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The Top 7 Tips To A Great Email Welcome Message … Through Pop Songs!

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March 14, 2012

As a mom, you understand the necessity to make guests welcome, so that sense of comfort and greeting should also be applied to your email marketing campaign. Once a subscriber has signed up for your site’s newsletter, the content of the welcome letter is key. It can either tell your customer they began a relationship with a business that really cares about them, or one that is impersonal, corporate, and has its email content written by a computer.

The best way to remember the top seven tips to a great welcome message is through the lyrics of popular songs.

1. I’m not Lisa, my name is Julie
Your welcome message has to be personalized. As soon as a new subscriber receives an email which starts out as Dear Sir or Madam (or something equally goofy) they’ll start to wonder if they’ve just signed up for a spam barrage. Personalizing the message with the new subscriber’s name shows you’re a real work at home mom rather than a corporate factory. Luckily, most email marketing services give you the option to pull in names (full or first) from your database.

2. Been around the world and I’m gonna find him
Just the customer’s name is fine. You don’t have to leverage their address to discuss their geography as a thinly disguised plug (Since you’re 530 feet from the bus stop, the hand-knitted earmuffs we sell would be great on those cold North Dakota mornings), or check their house on Google Street View (Your lime-green polka dotted front door would look lovely with our zebra striped Christmas wreaths). That’s just plain creepy.

3. Are we gonna do this or what?
Welcoming your new subscriber to the happy fold is great but you can’t pay your rent or buy diapers with customer goodwill. To help drive your prospect to the all-important checkout, provide a special welcome incentive in the form of free shipping on their first order, a discount voucher, a BOGO, or anything you can think of to get that cash register ringing.

4. Where did you come from, Cotton Eye Joe?
You might glean your subscribers from Facebook, Google+, Twitter, your website, referrals, or all of the above. Thanking them for specifically signing up through a specific channel will help to eliminate confusion. And confusion can only lead the customer to hit the unsubscribe button or worse yet, relegate your email to the junk folder.

5. What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
There is always some measure of trepidation when signing up for any email newsletter that the pleasant periodicity will turn into an avalanche of inbox-filling gunk. It’s not enough to remind them that your frequency is weekly, monthly, or whatever. Providing your customer with a link in your welcome message to your Preference Center will allow them the ability to change the frequency of your newsletter to suit their preferences.

6. Do the Safety Dance
You might think that a new subscriber would automatically add your newsletter’s sending email address to their safe list, but the vast majority of your customers won’t do that… unless they’re reminded in your welcome letter. Not only does being “safe” keep you from the evil Junk Folder dungeon, but it will significantly increase the chances that your images will be viewable, including that all important tiny invisible image that “calls home” and lets your email service provider know that newsletter has been opened.

7. Take it easy
They just signed up for your email newsletter, they didn’t move in with you … so save them the entire life story. If you have a lot to say in your welcome message, redirect it into your newsletter content. If your welcome email forces your new subscriber to scroll down repeatedly, you need to take the scissors to your copy right now.

Much of the first impression your subscriber will get about you will be from your welcome message. Get your new subscriber relationships off to a great start and you won’t be singing the blues!

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