The Email industry knows that it is a best practice to have a Welcome Email. We know that at my current employer and we have had our Welcome Email in place for over a year now, it has been pretty successful delivering decent revenue and great response rates. We have recently made a change to the layout and that alone has made a significant impact to the bottom line, I will share this with you but first let me set the stage on how our program is working. It’s pretty simple, however, many people don’t send Welcome Emails or if they do, they send plain/boring emails.
When do we send the Welcome Email?
There is debate on how soon you should send out the Welcome Email, some say wait 24 hours, some say send immediately, some say something else. Currently we do two things:
- We send out immediately if you sign up on the Web if you sign up in the designated “email sign-up” box.
- We wait for you to complete your order if you sign up for email during the checkout process online or through the call center, you do send you call center sign-ups Welcome Emails don’t you? Anyhow, that’s not the topic of this blog post.
What do we include in our Welcome Emails?
- Personalize with their name if you get it during the process
- Tell ‘em what they are going to get
- Instructi0ns on how to get more
- A forward to a friend link – it gets used
- A DISCOUNT – capture as many sales as you can immediately
Alright, enough already. Let me get to the point of the post. This post is to show you the optimal design for our Welcome Emails as a retailer. Below you will see the before and after screen shots as well as the prized metrics.
- – - – -
BEFORE
Paragraph layout, no pre-header offer, boring
- Avg Revenue: $XX,XXX.XX
- Avg. Sale: $130-ish
- Open Rates: 35%
- Click Through: 11%
- Conversion: 11% (purchase/clicks)
As with anything, this could all be improved, we just need to tweak a few things test it out then let it roll…
- – - – -
AFTER
List style, pre-header, graphics, simple
- Avg Revenue: Increased 30%
- Avg. Sale: Increased 10%
- Open Rates: Stayed the same
- Click Through: Stayed the same
- Conversion: Increased 3%
This was a very simple change. We just made it more “fun,” easier to read, added a pre-header showing the offer as the very first item. After testing we are now running the email full-time.
So as you can see, it is well worth your time to tweak your “auto” emails such as the Welcome Email from time to time. Take this for what you will, but just know it worked for me.
Loading ...Peace out,
Shea
