One engagement opportunity that many IT business owners miss is the email welcome sequence. This is a series of emails that go out automatically right after someone has signed up for a newsletter or downloaded a lead magnet.
Touching base with people who have just visited your site and given you their email address can improve your lead conversion rate because you’re striking while the iron is hot.
What should you send and when? We’ll go through our suggested 5-day email welcome sequence below to give you a blueprint you can use for your own marketing.
Why Send a Series of Welcome Emails?
When someone opts in to receiving your company newsletter, their interest in doing business with you is at its peak. You don’t want to just let that lead get cold until it’s time for your next newsletter to come around.
Doing a 5-day email welcome sequence allows you to begin to build a rapport with the person. It also allows you to begin garnering the trust that’s going to help convert them to a sale when the time is right.
Welcome emails have some of the best open and click-through rates of any emails out there. According to benchmarks from GetResponse, welcome emails have an 86% open rate and a nearly 29% click-through rate.
People like to know that you’ve noticed them. And the way you do this in the internet world is to send someone a welcome message as soon as they’ve interacted with your site enough to give you a way to send it.
There’s something about being welcomed that makes people feel appreciated instead of sold to. On average, a welcome email will generate up to 320% more revenue and 3x the transactions per email than other types of promotional emails.
At Tech Marketing Engine, we highlight the importance of a 5-day email welcome sequence as one of the steps to energize your sales pipeline.
Key reasons to send a 5-day email welcome sequence:
- Begin fostering a relationship with a lead
- Build trust
- Improve conversion chances
- Strike while lead interest is high
- Show appreciation
- Move the person forward in your MSP sales funnel
- Increase revenue
Suggested Timing and Email Content for Your Sequence
Email #1: Welcome & Introduction
(Sent Immediately Upon Newsletter Opt-in)
Your first email should be sent immediately after someone engages with your website by either downloading a lead magnet or signing up for your newsletter.
It’s an initial welcome message that lets them know you’ve noticed them and appreciate the interest. This email will also begin the direct conversation between you the customer, so you’ll want to ensure your brand “voice” is used in a friendly and welcoming message.
It’s also important to use consistent branding on this and the subsequent emails so the person can begin to recognize your emails when they come into their inbox.
This email should be fairly short and to the point. I’d recommend you wait to send any coupons or offers as you don’t want to make this a sales email. Its entire purpose is to say, “Hey! Thanks for stopping by!”
Here are two examples of great welcome messages from Vero. Click here to see more.
Here is one last thing to include in your welcome email.
Since you’ll be doing a 5-email sequence, you can reduce unsubscribe rates by stating that upfront. That way the person knows they won’t be bombarded with emails from your company. You can add something like, “Hey, we really appreciate you and will be touching base over the next week regularly so you can get to know us. After that, you’ll see our newsletter in your inbox once a month.”
Email #2: Value Offer
(Sent 1 day after Email #1)
The next email after you welcome the person is to show how being connected to your company is going to add value to their business (B2B) or life (B2C).
Tell a little about yourself to put a name and a face to your business. This helps strengthen the relationship because they now feel they’re interacting with another human being rather than a faceless company.
Think about three key strengths that your business has. For example, these might be:
- Fast response times
- Long-term relationships
- Flexible plan pricing
You can even back up your value with a quote from a current customer.
Email #2 might look something like this:
“Dear Joe,
Thanks again for connecting with XYZ Computers. I started this business back in 2003 and feel grateful for the long-term relationships we’ve built with customers over the years. I look forward to kicking off that journey with you.
I thought you’d like to learn a little more about us and how we might be able to help you with your technology needs. Some of our core strengths include:
- Fast response times (we get complimented on this often!)
- Flexible plan pricing
- Reliability and work you can count on
If you have any IT needs you’d like to discuss, feel free to reach out and we can schedule a coffee or internet chat.
I’m looking forward to connecting and helping out with any IT needs you might have in the future.”
Email #3: Problem Solver
(Sent 1 day after Email #2)
Now that you’ve talked a little about yourself, you want to invite them to come to you to get their technology problems solved or their IT needs met.
The problem solver email in the 5-day sequence is about anticipating some of their pain points the person might have and noting how you’ve helped other clients. For this one, it will help if you have maybe two or three IT business testimonials that you can link to about different problems you’ve solved.
You might open the email with an invitation for them to tell you more about their IT needs. Then tell a few stories about how you’ve problem solved for others and would appreciate the opportunity to assist them with their technology issues.
Email #3 might look something like this:
“Hi Joe,
We can’t help but wonder what IT issues you may have that you’d like to solve. The team at XYZ Computers lives to help people get the most out of their technology and resolve problems they may have.
Feel free to reply to this email and let us know how we can help you.
In the meantime, we thought you might like to see how we’ve helped solve some tough computer issues in the past.
Last year, our client was working through a transition from spreadsheets to a digital workflow. We built them a more optimized system and helped them improve productivity by 200%. (Read more)
One of our long-time customers of 15 years, had an emergency on a Saturday night that would’ve caused them to miss a client deadline. Our response time is legendary (if we do say so ourselves) and we helped them out that very night. (Read more)
We look forward to seeing how we can help make your technology world a little better.”
Email #4: Surprise Gift
(Sent 1-3 days after Email #3)
Email number four is about giving the person unexpected value that makes them happy that they’ve connected with you. For this, you want to create some type of surprise gift based upon the lead type.
This “gift” would be something like a helpful template that is commonly used in business, or it could be a free checklist for an office IT move. Another idea would be to create an eBook about optimizing your home office or hybrid workforce (depending on the audience).
To make this gift more special, don’t offer it anywhere else on your website, only offer it within your 5-day email welcome sequence. You can even mention that in your email itself. Knowing that the eBook (or another gift) you’re sending is only sent to new subscribers will contribute towards making the person feel special.
Don’t try to sell anything in this email, it’s all about surprising the person with a freebie that they’ll hopefully find of value.
Email #5: Make a Time-Sensitive Offer
(Sent 1-3 days after Email #4)
The final email in your sequence will be the “ask.” You’ve just sent them a free gift, and before that, showed how you offer value. Now you can see if they’re ready to purchase with a time-sensitive offer.
Decide on the offer type based upon any details you might have gleaned from their website journey and the pages they visited. For example, if they visited your backups service page, then you may want to offer them 15% off the initial year of a backup & recovery plan.
Test out different offers, as some may get more bites than others.
Tips for an Effective Welcome Email Sequence
Automate the Sequence
It’s best to automate the sequence so that it goes out according to your timing to every new lead. This saves you time and ensures that no one is left out.
Use Different Sequences for Different Audiences
If you sell to both residential and business clients, then you’ll want to create two sequences so you can better target your message to each one.
Adding a checkbox to your form for “personal or business” allows you to automate which sequence each lead is sent based on their choice.
Review Email Stats & Optimize
It takes some time to see which messages work the best with your leads, so test different ones and review their stats.
Continue optimizing your 5-day email sequence so it can drive the most conversions possible.
Show Your Leads They’re Appreciated & They’ll Stick Around
Most people will stick around and want to know more about a business when you go out of your way to welcome them. Take the time to set up a welcome sequence to build relationships and boost conversions.
Do you have a welcome email that performs particularly well? Share your tips in the comments.
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