Onboarding Emails for Easy Engagement of New Customers

Onboarding emails are the emails you send to a user immediately after they sign up for your product or service. The aim is to get recipients familiar with what you offer so that they can make the best out of your service.

This type of email is especially important as it keeps users engaged and helps convert them into long-term customers. It also reassures the customer that they made a good decision by signing up for your service. The more helpful and relevant your onboarding emails are, the more likely the recipients will trust your brand and engage with your future emails. A good onboarding email increases the success rate of your marketing campaigns, which translates to higher sales for your brand.

Tips to Master the Art Of Onboarding Emails

There are a few things you must consider to craft the most effective onboarding emails. One of them is personalization, which entails using your subscribers' personal data to create more targeted emails. For instance, you can include a “Hi, [Your customer’s name]” in the subject line of the email. This makes the recipient feel important and more likely to engage with your email.

Other tips to consider include choosing the right format for different types of emails, using call-to-action buttons to direct the recipient to the next steps, and clearly stating the value you’re offering to the recipient.

Make Use of The Right Style

There's no one correct style for all types of emails. The best style depends on your business and the customer profile you're targeting. For example, if you're selling clothing to millennials, you're free to use tongue-in-cheek language to spice up your emails. In contrast, if you're targeting enterprise customers with a software product, you should stick to a formal tone.

Choose the Format

The format refers to the structure of your email. One of the most confusing things is whether to use text-based emails or image-based emails to draw their recipients' attention. The answer is – it should be a healthy mix of both; using text alone will not create a lasting impression, while using only images makes your email more likely to land in the promotions section instead of the main inbox.

80% text and 20% images is a healthy ratio, but you can tweak it slightly. You can also use A/B testing to see which version delivers the best conversion rate.

Use Personalization

Personalization entails using the personal data of the email recipient to create a more engaging email. The data could be their first and last names, location, interests, product browsing history, last item purchased, etc. For example, you can track a customer’s browsing history and send them a list of recommended products to buy based on the type of products they search for the most.

Highlight What’s in It for the Prospect

Recipients have limited time to read emails, so you should clearly state the value of what you're offering to them. Let them know what's in store for them, like how your product addresses their problems. Imagine you’re the customer and think of what you would like to receive from your brand.

You can also include incentives like discounts and vouchers to make customers stay loyal. This works mostly for the B2C audience.

Make Use of CTAs

You should include a call-to-action button that directs the recipient to the next steps to take to engage with your product.

Make sure your call-to-action button is easy to spot or else the customer may overlook it. Use a color scheme that's visually appealing and in tune with the rest of the email for the button. Customers that click on it will be redirected to your website to interact more deeply with your brand.

Use a Sender Adress of a Higher Authority

Recipients are more likely to open and click buttons on your emails when you send them from a higher authority, such as a company's CEO or President. A personalized message from a higher authority goes a long way in convincing the recipient to engage with your product. You can employ this strategy each time you send a welcome email to new subscribers.

Best of Onboarding Emails

We’ve provided a few tips on how to send the most effective onboarding emails but that may not be enough. It’s also important to see examples of such emails that you can be inspired with. We’ve curated some of the best ones we could find, including those sent with a personal touch, offering incentives like discount codes, welcome emails for a free trial, etc.

Onboarding Email Sent with a Personal Touch

As we’ve mentioned above, personalization in an onboarding email goes a long way in encouraging customers to stay engaged with your brand. Here’s an example of a fitting email sent with a personal touch.

In this email, the CEO of eco-friendly products retailer Package Free is welcoming customers who signed up for the brand’s newsletter and narrating the story of what inspired her to start the business. This email sent with a personal touch will more likely draw the recipient’s attention.

Onboarding Email Focused on the Product

An onboarding email is what introduces your product to the recipient. Hence, you should craft an email that lets the customer know how to use your product. You can add video tutorials or a link that redirects the user to your guide page.

The above onboarding email is from short-term rentals platform Airbnb, and it’s sent to a user who registered to list their property on the platform. You can observe the visible call-to-action button that redirects the recipient to a page to publish their listing and the links to help them understand how renting out their property works on the platform.

Onboarding Email After Sign-Up

You send this type of onboarding email immediately after a customer signs up for your product or service. It presents an excellent opportunity to thank the customer for signing up and talk about your product or service. However, avoid being too pushy, as this can annoy the recipient.

The email above is from a cooking app called Whisk. It’s thanking a new customer for signing up for the cooking app and shows them how Whisk can help their cooking efforts. There’s also a visible call-to-action button that redirects the recipient to learn more about the cooking platform.

Onboarding Email Offering a Discount Code

You can offer a discount code in your onboarding email to convert recipients into loyal customers. Nobody likes to turn down a good deal, so a 10% or 20% discount could be all that’s needed to lure a doubting customer into buying your product.

The above email is from Uplers, a tech talent agency. It’s offering a $100 discount on development services, which tempts the recipient into taking immediate advantage of the offer.

Onboarding Email for Subscribing for a Free Trial

You send this type of onboarding email to customers that sign up for a free trial for your service. After sending this email, you'll need to send another series of emails aimed at converting the free trial subscriber into a paying customer.

The above email is what Google sends to free trial subscribers for its G Suite collaboration service. Observe that it lets customers know that they should expect a series of additional emails which Google sends with an aim of converting the recipient into a long-term paying customer.

Final Note

We’ve provided you with a few examples of visually pleasing and effective onboarding emails along with a number of useful tips. Yet you should keep in mind that an onboarding email is just one of many steps you take to convert a new subscriber into a paying customer. Thus, such emails should be made with regard to your overall marketing strategy.