It seems like a no-brainer.

If someone signs up for your newsletter, the first email they get should be a welcome email.

That’s how it works in real life. You meet someone for the first time, and you say hello.

Yet, according to a Salesforce report, only 42% of companies send a welcome email to new subscribers.  This is a shame, because they’re a great tool to build engagement with your audience and try to drive an initial sale of your product. Once it’s set up, an automated welcome email series can go on producing new sales month after month for your e-commerce store.

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Here are our tips for achieving the best results with your welcome emails.

Deliver what you promised

Chances are you’ve incentivized the act of opting in to your subscribers list. For e-commerce companies, the most common lead gen tactic if to offer an exclusive discount for people who submit their email.

It should go without saying, but you want to make sure your first email delivers on this promise.  As soon as possible.

Push them towards a specific product

Try to remove as much work out of the decision making and buying process as you can by including CTAs that take people to specific products.

Whatever you do, try to avoid sending readers back to the homepage of your site. If your end goal is to get people to the checkout, that’s like sending them all the way back to the starting line.

Add some urgency

Part of getting that first sale is overcoming a prospect’s inertia. As long as things are going OK, people generally prefer the status quo, particularly if change (even positive change) requires action on their part.

Luckily, at this point, momentum is in your favor. The person has signed up on your site and opened the email they received from you.

But now you’re asking them to open up their wallets and commit to buying, and no matter how sweet your offer is, it’s always easier and cheaper for them to do nothing at all. Or at the very least, to delay the decision.

Avoid these mental deliberations by adding urgency to your offer. Make it a one day only sale or add a special bonus for people who buy now.

One thing you never want to do is try and create false urgency by lying. If you say something is ending at 5PM or offered for one day only, you have to commit to that.

Make it a series

Your welcome email should actually be a welcome series of emails meant to build a relationship with your audience.

The very first email is the most important, but subsequent messages in the series are valuable as well. One tactic is to use follow-up emails as a way to get prospects to take micro-commitments – things like adding your company on social media or responding to a quick survey.

Bottom line: Beef up your welcome email for increased e-commerce sales.

If you’d like to discuss specific strategies to help your company with email marketing, contact us for a free consultation.