15 best welcome email examples for new subscribers

Welcome email newsletters are the first step in building a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers. So roll out the red carpet and make your new subscribers feel at home on your email list!

In this post, we'll share welcome email best practices that create lasting first impressions.

Along the way, we’ll explain why they WOW new subscribers and show you some welcome email examples and welcome email subject lines that will inspire your own welcome email templates.

Let’s dive in!

A welcome email is the first email you send to new subscribers, customers or users. It's your chance to let them know more about you, your business and what they can expect after subscribing. Welcome emails are usually automated, so that as soon as your subscriber signs up, you can begin developing your relationship with them.

Engagement metrics for welcome emails are eye-popping. On average, marketers enjoy 4x the open rate and 5x the click rate when using automated welcome emails over standard marketing emails. When someone subscribes to your newsletter, they expect to receive a welcome newsletter immediately. They’ll even visit their inboxes just to find it.

An authentic “thank you” and “welcome” builds trust between you and your subscriber, which lays the foundation for a long term relationship.

1. Set expectations for your email campaigns 

If your email campaigns don’t deliver on your promise (i.e. providing valuable content), your subscriber will feel cheated and most likely unsubscribe immediately.

👍  What’s good?

• Birchbox establishes rapport by acknowledging the new relationship
• New customers understand what they can expect from their future newsletters

👉  Tip: Your welcome email is like a first date. It’s your chance to build trust. When you establish how that relationship will play out the first time you interact, your new subscribers will be more receptive to your future emails, resulting in higher engagement and fewer spam complaints.

2. Introduce your social media channels

👍  What’s good?

• CB2 explains what new members will enjoy from their email newsletters
• The CTA focuses on getting their new customers on social media
• Connecting with them online builds up social proof and, in turn, attracts new customers

👉  Tip: Instead of starting with the hard sell, deepen the relationship by inviting them to connect on social media. They’ll get to experience another side of your brand and learn more about your values.

Fostering a community of email subscribers and growing your email list is a process that requires more than one channel. The powerful synergy of email marketing and social proof helps build stronger relationships!

3. Use a video when you have a lot to say

👍  What’s good?

• Beardbrand is all about introducing new customers to the community
• So rather than create a long welcome email newsletter explaining their values, they added a link to a video that covers all they want to say

👉  Tip: A great welcome email should be short. While the rule of thumb is to keep it around 100 words, you can probably get away with 200 if you break up the text with images and offers.

4. Sell the experience and not the product

👍  What’s good?

• King Arthur Flour welcomes you into their community as a fellow baker
• There’s not a single bag of flour in sight! Instead, they sell the raw emotion and satisfaction of creating something from scratch

👉  Tip: You don’t always have to feature your product prominently in your welcome email. Sometimes it’s better to focus on the benefits or experience from using your product or service. This way new subscribers may be curious to connect the dots and try it for themselves.

5. Make emails interactive 

👍  What’s good?

• Peloton's first email immediately engages you with photos of their instructors
• Their fitness wear reinforces the high energy workouts that you signed up for, remember?
• You're prompted to take a quiz to find your perfect coach—and start pedaling!

👉  Tip: In MailerLite, you can use the survey or quiz block to embed an interactive survey or quiz right into your newsletter.

6. Inject a sense of urgency 

👍  What’s good?

• Glassdoor cuts to the chase with clear actionable steps to find a job now
• Their 3-step process leads your eye to a clear CTA button to contribute to their pool of employer and interview reviews

👉  Tip: When someone subscribes to an email list, they expect to receive a welcome email immediately. In fact, real-time welcome emails have significantly higher open, click and transaction rates than bulk welcomes.

The only way to send your new subscribers their welcome email in real-time is to create an automated email sequence. Although it sounds technical, automating emails with MailerLite is super easy!

7. Add your brand identity 

👍  What’s good?

• Super Mario makes this welcome email newsletter instantly recognizable!
• The bundled perks is enough to warm the heart of any Nintendo fan
• Nintendo’s use of colors, icons and tone of voice communicate their unique brand

👉  Tip: Your new subscribers are receiving dozens of emails every day. When you establish a distinct look in your first email, your subscribers will know exactly what to look for in future emails.

8. Show your uniqueness in your email marketing messages

👍  What’s good?

• PrettyLitteThing immediately feels like your BFF with their sassy headline, pink unicorns and lingo
• They nail it perfectly by speaking and appealing to their target audience

👉  Tip: Use colors, images and words in your welcome email design that your target audience can instantly identify with.

9. Add an e-commerce storefront in your welcome emails

👍  What’s good?

• Bring out the pina colada! 🍹 A lot is going in this busy Ripples newsletter but their bright summer colors bring it all together nicely
• Their special offers and discount code make you feel privileged to be part of their email list (and give you an extra incentive to press “buy now” on your next order)
• The menu at the top of their welcome email seamlessly connects you with their online store landing page

10. Give your emails a distinct personality

👍  What’s good?

• Lovely Notes starts with a heartfelt note from the founders
• New users are reminded about what they signed up for by cleverly including the product in the onboarding email
• A whimsical welcome email design gives this effective welcome email a distinct personality

11. Offer preferences in the welcome email 

👍  What’s good?

• Groove uses a simple text email format and it feels like it was written just for you
• New users are given a chance to pick the type of email content that they're interested in for the email series

👉 Tip: The more personal you make your welcome emails, the more engagement you'll get. But personalizing welcome emails goes beyond just using your name and your subscriber's name.

For example, if your signup form included fields for their interests, you can use that information within your welcome emails. When the subscriber sees that you know something about them, they will look forward to hearing what you have to say.

You can personalize your emails in MailerLite by using the custom fields feature. 

But what if you don't have any data to kickstart personalization of your welcome emails? No problem. Just use the welcome email itself to get more valuable information from your email subscribers by simply letting them select their email preferences.

12. Use ‘appropriate’ humor in your email marketing strategy

👍  What’s good?

• Videofruit sends a simple text email that could easily be from a good friend
• It doubles up as a confirmation email for something that was opted-in earlier
• Bryan signs off with a funny GIF to showcase his company’s quirky personality

👉  Tip: Humor is an unexpected tactic. When done correctly it’ll put a smile on your readers’ faces!

13. Write inspirational subject lines

👍  What’s good?

• Memberful sits in your inbox with a purposeful and simple subject line
• The email’s helpful tone and voice speaks directly to you
• They’re humble and even willing to suggest another solution for your needs!

👉  Tip: A controlled sprinkling of emojis helps to break the monotony of a welcome email.

14. Always be positive (avoid negative phrasing)

👍  What’s good?

• TradeGecko starts on a positive note from the get-go
• New users are ushered along the onboarding process with dry wit and humor

👉  Tip: Consistent use of a single color in your welcome email reinforces your brand image.

15. Demonstrate how your product works 

👍  What’s good?

• Zapier uses helpful content marketing to guide their new subscribers in their welcome email
• Their welcome series email is contains a demonstration of their marketing automation platform, with actionable steps to get started
• They maximize the email’s conversion rate by cleverly inserting a subtle CTA at the end

👉  Tip: Where possible, use your product to send the welcome email and you’ll instantly earn a lot of credibility for it.

You have a lot riding on your welcome email, so take some extra time to get the subject line just right. You want your personality to shine through, but at the same time, you want to be clear that the email is a welcome message to kick off something special.

So, how do you write an email subject line that WOWs like these examples of welcome emails?

We wondered about the effect of including “welcome” in the subject line of a welcome email newsletter. To satisfy our curiosity, we analyzed our data all the way back to 2017 or about 12,000 emails in all.

Unsurprisingly, email marketing campaigns that featured a “welcome” subject line enjoyed a median open rate 55% higher than those without. And their median CTR was almost 60% higher!

So, here’s a pro tip: put “welcome” in your subject line for a start.

Next, we analyzed several successful subject lines and noticed a common structure.

The "something special" part of the subject line can be anything that invites the reader’s interest. Perhaps, an incentive, a personal message or something that creates curiosity or urgency.

All of these subject lines do a good job establishing a welcome message while adding something a little extra to describe the email content.

Remember to A/B test your subject lines

We’ve written a guide about email subject lines best practices that you can apply to your welcome emails, but we also recommend A/B testing your subject line ideas to see what works best. In MailerLite, testing your subject lines is made easy with our A/B split testing feature.

There’s no perfect subject line, but there are good, better and best subject lines. Try a bunch of approaches and test them to see which one gives you a better than average open rate.

Good emails are made up of the same basic anatomy. Use this cheat sheet of key takeways when creating your own welcome email templates to ensure that all your welcome emails have the structure they need to set you up for success.

• A warm “welcome” subject line
• A personalized greeting
• A short, fun or witty introduction to your brand
• A gift, discount or exclusive offer
• Direct instructions on what to do next with a clear CTA

Whether you're a small business or a multinational enterprise, starting your subscriber journey with a warm welcome email is the first step to a great customer journey.

After seeing these 15 welcome email examples, I bet you're motivated to start creating your own welcome email! And guess what? It's super easy with MailerLite.

Our drag & drop editors for newsletters and automation workflows make it simple to include these best email marketing practices in your campaigns.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in July 2020, but has been revamped with new tips and fresh examples.

Do you give subscribers a warm welcome? How do you present your welcome email? Share in the comments below!