Welcome Messages for User Onboarding Emails

Generally speaking, welcome messages and emails play a critical role in setting a precedent with potential new customers. While not often mentioned, welcome messages, when well structured, boost attention for onboarding users and suitably guide them towards the best course of action. 

Image credit: stock.adobe.com

In today’s blog, we shall dive into the main elements that make welcome messages and emails highly valuable customer support tools to help create an initial great impression of a brand. 

What Is an Onboarding Email?

Before we get ahead of ourselves, an onboarding email is basically the first communication of one’s service with their audience, that comes at the very beginning of their onboarding flow.

An Example onboarding email. Image Credit: hubspot.com

What Is a Welcome Email?

That being said, a welcome email is essentially an automated message to new subscribers or users acknowledging them, and directly introducing what a company has to offer. For the most part, welcome emails are typically part of a welcome email sequence that seeks to get an audience to further engage with a business.

The welcome email sequence. Image Credit: mirasee.com

Why Utilise Welcome Message Emails?

The importance of welcome emails cannot be understated as they result in four times higher open rates and five times higher click rates compared to other conventional promotional emails. 

With regards to e-Commerce, the average revenue per promotional email is $0.02, welcome emails on average generate 9x higher revenue (approximately $0.18). And if optimised effectively, their revenue output can be as high as $3.36 per email. 

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In summary, welcome emails get at least 4x more opens, with an average open rate of about 60%, generate 5x times more clicks, with an average click rate of 14%, and bring in 8x more revenue per email.

That being said, the long-term benefits of welcome messages include:

• Better email engagement rates: Essentially, if your first email impresses, subscribers will likely take more notice of future marketing campaigns too.
• Stronger customer relationships as an authentic “thank you for subscribing” can warm people to a brand and build trust.  
• More sales and increased customer retention as conversion rates can be boosted with user engagement. 

Welcome Message Benefits for Email Marketers

From an email marketer’s perspective, welcome onboarding messages provide:

1. Better deliverability: Since they are event-based emails, welcome emails are not going to be sent out as one big blast. This means that in case a user doesn’t confirm to opt-in, welcome messages can reduce a company’s bounces they would have otherwise experienced when sending out regular promotional newsletters.
2. Access to additional data: Generally, it is almost certain that subscribers will open the welcome message. So, if used wisely, an email marketer can include a survey or simply link different offers inside, and in this way, they can find out more about what their subscribers want to hear about, or their interests.
3. Better Engagement – Engagement levels of new subscribers are the highest in the first few weeks upon joining a list. This creates an opportunity as they are more receptive and expecting communications that could lead to dialogue. During such times, one can create a stronger bond between the brand and users, which will likely lead to more conversions.

The Purpose of Welcome Messages

As we have already established, welcome messages are the first touchpoint with a customer/user after they decide to download or engage with a mobile app. With millions of mobile apps mushrooming each day, engagement and personalisation are key differentiators, and welcome messages are part of this delivery chain.

Headspace’s Example welcome email. Image Credit: sendgrid.com

In essence, the more attention you offer users, the higher is their loyalty. As such, personalised welcome messages are not only important to e-Commerce apps but to all mobile apps.

So, overall, welcome message emails help the user understand what a business is all about while telling them how important they are to your brand. This means that if most users do not receive a confirmation email or welcome email automatically, they can possibly start to lose interest at the very beginning. That’s why they say first impressions matter!

Tips to Consider When Curating Engaging and Meaningful Welcome Emails and Messages.

• Know your audience: Commence by defining your user personas and ensuring that persona is still relevant and updated. Then, determine what those exact users need from your welcome message.

• Reassure users that they have made the right choice: In some instances, users may not want to divulge their email address to third email campaigns, most especially at the beginning of communication. Therefore, it is imperative to creatively reassure users that they have made the right decision within the welcome email.

Image Credit: airbnb.com

• Share your successes with users:  For instance, you could share how many subscribers get your awesome newsletters every month. It’s an intelligent way to dispel clients’ doubts and show your new subscribers that their decision to subscribe to your email campaign was correct.
• Smartly address information security: Many users tend to be sceptical about information security. So, reassure them that their email addresses are secured and that you do not have access to any personal information from emails. In case they receive an auto-generated password, you can offer to change it right away. Furthermore, make the opportunity to unsubscribe from email campaigns very visible and accessible. 

• Meet the user’s expectations: It is critical that everything promised prior to registration is fulfilled in the Welcome email. For example, whenever you make special offers to involve users in email registration, keep consistent and live up to your promises.

• Communicate about benefits of registration: When you confirm your user’s subscription or onboarding, creatively show them a short review of the benefits for registered users.

Image Credit: www.groovehq.com

• Be as clear and concise as possible: In practice, your users should always understand why they are receiving the welcome message, and their next steps. Additionally, ensure to provide guaranties, for example, if you’re an online shop, you can share your commitment to returns.

•  Uniquely introduce yourself: Also, share about your company by providing links to your website and contact details so that your users have a way to reach out if any issues or problems arise. 

• Brand consistency: Ensure to design your Welcome emails in the same format and colours as your original app or website. This can help users to easily recognise you and have an inbuilt reference point.

• Keep it simple: Don’t say too much but prompt your client to act. In practice, do not employ two sentences when one can suffice. Additionally, avoid technical jargon or talk about advanced features. Your welcome message should be simple, scannable, and memorable.

Image Credit: keap.com

• Write from the user’s perspective: The welcome email should spark the reader’s interest and communicate how the customer benefits from the interaction, and how their need shall be met.

• The message should be timely: Ensure that the message doesn’t take forever to reach the user. It should take a maximum of 2 minutes as people forget about things quickly. 

Welcome Message Onboarding Email Templates Examples

To demonstrate the tips we have shared above, here are a few template examples to follow.

For users who downloaded your software trial.

Subject: {Name}, thank you for downloading {Product Name}.

Dear {Name},

Thank you for downloading {Software Name}. Prepare to be impressed!

We want to ensure that you received the demo, and that you did not have any problems getting it installed. If you have any queries or problems, just send an email to {Support Address}, or visit our Help Desk at {Helpdesk URL}.

If you’re having any problems using {Product Name}, or if you haven’t received it yet, just let us know.

Sincerely,

{Software Team}

For users who joined your website newsletter.

Subject: {Names}, thank you for subscribing to {Product Name}.

Dear {Names},

Thank you for joining {Product Name}. You’re now part of a long list of satisfied readers who use what they’ve learned from {Product Name} regularly.

We want to ensure that you received your first issue, and also let you know that we are available to respond to any questions that you might have. Just send an email to {Support Address}, or visit our Help Desk at {Helpdesk URL}.

If you’re having any problems receiving {List Name}, or if you haven’t received it yet, just let us know.

Sincerely,

{Company name}

For people who requested a free report from your website or a sample.

Subject: {User Name}, thank you for requesting {Report Title}.

Dear {User Name},

Thank you for requesting {Report Name} Prepare to be impressed!

I just wanted to check-in and make sure that you received everything well, and that you aren’t having any problem reading {Report Name}. If you do, simply send an email to {Support Address}, or visit our Help Desk at {Helpdesk URL}.

Sincerely,

{Company name}

Ensure to always include a creative but personal touch, a voice recording, video or graphic photo. This allows users to know that you’re authentic and not a robot.

Key Takeaways

In summary, we have observed that welcome messages drive at least three times the transaction and revenue per email than any traditional promotional emails. As such, the welcome email is the fulcrum of any effective onboarding workflow as it helps to pace expectations for what’s to come.

In summary, to curate effective welcome messages for user onboarding, simply:

1. Recognise your customers.
2. Be clear about the purpose of your app.
3. Avoid technical jargon and information overload.