3 Tactics to Make Your First Welcome Email Campaign a Success

Every time you sign up for an email list, you probably expect to receive an immediate welcome email in your inbox. If you don’t get an email confirmation, you don’t know whether the sign up worked and you’re left to shrug your shoulders and wait to see what happens.

Obviously, that’s a terrible experience you’ll want to avoid as you embark on email marketing for your ecommerce store. But if you send a confirmation email with no personal touch, you’re missing a huge opportunity to turn curious prospects into lifelong brand ambassadors.

We know that converting new subscribers into lifetime customers ultimately comes from brand trust and the messaging strategy that reinforces their experience. 

And a welcome email is the first step in that process.

Here’s how.

The open rate for welcome emails is 91.43%. That’s four times the rate of the typical promotional campaign. Plus, welcome emails achieve five times the average click-through rate because this is the time when subscribers are most excited about your brand.

That’s why welcome emails are crucial to developing a personal relationship with the humans you’re emailing instead of leaving new subscribers with a robotic, automated taste in their mouth.

We know you can’t personally email everyone who signs up to your list, but we’re firm believers in working not just hard but smart. So CM Commerce provides recipes for automated journeys you can set up in minutes.

Yes, minutes.

Learn more about CM Commerce’s workflow recipes here, or start your free trial.

Create a bond between your store and subscribers with these welcome emails.

1. Say hello with your initial introduction email.

The first email is the most likely to get opened, so getting this one right can set the tone for every other interaction customers have with your brand. No pressure, right? Luckily, taking advantage of this email is simple.

Tip: Make sure your welcome emails reflect the essence of your business.

Use this opportunity to tell your subscribers more about your company ethos, team members, and values. Tell your story: This is your chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors by getting to the root of what sets your business apart.

When in doubt, be human. Remember, consumers want to do business with other people. The days of big, faceless box stores are done—just check out the trajectory of malls—as consumers seek out smaller stores for spending their hard-earned money.

Timing: Send this email within an hour after a first-time purchase.

Start your free trial and craft your first welcome email.

2. Put your best foot forward by creating a community.

This discovery email should build on the stories and insights you shared in your introduction email. But it also has its own specific purpose: To immerse your customers with your brand and other followers so they feel like they’re a part of something larger. It’s not just about the products you sell, but the movement you’re creating.

Tip: Humanize your welcome email messaging and showcase real people.

Social proof, reviews, ratings, and user-generated content introduce your top products and allow new subscribers some insight into what it means to be a part of your community. You know how important reviews are when it comes time for customers to make purchases. In fact, 64% of businesses conduct research on the web before reaching out to a vendor, and 59% read peer reviews. So go ahead and put those reviews and ratings front and center.

We’ve got a block for that. Have you ever posted to social media and used a branded hashtag to get a company’s attention? That’s user-generated content a company can include in its marketing materials with no production cost whatsoever.

With CM Commerce, you can use the socialize component to include beautiful buttons to your social profiles. Or use the RSS module to share the latest article published on your blog.

Timing: Send this email within three to five days after the first purchase.

3. Keep your bestsellers top of mind.

Until now, this email series was about the company, team, core values, and origin stories behind your brand. It’s the marketing equivalent of the old phrase “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Up until now, you’ve been differentiating yourself by showing what makes you human and how you care about your subscribers.

But this email steps up the momentum.

Tip 3: Even when you introduce your bestselling products, keep the focus on the value those products have for customers by including reviews and ratings.

Now it’s time to talk about your products, why they’re special, and why other customers love them. You can also include some personalized product recommendations to help shoppers explore products that they’d love but didn’t yet see when they made their first purchase.

In CM Commerce, you can use the similar products upsell module and customer data will automatically determine which products are shown to whom, giving customers a personalized experience—like at the bottom of this receipt.

Timing: Send this email 14 days after the first purchase.

Start your free trial and start selling more with the instant upsell block.

4. Reward new subscribers for joining your community with an incentive email.

You know how hard it is to get subscribers to convert. But once they do, you have a unique opportunity: Industry statistics show that customers are most engaged in the 30 days after their first purchase.

The same stats also prove that repeat customers are much more profitable to your business. Once a first-time customer makes that crucial second purchase, they’re much more likely to keep spending money with you.

Tip 4: What you lose by offering a unique incentive you’ll earn back in a customer’s lifetime.

This email is sent at the tail end of that 30-day window, and the aim is to use a discount coupon as an incentive to get your new customers to come back to the store and make their second purchase.

You can use the discount upsell component in CM Commerce to automatically include a unique discount coupon that allows your customer to get a percentage or flat monetary discount on their next purchase. Limit the expiration date of the discount to 48 hours to urge customers to take immediate action.

And there’s no need to stress over tracking all those coupons. CM Commerce generates the code and tracks it all the way through purchase, so all you have to do is sit back and watch the return revenue roll in.

Timing: Send this email 21 or 28 days after their first purchase.

Wrap up

Sending a series of welcome emails gives you the opportunity to bond closely with your newly engaged audience. It gives you a direct way to nurture customers and potential customers and to test a variety of engagement triggers.

And best of all, it creates a connection that encourages your subscribers and first-time buyers to come back to your store time after time.

From welcome emails to re-engagement campaigns and beyond, we seamlessly integrate with your ecommerce platforms—BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce—so you’ll have all the features you need to exceed your goals.

Ready to see it for yourself? Sign up and try out the free trial here.