Have you heard the saying "You never get a second chance at a first impression?" Well, that couldn't be truer than with welcome emails.
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.
Welcome email newsletters are the first step in building a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers. So give them a good reason not to click unsubscribe!
And welcome email statistics are powerful. On average, welcome email campaigns enjoy 4x the open rate and 5x the click-through rate over a standard email marketing campaign.
Are you getting the most out of your welcome emails?
In this post, we'll share welcome email best practices by showing you 15 best welcome email examples that create a lasting first impression and compel subscribers with a strong call to action.
Along the way, we’ll explain why they WOW new subscribers and suggest some welcome email ideas that you can apply to your email marketing strategy.
Then we’ll finish with how welcome email subject lines can make a difference between a ho-hum welcome email campaign and a winning one.
Want to read more about welcome emails and how they're used elsewhere?
If you don’t deliver on your promise, your subscriber will feel cheated and most likely unsubscribe immediately.
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👉 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, your new subscribers will be more receptive to your future emails, resulting in higher engagement and fewer spam complaints.
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👉 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!
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👉 Tip: Welcome emails 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.
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👉 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.
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👉 Tip: When someone subscribes to an email list, they expect to receive a welcome email immediately.
In fact, welcome emails sent in real-time can lead to more than 10x the transaction rates and revenue per email over batched welcome mailings!
The only way to send your new subscribers their welcome email in real-time is to create an automation. Although it sounds technical, automating emails with MailerLite is not complicated at all as this video shows.
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👉 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.
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👉 Tip: Use colors, images and words in your welcome email design that your target audience can instantly identify with.
Inspired so far? Start designing your very own welcome email that WOWs using our intuitive drag & drop editor.
Try it for free👍 What’s good?
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👉 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.
Make your emails more personal by integrating your subscriber data into your welcome email.
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.
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👉 Tip: Humor is an unexpected tactic. When done correctly it’ll put a smile on your readers’ faces!
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👉 Tip: A controlled sprinkling of emojis helps to break the monotony of a welcome email.
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👉 Tip: Consistent use of a single color in your welcome email reinforces your brand image.
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👉 Tip: Where possible, use your product to send the welcome email and you’ll instantly earn a lot of credibility for it.
Browse our email newsletter design gallery to see how MailerLite customers create their own newsletters.
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 welcome email examples?
Marketing emails with “welcome” in their subject line enjoy higher open rates and click-through rates.
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.
Not surprisingly, 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.
A welcome email subject line that WOWs has two parts – the welcome greeting + something special.
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.
TULA uses an incentive to create interest. Offering a promotion or coupon is one of the most effective ways to improve open rates.
Holland & Barrett follow up their welcome message with an invitation to share personal details. It’s unclear how they will do it, which is why you’ll open the email to see.
KISSmetrics combines its welcome message with a personal touch. This subject line uses both the sender and the recipient's real name.
Adidas augments their welcome message with an acknowledgment that the recipient is now included in a special community.
SEMrush’s welcome message adds a warm sentiment without getting too personal. This approach lets the recipient know that it treats every subscriber like a part of the family.
Indie Hackers wants to help you. By asking a question in the subject line, the reader will open the email if they want to answer it.
Syed Balkhi of OptinMonster takes an inclusive approach with a promise of insider information and advice. He follows the welcome message with a CTA.
Nerd Marketing piques curiosity by explaining that signing up with them means something about you. What could it be? You’ll have to open to find out.
Google uses a straightforward message, but it’s exactly what people who signed up for AdWords want to hear.
Sally's Baking Addiction invites you to open her email and learn about her baking secrets.
All of these subject lines do a good job establishing a welcome message while adding something a little extra to describe the email content.
We’ve written a guide about email subject lines best practices that you can apply to your welcome emails, but we also recommend testing your subject line ideas to see what works best. As this video shows, MailerLite provides a specific setting to test subject lines in the 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.
After seeing these 15 welcome email examples, I bet you're motivated to start creating your own welcome email! It's super easy with MailerLite if you haven't tried it before.
Our drag & drop editors for newsletters and automation workflows make it simple to include these best email marketing practices in your campaigns.
Sign up for our Forever Free plan and get access to all premium features for the next 14 days, including our professional newsletter templates.
Sign up nowAnd now, let's wrap up our blog post about the best welcome email examples out there.
When it comes to a welcome email newsletter, don’t just lay out the welcome mat. Roll out the red carpet! And follow the key takeaways from these email marketing best practices and ideas.
Welcome emails can solidify long-term relationships.
Your welcome email is the first step to truly connecting with your audience and sets the tone for your entire relationship.
Like these best welcome email examples, make sure you deliver on your promises, show your values and personality, and use personalization and automation to increase engagement rates.
And don’t forget to WOW them with your welcome email subject lines!
I'm Jonas, Content Manager at MailerLite. I’m not the 4th Jonas Brother, but I do write content (which is similar to being a teen heartthrob). After writing for a bunch of companies over the years, I discovered my professional passion—helping add some humanity to B2B marketing. Email is the perfect place to start!