Welcome Flows – The Lynchpin of your Email Marketing Channel

There are a few “core” flows that you need to have in place to make the most of your email marketing channel.

Perhaps the most important is your welcome flow.

This is where your prospective customers get to know you, your product/service, and it’s their first touchpoint with your brand.

Subscribers are highly engaged when they first sign up for your list and you want to make sure you are maximizing the first few days when someone gets onto your list.

The most common objection I get is that brands are scared of sending too many emails and “spamming” their new subscribers.

Well… people signed up for your list to receive your emails. And if you send valuable emails they will want to open, read, and click. AND if they don’t want to open, read, and click they have the option to unsubscribe. (right?) Which, contrary to popular belief, is a GOOD thing.

So send emails! At least 4 in the first week. The total length of your flow doesn’t matter. I’ve seen good ones that are as short as 5 emails and great ones that are 14+ emails with multiple offers.

How much money can you stand to make from your welcome flow?

It depends… on your pop-up conversion rate, your AOV, and the quality of the emails in your flow.

But, I’ve seen brands make anywhere from 10% to 30% of their OVERALL monthly revenue from their welcome flow.

Adding hundreds of new customers each month. 

And best yet, once you have this developed, it runs on autopilot. Generating revenue from you, day in and day out.

Without further ado… here are the five key components of a high performing welcome flow that you’ll want to have in place.

First – Deliver on the Lead Generation Promise

Don’t get cute with the first email.

Deliver on the lead generation promise. Whether it’s a discount code, PDF document, or access to something… that should be the first thing that your subscribers receive from you.

And make sure that your welcome email is congruent with your pop-up or lead-generation offer.

If someone signs up for a 15% off discount code but then receives an email about free shipping… they are gone.

Or if someone signs up for a PDF but gets an email about access to an exclusive facebook group…. gone.

In the first email, tell the subscriber what to do.

Do they go to your website and enter the code?

Download the PDF?

Go to a unique URL to watch the recorded webinar?

Don’t assume that your reader will know what to do. Tell them.

Finally, create some urgency for your subscriber to take action.

Maybe it’s an expiration date for the discount code.

Or some copy explaining why they need to take action now.

Your first welcome email can make or break your flow.

Second – Tell The Backstory

People want to buy from people that they know, like, and trust.

So in your welcome flow, you need to introduce yourself and your brand to your subscribers. Go in depth. Tell your backstory. Get personal.

Many ecommerce brands are hesitant to do this. But when don’t right, it creates a bond between your brand and your subscriber. Making it easier to convert them from a subscriber to a buyer.

So tell your backstory. What was the problem you suffered from or that you saw in the market that needed to be fixed?

How did you get your start? Why did you start?

What is the specific problem that your product/service addresses?

And what makes you uniquely qualified to solve this problem?

Make sure you’ve got at least one email (maybe two) that tells your backstory. 

Third – Share Customer Success Stories/Testimonials

The biggest lever you can pull to convert a subscriber into a buyer? Social proof!

Make sure you have at least one email in your welcome that highlights success stories and/or customer testimonials.

Find 2-3 great success stories and share them with your new subscribers.

Try to include people from different demographics, but stay true to your ideal customer avatar.

If you are marketing to middle-aged men, don’t include a testimonial from a young woman who bought your product for her boyfriend.

Your readers want to see someone like themselves using and having success with your product.

Try to show the problems that your customers were facing before they started using your product or service and then how their life changed after.

You can never share too much social proof. The more you share stories about other people having success with your product the better.

Fourth – Highlight Best-Selling Product(s)

Going back to something I said earlier. People want to be TOLD what to do.

Don’t assume that your subscribers will know what product to purchase or what course to start with.

Be explicit.

I work with a company who has dozens of great flavors of their product. A new buyer would be in a state of shock if we expected her to just randomly pick one to start with.

So in our welcome we highlight our top 3 selling flavors and what makes each of them unique.

For another client, we’ve developed a specific sequence of courses that people should follow. So we don’t just assume that someone will start with the right course, we tell them in the welcome where to start.

Highlight what makes your product or offering unique from your competitors. How can you stand out from other options that your subscriber is considering?

And make sure to share BENEFITS, not features. 

Fifth – Tell Them What To Do Next

Finally, tell them what to do and expect next.

Can you sense a theme?

Don’t assume that your subscriber will know what the next steps are. 

Make sure throughout your welcome flow you are telling your subscribers what they should do. And be sincere about it.

Remember that you started your business or your brand because you have a unique solution to a problem and your solution can help people.

You would be doing your subscribers a disservice if you didn’t tell them what to do or how to best access your product/service.

And as you finish your welcome flow, make sure you loop back around to the sense of urgency that you started with. Provide a 24 hour notice on the discount code. Remind your subscriber why taking action now is important.

Summary

1. Deliver on what your promised
2. Tell your backstory
3. Share customer testimonials
4. Highlight best-selling products
5. Tell your subscribers what to do next

What Should YOU do Next?

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for daily email tips and what’s working now
2. Leave a like or a comment on this post to let me know what you thought. Did I miss anything that you think is a MUST in a welcome flow?
3. If you need someone to build out a high-performing welcome flow for your brand or business, send me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com or fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.