How To Write A Great Welcome Email

Someone just subscribed to your newsletter. 

Congratulations! What happens next though?

Do you send your new reader a nice, personal message to make them feel welcome? Or maybe just a text message to let them know that their registration worked?

Or perhaps you send nothing at all?

If so, it might be time to reconsider. A welcome letter is, after all, the first impression your new subscriber has of your service. It's also a valuable opportunity to connect with them on a personal level. Making sure that this first impression is as good as possible is your responsibility as an email marketer.

Remember: each and every one of your subscribers has taken a moment of his or her time to do so. Give them a reward – or at the very least, just say thanks! It means a lot. 

But if you want to go the extra mile, we have some extra tips that will lift your welcome emails out from the crowd!

1. Include your company name in the subject line.

Always mention the name of your company or business in your subject line (and not just as a sender name). Subject lines are short, and readers should be able to read and understand them at a glance.

2. Use the words ”welcome” and ”thank you”.

Too often, welcome emails are purely technical confirmations that a registration process has finished. They say something like ”You have subscribed to our newsletter” – and nothing else. Try telling your readers that you appreciate their time and interest in you.

3. Include links to your website.

When they sign up, people have a strong interest in your business. Use that interest! Pick a few representative parts of your website and add links to these pages in your welcome email.

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4. Include any login data.

If your recipient has registered with a username and password, make sure that this data is included in your welcome email. It will most likely be saved as a reference.

5. How can you be contacted?

Contact information is essential to any and all email communication - but it's especially important to communicate accessibility and openness in your welcome email!

6. Talk about your subscriber (instead of yourself).

Yes, a subscription to your newsletter suggests a certain interest. But you can't be sure that everyone wants to know everything about your company history. What are they really interested in? All the things you can do to improve their everyday life.

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7. If possible, make it personal.

The more personal your email is, the more likely it is that your subscribers will open and read it. Although there are limitations to what is possible in a welcome email, perhaps you know the recipient’s name, or city of residence? Then it's possible to make a filtered sending.

8.Don't forget the "unsubscribe" link!

Just like contact information, an "unsubscribe" link is a natural part of all email communication. You might think that it's unnecessary in a welcome email – if someone just registered, why would they want to unsubscribe immediately? Perhaps they won't. But giving the reader an option shows your respect for them by always communicating on their terms.

9. Poll questions: a great way to get more information.

The main purpose of a welcome email is just that – to welcome someone. But as we have seen, it is possible to include offers or to add value for the reader in other ways. An easy way for you to collect more information about your new subscribers is to ask them something in a poll. It may not give you as much information as a full-scale survey, but on the other hand, it's much easier to just answer a single poll question, without being intrusive in any way.

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This article was originally published in May 2011, and updated in April 2016.