With the inbox being an increasingly saturated place, marketers are continuously having to strive to find new ways to engage with newly subscribed customers from the beginning to enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. From welcome emails to triggered messaging, let’s find out the options available to email marketers that will keep your newbies interested.

Welcome aboard

As soon as a new subscriber signs up, you should send them a welcome email thanking them for opting-in to your list. If you’re not convinced, consider these stats: welcome emails get 320% more revenue than promotional emails, an 86% lift in the unique open rate, and a 196% lift in the unique click rate, according to Entrepreneur.

In order to solidify subscriptions and reassure subscribers they’ve made a good decision, it’s vital to let them know exactly what they’ll be receiving from you when they sign up. Will they receive helpful content each week? What about promotions and coupons? Whatever you offer, make sure to let potential subscribers know in the opt-in form, as keeping them engaged starts with setting the right expectations.

Don’t forget that the welcome email should also be highly personalised as we know this is critical in encouraging opens, and a snappy subject line won’t go amiss either – you can find out more about subject lines here. If you want to learn more about strategies for creating an effective, personalised welcome email, potential challenges that may arise when using personalisation in your email strategy and our recommendations on how to implement or improve your use of email personalisation, download your copy of Pure360’s Advanced Email Series Personalisation guide here.

Opportunity knocks once in an inbox

The inbox is an incredibly busy place, so timing is key when it comes to when you send your campaigns and how often you send them. Instead of guessing what subscribers want, why not ask them when and how often they would like to receive your emails, and what topics they are interested in.

By asking each subscriber to do this from the off, you create a positive relationship and it is easier to include automation in your campaigns as you’ll know what your customers want from you. This simple strategy is worth the investment in setting up automated emails, as triggered messaging can significantly improve your overall campaign performance.

Our Online Marketing Manager, Lee Davies, will be presenting a webinar live on 20th April 2016 where he will explain and detail how you can use email automation to provide your customers and subscribers with relevant messaging sent at the optimum time to maximise your ROI.

In it for the long haul

While it’s critical to nail your welcome email, remember that it’s only the beginning of what will hopefully be a long relationship with your subscribers.

Think of the welcome email as a first date, and like any good relationship you have to continue to stay interesting, loyal, and engaging. Otherwise, subscribers may be turned off and remove themselves from your database (and no one wants that!) To maintain a solid and lasting relationship with your subscribers, consistently deliver the value that you promised in the beginning. If you promised a weekly email with industry tips, then make sure you send it out weekly. If you promised discounts for subscribing, then send discounts. Keeping people engaged long-term is often simply a matter of keeping your word.

Final thoughts

Engaging your audience is a long-term process that begins with the sign-up form and continues with the welcome email and subsequent content you send subscribers. It’s a long-term process of nurturing, engaging and guiding subscribers throughout their journey with you.

To start your relationship off on the right foot, ensure all signup forms, websites and emails are mobile optimised (to avoid simple mistakes that could sour the relationship). You’re then ready to send your automated welcome email, at which point you can ask subscribers to edit their preferences. It’s then up to you to deliver quality content which will keep you on the path to a long-lasting and happy relationship with your subscribers.