No customer wants to be anonymous. We want to be seen and heard. We want to be valued. We want to know that we matter to the brands we support.
Your customers are no different. It’s your responsibility to make them feel valued and to build a relationship based on trust and respect. Of course, that’s easier said than done. The key is communication – early, regularly, and transparently.
You can use an email welcome message to kickstart your customer relationship and begin building trust as quickly as possible. However, your message must strike the right tone. And you can’t use the same welcome message for every customer. They come to you from different walks of life and diverse paths. Your welcome message must reflect the customer’s unique journey.
A welcome message is just what it sounds like — the first email a customer receives after taking a specific action. That might be anything and different businesses use these at various points in their funnels. For instance, you might send a welcome message after a lead signs up to receive notifications from your company.
You might send a different welcome message after they make their first purchase, and then another when they reach a specific threshold in sales (either volume or dollar-wise). The possibilities are endless, and they vary by industry and even across individual businesses within the same industry.
There are as many types of welcome messages as there are paths that customers can take to find your business. However, most fall into a few common categories. The five you’re most likely to use include the following:
Confirmation emails are among the most common you’ll send. They can happen whenever a lead takes a specific action, like requesting more information or signing up for updates or a newsletter. These emails have a couple of important tasks. Obviously, their primary job is to get the lead to confirm they want to take the action in question. However, more importantly, they act as an introduction to your brand and can set the tone for the entire relationship.
To write a conformation welcome message:
1. Keep it light, friendly, and, well, welcoming.
2. Tie it to your brand. Give the lead a good idea of what they can expect at future touchpoints.
3. Be enthusiastic about the action they’re taking.
4. Focus on building trust and communicating why the action they’ve taken is a great thing.
When a customer does something important, like signing up for an offer or buying from you, they deserve recognition. Celebrate that and show your gratitude. A quick thank you can go a long way toward making your customer or lead feel valued and seen.
To write a thank you message:
1. Keep it brief and avoid selling.
2. Thank them explicitly for the action they’ve taken.
3. Communicate that you look forward to building a relationship with them.
4. Consider offering something more than a text-based “thank you”. A discount on their next purchase is a great idea.
New customers deserve recognition. They’ve chosen your business out of all the other options out there. However, don’t make your new customer email the same as your thank you email (consider sending separate messages). Ideally, a new customer email should be warm and set the tone for the rest of the relationship. Give them a few pointers or tips, mention that you’ll be emailing periodically with further information of value, and make sure that all of it is tied into your brand as well as the customer’s journey.
To write a new customer email:
1. Thank the customer or welcome them to the fold.
2. Highlight a few key benefits of being a customer.
3. Mention a few tips and avoid selling.
4. Highlight that you’ll continue to contact them periodically with additional valuable information.
A lead signing up for a demo or trial of your product is your opportunity to make a great impression and move them from lead to customer. Your welcome email plays a big role here. It should welcome them to the trial, thank them for trying your offering, and then outline the next steps they need to follow. It must do all this while being succinct and representing your brand.
To write a product demo/trial email:
1. Be explicit about what they need to do.
2. Clearly communicate all the important things, like the trial’s duration, feature limitations, and whether their credit card will be automatically billed when it ends.
3. Make your welcome email match the product as much as possible.
4. Tie the content to your brand’s key differentiators, like transparency, ease of use, etc.
Whether it’s a webinar, a hotel stay, a conference, a convention, or something else, your event signup welcome message is critical. It must convey a lot of information in a relatively small amount of space and do so without overwhelming your recipient.
To write an event signup email:
1. Thank them for signing up and express your excitement about them attending the event.
2. Provide additional information they’ll need for the event. Critical info should be in the body of the email, but consider linking out to other resources, like packing guides, schedules, itineraries, etc.
3. Make it easy to add the event to their calendar with embedded links.
4. If applicable, provide directions with a Google Maps link.
5. Consider sending additional short reminder emails as the event gets closer
Welcome messages come in all shapes and sizes. However, don’t forget that you also need to consider the welcome that callers receive when they phone your office. A virtual receptionist can answer calls 24/7 and provide that much-needed human touch, all while ensuring that communications are aligned with your brand. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can also do much more than answer phones, including booking appointments, collecting payments, blocking spam and sales calls, and integrating directly with your CRM.
To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.