This document summarizes a presentation about the importance and best practices of welcome emails. Some key points include: - Welcome emails have high open rates of 50% on average and are more effective than newsletters at engaging subscribers. They set expectations for future communications. - Goals of a welcome email series include increasing engagement through open and click rates as well as conversions. Testing is important. - Case studies showed that subscribers who read welcome emails had read rates around 50% for subsequent messages over 180 days, while those who did not read welcome messages had much lower read rates. - Best practices include personalizing messages based on how the subscriber signed up and using subsequent messages to promote social media, offer content or discounts,

1. DIGITAL SUMMIT: ATLANTA
First Impressions: The Power of an Amazing Welcome Email

2. Speaker
Senior Manager, Customer Success, BlueHornet
@pilarbower
@bluehornetemail
linkedin.com/in/pilarbower
Pilar Bower

3. • 74.4% of consumers expect a
welcome email when they
subscribe. [source: BlueHornet]
• People that read at least one
welcome message read more than
40% of their messages from the
sending brand during the following
180 days. [source: ReturnPath]
• The average open rate for
welcome emails is 50% — 86%
more effective than email
newsletters. [source: Emma]
Why A Welcome Email?
Industry Stats

4. Welcome Emails
• Determine your goals and desired
actions first
o As you are mapping out your email flow
and content, the goal is to move your
subscriber to the next step in the process
• Benchmark current program before
launching new one!
• Engagement
o Increase in Open & Click rates
o Increase Conversions
o Increase likelihood of a second
purchase/upsell
o Each message in a series will have a
different conversion goal based on the
primary message
• TEST, TEST, TEST
• Improve sender reputation
o Lower spam complaints in the long run
o Decrease in unsubscribes and non-engagement
Success Metrics

5. Welcome Emails
• “Once the initial welcome message
has been read, read rates of
subsequent messages drop
dramatically. However, read rates still
level off at significantly higher rates
for those who did not read a brand’s
welcome messages.
• In fact, those who read welcome
emails tended to hover around a
50-percent read rate in the 180-day
period covered in this study.
• Those who don’t read the welcome
message started with low read
rates and stayed there.”
Success Metrics

6. Welcome Emails
1) Subject line: Thank you for visiting
the PUMA store.
o Content may not be different, but it
reminds the subscriber where they
signed up
2) Contests: Thank you for entering
the St. Lucia Island Getaway
sweepstakes
o Many contests include opt ins for
multiple 3rd parties
o An explicit Welcome email can
alleviate spam complaints and
engage the subscriber
o Set expectations for future emails
By Acquisition Source

7. Columbia Welcome Program
Newsletter Welcome Loyalty Welcome
Performance over promotional:
• Open Rates +197%
• CTR +448%
• CTOR +85%
• Revenue per Email (RPE) +2000%
By Acquisition Source

8. Welcome Emails
Sample Flow Chart
General
Newsletter
Sign Up
Welcome 1: Intro,
expectations
Welcome 2: Follow us
on Social
CTA to Create Account
End Series
Immediately 3 days 21 days
Purchase or
Loyalty Sign
Up
Loyalty Welcome 1:
What it means
(no offer)
CGR Welcome 3:
**Loyalty Surprise
25% Off Coupon
Loyalty Welcome 2:
Social Points,
reiterate value props
of Loyalty Club
End Series
Immediately 3 days 7 days 28 days
Used
Coupon
Yes
CGR Welcome 4:
Coupon Expiration
(in 2 days)
Reminder
No
Purchases or Creates
Account/joins
Loyalty Program
Yes
Yes
End Series
Welcome 3: Popular
Blog &/or video
content
CTA to Create Account
Yes

9. Welcome Emails
Email 2 Content Example:
• Social Promotion: use this time to
inform subscriber of your social
channels
Email 3 Content Example:
• Popular or seasonal blog content
• Videos
Email 4 Content Example:
• Offer
• Cross-sell/Up-sell/Product
Recommendations
Email 5 Content Example:
• Request for Product Review
Onboarding Content

10. Welcome Series Example
• Introduces the brand along with promoting key brand initiatives
• Tailors subsequent welcome messages around click behavior

11. Progressive Profiling
• Progressive Profiling: use this time to
learn more about your subscribers,
implicitly (click behavior) and explicitly
(preference center)
• Collect profile information when you
have least information, and audience is
most willing to share
• Collect actionable content that will
assist you with future targeting
relevancy
• Focus on building relevance in
messaging; engagement is a side effect
Collecting Subscriber Data

12. Progressive Profiling
• Campaign images allow
subscribers to easily see
type of messages they are
subscribing for and
generates a larger CTA in
the welcome email
• Required fields
o Email
o Zip
o Birthday
o Gender
• New preference center led
to a 17% increase in the
number of subscribers who
completed their profile in
just two months
Profile/Preference Center
Attrition was reduced by
giving subscribers a choice
of which communications
they’d like to receive.
PacSun saw 2.86%
growth in subscribers
with a gender value.

13. Product Recommendations
• Insert recommended products or
content in promotional emails related
to user’s behavior
• Introduce new products to loyal
visitors, and best-sellers to new
customers!
• Use clickstream, profile, and purchase
data to drive engagement, lower
bounce rates
Supercharge your Customer Lifetime Value

14. Post-Purchase Emails
Transactional Emails Transactional Emails can be an
important part of the Onboarding
process!
• A purchase may be the first touchpoint/opt
in for your new subscriber
• Optimize your confirmation emails to be
part of that experience
• Ask for the opt in if not on marketing list
• Consider delaying your normal Welcome
email for 24 hours
o If Customers are receiving 2 emails at the same
time (transactional email & Welcome email), they
will likely show more engagement to transactional
emails and ignore the subsequent message
Cross-sell products related to
most recent purchase

15. Post-Purchase Emails
Performance over promotional:
• Open Rates +45%
• RPE +114%
Product Reviews

16. CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
BikeBandit

17. BikeBandit Welcome Program
By Acquisition Source: Non-Purchasers

18. BikeBandit Welcome Program
By Acquisition Source: Purchasers

19. BikeBandit Welcome Program
Results

20. BikeBandit Welcome Program
• Welcome converted to riding-
style personalization, earning
significant amount of additional
revenue
• Because of first iteration’s
success, they are continuously
testing and optimizing
• Separate flows for variations
of source and Preferences
set vs. No Preferences set:
o Newsletter
o Purchase
o Account Registration / No
Registration
o Next: Guest Checkout
(Purchase, No Reg)
Progressive Profiling

21. BikeBandit Welcome Program
There’s more!

22. Additional Examples & Wrap Up

23. Welcome Email Examples

24. Welcome Email Examples

25. • Personalize your initial Welcome Email, based on acquisition source
• Understand how to map your most important content offerings into a
series of Onboarding Emails
o A Welcome/Onboarding Series evolves the initial greeting into a strategically designed,
calibrated series of automated messages designed to convert your new subscriber into an
engaged, loyal customer in a highly personalized and systematic way
• Effectively collect & use data from your new subscribers through
Progressive Profiling
• Build a framework of rules and workflow to keep your subscribers on the
right track in their email communications lifecycle
• Don’t neglect your transactional/post-purchase emails
Takeaways
Session Outline

26. Q&A

27. • Enter to win a GoPro 4 or Beats by Dre headphones
• Pick up your BlueHornet water bottle
• Chat with one of our email experts
Booth 16
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