When building any digital marketing strategy, it can be challenging for businesses to know where to begin. The same holds true for those looking to dip their toes in the Email marketing waters or improve their current email workflow. In this case, the welcome email is a great place to start.

Welcome emails are your chance to make a good first impression and set the tone of your email relationship with your subscriber. The welcome email can also be a wonderful opportunity to encourage your new subscribers to take some type of action, like filling out a contact us form, requesting a demo, downloading a whitepaper, etc. It’s an important email you won’t want to overlook, as welcome emails typically have a higher open and engagement rate than more standard marketing emails. Research shows that subscribers who receive welcome emails show 33% more engagement with the brand.

Because new subscribers are so eager to engage, your welcome email should be sent as soon as possible. Most email platforms will let you trigger a welcome email immediately after someone subscribes, so if you’re still sending welcome emails manually, it’s time to upgrade to an automated platform like Act-On or ActiveCampaign. Doing so will save you time while also increasing customer loyalty and engagement right from the start.

What to Include in a Welcome Email

At this point, you may be thinking, this all sounds great, but what should I include in my welcome email? Here are some useful tips to consider when building your welcome email.

Share more information about your business

Your reader was interested enough in your company to subscribe, which makes a welcome email the perfect time to share more about who you are. Take a moment to clearly and succinctly introduce your company to generate more interest. This could be conveyed strictly through text but is also a chance to get creative and incorporate a beautiful image or graphic that showcases your brand and what you’re all about.

This email from Bombas is a perfect example of how to use an image with minimal text to give more information about the company. It’s easy to look at the email and quickly understand that Bombas is all about socks and comfort.

Thank the reader for subscribing

Whether it’s with a simple and straightforward “thank you for subscribing,” or a special offer, such as a discount code, free shipping, or another coupon of some sort, it’s best practice to show gratitude. Copy that’s short and sweet should do the trick. Again, looking at this great example from Bombas, they offer a 20% discount to all new subscribers.

Offer value and share useful resources

The welcome email also serves as a great opportunity to share content. This could be relevant blog posts, videos, or a whitepaper that may be helpful for new subscribers to learn more about your company and the products and services you offer. Content like this not only showcases more of what your company does but also provide value to this new potential customer.

Set expectations

This is your chance to briefly outline what your new subscriber can expect by being on your mailing list. How often will you be emailing them and with what type of content? Establishing this expectation can help increase your chance of future emails being opened. This email from Glenlivet clearly communicates, in just one sentence, exactly what the subscriber will receive. It also showcases a great call-to-action (CTA) inviting the subscriber to explore more on their website.

Personalize your welcome email

Additionally, in the above Glenlivet example, note that the greeting at the top included the subscriber's name. Using your Email Service Provider's (ESP) ability to personalize the email with the subscriber's name is a great way to start building that relationship and establishing trust.

Share your contact information

Another welcome email best practice is to include information on how a subscriber can best reach you. This is especially important if the sender mail is from a noreply@ or a generic sales@ email address. For example, you might consider including copy along the lines of, “If you have questions about [product name], we offer support via our help center and training courses.” Of course, hyperlinked to the appropriate contacts and pages.

Get social

Lastly, do not hesitate to include a section at the bottom of your email with links to your organization’s Social Media channels. This best practice is one more opportunity to generate a higher click-through rate and engage with your subscriber on additional platforms.

More Welcome Email Examples

For more inspiration, below are three more great examples of B2B welcome emails from our friends at Really Good Emails. In these examples, note how each brand employed the practices we’ve discussed. Most emails do not include everything mentioned, but instead focus on what serves their business best. The main takeaway is to include information that will benefit the new subscriber first and your company second in order to build the foundation for a strong and successful relationship.

This example from Xero includes information about the business, a personalized greeting, a thank you, value, two good CTAs, how to contact the company, and Social Media Links.

Booz Allen's welcome email is straightforward and includes a thank you, brief description, a CTA to customize email preferences, and, of course, social media links.

Squarespace’s welcome message includes an abundance of resources, how to reach someone from their team for additional help, an engaging CTA, and social media links.

And last, but certainly not least, check out this example from nDash! This email is personalized, says thank you, describes the company, provides resources on the next steps to take with a straightforward CTA, includes how to contact them, as well as providing social media links.

Need help building up your mailing list, crafting the perfect email campaign or increasing engagement with your subscribers? Aztek’s team of email marketing specialists can help! Contact us today to see how we can help generate high-quality leads and increase engagement through our email marketing services.