Last updated on
March 17, 2023
An eCommerce store needs to take advantage of all the interaction points it has with its customers and visitors. The higher a customer’s interest, the better they’ll listen to what you have to say.
One such moment of high interest is when a visitor or customer shares their email address with your eCommerce store. That’s when they’re basically saying “I’m interested in your product, service or offer”.
So when your customer signs up with your store, you have to send them a welcome email and open a line of communication with them. In this article, we’ll give you 5 reasons why you need welcome emails for your eCommerce store.
After you’re convinced of their benefits, we’ll give you some of the best email tips on how to craft the perfect welcome email for yourself.
If you had to choose one email among all automated email options. You should definitely go with welcome emails. Welcome emails are proven to be more effective than other sorts of emails:
Not only have customers come to expect welcome emails when they share information with an online store, but because their interest in the store is fresh when they receive such emails, these emails receive a high open-rate.
To give your engagement rates a boost, make welcome emails an integral part of your automation campaign.
A salesperson yearns for moments when they can tell a prospect about their product or service on their own terms, and what they can do for the prospect.
In the digital realm, a welcome email is the equivalent opportunity. Here, you get to call the shots.
This is your chance to set expectations for what you offer, why you offer it, how you do business, and what your brand is about.
Use the welcome email as an opportunity to let your subscriber know what they can expect in terms of how many emails you’ll send them, what sort of emails you’ll send them, and ask what type of emails they’d like to receive.
By setting expectations right from the welcome email, not only are you getting your customers excited for what the future holds, but you’re also saving them from getting disappointed or irritated. By letting them know exactly how you’ll communicate and how often, you’re protecting yourself from unsubscriptions and entering someone’s spam folder.
Similar to our point about setting expectations, you can also introduce your company in your welcome emails so customers have a clearer picture of who they’re dealing with.
Thinkful is an academy style website that provides courses in technology. Here’s the welcome email they send to new sign-ups:
Thinkful introduces their company in a way where they not only talk about themselves but also layout the benefits of joining their community.
When they say they provide 100% online bootcamp courses, they also tell you these courses will benefit you for a lifetime. They also provide additional links where subscribers can explore and learn more about Thinkful.
They’ve managed to introduce themselves, also deliver benefits while keeping the email relatively short and crispy. Although they’re not an eCommerce store, the essence of their email still applies to eCommerce businesses. You can be an online store and still introduce yourself in your welcome email in a manner where it also becomes clear what benefits your customers can expect from you.
Imagine having to draft a welcome email for each person who shares their email with you. You’d probably have time to do nothing else.
Fortunately, with all the great email automation options available, you can send automated emails that look just as personal as individually drafted emails.
You can use MailMunch to create an autoresponder campaign and send a welcome email whenever you get a new subscriber or customer.
You can add personalization fields that include first and last name, company, phone number, interests, and websites among many other options to give your welcome a truly human feel.
With the right welcome email, you’re putting in the effort for a potentially long term customer relationship.
Because new leads are most engaged within 48 hours of subscribing, you’ll want to use this opportunity by creating plenty of chances to interact with your brand within your welcome email.
You can build a sense of community by addressing your subscribers directly, using their first names, and by adding your social links in your welcome email so subscribers can find you at other places on the internet, and connect with similar people like themselves.
A welcome email is also a great opportunity to ask your subscribers more about themselves. The more data you can collect, the better you’ll be able to target your leads, and the better the experience you can provide them. And if the experience is good, there’s no reason why customers shouldn’t be loyal to you.
By now you’re hopefully convinced on why you need welcome emails for your eCommerce store. Now let’s talk a little about what you can do to create welcome emails that really stand out and convert.
Failing to send a prompt welcome email means you risk losing important opportunities to sell. Welcome emails are 320 percent more efficient than other promotional emails. If you hook your subscribers with an appealing email to confirm their subscriptions, you can increase open rates, click rates, and transaction rates throughout the customer’s lifetime. But if your first email arrives too late, there’s a high chance the subscriber doesn’t even open it because they no longer care about your offer.
Before your welcome email can influence a subscriber’s purchasing decision, you have to get them to open it. That’s where an appealing subject line comes in. The subscriber has given you an email address, and now you have the opportunity to give them something small in return.
You can use language to create expectations, such as “What’s next?” or “Important info inside”, but make sure you meet these expectations! A call to action can also encourage opens — something light, like “See what you can do with Dropbox” or “Get started with Evernote”.
It’s common practice to attract new subscribers with a promise, like by collecting their email address in exchange for access to restricted content, news updates, ebooks, or discounts.
As a welcome email best practice, you must respect this promise. So, in your first email, let your subscribers know how they can get what they were looking for in the first place. Include the discount code, coupon, or download link in the body of the email. Don’t let users wait for their rewards, or you risk losing them.
What goes into your welcome email will vary based on what your subscribers have opted into. Mario Peshev gave some helpful and specific welcome email content suggestions that vary by type of publication:
The best way to get people to do what you want is by telling them exactly what that is. That’s exactly what calls to action, or CTAs, are for.
Keep in mind that not every CTA must be a direct sales plea. Ikea uses simple CTAs like “join now”, “get inspired”, and “read our blog”. Simple, effective messages like these serve to guide subscribers towards the parts of their website that best match their interests. Other great examples are “download app”, “explore”, “get started”, or “sign-in”.
Welcome emails are a must-have, and a must-send for any eCommerce operation.
Welcome emails give you:
Then to create welcome emails that get noticed and actually convert. You should:
If you follow these tips you’ll notice better engagement and witness higher-quality relationships with your customers.
If you want to learn more about eCommerce marketing, check out this article about 10 brands that are dominating email marketing.
Rukham is the Content Lead at Mailmunch. He believes trust should be the basis for all marketing communications.
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