What’s so special about ‘Welcome Email Programs’?

Recently I visited my old circle of friend – people I had lost touch with given a hectic corporate job ;). I was really excited to meet all of them, some I was going to meet almost after a year. We all had decided to meet at a friend’s place, Pratik. On the way to his house nostalgia had already set in and I found myself smiling to the thin air a couple of times.

As I finally reached Pratik’s house and rang the doorbell, his elder brother opened the door and welcomed me in. It was a simple ‘Hi Rahul, how are you doing?’ welcome and he walked away. Now I have known his brother for ages and hence know that he’s a man of fewer words but a warm heart. Had there been another person in my shoes, he would’ve surely felt disheartened.

The same morning we were discussing about Welcome Programs in office. These programs would be specifically targeted to new customers who would be entering our sales funnels post a website subscription process. The whole incident at Pratik’s place got me thinking that different people would respond differently to our welcome process. A much more casual person would be happy with a simple ‘Welcome onboard’ message, whereas someone else would love the special attention that he gets through a series of welcome mails. In the later case, I am pretty sure even the casual customer won’t mind the extra attention.

Being a part of the Email Marketing Consultants group at netCORE, I have come across many welcome emails from clients and other organizations which are merely triggered mails. Most of them even lack basic first name personalization! I definitely wouldn’t like a mail, from a website where I register, addressing me as a ‘nobody’. I just gave you my name guys!

Another important aspect of welcome email programs is to reinforce the branding message. This opportunity should also be utilized to educate the new customers about different offerings and services because they might have landed on your subscription efforts as a part of different advertising efforts for different products. Additionally you can also touch base with them and gather their preferences which will serve as critical inputs for sending relevant offers. Welcome email programs can also serve as an important vehicle for propagating your social media activities and spreading a positive word of mouth.

This entire program can spread over a 7 days period where you connect with the new customers through various emails at an interval of 2-3 days. A sample welcome program could be:

Day 1 – ‘Thank you’ + Preference gathering

Day 3 – Service offerings mail

Day 5 – Testimonials (comments from social media platforms)

Day 7 – First promotional offer

Benefits of a Welcome Email Program in a snapshot:

1) Induce branding

2) Provide information on products and services

3) Gather preferences

4) Promote social media activities / testimonials.

Your first impression may not be the last one, but it’s definitely a lasting one. It only makes sense that we make complete use of the initial phases of a customer joining your mailing list and establish a strong bond. While every marketer swears by providing his customers with the best and relevant offers, not many execute it well in the initial phases and struggle later on.

So put in enough time and effort to develop a robust welcome email program to bind your customers to your brand and more importantly, do catch up with your friends from time to time – It might just open up your mind to a whole new perspective, the way it did for me 😉