You don’t even have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes for this to make sense.
I probably won’t even write that much about it, because there’s only so many ways that I can say this before it gets boring (even though most people need to read it…)
Think about any time that you have gone to the website for a business or company that you were interested in.
Maybe it was a product or program that you thought you might be interested in purchasing.
You read over the website and it looked like something that would be really helpful and you wanted to find out a little more.
Maybe you were even ready to whip out your credit card and give up those digits.
But you decided to hop on the email list, just for the sake of getting a little more familiar with the business.
So you put your email in the little box…
Click “submit” (or whatever clever way they changed the button to entice you)…
And nothing happens.
The form processes behind the scenes, and you get nothing in your inbox.
Or maybe you do get something…
A generic confirmation email from their autoresponder:
And then nothing happened after that.
Until…
A few days later, you get an offer to buy something that may or may not even be relevant to you.
So here’s the problem…
That website just took a potential customer (you) who may have been ready to make a purchase that very day, or at least very in the near future, and squandered that opportunity.
And this is exactly what you’re doing to your customers if you don’t do this one simple thing…
And what is this one simple thing?
A welcome email!
Don’t mess this up.
You have a real, live, potential customer forking over their email address to you.
I don’t think people protect their email addresses the way they used to, but it is still an indication of interest that they voluntarily out that email in the box on your website.
And it’s also an indicator of a greater likelihood to make a purchase.
Think about it…
Do you go around putting your email address on companies’ marketing lists if you don’t want them to send you something?
(Well, I do, but that’s different).
NO! You don’t!
So you need a welcome email.
And this doesn’t have to be complicated.
You don’t need a coder or even a graphic designer. This can be a plain text email, but it needs to do a few things:
1. Demonstrate your brand’s personality. Welcome them the way you would actually welcome a real person. It can be formal, informal, whatever. Write the way you would speak.
2. Reinforce the decision to subscribe. Tell them a little about your business, why it’s unique, or remind them of the specific reason they signed up (if there was a lead magnet or coupon or something along those lines).
3. Tell them what to expect. Let them know how often you email, what kind of emails you like to send out and the benefit they’ll receive from being on your list (i.e. first to know about new products, sales, etc).
4. Make an offer. This doesn’t need to be a hard sell. In fact, you can put it in the P.S. so it doesn’t come across all Glengarry, but you need to give them a way to GIVE YOU MONEY IMMEDIATELY. It doesn’t even matter if they take advantage of it, but they need to have the option. You may be shocked at how much your sales increase just by doing this.
Let’s take a look at a screenshot of a company that does this right.
The company is Beardbrand. Their email game is on point (and we’ll be looking at more of their stuff in the future because it’s good).
Here is a welcome email:
So let’s break this down a little and see what elements are present in this email (and this is just a screenshot, so the whole thing is not visible).
Based on the point above:
1. There’s a greeting (“Congrats man!” etc…)
2. It reinforces the decision to subscribe by saying congrats and offering an exclusive kit.
3. It tells you what to expect (Beardbrand Bootcamp emails)
4. It makes an offer (an exclusive kit, sold at a discount).
So if someone were to go to the Beardbrand website and were even remotely interested, they would get this email as soon as they signed up, and I’d be willing to bet that a decent amount of people take them up on this offer.
And just to drive home the point that you don’t have to agonize over the design of this email, here’s another example, this time from Truvani:
Once again, all the elements are present:
A welcome, a reinforcement, what to expect and an offer.
(See if you can pick them out yourself this time… It’s pretty easy).
But this time, the email is basically just text with a header.
No complicated design necessary.
So…
Now you may go forth and welcome your new email subscribers properly, and maybe even make a few sales that you wouldn’t have otherwise made, all at the same time.
TL/DR;
People putting their email addresses in your website are likely warm prospects at least.
Don’t make them wait to hear from you or buy from you.
Welcome them right away, put the elements listed above in your email and give them a chance to buy from you on Day 0.
My Offer…
If you need help with this, schedule a 15-minute consultation, or apply to work with me and we’ll get your email dialed in and converting.
