For any business, first impressions matter a lot when it comes to dealing with customers. It is therefore no surprise that most companies employ the welcome email as an important factor in a customer’s onboarding journey.
Sadly, not many brands go the extra mile to invest the time or the manpower to create automated onboarding email sequences, which can potentially distinguish your business, leave a good impression, and make that good impression last.
When executed correctly, a dynamite email sequence can build and nurture trust and increase your credibility with your readers. It can also engage potential customers and make them share value-driven information about your product or service, and can ultimately lead your subscribers to take favourable action.
But the fact is, it can also fail big time, and you risk losing a brand-new subscriber. This happens when your email composition is not well planned resulting in an irrelevant, boring, spam-filled, or of no value email. You wouldn’t want your email not even being opened, deleted or worse, increasing your unsubscribe rate.
Staying Engaged
Look back, imagine the first time you came into any store or shop. You might be welcomed by a salesperson, who gives you a little spiel about the store — and that’s it. They’ll leave you alone to browse around.
In the digital marketing world, this is a perfect time to cue in an onboarding email series. Your onboarding email is your salesperson who greets new subscribers but with something extra. You are put in control of how you introduce your brand to your subscribers.
With automated marketing software behind you, you can tailor your emails based on different factors. This includes at what stage your customer is in your sales funnel. To put it plainly, it is a powerful medium to introduce your brand to new users, build new relationships nurture old ones, and also set expectations about new email topics and their frequency.
Benefits of Email Onboarding
A well-made onboarding email can yield up to 51% more possible revenue than an ordinary single welcome email. There are various reasons to consider:
- You capture their interest, and they become hungry to learn more, not only about your brand but most especially your products.
- An onboarding sequence acts as a safety net if the end-user did not engage with you from the very start, for reasons they might have missed the first email.
- Having engaged the second might pique their interest, thus, opening the user to be educated on the most important aspects of your business. At this juncture, be sure to include sign-up instructions and more product introductions.
- By having them sign up, you will not only get to collect a treasure trove of data, but you will also be able to do right by the subscriber.
Do note, however, that the majority of new subscribers expect great content, especially in their first few email series. You got their interest, and now they will be looking at your company to fulfil a need. This is a great opportunity for you to give them the best experience possible to deliver what they want.
Create an Impact With Little Work
For many small businesses who are looking to grow or have limited resources, one of the biggest misconceptions they might ponder is that the creation of an onboarding series is a time-consuming and expensive exercise. In reality, they are not any more difficult to build than any regular email. As for expense, answer this question: “How much does it cost to create an ordinary email?”
The first thing to consider is deciding the length of your sequence. This will get the ball rolling, setting expectations about your email frequency. This also sets the tone within your marketing strategy on how you want to establish and build your relationship with new subscribers and what type of content you want to shed light on.
Think of what is your ideal customer profile. What are their challenges and pain points? What content do you think they will value the most? It may look daunting at first, but consider that you can always adjust and experiment by adding or removing steps in the sequence. Or you may even change the order in which you put out and deliver these emails.
Through trial and error and experimentation, you will find that sweet spot in your email campaign and find where your subscribers are most responsive to your call to action.
Create to Re-engage
The fact of the matter is, that many, if not most, of your subscribers will not convert the first time you pitch to them in your email campaign. But they already know of you, and that doesn’t mean they won’t take that final step to convert in the future.
They may have various reasons why they didn’t proceed, but as long as they remain subscribed, they are still potential customers who may make the sale soon. Continue to build the relationship and in time, you can encourage them to leap.
What to Avoid
An onboarding email sequence is an excellent, cost-effective idea, but do avoid committing to any email marketing rules:
- Never overwhelm your subscribers with lengthy emails. You don’t have to put everything about your company in one email.
- Do not assume that all your new subscribers or even customers will have the same needs or the same level of commitment.
- Never make your welcome emails a verification or confirmation email. Yes, it is important. But Welcome emails serve an entirely different purpose. Confirmation or verification emails should be separate.
- Always consider the mobile experience. Most people today conduct business or check messages and emails through handheld devices. Don’t overdo your emails with images and animated banners. This is an avenue for you to create a memorable first impression. There is no need for you to overdo it with too many elements on your first of the series email.
With high-quality onboarding emails, you can educate newcomers, help them get acquainted with your product or service, and cultivate long-term relationships.
If these all sound good to you but are clueless about where to start or are simply too preoccupied to do it on your own, we may be able to help. Get in touch with us at Accentuate today and have our team of experts handle your email marketing needs.
