The Basics of the Welcome (Pre-Purchase) Email Sequence

Let’s start with a question! ❓

Who is more willing to purchase from your eCommerce store?

1. Someone who’s been on your email list for a long time
2. Someone who has just signed up for your email list

The traditional answer to this question is the “1.”— after all, that person has had plenty of time to check out what you do and get “nurtured” from lead into a customer.

But the real answer is the 2.⁉️

For nearly all businesses the newest sales come from new, hot leads.

That’s what makes a welcome email series so important. Because if you do it right you can capitalize on the so-called “sign-up momentum.”

The welcome series is a sequence of emails sent directly after someone signs up to hear from your brand.

In this short article, we will go through some techniques and best practices to make the best out of this critical moment in your customer’s lifecycle.

It’s your opportunity to introduce new, interested prospects to your business and product offering. With a welcome series, you should strike while the iron is hot and capitalize on this display of interest. 👋

The welcome flow should be a combination of promotional and content emails.

The open rates (even 50-60%) and click-through rates of your welcome email are going to be the highest you get on any email campaign. So use it wisely!

It’s a common strategy to offer some discount or free shipping for first-time customers through this sequence. And you should also include reminder emails for those who didn’t yet make their first purchase.

A lot of businesses only add 1-2 emails to this flow and waiting for a miracle…

You can add even 5-6 emails to squeeze the most out of it.

Here is an example:

1. Email – Offering a 10% discount with a time restriction.
2. Email – Reminder email to use the 10% discount offer.
3. Email – Content email that leads to a blog on your website. The blog should be related to the product and its benefits.
4. Email – Social proof email that can contain testimonials, third party pitch videos, etc.
5. Email – Discount Laddering- Offering a higher discount like 20% off.
6. Email – Reminder to use the 20% offer.

For most welcome email sequences, you can send one email per day. Sending more than one can feel spammy for your subscribers.

There can be exceptions, but this is a perfectly fine rule of thumb.

If you wait too long between emails, your customers don’t think of them as connected – emails that are 3-4-days apart aren’t “nurturing” leads, they’re disconnected.

Another important factor that, as time goes by, your lead becomes less and less interested and ready to buy…

Approximately the first week after they subscribe is your main “window of opportunity”!

We usually differentiate two main classes. Dropshipping stores and branded stores.

The main difference between the two usually their approach of time perspective.

Branded stores in almost every case, are playing for the long run and planning to sell the same or similar products. While dropshippers tend to use a “churn and burn” strategy. 🔥

This difference should be reflected in the emails and the email strategy in general.

The welcome flow of a branded store should be more personalized, the design standards are usually higher and it can contain more content or relationship-building emails.

To sum it up, welcome emails are the first step to a successful email marketing campaign. Getting them right will not only help you build a strong subscriber base, but it will also help beef up your bottom line. 🔝

Check out how to create a Post-Purchase Flow!