How Welcoming is Your Welcome Email?
The team over at The Newsletter Crew is steadily releasing great content to support your newsletter strategy. This piece on welcome emails is the result of analyzing 70+ newsletter welcome emails.
While a welcome email is one of the first interactions you’ll have with your subscriber, the crew found that many of them fall short when it comes to connecting. Click through for tips on
Related: The Newsletter Crew’s Podcast Episode 18: Are we in a newsletter bubble?
Is your welcome email setting the expectations it should? This App Sumo article by Ernest breaks down the components of a good welcome email and offers examples.
Discovered via Really Good Emails.
How Welcoming Is Your Welcome Email?
This Twitter thread from @JensLennartsson has proven tactics to help you convert people from free to paid accounts.
Discovered via Marketer Crew.
Learn Advanced Welcome Email Strategy from Dan Oshinsky
How do you welcome new subscribers to your newsletter?
Dan Oshinsky, who runs Inbox Collective, a consultancy that helps news organizations, non-profits, and brands get the most out of email, says a well-strategized welcome sequence can lay the groundwork for better relationships with your subscribers.
And he should know. He previously worked as the Director of Newsletters at both The New Yorker and BuzzFeed. He’s also the creator of Not a Newsletter, a monthly briefing with news, tips, and ideas about how to send better email. I link to his resources frequently in this newsletter.
In this video, he walks us through building out a successful welcome series, plus answers questions about his childhood ambitions to send millions of emails in his lifetime.
Note: I haven’t created an entire series of welcome emails yet for Opt In Weekly, but I am going to heed his advice now that we’re 12 issues in and update my welcome email to link to content new subscribers will find helpful.
Related: Newspaper people, check out this interview with Dan from The Fix about how email can become a newsroom’s biggest revenue driver.
What To Include In Your Welcome Email (Template Included)
Cory Brown serves up some serious newsletter welcome email advice in this article. Check it out and see if yours includes everything he recommends.
Don’t send one? It could be time to reconsider that. Why?
“The Welcome Email is your opportunity to roll out the red carpet for your new subscribers. This is your chance to make the right first impression.”
Audit And Update Your Subscription Confirmation (AKA Welcome) Email
If your subscription confirmation email has been sitting untouched since you set it up, it’s time to take a look. This week’s challenge is to audit and update your subscription confirmation email from top to bottom (literally).
Use this guide to start strong (good subject line), end with a little personality (a quick reminder about yourself), and improve everything in between.
Discovered via Really Good Emails.
Tune Up Your Description, Welcome Email, & Promotion
Josh Spector of For the Interested just published a 5-day plan to help newsletter creators grow their newsletters.
Your Opt In Challenge this week is to commit to following his instructions. You’ll be improving some critical things and learn a ton along the way, like why you can’t just drop a link to a recent issue on social media and expect to see subscriptions soar. Learn what you should do instead.
Why You Should Personalize Your Welcome Message
Hey, everyone. Seth with Curated Success here.
Sending a personalized welcome message to new subscribers is a great way to connect and immediately provide valuable content.
In your welcome message, you can link to your most popular links or past issues so that new subscribers can benefit from subscribing right away.
This is also a great opportunity to start a conversation with new subscribers. Ask them a question that encourages them to respond to the welcome message, like what their biggest challenge in your topic area is. This will not only help you understand what your readers need from you, it will also be the foundation of what can feel like a 1:1 relationship with them.
If you’re looking to spice yours up, check out this roundup of welcome email advice we’ve curated for Opt In Weekly.
Here’s how you can customize your newsletter’s welcome message in Curated:
If you have any questions about setting up your welcome message, let me know!
What Marketers Can Learn From Media Newsletters
MarketerHire’s Mae Rice asked Dan Oshinsky how marketers could improve their email newsletters and he provided some great tips. Two we can all take note of are to be way less promotional and much more personal in our content.
If you missed Dan’s advice for welcome emails or want to revisit it, you can find that here.
There’s a difference between I don’t have time for something and I won’t make time for something.
For instance, I like to imagine myself as being able to add a new habit to my life, like working out every morning. I know it’s good for me. But… lately I just haven’t made the time for it. At least not like I once did.
And it’s all on me. I could prioritize it (and I know I should), but it’s going to take some effort and motivation.
Let’s apply that to your newsletter open rate. It’s the percentage of people who actually make the time to do a thing they thought they wanted to do (unless you’re not letting people opt in and then we’ve got other things to discuss).
If it was easy to work out and I didn’t have a million things going on, I’d do it, right? Imagine you’re competing in the inbox with thousands of emails. What can you send that’s not “if I have time” and is more “oh, I make time for this” because it’s worth prioritizing?
Your challenge from the moment someone discovers your newsletter (word of mouth, advertisement, SEO, etc.) and subscribes is to become a part of their routine.
Ways to do that:
This week’s issue (hopefully a welcome part of your routine) rounds up some great advice and inspirational newsletters, including a list of really great Chrome extensions (several of which are free and brilliant brand relationship builders because they become part of their customers’ lives before they’re actually paying customers).
There’s also a very doable Opt In Challenge at the bottom (if you’re new to Opt In Weekly, I close the newsletter with a challenge). Be sure to check it out.
Let’s dive in.
