What is a welcome series?
A welcome series is a sequence of emails sent to new subscribers and new customers. It’s one of the most valuable email automations for ecommerce and cannot be neglected. Welcome emails typically generate substantially higher engagement rates compared to standard campaigns.
There are typically 5 goals of an ecommerce brand’s welcome series. Every brand’s welcome series goals should reflect their target audience, products, and identity — but the emails should probably:
- Thank & welcome a new email subscriber.
- Introduce a brand’s purpose and mission.
- Establish a sense of social proof through reviews, testimonials, and user generated content.
- Explain the primary value proposition of the brand, or a specific hero product or category.
- Engage prospective customers who may be ready to convert.
Though there can be some overlap, each of these goals should have its own email. Within its own email, messaging and directing readers to an action is much easier.
Email 1 — Introductions
A welcome series should always start by thanking the contact for subscribing, and welcoming them to your newsletter by setting expectations of what types of content they will receive.
This is their first email communication with a brand; it’s an opportunity to introduce your brand voice, tone, personality, etc. If the contact subscribed for something specific, such as a discount code, or a giveaway entry, or any other lead magnet, it’s obviously important to send them this content. Not fulfilling on an expectation is an easy bad first impression of your brand.
Consider using conditional splits in the welcome series architecture to split out the different ways contacts can subscribe to your newsletter. Conditional splits allow an email flow to branch into separate emails that target specific audience qualities or experiences. Checkout, pop-ups, inline fields; these can all be targeted using conditional splits.
Also consider what the contact has already accomplished at the time of subscription. Are they a new customer, a prospect, a new referral? These are opportunities to personalize your messaging. Research indicates that “over 80% of customers prefer personalized marketing.”
Email 2 — Brand & Product Values
After you’ve welcomed your new subscriber to your newsletter list, you will want to establish (or re-establish) who you are as a brand. What is your purpose? What is your mission? Why are you unique?
We might like to think someone who subscribed to a newsletter already knows the answer to these questions — but we would be wrong. There are just too many methods for joining the typical newsletter to assume every contact knows who you are. Don’t assume — share your story!
An email explaining your brand mission should go beyond just a reminder of who you are too. Use this as an opportunity to share why you started this business, what keeps your engine running, and why you are valuable to your contact.
It might help to think of this as a micro about us page. Don’t make it too long — just the takeaways of who your brand is. For some brands (especially those with only a few hero products), it’s better to focus on how your main products manifest your brand values.
Email 3 — Social Proof
Social proof plays a critical role in marketing ecommerce businesses. Research shows that “91% of customers will read reviews before purchasing.”
A typical ecommerce business will have testimonials, reviews, user generated content, and other forms of social proof spread throughout their online brand experience. Use this email as an opportunity to gather the absolute best reviews and content your customers have created.
If it’s possible, try using conditional splits within your social proof email. For example, you could filter this email to send a version with social proof based on a category of product someone has viewed recently. Or, you could send social proof for a specific sales funnel they subscribed through.
The goal of this email is to start addressing common objections your product or products may have. Whenever possible, use social proof from customers who address common objections and speak to the benefits of your product.
Email 4 — Call To Action
The last email in a typical ecommerce newsletter welcome series is dedicated as a call to action to shop. This is often paired with a welcome offer, and at this point it’s usually the second or third touch point for that offer. This means a contact has seen this offer at least once or twice before.
This email needs to be very clear on what the next action is. Simple is better than complexity. Ensure your call to action has high contrast and is very visible.
When creating email templates and design, we consider two methods of reading emails. Deep reading is when a contact reads everything in the email. We don’t really need to design for those contacts, they do the work for us. Glance reading is when the contact is just glancing — this is the vast majority of readers in our experience.
Call to action emails are a great case study in designing for glance reading. Your headline, call to action button, and any hero elements should be super accessible, both in visual design and in content.
It’s probably wise to use filters to segment readers who recently have made their first purchase.
A few other notes
We didn’t mention the timing or delays between each email — but that’s not because it’s not important! Just like in the introduction email, you want to use timing as a method to set expectations for future emails. You are creating a pattern of email engagement with new readers.
So, base your welcome series timing off of your typical newsletter cadence. If you send weekly emails, your delays should be short, only a few days between each email. If you have a monthly newsletter, consider 4-7 days delay between each email.
Consider this welcome series outline a starting point (it’s only 101)! Measuring performance, optimizing your content and emails, and building conditional logic into your flow are more advanced but worthwhile as optimizations on a welcome series.