Lady Sheena Palangan

Congratulations! You just bagged a whole list of subscribers, or you just sold a whole batch of products. Now what? Your customer goes off happy and satisfied with his purchase and you merrily part ways. That will only work if you have a one-time sale in mind. If you are looking to build your brand or business, you need to take things much further. Now you need to send them your welcome email series. Thinking about your welcome emails, remember that first impressions last. Once you make that connection with your customer, hold on to it and make the most of it. That is why that first set of emails require careful planning. The following tips will help you through proven and tested welcome email strategies that work. Personal Welcome Email While most welcome emails are sent out through an automated system, it is important to maintain a personal touch in each email sent. This helps build trust and kinship. Consumers are more likely to read an email that was written and sent by an actual human being rather than by a technical computer. MarketingSherpa was able to produce a much higher open rate at 137.4% using a personalized email version, compared to a generic, non-personalized template. What’s more, the personalized emails achieved a higher clickthrough rate at 128.95%. Personalizing emails lets your target audience know that they matter to you and are more than just an entry in your database. Outline Benefits/Perks of Your List/Product Next, allow your customers to get a bird’s eye view of your brand or product by sending out an email that outlines the benefits that you offer. At this point, if you give them all the technical details of each service, chances they will close out that email after a few sentences. Simply point out the highlights that are relevant to them, don’t tell them your entire life story on the second date. When you talk about product features, you are simply stating the facts about your product. Prospective buyers don’t care about the facts, they care about how the product affects their lives. When you talk about the benefits, you spark your reader’s interest because now, you’re talking about how your product is relevant to them. The most effective benefits are those that provide emotional or financial return. Your benefits should be able to provide your product with a competitive advantage. This shows your reader that your product or service is one-of-a-kind and something that he needs. Feature your product’s benefits in your welcome email sequence to capture your reader’s attention. Offer a Deal or a Discount Who doesn’t love discounts? Offer your new customer a good deal on his next purchase or on the next month’s subscription. Let them know that the discount is exclusively for subscribers. This gives the customer a sense of importance and privilege. And if you look further in the psychology of discounts, a special offer is a “reward” and passing it up causes “pain.” Featuring a percentage discount of 10% or 15% off can improve your chances of gaining customer loyalty. One goal for marketers is to make their customers stick around for a long time. HelpScout suggests that this be done with GLUE. “Give Little Unexpected Extras” in the form of offers or discounts and you can be sure a new customer will look forward to staying and increase your chances of email opens too. Use Eye-Catching Images Nobody likes looking at a plain old block of text in an email anymore. 65% of humans learn visually and images help to convey a message more effectively. These days, your audience no longer wants to sit back and observe. Users want to be engaged and to participate. In fact, interactive email design was declared the hottest thing in email in 2017. By 2018, interactive email design became the biggest design trend. There are lots of email elements that may be used with these so-called “mailable microsites” but at the top of list are carousels and image galleries. In response, about 62.2% of marketers use a carousel, image gallery or hamburger menus in their marketing email. While interactive email is a new thing in the field, image use is not and the advent of interactive email is simply proof that images play a big part in email marketing. However, a lot of users have image blockers in their email and this can pose a problem. A quick fix for this is to use alternative text or alt text for your image. A good alt text describes the image accurately. For example, “cake” does not paint a good picture in the reader’s mind, but “slice of dark chocolate cake on a pink plate” is more accurate. The latter will do better as an alt text. Consider Mobile Users According to Litmus, the number of emails opened on mobile devices increased dramatically between 2011 and 2014. The number increased at a staggering 500%. At this rate, one would expect a corresponding rise in mobile email marketing. It is therefore surprising that 39% of marketers have no mobile email strategy. Forbes found that only 19% of marketers use a responsive email design all the time. It’s a surprisingly low number considering the high value that mobile email offers. That is why for marketers looking to increase brand awareness and revenue, it is still not too late in the day. Take advantage of this easy access to a readily available treasure trove. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be over 3 billion email users and most of these will be accessing their inbox through mobiles. Set up your email marketing strategy to meet this upcoming challenge head-on by incorporating responsive design in your emails. This solution is not just an answer for your business now but for the future. Include Your Social Media Links Similar to mobile email marketing, social media engagement has risen in the ranks of most useful marketing tools. Use your social media presence at every opportunity possible and this includes your email marketing strategy. Include those social media icons that lead directly to your pages in your welcome email series and reel in more customers. It doesn’t end there though. Make the most of your social media links by asking your reader to share your social media information with others. Make this a whole lot easier by adding a “share” button. You can also add an email subscription button for your blog and you can make this easier by adding a subscribe button, guess where? Your welcome email! There are a lot of ways to incorporate your social media strategy in your welcome email, all it takes is a little creativity. Give Freebies/Gifts Put yourself in the shoes of your reader. If you received an email, the first thing you would be asking is, “Should I open this email? Why?” You wouldn’t want to waste time reading something worthless and neither does your customer. What will they get out of reading your email? There are a lot of things that you can offer for free. You can consider giving away a free e-book or a free template. It really depends on what type of product or service you mainly deal with. If you run a beauty shop, you can give away free samples, or a free drink if you are running a restaurant. The main thing is, you offer your customer something of value. Segmentation is Key This idea is based on the ability to offer your customers something that is relevant to them. Not everyone responds in the same manner, so as a marketer, you should have an available reply for whatever action they take. A very good example of this is Knowtify’s activation email flow. Their model allows for different reactions to different user responses. For each major step that the user takes, it generates a question on the backend, answerable with Yes or No. If the answer is Yes, that particular user will be sent a particular set of emails. If the answer is No, another set of emails will be sent. This way, each user or customer, receives the information that is most relevant to him. Call to Action/Close Now you have introduced yourself and your brand to your customer, you’ve built trust and you have him in the palm of your hand. It’s time to sell him something. Don’t be afraid to take the relationship to the next level. The point of all those steps was to prepare him for your pitch. And there comes a point when he is ready and all you have to do is say the words. At the end of it all, your emails are practically sales letters. Don’t be afraid to use them to your advantage. According to Unbounce, “Emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks 371% and sales 1617% .” So go ahead and make sure that you have a clear and strong CTA. A great CTA calls out to the consumer and takes advantage of what is called the FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. Don’t let all your efforts in the previous emails go to waste. Take the leap and close that sale. Conclusion When all has been said and done, your email marketing campaign can either make your business fly high or nosedive. That welcome email series is your best chance to hook your customer and reel him in. These first emails will set the tone of your relationship with your customer so it is crucial to set the right one. Read rates of welcome emails are higher compared to general marketing emails. There is a high probability that your target audience will read your email so you better say things right. By engaging automation services that calculate appropriate send times you give yourself a better chance at creating high quality content because you don’t have to think about when to send your emails. This type of service gives you an edge over your competitors and gives your business a real fighting chance of soaring.