Four Ideas for Welcome Emails to Drive Customer Loyalty

In this guest post, we look how companies can use welcome emails to drive customer loyalty and trust. Hugh Beaulac from MC2 explains.

Whether you work in retail, finance, or travel, you must want to increase the sales of your company’s products and services. Practically every company puts effort into winning customers.

However, with a great number of competitors on the market, having a good product isn’t enough to stand out from the crowd. It’s also important to nurture loyalty and trust in your buyers to acquire new customers and keep existing ones.

Why? 43% of customers spend more money on products when they’re loyal to brands.

While there are many ways to build loyal relationships with customers, 61% of consumers agree that email is the best communication channel to be contacted by brands. Thus, email acquisition matters. 

Once you’ve convinced a website visitor to join your email list, it’s crucial to provide them with a positive onboarding experience. As once said by Andrew Grant: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

So, what’s the solution? Welcome emails! With the highest open rate of 91.23%, welcome emails are 86% more effective than newsletters.

What is a Welcome Email?

As the name suggests, welcome emails are aimed at introducing your brand and its values to new potential customers. It’s also a proven way to make a great first impression, and therefore convince subscribers to learn more about your company and products.

Since 74% of people expect to receive a welcome email immediately after subscribing to the brand’s email list, it’s a great way to personalize the customer journey and deliver a positive customer experience.

So, wouldn’t it be great if you could drive customer retention and build trust in ecommerce with welcome emails? Here are four welcome email ideas to give a try:

1. Give a Reason to be on Your List

Handling your email is difficult these days. According to one report, an average business user sends and receives 126 emails per day in 2019. In other words, it’s easy to get buried in the inbox unless subscribers want to see your emails and they flag incoming emails from your company.

As a business, you must give a clear reason to be on your list. Whether you want to give access to restricted content, share exclusive offers, or send branded freebies, your creativity is your limit when it comes to providing subscribers with reasons to be on your email list.

For example, Karen Millen lists five reasons to be a member of the community:

And MadeWell shares exclusive perks of being on the brand’s email list:

Here’s another great example from Starbucks:

Your welcome email is like a visit card: Depending on its content, your subscribers will decide whether they want to receive your emails or not. Thus, it must give clear reasons to be on your email list.

2. Share Exclusive Coupons

Do you know that 97% of shoppers want to find deals when buying online? Using promo codes for ecommerce is a great way to build customer loyalty and increase sales, especially if you share exclusive deals with new consumers.

Sending your welcome email, add a coupon that helps subscribers save money, and you will be more likely to build brand trust as people value companies that take care of their needs and wants. 

Any examples needed? Here’s a welcome email from MADE:

And Tory Burch offers not only a 15% discount but also free shipping:

Here’s another great example of a welcome email from Club Monaco: 

Although the company also offers a discount and free shipping, it creates a sense of urgency. Since the promo code has an expiration date, it encourages subscribers to take action faster. 

3. Introduce the Team Behind the Brand

Since modern customers don’t trust overly-promotional brands, every company must build brand authenticity first to increase customer loyalty and trust.

There are many ways to show brand transparency, but sharing behind-the-scenes (BTS) moments about your team is the best idea for your welcome email.

For example, Michael Kors inserts its CEO’s handwriting into the welcome email to greet new subscribers:

Some companies believe in the power of video testimonials, so they insert a short introduction video with the founder to greet new subscribers. Here’s how Murad did it:

But if you’re not a big brand with a well-known CEO, you can salute new subscribers on behalf of your staff team. Let’s take Halfords, for example:

Or you can learn from Warby Parker and share the story behind your brand:

We all know that there are real people behind every company and product. Since customers trust peers more than branded content, it’s important to introduce your team, and your welcome email is the right time to spread the word about your CEO, employees, and company’s story.

4. Show That Other Customers Trust You with UGC

Have you ever heard about the power of social proof? Today, customers trust other buyers more than brands.

One survey has found that 85% of people believe that visual user-generated content (UGC) is more influential than brand photos or videos. 

This means brands should incorporate UGC into their email marketing strategies, especially when sending welcome emails as it’s a great way to show that other people trust your brand and choose it.

For instance, Claire’s repurposes fan-made content to include visuals to their welcome emails: 

And Ivory Ella collaborates with social media influencers to spread the word about the company and gain customer trust:

Another example that I like comes from Will Leather Goods. With the fan-made image of the family, this welcome email looks authentic:

Today, implementing user-generated content within your email marketing is a key tactic for building customer loyalty and trust.

Once you have fan-made images from your loyal customers, contact them to ask for permission to use these visuals. 

The Anatomy of a Great Welcome Email

As you can see, welcome emails help businesses of all sizes get more loyal customers when done right. Thus, it’s important to know the key elements of a great email:

• Eye-catching subject line: Do you know that 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line? This statistic proves the importance of writing eye-grabbing subject lines that tell subscribers more about the email context. (See more email marketing stats here).
• Customized messages: Personalization gives better results. Since all people value when companies customize messages, it’s important to at least add the subscriber’s name. The more customer data you have, the better.
• Attractive high-quality visuals: Living in the digital era, customers don’t read texts – they scan. And if you want to draw subscribers’ attention to the context, you need to insert great visuals that depict your message.
• Contact options: Sending your welcome email, get ready that some potential customers have questions about your product. Since people want to get customer service online, you need to provide subscribers with several contact options to make it easier for people to get in touch with your brand.

Here’s a great example of a perfect welcome email from ASOS:

The above-mentioned example has a clear message, hints at what the subscriber should do next, lists the benefits of being on the email list, and shares contact options. Want to know the best part?

Within just two days, ASOS sent a follow-up email to offer the first order discount. 

Conclusion

Working in a highly competitive environment, it’s still possible to stay ahead of your competitors if you focus on your customers, not your products. If you’ve encouraged people to join your email list, that’s great. But if you’ve turned your subscribers into loyal customers, that’s even better. 

With the right welcome email campaign, your brand can both tell more about the company and its products and drive customer loyalty and trust. Don’t miss an opportunity to make a good first impression with your welcome email. 

Hugh Beaulac is a content manager at MC2 blog and freelance SMM specialist who helps SMBs grow online. He has more than six years of digital marketing experience, and also writes for top-notch blogs like SmartInsights, CrazyEgg, and Wordsteam to share his tips and tricks. Get in touch with Hugh on Twitter or Facebook.

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