Customer onboarding plays a vital role in building strong customer relationships. Welcome emails are a vital part of the onboarding process.
A welcome email is the first impression you make. You must strike a good chord with your new customers. Hence welcome emails must be carefully crafted with your goals in mind.
This post will help you explore interesting ways to engage and delight your audience with your welcome email. You’ll also find examples of successful businesses that have mastered the art of sending engaging welcome emails. So, let’s get started.
What Is A Welcome Email?
A welcome email is the first email you send to new subscribers, customers, employees, or anyone after they’ve signed up for your email list. The purpose of a welcome email is to make the recipient feel welcomed and valued and to provide them with information and resources to help them get started or share the next steps.
Welcome emails are a vital part of any customer or user onboarding process. It helps sow the seeds of a long-term relationship, establish a personal connection with the recipient, and set the stage for future communication and engagement.
Welcome emails are typically sent automatically and are often triggered by a specific event, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
5 Reasons to Send Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are like a cheerful reception greeting you receive without expecting them. Naturally, they make anyone smile and feel special. Don’t you want to start a relationship with your prospects on a happy note? Here are five reasons to send welcome emails to your subscribers:
- Make subscribers feel important: Welcome emails help make your subscribers feel comfortable, valued, and important. They’re likely to remember you for the sweet gesture of sending a personal welcome note, thanking them for their time, or sharing a special offer.
- Great way to introduce your brand: Everyone has a preconceived notion about your brand or business. A welcome email helps set the right tone and expectation by introducing your brand in your own words.
- Nurture leads and guide them toward the next steps: You can nurture your leads and potential customers by providing the next steps within your welcome emails.
- Build long-term relationships: Welcome emails help create a solid first impression and boost brand recall. This helps start a relationship on the right foot, an essential element to building a long-term relationship.
- Boost sales revenue and conversions: Adding special offers and deals to your welcome emails can boost conversion rates and turn new subscribers into paid customers.
For successful and efficient welcome email to reach your target audience, you must use email and/or SMS marketing automation so you can set up action-triggered sequences. Look how easy it is:
Types of Welcome Emails
Welcome emails come in all forms. You can send a welcome email to greet your new subscriber, thank them, send them an offer, or share the next steps. Here are the four most popular types of welcome emails you can start using:
- Hello emails: These are simple welcome messages that introduce the sender and the company to the recipient. These emails are typically used to establish a personal connection with the recipient and set the tone for future communication.
- Get-started emails: Get started emails are welcome messages that provide recipients with information and resources to help them get started with a product or service. These emails are designed to onboard a new user and typically include steps to take, links to helpful resources, and contact information for support.
- Offer emails: They include a special offer or promotion for the recipient. These emails are often used to share the promised resource, offer, or incentivize the recipient to take a specific action on the website — such as making a purchase, signing up for the newsletter, etc.
- Thank you emails: Thank you emails express gratitude for choosing a product or service. These emails often thank the recipient and encourage them to continue exploring or using the product or service.
Components of Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are designed to delight, surprise, and amaze a new subscriber. You must consider designing the perfect welcome email for all your list and every email campaign you plan. Here, take a look at one of the best welcome email examples:
If you look carefully, you’ll find the following components within a welcome email:
- Subject line: Make it enticing and click-worthy, which grabs attention immediately.
- Email preheader: Make it informative because it’s the first line of text in your email, displayed in the preview snippet before the message is open
- Opening paragraph: Thank, appreciate and congratulate the subscriber. Remember to make it short and sweet.
- Body of the email: Keep it to the point. Your body should include information about you, benefits to the reader, any offer/deal, and what they should expect.
That’s not it. You should take care of many different aspects around the core elements. Here are a few best practices for building the perfect welcome email:
- Always add a personalized greeting: Email personalization helps to establish a personal connection with the recipient and makes the email more relevant and engaging.
- Craft a clear subject line: A clear, descriptive subject line helps to grab the recipient’s attention and give them an idea of what the email is about.
- Write with a clear purpose: An excellent welcome email should have a clear purpose, such as introducing the sender or the company, providing information or resources to help the recipient get started, or offering a special promotion or incentive.
- A single call to action: A call to action (CTA) is a specific action you want the recipient to take after reading the email. A good welcome email should include a clear and compelling CTA to encourage the recipient to take the next step.
- Sense of gratitude: Expressing gratitude to the recipient for choosing your product or service helps to build rapport and foster a positive relationship.
11 Examples of Standout Welcome Emails
If you’re excited to create your first welcome email and are looking for welcome email design inspiration, here are a few great welcome email examples from different industries, including B2B, eCommerce, logistics, SaaS, and more.
Take a peek around and start taking notes on how you want to create your first welcome email:
1. Lyft – How it works email to new customer
Type of Welcome Email: Get Started Welcome Email
The welcome email that Lyft uses perfectly aligns with its product design and is an excellent example of an onboarding welcome email.
The email starts with a clearly stated benefit that scores high on relatability with its target audience. “Request”, “Ride”, and “Pay” is short and clear headlines that help the customer understand how Lyft works and how easy it’s to use Lyft.
Next comes social proof. Social proof can impact the minds of your customers in a way that builds trust with them. Finally comes the prominent CTA in a bright color. The CTA contrasts the whole layout and catches your attention instantly.
Key Takeaways
- State the key benefits of your product. Use a crisp and clear copy that directs the customer on how to start using your products or services;
- Include social proof to build trust through your welcome email to new clients;
- Make your CTA button prominent and catchy.
2. Welcome to Airbnb Email – Before Starting
Type of Welcome email: Onboarding/Get Started Email
Airbnb’s welcome email is a perfect example of a template that is both catchy and effective. The first line instantly catches your attention with the phrase “from houses and apartments to tree houses and igloos”.
Airbnb mainly comprises audiences who are travel enthusiasts. Hence, this line perfectly speaks to their taste. Following this, the email lists a series of steps to take “Before Starting Your Adventure”. Each step assists you in completing a task using a clear call to action button.
The last step catches your attention with a CTA that asks you to “Start Exploring”. This is something that will urge Airbnb’s new customers to complete all the steps and get started with the journey.
Key Takeaways
- Start your email with a warm and friendly welcome message.
- Thoroughly analyze what resonates with your ideal customer persona and use this in your email copy. This way, your email will instantly catch your customers’ attention.
- State all the steps users need to follow quickly and precisely. Imagine if Airbnb’s welcome email consisted of a tedious and long list of tasks to follow. Or consisted of huge walls of text! Most people will likely skip going through the email.
3. Welcome email after order Spotify Premium
Type of Welcome email: Thank You Email
Spotify’s welcome email is the perfect example of something that makes customers proud. The email starts with a welcome message and a call to action button in a contrasting color to the email layout.
After this, Spotify lists all the excellent benefits customers get after becoming premium subscribers. It includes listening without distracting ads, playing music on the airplane, and enjoying HD sound – all super-appealing benefits for their target audience.
Such an email copy would work great for increasing your trial-to-paid conversions. Customers who have opted for the Spotify trial would still be half-minded about paying for their membership. But, by designing such a welcome email series, customers would understand the product’s value and be pushed more towards paying for the Spotify subscription.
Key Takeaways
- Always list down benefits rather than your features. For instance, instead of saying, “ads removed”, Spotify says “, Listen without the distraction of ads”. This messaging adds a lot of appeal and desirability to your product;
- Convey the value you add to your customers through the welcome email. This should especially be effective when you offer a free trial for your product.
4. Dribble – email introduction to new customer
Type of Welcome Email: Onboarding/ Get Started Email
The Dribble’s welcome email is a super-fun and creative one. This makes sense because this welcome email is directed to all the creative designers who want to showcase their work on the platform.
The email starts with a humorous message about “Bath lovers’ day” and “portfolio scrubbing”. Such messaging would intrigue any readers’ interest. The whole email is based on this familiar theme, making it even more eye-catching.
Next comes the steps that users need to take to update their portfolios. The email copy directs its users to take action even while sounding interesting. Each step also consists of a call to action button.
The email ends with a bright pink CTA button which I’m sure users wouldn’t dare to miss. The quirky graphics and illustrations are the best and stand out in a crowd of generic imagery.
Key Takeaways
- Think about a quirky and creative hook for your welcome email, and stick to the hook throughout your email. You can add humor if it resonates with your brand voice, just like Dribble has done in this case.
- Complement your welcome email with colorful and quirky illustrations that are hard to miss. Ensure that your illustrations or graphics match your hook or theme.
- Use wordplay to sound way more interesting than you would otherwise do.
- Lastly, try to resonate with your target audience. For example, in Dribble’s welcome email, you can find millennial lingo relatable to their audience. You can see them talk about “Tinder profile” and “posting a snap”, which are relevant to their younger audience.
5. Baboon – Welcome Email After First Purchase
Type of Welcome email: Hello Email
Baboon sells adventure and travel bags to young audiences and has a witty brand tone, evident from their tagline — “Baboon to the Moon”.
If you see their email content, they stick to the same communication by saying, “Welcome to the Moon”. This excellent branding consistency and cohesive messaging display ultimately increase brand affinity. In the first few lines of the welcome email, Baboon talks about what customers should expect from them. They say “stories”, “new products”, etc. This will excite their customers, and they will look forward to receiving more emails from Baboon.
Next comes a cool picture that looks apt to their messaging. It shows adventurous people sitting on something that looks like the moon with Baboon’s bags.
They end the welcome email with a catchy illustration followed by an attractive call to action button.
Key Takeaways
- Have consistent brand messaging across all your marketing platforms, website, and emails. This will increase brand awareness, and customers will instantly recognize your brand’s colors and messaging whenever they come across your brand;
- Images speak louder than words. Hence, if you have a killer idea for an attention-grabbing image, use it to get your users’ attention right from the first email;
- Create hype about your next few emails by getting your readers excited about what fun content they can expect in your future emails.
6. Thank You for Subscribing Email by Climate Candy
Type of Welcome email: Thank You Email
Climate Candy sells plant-based assorted candy chews under the Faves brand. They are known for their quirky branding and copywriting.
Their welcome email shouts out their brand tone loud. The simple intro text with what to expect and a clear CTA is an excellent way to show subscribers that they mean business. Plus, the banner liners below the CTA showcase the benefits, alluring someone to buy the product.
Key Takeaways
- Stay on point with your brand tone, color, and guidelines;
- Always showcase benefits in some fun and quirky way;
- Remember to share what to expect after registration or signup for an email list or newsletter.
7. Welcome Email to New Employee by LiveAgent
Type of Welcome email: Employee onboarding/welcome email.
LiveAgent is a helpdesk software with a growing team that celebrates each employee by sending a personal note on day one. Have a look:
The simple email format feels like a personal note from the team lead/manager. The cute illustration plus the cheerful copy offers a great first impression for anyone joining the LiveAgent team. The company could have added a bit of personalization to this email, though.
Key Takeaways
- Keep it short and crisp;
- Never forget to personalize your onboarding email;
- Share the email as a personal note from a human — from the team lead, manager, or HR.
8. Onboarding Welcome Email by Slack
Type of Welcome email: Hello & Get Started Email
You’re probably here on an ‘off-time’ from Slack. While the tool is already popular in the world of remote work, they’ve not forgotten to welcome and onboard new users.
An email is a form of onboarding email with the next steps to get started. The clear layout, with lots of white space, highlighted tips, and a CTA button to find more information, is undoubtedly an engagement booster. They didn’t forget to reassure and provide additional assistance by sharing a support email.
Key Takeaways
- Never forget your new subscriber and share relevant tips as soon as possible;
- Don’t clutter the welcome email with lots of tips or steps. Instead, redirect them to a blog, help section, or landing page for more information;
- Provide a way for them to reach out in case of more questions.
9. SaaS Welcome Email By Recurly
Type of Welcome email: Get Started Email
Recurly is a subscription billing platform with a solid welcome email template that any SaaS platform can replicate.
The email has every important link a new user needs neatly arranged in square design blocks. Plus, the additional support offered as documentation link + email/live chat info guarantees that the SaaS tool is always there to help. The email footer, too, is a helpful add-on for a new user.
Key Takeaways
- Arrange important information in neatly designed layouts or design blocks;
- Always add helpful links and resources to an onboarding welcome email;
- Use the footer space wisely to provide additional support/useful links.
10. eCommerce Welcome Email By Fulton
Type of Welcome email: Offer Welcome Email
Fulton is a D2C eCommerce brand with a really cool welcome email that would push many prospects directly into the sales funnel.
The welcome email delivers a coupon code straightaway for new users to buy the product. The clever copy telling users about free shipping and returns (so their purchases are risk-free) is undoubtedly a conversion booster. The next section highlights the product’s benefits and features and ends with a CTA (and a referral deal) that will surely hook the recipient.
Key Takeaways
- Provide the promised deal, offer, or giveaway details in the first half of the welcome email (above the fold);
- Use clever copy and contextual CTAs to improve conversion rates;
- Always make your product the desirable hero in your eCommerce welcome email.
11. Welcome Newsletter by The Newsette
Type of Email: Hello Welcome Email
Newsette is a new-get media company that delivers relevant news to its newsletter subscribers every morning.
Their welcome email is an excellent example of how to introduce yourself in the first email. The plain text format feels like a personal note from the editor. Plus, the useful tip to ensure the reader doesn’t miss any email is super important in a world of ‘promotional’ filters and GDPR.
All in all, the perfect welcome email for anyone running a newsletter.
Key Takeaways:
- Never keep the reader wondering about what to expect next;
- Always make your recipient feel special and loved;
- Add useful tips or tricks to improve engagement (and ensure that you bypass inbox filters) by asking a favor directly from users. No need to move them around in circles.
Best Welcome Series Email Examples
Got your fix of welcome email inspiration? If the above examples were not enough, let’s look at some of the best onboarding email examples and welcome journey sequences. These welcome email examples are automatically triggered using a marketing automation tool based on a pre-decided scenario or flow.
Take the following example:
A user comes to your website, checks your product page, adds the product to the cart, and signs up for your newsletter but leaves without completing his purchase. In such a case, you can set up an automated cart abandonment scenario that gets triggered and sends an automatic email to such users.
You can easily set up automated welcome series within Sender:
You can send a multi-edition welcome series email that nurtures the user over a few days or weeks. But you might be thinking — how many emails will be used in a welcome series?
Well, the answer is — it depends. You can set up a 3-email series for a simple, one-time buy product and even plan an elaborate series spanning months after the person first visited your website if you’re selling a high-ticket item.
Take the example of HeadSpace, a wellness company that promotes meditation as a way to reduce stress and live a happy life. The brand has designed a carefully thought welcome email series consisting of the following three individual messages:
1. Personalized Welcome Message to All Users
Every user who signs up on the app gets the following personalized welcome message:
If you notice, the message has separate sections and CTA buttons. Headspace uses user action (time spent within the app, engagement with the emails, etc.) to categorize users into active users or inactive users. They use different email journeys and welcome series for the segmented user base.
2. Nurturing Active Users
Headspace’s email sequence for active users is a great example on how to further engage the users. The welcome flow sequence shows users the next steps and shares how to build meditation as a daily habit (so that they keep on using the app).
Further, the next email in the series is like a reward email that appreciates the users for trying the meditation app for 3 days in a row.
This email series is the perfect example of how you can nurture your users to engage them for a long time.
5 Welcome Email Templates
No worries if you’re all charged up to approach your users, clients, or customers with welcome emails but need clarification about what to include in a welcome email.
We’ve got some great email templates, including welcome email text examples, that you can use immediately. Here are five readymade text templates to help you get started.
Hello Email Template
Subject: Hello from [company]!
Hi [name],
We are reaching out to say hello! We’re [company], and we’re excited to welcome you to our community.
If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help.
Best regards,
[Your name]
Get Started Template
Subject: Get started with [product/service]
Hi [name],
Welcome to [product/service]! We’re excited to have you on board and can’t wait to help you get started.
To get the most out of [product/service], we recommend the following steps:
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]
If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help you succeed with [product/service].
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Offer Email Template
Subject: [Product/service] special offer for new customers
Hi [name],
Welcome to [product/service]! As a special offer for new customers, we’d like to offer you [discount/promotion].
To take advantage of this offer, use the code [code] at checkout. This offer is only valid for a limited time, so don’t miss out!
If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help you get the most out of [product/service].
Best regards,
[Your name]
Thank You Email Template
Subject: Thank you for choosing [product/service]
Hi [name],
Thank you for choosing [product/service]! We’re excited to have you on board and can’t wait to help you get the most out of our platform.
If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our customer success team is here to help you succeed with [product/service].
Again, thank you for choosing us. We look forward to working with you.
Best regards,
[Your name]
Welcome Client Email Template
Subject: Welcome to [company]!
Hi [name],
Welcome to [company]! We’re thrilled to have you as a client and can’t wait to work with you.
To get started, we recommend [steps to get started]. If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our team is here to help you succeed.
Again, welcome aboard! We look forward to building a solid partnership with you.
Best regards,
[Your name]
10 Welcome Email Subject Line Examples
You already know how important your subject lines are. So, subject lines for your welcome emails should be ‘super important’. After all, you’re trying to set a solid first impression. Here are some unique welcome email subject lines to help you brainstorm:
- [Name], let’s make magic together!
- [Name], let’s rock this journey!
- Hey [name], you’re in for a treat!
- [Name], thanks for joining the party!
- Welcome to the [company] family, [name]!
- [Name], it’s great to have you on board!
- [Name], thanks for choosing us!
- Hey [name], thanks for joining the [product/service] crew!
- [Name], we’re glad you’re here!
- Welcome to the [company] tribe, [name]!
What is the Best Time to Send Welcome Emails?
Ideally, you should send welcome emails as soon as possible. But the best time totally depends on the type of offer, the signup reason, and the industry. There’s no ‘rule of thumb’ regarding the best time to send welcome emails. But you should try to stay true to your promise on signing up. Say you asked the visitor to sign up in exchange for a coupon code. So, you should send the first welcome message immediately with a coupon code.
| Type of Signup | Best Time to Send Welcome Email |
| Offer/Lead Magnet Delivery | Immediately (within first five minutes) |
| General newsletter signup | Within 1 hour of sign up |
| Appointment | Immediately |
| Any other type of signup | Within 24 hours |
Key Takeaways
- Never forget to engage, surprise, and delight with a solid first impression;
- Use marketing automation tools and customer segmentation to utilize the opportunity to welcome a new prospect better;
- Always schedule welcome emails for new subscribers, customers, signups, and onboarding users;
- Remember to write in a warm and friendly tone.
