How to send a killer welcome email and why it matters

What happens when expectations aren’t met?

This is episode#51 of The Goodness Squad podcast. I’m guessing you may have had an experience like this. You pick up a glass of water, take a nice big drink and it’s not water. It’s Sprite or it’s lemonade. It’s jarring, right?

Even if you like lemonade and Sprite, if you get what you’re not expecting (the other way around does the same thing – you think you’re drinking Sprite or lemonade and you go to take a nice big drink, but it’s water), somehow that water just tastes gross at that moment.

This principle is really important for you to understand before you write the first email people are going to get after they join your list. This email is really, really important. In order to nail this email, you have got to understand that concept we just talked about – those expectations with the lemonade and the water.

What you’re doing wrong with your welcome email

So how am I going to connect Sprite, water, and lemonade to the first email you send your people? Here’s how, expectations matter. Right now, if you were to join my email list, you could do so by going to TheGoodnessSquad.com/subjectlineblueprint. On that page, you’re going to be told that if you join my email list, you get The Subject Line Blueprint. You’re going to receive help writing email subject lines.

So what happens if the very first email I send you talks all about how to create your first product? That’s going to be jarring. That’s going to create the same emotional reaction as you would feel if you thought you were getting water and instead got lemonade.

Now, maybe you like both. Maybe you want ideas for products and maybe you still need help with your email subject lines. But the fact that I did not deliver what I told you I was going to deliver is going to create some distrust in you. It is going to start our relationship off on the wrong foot.

And yet, so often this is what I see happening in the very first email you send. I have done this. I am not singling you out and telling you that you are doing the wrong thing without being right there with you. I did this for years.

I thought that the very first email was my opportunity to tell them all about me and how I could help them and why it was so important that they stayed on my email list. I was trying to convince them. I had 15 different calls to action in that first email. I told them about my Facebook group and I told them about my Instagram account. And I told them about one of my products that they might be interested in. And I told them about everything and how excited I was.

That’s not what they were expecting. They simply wanted help with their email subject lines. It wasn’t email subject lines back when I did that, but they wanted help with whatever it was they had signed up for and I didn’t deliver on my promise.

2 reasons why we do not meet expectations with the welcome email

1. We do this because of fear.
2. We do this because of a misunderstanding where our people are when they sign up on our email list.

When they sign up to be on your email list they are raising their hand and saying, I want to be here. Their mind frame is not in a place where they are about to leave. The first email is not the time to convince them to stay.

The first email is simply to deliver what they asked for.

Your first email is very easy to write because it should be extremely short. It should have one to two welcome sentences, and then deliver what they asked for. A link, “Here’s how you get exactly what you asked for.” Then give them one more sentence, reminding them how that thing is going to benefit them. What problem does it solve? How is their life going to change if they learn that thing or if they use that thing?

For Example:

I might say something like “I know that this tool is going to get more eyes on the emails you send.”

Simple as that one sentence.

So: welcome sentence, deliver what they’ve asked for, and then remind them how it’s going to benefit them.

That’s it! That’s all that goes in your first email. It is so easy to write and it is so essential that you keep it this simple because what happens when you do is you have built trust with that person. They trust that you will do exactly what you say.

It also does a second thing. It increases the likelihood that they will use that thing. If you have an email that is 10 paragraphs long and buried in one of those paragraphs is a link to what you promised, it’s going to be harder for them to find and far less likely that they’re going to use it. And you want them to use it because you want them to see a result.

A very important way you build trust in your welcome email

The first way you build trust is by delivering what you said you would. But the second way is by delivering a result. When you change something for someone, when you change something about their life or their situation or their business or whatever it is you’re helping with, and you actually are able to change something for them, they become far more likely to come back to you with a new problem.

Those are the two reasons why this first email needs to be short and sweet and do nothing other than delivering on what you promised. Now in the PS of the email, not the body of the email in the PS of the email, I highly encourage you to add something.

What to add in the P.S. section in your first email

Most of the time, this PS in my very first email tells them what is coming. It gives them a preview, a teaser of what is coming in the next email. Basically, I will tell them what the solution is going to be. “So in the next email, I am going to help you XYZ.  so don’t miss it. It’s coming tomorrow.” I will give them that preview so that they are looking forward to the next email, already wanting that next email, hoping to open it.

Occasionally, if I am in the middle of a promotion, I am promoting something for the very first time or there’s a special discount like Black Friday, then occasionally that email PS will say, “PS, I have a great deal on this product going on till this date. Just didn’t want you to miss it,” and leave it at that. It will link to the sales page.

I do not bombard my new subscribers with trying to sell them something. But if there is a truly time-sensitive deal going on, I will sometimes link to it in that PS.

So those are the four pieces:

1. Welcome them to your community.
2. Give what you delivered.
3. Tell how it’s going to benefit them.
4. Tell them what is coming next. What are they going to get in that next email from you?

That is how you write a killer welcome email. It really matters that this email is kept very simple. It is so powerful when it is kept simple.

Coming Up

In the next episode, we are going to dive into the rules of email marketing. Before you really start writing the rest of your emails, I want you to know what the rules are so that you have a great foundation of where to start.

Once again, thank you so much for your support of me and this podcast. It means more than you know.