The importance of a welcome series
Picture this.
You’ve stumbled upon an intriguing new store that’s opened up near you. The products in the window look great, the branding is engaging, and you’re excited to find out more.
You step inside, and are immediately greeted with a smile. Customer service is welcoming, products are clearly laid out, and there’s even a welcome offer for new customers like yourself.
The perfect in-store experience, right?
When it comes to shopping online, customers should have access to the same great experience. Which is why implementing a Welcome Series is so important.
Welcome Campaigns generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns. Meaning as well as delivering a great customer experience, they also deliver results.
However, only 57.7% of brands send Welcome Campaigns to their recipients. So, if you’re part of the 42.3% not sending out a Welcome Series, you’re missing out on a trick.
In this blog post, we guide those who are new to Welcome Campaigns so they can implement a series that hooks in their new customers. And for those who already have a Welcome Series in place, you may learn a thing or two to help make them even better.
What is a Welcome Series?
In a nutshell, a Welcome Series refers to a sequence of automated emails which are sent to new subscribers or customers shortly after they take a specific action. This could be joining a mailing list, making a first purchase, or signing up to a subscription.
A Welcome Series can span days or weeks, and should typically introduce recipients to the brand, showcase its products and services, highlight communication channels, and generally build a positive rapport between the recipient and the brand.
Why is a Welcome Series important?
We’ve already covered some impressive results that can be generated by a Welcome Series, but let’s dive into some of the other benefits:
Guiding the customer journey
When it comes to the entire customer journey, the Welcome Series comes into play early on, and plays a pivotal role in building positive relationships from the outset.
Because a Welcome Series not only helps to educate potential and new customers on a brand’s offering, but also helps to set the tone for a longer-lasting, positive relationship. By strategically presenting information over a series of emails, brands can shape the customers’ journey from the point of awareness, to exploration, and eventually a purchase.
Making a positive first impression
Think of your Welcome Series as the digital ambassador of your brand’s identity. Providing a controlled and intentional introduction to your brand and making a great first impression, all whilst showcasing your brand values, personality, and building trust from their very first touchpoints.
A well-executed Welcome Series not only establishes credibility but also helps differentiate your brand from the competition. And in an era where consumers have more choice than ever, cultivating a positive brand image from the outset is essential.
Building customer retention and loyalty
Customer retention is the cornerstone of success for many businesses. And whilst you may think retaining customers comes later in their journey, steps can be made from the very start with a Welcome Series.
This is because a Welcome Series enables brands to continue the conversation beyond the first point of contact, keeping customers engaged and informed with a considered series of targeted content, exclusive offers, and personalised messages.
This ongoing interaction not only reduces the likelihood of customers disengaging but also increases the chances of repeat purchases in the future.
How to create the perfect Welcome Series
A Welcome Series is all abut making a good first impression and being as engaging as possible, here are a few steps to achieve that:
Personalisation
You may not know a lot about your recipient when sending them a Welcome Campaign, but even so, a little effort to personalise goes a long way.
If you have access to the data, use their first name, recent purchases, or browsing history to ensure your first email communications are as targeted as possible. This can be done using simple segmentation to suggest related products. Or taken one step further with the use of dynamic content to create a truly unique series tailored to each individual.
Timing
Strategically timed emails are essential to making the most of your engagement window.
Too many emails too quickly can overwhelm recipients, whilst a lengthy gap between communications may result in recipients forgetting who you are.
Therefore, consider the nature of your product or service alongside a little testing to determine the best schedule for your Welcome Series. And of course, be mindful of different time zones.
Useful content
Winning over new customers isn’t just about products and offers, it’s also about being a useful brand.
A Welcome Series offers the perfect opportunity to showcase that you are industry experts by promoting tutorials, guides, videos, and user-generated content (such as reviews and testimonials) that help users to get the most out of your products and services.
Engagement and interaction
Of course, the main goal of any email campaign is to encourage engagement and interaction, whether that be with your brand, a specific product, or a service.
Start your Welcome Series by covering the basics, ensuring a snappy subject line, clear calls to action, and eye-catching visuals such as animated GIFs and video.
And of course, invite the recipient to engage. Encourage them to explore your website, follow you on social media, or take part in surveys and competitions. All of this contributes to building a sense of involvement and fostering a relationship beyond the inbox.
Test and refine
Last but not least, to get the most out of your Welcome Series you must regularly check in to analyse your campaign’s performance.
Be sure to monitor your open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics. And consider using A/B testing to experiment with different email elements such as CTAs, content, and subject lines, to identify what produces the best possible results.
Ready to implement a Welcome Series?
Great news!
As well as producing impressive results, a Welcome Series is becoming increasingly essential to keep customers engaged and happy.
So, there’s no time to lose in getting yours set up. If you’d like anything from a little inspiration through to a fully managed campaign. Then we can help.
Get in touch with our team of experts to find out more.
