How to Power a Fantastic Welcome Series

There is a special moment when a fan signs up to your email list. For you, it means list growth and the ability to communicate directly with that fan without any middle-man.  For the fan, it means that they the are likely deeply interested in following your momentum, what you are doing and the product or service you are making. Our research shows that that an email sign-up is more valuable than a Facebook Like, Instagram or Twitter Follow. Not only can it produce more direct revenue, it is also indicative of “the biggest fan.” After all, the effort to give up an email address is higher than clicking a like button.

While one email is common, we recommend creating a “Welcome Series” which is a string of three or four related Welcome Emails that serve as a  way to excite subscribers and keep them engaged and looking forward to future content.

Here is an example of how we created a Welcome Series for Republic Records’ artist James Bay using Content (Ctrl) and ExactTarget  in a four part social email welcome series.  After the basic email template was created, each email took just a few minutes to create.  Bam!

Email 1: Welcome! and Free Gift

This email is your first impression.  The initial welcome email will set expectations about the types and frequencies of email communications that will be sent in the future.  Add incentives to this first email such as a free download or other goodie to pique subscribers’ interest- think of this as a welcome gift via the internet. Also, adding dynamic content such as a YouTube video to the email will give the reader something interesting and engaging to interact with.

Email 2: The Power of Photos

To continue brand promotion, fan engagement and value utilize preexisting yet up-to-date social media mentions and posts by aggregating them within the series.  Because people process images 60,000 times faster than text and since pictures are just plain fun to look at, we opted to integrate the artists Instagram account into the second email. Always add direct links back to the official social account so subscribers can easily follow and add to your cross channel sign-ups.

Email 3: Detailed Information

Facebook posts are multifaceted; they are more in-depth than a Tweet and allow users to post information in various forms i.e. video, photos, text and flyers. In the third email we added the most up-to-date Facebook posts from the artists with built in share buttons for each piece of content.

Email 4: Tweet-Tweet-Tweet!

The final email will send your subscribers off into the real email campaign with a satisfying taste in their mouth knowing that they have exclusive access to valuable information of the brand they care about. Live tweets from your company or in this case an artist, will add value and touch points to your email.

Don’t Forget These Either:

• Connect your businesses’ social accounts by coding those options directly into your email template.
• Use awesome email subject lines that will push open rates.
• Add easy ways to purchase your product in a non-spammy format by coding those options directly into the footer of the email.
• And most important- make a kick-ass welcome series by using Content (Ctrl) which will save  you time and therefore money.  Ding! You win.  Tell us how you utilize Welcome Emails in the comments below. Thanks!