How to Make an Interactive Welcome Email

The welcome email.

In many cases, this is going to be your very first point of contact with your potential customer. In most cases, they’ve visited your site, they’ve seen what you’re all about and they’ve willingly given you their email because they want more.

So to say first impressions count is a bit of an understatement here. Because if you hook your potential customers with that first welcome email, you’re starting to build the solid foundation of a great relationship.

If not…. chances are you’re in trouble. It’s going to be very difficult to re-engage that person and make them interested again. That means fewer potential customers and readers who aren’t really excited or engaged in your brand, all of which can lead to less profit.

Not good.

If your brand has been wanting to use email in a more effective way, or hasn’t started an email marketing campaign but wants to begin building that trust, then keep reading.

You’re going to learn how brands can tap into interactive content to really make those welcome emails pop. Let’s get started.

The First Touch Matters

Trust is an incredibly important factor for consumers today. They want to become customers for brands that are actively working to incorporate trust in the relationship from the very start.

That’s where the welcome email comes into play.

Remember, the first impression counts in any relationship, so use this welcome email to start laying the groundwork. Too many brands are completely ignoring how important this first touch point can be. And the thing is, it’s not lost on their consumers.

In fact, according to a study done by BlueHornet, 74.4% of customers expect a welcome email when they subscribe. Are you providing that?

If you’re not, realize that the welcome email traditionally has some of the highest open rates of any email your brand can send. Emma found through their research that “the average open rate for welcome emails is a whopping 50% , making them 86% more effective than email newsletters.”

With traditional email open rates hovering around the 20% mark (depending on business and industry), every marketer out there would be thrilled to see an open rate that is double that.

This means you cannot miss out on the opportunity the welcome email provides.

Unfortunately, brands still do.

Take a look at the information above. Only 81% of B2C marketers are sending out welcome emails, and yet, at the same time, welcome emails have “320% more revenue per email” when compared to other types of promotional emails.

Are you getting just how important the welcome email is? Thought so. The good news is you can take your welcome emails to the next level by incorporating some of the interactive marketing strategies we use at Zembula.

Let’s take a look a a few specific ideas.

A Universal Welcome…

One thing that makes the welcome email so important is it’s universal.

Both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) brands should be using welcome emails (remember, the vast majority of consumers are expecting them).

The reason why a welcome email critical is because a well done one really sets expectations for the customer interaction. If it’s a boring, two sentence form letter (You are now on the list. Thanks for subscribing!) that doesn’t conjure up much in the way of positive emotion.

But, if the welcome email pops right off the bat, well you’ve got a customer who is engaging from the very first moment.

Let’s take a look at how Oracle could create an interactive welcome email:

The potential customer gave Oracle their email because they wanted a whitepaper. Now, instead of just sending a conventional two line welcome email with a download link, they wanted to make their readers take notice from the start.

This welcome email asked recipients to have a little fun, engage, and participate. They still got their whitepaper, but it’s pretty cool to see how it was revealed.

This highlights how by just putting a simple piece of interactive content inside a welcome email, a brand can very specifically drive consumer behavior. Here, Oracle makes it very clear, very easy, and very appealing for the reader to perform the requested act: downloading the whitepaper.

…That Engages from the Start

At Zembula, we are all about engagement. It is the key to success in marketing.

There are a number of studies that highlight how consumers that are engaged are more likely to buy from a brand again and again. Who doesn’t love loyal customers?

So why not touch upon some of those key psychological triggers right from your very first email interaction?

Grab curiosity, give ownership, build emotional attachment, and yes even train them to want more.

Here’s another example how Spotify could implement a creative welcome email:

When a consumer’s first interaction with a brand is to get an email that features this, a fun little game, with a pretty awesome prize by the way, the emotional connection is already beginning to be forged.

They actively participated in getting something that made them happy, while they were having fun.

That’s one of the biggest benefits of interactive messaging.

Your brand can get people actively engaged right off the bat. And, as studies have shown, not all engagement is created equally. If you’re working on getting customers to truly build a lasting and long term positive relationship with your brand, then you want to embrace and encourage as much active engagement as possible.

Final Thoughts

So, what’s the big lesson here that we hope you’ve learned?

That the welcome email matters.

In many cases, the welcome email could be your brands best (and sometimes only) effort to truly connect with your potential customers right off the bat.

The stakes are pretty high here, and for good reason. The welcome email arrives in your reader’s inbox as a direct result of their action. They want the information you have to provide, their interested in you brand, so you have to make it count.

Instead of being conventional and like everyone else, stand out. Embrace interactive content.

Send a welcome email that is going to really get your potential customers not only interested, but actively engaging from the very first opportunity. Those brands that are able to do this are going to see more invested customers over the long run, which is great for the bottom line.