendered in the client's email with images “turned off”.
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The welcome email message should include a “Thank You” note to the new subscriber for providing the required information. This note should also repeat the value proposition of the newsletter or email, and educate subscribers about what to expect in terms of frequency and any other information that reinforces relevancy to the recipient. |
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Ecommerce retailers with multiple physical stores can include a link to a physical store locator in the welcome message and provide a link to printed catalog information. |
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Welcome email messages must include a link to the privacy policy. This is especially important for ecommerce web sites, because this cements the value the sender places on the relationship with the subscriber and reinforces the privacy commitment. |
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The welcome email message must be CAN-SPAM compliant, and therefore must include both a mailing address and unsubscribe method, like other regular emails. |
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By including a request to “white list” the sender’s from address and a link to “whitelisting” instructions, the sender can avoid that future emails or newsletters end up in the recipient's junk email folder. |
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The welcome email message should include a statement that indicates that the first newsletter or email will be sent within 10 business days. By waiting too long, the sender will run the risk that new subscribers forget who the sender is and why they subscribed. |
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The welcome email message also provides a great opportunity to invite new subscribers back to fill out a subscriber profile. This provides the sender with a "second chance" to gather more information about the subscriber. |
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Include a place for your complete contact information in the welcome email message, with contact phone number, postal address and other information. Trust and credibility are major issues on the web. The sender’s credibility increases by providing an actual physical address and phone number. |
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Send the welcome message with a branded “from” name and a welcoming subject line. This helps building inbox recognition even before sending the first email newsletter or email message. |
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Welcome Emails are a Power Tool for Marketing, Branding
Welcome emails are a powerful marketing online tool which companies and organizations need to fine tune. If a new subscriber signs up for email promotions or newsletters be sure your company or organization delivers what was promised. If you do, that interested subscriber may turn out to be your best customer!
For more information about email marketing tools or strategies, go to Advanced Media Productions at info@advmediaproductions.com
About Advanced Media Productions
Advanced Media Productions is a full-service, Boston-based Internet marketing and web development company with more than 12 years of experience in transforming e-business strategy into tailored Internet solutions that a meet a company's marketing needs now and in the future. |
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Past Presentations
128 Business Expo 2008
The Westin Waltham-Boston Hotel
"Using Social Media to Connect with Prospects and Customers"
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Click here to play the video.
495/MetroWest Business Expo
Sheraton Framingham Hotel
Pre-Expo Keynote Presentation
“A Strategic Approach to Integrated Marketing”
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Click here to play the video.
Bentley College, 2008 - Waltham, MA
“Planning and Integrating a Targeted Internet Marketing Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
WebmasterWorld Pubcon 2007 - Las Vegas, NV
“Planning and Integrating a Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
BizAction 2007 - Washington DC
"Email, Social Media and Search in the Overall Marketing Mix"
Click here to play the audio.
128 Business Expo 2007
"Blogging and Podcasting For Business"
Click here to play the video.
495/Metrowest Business Expo
Pre-Expo Keynote
"The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Advertising Medium"
Click here to play the video.
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If you would like more information on Internet Marketing, Consulting, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing, please
click here.
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Copyright © 1996-2008. Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
251 West Central St., Suite 28, Natick, Massachusetts 01760, USA
Tel: 508-647-5151 Fax: 508-647-5150
E-mail: info@advmediaproductions.com
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