1. Using Welcome Emails to Drive
Increased Engagement and ROI

2. Contents
Why Welcome Emails?
Elements of a Welcome Email Program
Sample (Good & Bad) Welcome Emails & Best Practices
Welcome Series
REI 12-Part Welcome Series
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3. Why Welcome Emails?

4. List Churn and Inactives – The Good, Bad and So-So
The bad news…
A typical list will lose 1/3 of its
members each year The good news…
 Bounces + spam complaints + • Churn can be reduced
unsubscribes = 2-4% / month
• You control most of your destiny
25% to 80% of your list is • Some inactives can be reengaged
inactive
 Subscriber has not opened or
clicked in specific time frame
The so-so news…
(e.g., 6, 12 months+)
Most are lost
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5. The Honeymoon is over!
Research by marketing
publisher MarketingSherpa
shows email subscriber interest
begins to disintegrate as soon
as two weeks after the opt-in, as
measured by the open rate.
Within two months, the open
rate typically falls 20% to 25%.
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6. Why Recipients Unsubscribe
-Too Frequent
- Irrelevant
Content/Offers
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7. Welcome Email – eec Retail Research Study
72% of major online retailers send out welcome emails.
98% of retailers’ welcome email now contain a link to their
shopping site
32% of welcome emails include a discount, reward or incentive
62% of welcome emails asked the subscriber to whitelist them
79% of retailers sent out HTML welcome emails
 Most of the HTML welcome emails were HTML “lite,” making extensive use of HTML
text
53% of welcome emails included links to the retailer’s privacy
policy
58% of welcome emails were CAN-SPAM compliant in terms of
including both a mailing address and unsubscribe method
*Email Experience Council’s second annual Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study (2007)
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8. Elements of a Welcome Email
Program

9. Subscriber Email Touch Progression
Opt-in form
DOI Confirmation Email
Welcome Email or Series
Regular Email Program
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10. Engage and Delight…Every Step of the Way
Dating
 Build trust with transparency
 Preferences on opt-in
Engagement
 Welcome programs
 Bring the flowers
Marriage
 Deliver on expectations
 Preference updates
 Move to lifecycle, trigger and behavioral-based programs
Divorce
 Provide alternatives to unsubscribing
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11. Goals and Purpose
Goals: Purpose
Speed up conversion Educate subscriber
Minimize list churn Reward/Incent
Strengthen brand Instill/reinforce trust
perception
Enable immediate “email
Reduce inactivity experience”
Provide administrative
information
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13. Timing
The Good News The Bad News
61% of retailers deliver 19% take more than 24
their welcome emails hours to deliver their
within 10 minutes of welcome emails, with
sign up, with most of nearly a third of those
those delivering within 3 taking more than a week
minutes.* to deliver.*
*Email Experience Council’s second annual Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study (2007)
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14. From Name/Address
From Names:
 Use the same from name as regular emails
 Simple, logical and trusted brand
From Name/Address
 Again, use same as regular emails
 Avoid ugly, number-oriented if possible
Good Examples:
 Olive Garden [newsletter@olivegarden.com]
 MBNA America [MBNA@cardsatisfaction.com]
 Magazines.com [offers@magazines.com]
Questionable Example:
 Penny at MarketingProfs [support@marketingprofs.com]
 Service@wedding.orders.com
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15. Subject Lines
Good/OK Not So Good
Welcome to Fetchdog! Take Welcome
10% Off Your Next Order  No branding
 Branded  No mention of email program
 Immediate value proposition  No value proposition
Welcome to Art.com - Take Thank you for signing up!
20% Off Today  Signing up for what?
 Branded  No branding
 Immediate value proposition
Welcome to Sear.com Email
Savings!
 Email program is branded
 Implied value proposition
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16. Welcome Content Checklist
Email address added Resources, key links
Add to address book “Your gift” incentive
Privacy assurance and Unsubscribe link
link
Reinforce value
Link/instructions on how proposition
to change preferences
Upsell
How to get started
Call to action/”offer”
When the first email will
arrive
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17. Sample (Good & Bad) Welcome
Emails & Best Practices

18. Confirmation Emails – Are Not “Welcome Emails”
• Primary Purpose is to confirm subscription
• They aren’t a subscriber yet
• Pre-selling and reminding of value proposition is
good, but should not take the place of welcome
email; or distract from confirmation action
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19. Net a Porter: 3-Step Sign-Up/Confirmation Process
1. Opt-in form with minimal (but key) information requested
2. Double opt-in confirmation email
3. Further information collected on confirmation page for additional
targeting
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20. Net-a-Porter: Double Opt-in Confirmation Email
20

21. Net a Porter: DOI Confirmation Page – Collect Additional Data
21

22. Welcome –
4-parts will follow
Overview
Login
immediately
Value
proposition
Tips and
community
FAQ
Support
Resources contact

23. MarketingProfs: Manages Expectations/Transparent
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24. Key text navigation links
Value
Proposition
Shopping
link
Administrative text links

25. Sears: Works Pretty Well Even With Block Images
However, most
critical shopping
link is image only
– should also be
text link
25

26. Toys-R-Us: Disaster With Images Blocked
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28. Top
of
email

29. Middle
of
email

30. Bottom
of
email

31.  Best Practices Followed:
 Re-iterates benefits of
signing up
 Set expectations on when
first email would be received
(though vague)
 Asked to be added to
Address Book
 Link to privacy policy
 HTML to convey brand
image
 Sent within 24 hours of
registering
 Primary message is view-
able in an images off
environment

32. Welcome Email – Betty Crocker
 Confirmation/Welcome email received
when registering for their website
Cross promotes their newsletters in case
you didn’t sign up when you registered for
the website
Great use of imagery
Coupons
Star Ratings
Recipe Box
 Best Practices Followed:
Primary message is view-able in an
images off environment
 Email comes from Betty Crocker (From
Address).
 Includes personalization (first name)

33. Good:
 Driving immediate engagement with Infiniti
by providing key calls to action on the red
buttons
Needs to Improve:
 The entire main body of the email is an
image
 Need a mix of text and HTML to
optimize visibility in email clients and
deliverability

34. Welcome Series
Think Series, Not Just a Single Welcome Email

35. Welcome 1 - Overview
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36. Welcome 2 – Getting Started
36

37. 1
Preferences Reinforce
reminder Benefits

38. 2

40. REI 12-Part Welcome Series
(Courtesy Smith-Harmon
www.smith-harmon.com)

41. 1

42. 2

43. 3

44. 4

45. 5

46. 6

47. 7

48. 8

49. 9

50. 10

51. 11

52. 12

53. Takeaways
Take baby steps
Test subject lines
Redesign for preview pane and blocked images
 Test layout, use of images, HTML
Incorporate additional welcome content
Monitor open, clicks and conversions for recipients of Welcome
messages – impact on overall response rates
Expand from a single welcome email to welcome program
Continuously test
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54. Q&A
Follow Me Contact:
 Twitter  Loren McDonald
• @LorenMcDonald  lmcdonald@silverpop.com
 Columnist
• Media Post - Email Insider
• MarketingProfs GetToThePoint
• Many others…
www.silverpop.com
 Blogs
• Silverpop – “Tales”
• http://marketing-
suite.silverpop.com/loren-
mcdonald.html
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