How long should a welcome sequence be?
A question I often get asked is “How long should my Welcome Sequence be?”
The thing with most brands that ask this question is that they are looking for a specific number of emails they should send to their subscribers but they don’t actually think about why they are using a welcome sequence or what they want to achieve with it.
I’ve broken down all the concepts of the welcome sequence so that you can look at it from a holistic view and not purely a numbers game. This will help you get what you want from your welcome sequence and less of what you don’t want.
The Goal of the welcome sequence
When you’ve captured the email address of your customer then we know one thing. They are a warm customer. They’re considering buying from you and so this is why the welcome sequence is a great opportunity. If you get it right then there’s a good chance you’ll get a sale, get it wrong and you could lose that customer and they may never come back.
With warm customers joining your list the goal of the welcome sequence is to warm them up even more and get them to make a purchase.
So what do you put in front of them to have the best chance of getting the sale?
What content should you put into a welcome sequence?
The first email should of course deliver the lead magnet you promised to give them on signing up. Further than that you can ask some goal-orientated questions and find out a bit more about them. If you can get replies from your customers, this boosts deliverability which in the long term is great for your email marketing.
Next, I would recommend telling your creation story. Explain why you are different or position yourself against another. This type of email will help customers resonate with you and want to be a part of your family or mission.
For example, there are coffee brands on the market now that have made compostable pods. They pit themselves against the big companies who use aluminium ones and tell you about how many never get recycled and end up in the ground. They speak directly to coffee lovers who care about the planet as well as a great-tasting coffee.
If you don’t have a mission like this then what makes you different to all your competitors?
After those two emails build the order of the next emails with what makes sense with your brand. The following are some good ideas for the content.
- Social proof (Testimonials, client success stories, as seen on) Try to use testimonials that break down objections and add a bit of weight. If your product has been featured in a magazine or on a YouTube channel, link to that.
- Best Sellers – Show your customers your most popular products.
- FAQs – 5 questions about your product or answer a common question you get.
Always check your metrics
Now that you know why you want a great welcome sequence and what you can put in it to make it successful. Remember to always check in on your metrics. You should never just fire it up as an automation and leave it. Look into the metrics of your welcome sequence, your open rates, and click-through rates. If some emails perform better than others, then you could always change the order and then test that new order against the previous one and see which one is better overall. You can test a lot more than this but you get the idea.
It's also important to test the timings of your emails. Your first email will trigger as soon as the customer signs up to your list but after that, you can determine when the next ones send. You need to bear in mind time zones if that’s a factor for you. You should mainly be thinking about when your customer is likely to read this email. Knowing your customer inside out is what will help you achieve not only great email marketing but marketing in general.
If you need help with your welcome sequence or want an audit of your welcome sequence. Get in touch today via the contact us at the bottom of this page
