5 inspiring welcome emails & tips

A welcome email is the first email you send to a new subscriber or customer. It’s an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression, set expectations for future communications, and outline any actions you’d like the recipient to take.

So, let’s explore some content ideas for crafting effective welcome emails and showcase some of the best examples we could find.

What is a welcome email

A welcome email is an automated email that’s sent to a new email subscriber when they are added to your email list. It’s an excellent opportunity to introduce your business and let the new sign-ups know what type of content they can expect from you. A welcome email can also have elements of a marketing or sales email.

Importance of welcome emails:

• First impression: Welcome emails are one of the first interactions a contact has with your brand after subscribing or making a purchase. A well-crafted welcome email can leave a lasting impression and set the tone for future communication.
• Engagement: Welcome emails provide an opportunity to engage with new subscribers and customers, guiding them on how to get started, explore products or services, and stay connected with your brand. You can also invite subscribers to follow you on social media to engage with them further.
• Personalisation: By personalising welcome emails with the subscriber’s name or relevant content based on their interests, you can create a more personalised and meaningful experience for the recipient.
• Building trust: Welcome emails can also help build trust and credibility with new subscribers if the email is well-written and has trust-building elements like testimonials or a story behind the product’s innovation.

Content ideas for welcome emails

Welcome emails generally have a few varieties. You might want to stick to a single proven approach or mix and match elements from different approaches to best tailor your welcome email for your subscribers.

A general introduction

If you have a personal brand newsletter or would like to keep things casual, sticking to a basic welcome email with a general introduction is a good idea. Though this might not sound very interesting, you can adjust the text and graphics to make it fun and engaging.

Exclusive discounts & offers

Another content approach that works really well for welcome emails is sharing exclusive discounts and offers. This is generally a good idea when you’re an e-commerce or a D2C brand and want to make your first sale instantly.

This is also a great way to get people to start using your products or services right away and convert them into repeat users.

Getting started

Last but not least, if you’re offering a product or service that requires more detailed onboarding to help users learn more and make the most of your product, you may wish to create a welcome sequence. Regardless of your business type, a welcome sequence can be a great way to share lots more information and offers over a period of time rather than overloading your subscribers with a single long welcome email.

Best welcome email examples

There are thousands of great welcome emails from which you can get inspiration, but here are a few hand-picked ones to show the broader range of what a welcome email can be.

#1 Marketing Examples – simple & elegant

Marketing Examples by Harry Dry is a marketing newsletter read by 130,000+ marketers and founders.

Harry sends a simple welcome email with a clean copy, which primarily focuses on letting his subscribers know when to expect his next one. He’s also added micro-interactions, such as asking for a quick reply and requesting a LinkedIn connection, which helps building more personal and long-lasting connections.

#2 Popsmith – getting users onboarded with discounts

Popsmith is a D2C brand selling quirky stove-top popcorn makers and ready-to-cook kits. Their email is a classic example of a welcome email that aims to sell the product by offering exclusive discounts.

The discount code “POPPERIOTTRSZXF4” is made to look like it’s a custom code, which makes the reader feel it’s a personalised offer. The code also has limited validity, which helps build urgency.

#3 Wildwonder – building one-on-one connection

Wildwonder is also a D2C brand like Popsmith, and their welcome email also includes a discount code, but the twist here is the focus on building a relationship and achieving a sale at the same time.

The email starts with the product image along with a note from the founder, which helps Wildwonder build a direct relationship with the subscriber. Apart from that, this welcome email does an impressive job of promoting their product and social channels.

#4 Brilliant – explaining how to get started

Brilliant is an interactive learning platform for maths, data analysis, computer science, and programming. As it’s a digital platform, it uses its welcome email as an onboarding email to help people get started quickly.

The email also contains a link to their mobile apps – this helps with product adoption.

#5 Sundays – welcoming with fun and quick benefit summary

Sundays is another D2C brand on this list, but its welcome email doesn’t include discount codes or coupons. Instead, it uses creative illustrations and clean messaging to discuss the brand and why it’s better than the closest alternative.

How to set up welcome emails using EmailOctopus

Now that you know how a welcome email should look, it’s time for you to set up your own welcome email for free using EmailOctopus.

For this, just navigate to the automations page in your EmailOctopus dashboard and click “Create”. Once done, simply select the list you’d like to use for the welcome email automation.

Then, you’ll be asked to select an automation trigger, which, in the case of a welcome email, would be “Contact subscribed.” After that, you can click the plus icon and create your welcome email.

That’s all – simply click “Start”, and your welcome automation will be enabled.

The big takeaway

Welcome emails are probably the best way of using email to start building a relationship with your new subscribers and customers. Not only does it drive engagement, but it also helps building brand recognition in the long run. All you need is to keep things simple and let your welcome email do its job.

If you’re looking for an affordable and easy-to-use email marketing tool, EmailOctopus is a great choice. It’s entirely free for up to 2,500 subscribers and offers all you might need for your email marketing.