Welcome and transactional emails both provide great opportunities for engaging with potential customers but are greatly underutilized.
Often when I'm working with clients, they just want to focus on their marketing messages or newsletters and whether or not they are getting good delivery or open rates. The problem is that no matter how great your newsletter might be, you could be missing out on another great opportunity to interact with your customers.
In my experience, the two most overlooked engagement opportunities are welcome and transactional messages. Both of these message types are highly underutilized by most marketers as a way to engage their customers.
First and foremost, the welcome message should be used to build off the initial engagement you created with the recipients when they first signed up to receive future campaigns. Many senders just send a text welcome message or a simple opt-in confirmation. There is so much more you can do with a welcome message, and the opportunity should not be wasted.
Welcome emails
Here are some tips for creating an effective welcome message template:
- Don't be afraid to send an HTML message. A welcome message that looks like future mailings will let users know what to expect.
- Give recipients a sneak peak of the type of content they will be receiving. If you have a weekly newsletter, put one article in your welcome message from the week before to show the benefits of the information they will be receiving from you.
- Ask those who have opted in to add you to their address books. The welcome message provides the best opportunity for interested people to add your sending address to their address books, since you know they are currently engaged with your company.
- Thank the recipient for subscribing. Recipients have just done you a favor by signing up for your campaigns -- remember that and tell them you appreciate their trust in you and their future business. People get a lot of email in their inboxes, and you want them to know they are special and a vital part of your business.
- Give those receiving your email an easy way to unsubscribe. By giving them an example of what the messages will contain, they might realize that it was not what they expected. Let them go now before sending multiple messages to them and eventually having them mark your message as SPAM. It is better to have them formally unsubscribe from your list right away then have them mark you as SPAM later.
- Give people an incentive to take further action now. If you want them to buy something, offer them a discount on their first purchase with a coupon code in their welcome message. They might have been thinking about eventually purchasing something from you, which is why they signed up for your messages in the first place. By giving them a little nudge, they might make the purchase sooner rather then later.