Welcome to My Mailing List!
Developing long-term relationships with subscribers begins with a great welcome message. The email content in this message should be warm, inviting and indicative of the quality of the content you plan to send in future messages.
Sell Your List, Not Your Products...Yet
The key to any great welcome message is simple: Welcome people to your mailing list. This is not the time to sell or pre-sell goods and services. The first message you send should provide an adequate introduction to the benefits of your marketing campaign. Sending bulk email to subscribers is a privilege, not a right. Start off by saying thanks for subscribing to the list. Then go on to list all the benefits of membership including:
- Access to quality information
- Frequent updates about goods and services
- Researched opinions about niche/industry/markets your list covers
- Opportunity to receive free stuff/discounts
Give subscribers a reason to feel good about signing up before you attempt to sell something. Going right for the direct sale will leave many subscribers feeling cheated and question whether they will actually receive any quality information.
Gather Additional Information
If you want to segment your list, gathering additional information such as general age, gender, location, hobbies/preferences will be necessary. Create a short survey and include it in your welcome message. Not only does this allow you to gather information, but also lets subscribers know that you're curious about them and want to learn something about them (lets subscribers know that you value the relationship, not just their business).
This is especially useful if you have multiple newsletters or email campaigns. Allow subscribers to choose which messages to receive and which ones to skip.
Important Information
Let subscribers know important information such as your privacy policy, email frequency and any other information that pertains to their overall enjoyment of your email content. Be honest about how you run email marketing campaigns so subscribers are more prepared to open email messages. Make suggestions such as adding your email address to contact lists so subscribers know when a message is from you.
Be Consistent
From the beginning, it's best to send mass email from the same address. This means the account you send welcome messages from should be the same account you send all future messages from. This is so subscribers instantly recognize the email address and refrain from hitting delete before opening and reading the message.