10 Great Examples of Welcome Emails to Inspire Your Own Strategy

We’ve all heard the importance of making a good first impression. Arriving late for an interview?

That’s a bad first impression. Eating a ton of garlic and forgetting to brush your teeth before your first date? Bad first impression too.

It turns out that the “make a good first impression” principle applies not only to face-to-face encounters, but also to email interactions.

When you send a welcome email to a new blog or newsletter subscriber, or to a new client, you are making a first impression on your brand’s behalf. To make sure you are making the best possible first impression, we’ve rounded up some examples of great welcome emails from brands big and small.

Pro tip: Use HubSpots free email marketing software to easily create a high quality welcome email sequence like the ones below.

As you will soon discover, each of the following examples demonstrate different tactics and strategies for attracting new email subscribers. Let’s dive in.

10 examples of great welcome emails

1. Virgin America

Type of greeting: Get started

A welcome email is the perfect medium for introducing people to the features (and eccentricities) that make your brand unique.

For Virgin America this means placing the “I love you” hand symbol in the front and center. This small gesture signals to the recipient that Virginia America staff genuinely care about their customers. The playful companion “Welcome on Board” and the casual call to action “Grab a Seat” also help position Virgin America as a hip, fun-loving brand from the start.

2nd Food52

Type of greeting: Get started

Sometimes the smallest elements in a welcome email can speak volumes about a brand. And when it comes to the welcome email from Food52, this is definitely achieved by the preview text at the top of the email “We brought snacks with us”.

Also known as pre-header or snippet text, preview text is the copy that is pulled from the body of an email and appears next to (or below) the subject line in a person’s inbox. So, when you see the Welcome email from Food52 in your inbox, you can get a taste of the brand’s personality before you even open it.

The Food52 welcome email also does a good job of building trust by putting a face on their name (make those two faces). Once you open the email, you’ll see a photo of the company’s founders and a welcome message from them.

3. Monday.com

Type of greeting: video

From the subject line to the conversation tone in the email body, the welcome email above is friendly and simple, so the focus continues to be on the introductory video inside.

Monday.com is a task management tool for teams and companies. The welcome email you receive when you sign up makes you feel like CEO Roy Man is speaking to you directly. The email even personalizes the opening greeting with the recipient’s first name – this is known for Increase in email click rates (especially if the name is in the subject line).

The closer you get to making your email sound like a one-on-one conversation between you and your subscriber, the better. When you just have so many details to let your new customer know about, follow Monday.com’s example and include them in a video instead of phrasing them all in the email itself.

4th Kate Spade

Type of greeting: Thank you

Let’s face it: we, the Internet users, are constantly bombarded with requests to sign up and subscribe to all types of email communications. So as a brand, when someone takes the time to sift through the whole mess to sign up on purpose Your Email communication, it’s a big deal.

To show how grateful you are to the people who actually take the time to sign up, Kate Spade uses a simple but effective tactic in her welcome emails: you say “thank you” in big, bold letters. And by putting that “thank you” on an envelope, Kate Spade feels like receiving an actual thank you letter in the mail. (The 15% discount code doesn’t hurt either.)

5. Lyft

Type of greeting: Get started

If there’s an ideal “mindset” welcome email should be making, Lyft has it.

The simple but lively welcome email from the company shown above focuses solely on the appearance of the app, delivering a design that is as warm and sleek as the elevators Lyft is trying to give you. At the same time, the email’s pink call-to-action draws your gaze to the middle of the page to “Take a Ride” – an inviting language in which you, the new user, don’t feel pressured.

6. IKEA

Type of greeting: offer

It might not be the most beautifully crafted email on this list, but that doesn’t mean the IKEA welcome email isn’t effective.

Instead of opting for the hard sell (e.g., “By stuff now!”) Or explaining what they are doing (which IKEA probably assumes most people already know), IKEA uses their welcome email to draw people towards their others. lesser known programs and content channels. For example, at the top there is a call-to-action that explains the value of the member benefits program. There are also calls to visit their design blog and contribute to their “Share Space” collaborative page.

Alternatively, if you aren’t interested in any of these, you can just log in with the welcome email from IKEA and start shopping (there is a login box at the very top).

7. Michaels

Type of greeting: offer

The Michaels approach to the welcome email borrows elements from Kate Spade and Virgin America. Michaels not only thanks the people who took the time to sign up, but also uses his welcome email to showcase the brand. And the company does a great job: the long email feels like one big arts and crafts project, complete with paint, thread, and panels.

Another standout feature of this welcome email is that Michaels immediately makes it clear what value future email communications will bring. After thanking the subscribers, there is this beautiful copy that sums it up:

“We’ll be sending out fun things like DIY tips and tricks, invitations to in-store events, and exclusive offers and coupons.”

8. Sphero

Type of greeting: Hello

Sphero’s welcome email might actually be the cutest we’ve seen recently – and it was sent from a galaxy far, far away.

When you buy a bluetooth controlled BB-8 the friendly droid is from war of starsIt was probably made by Sphero. And if so, you’ll have an email similar to the one above in your inbox when you activate your new rolling companion.

The subject line of this email qualifies you for this list – “A little droid told us you wanted our emails.” By skillfully personalizing the product and being a little open about it Email marketing Newsletter, Sphero develops a relationship with its recipients through the product you have just bought from them.

Not only did that welcome email show you how to use your new BB-8 Droid with your smartphone, it just wanted to say hello – just like the BB-8 itself.

9. InVision

Type of greeting: video

When you sign up for InVision’s free prototyping app, the welcome email makes it clear what your next step should be: using the app.

To make this action easier, InVisions welcome email doesn’t simply list what you need to do to get started. Instead it is shows you What to do with a series of quick videos. Given the visual, interactive nature of the product, this makes a lot of sense.

10th drift

Type of greeting: Get started

No fancy design work. No videos. No photos. The welcome email Drift sends after signing up for the newsletter is a lesson in minimalism.

The email opens with an open comment on the status of the email. “Most people have really long welcome email sequences after they’ve been added to their email list,” writes Dave of Drift before continuing: “Good news: we’re not most of the people.” What follows is simply a bullet list of the company’s most popular blog posts. And the only mention of the product comes in a short postscript at the very end.

If you’re trying to create a welcome email that doesn’t interrupt and focuses on adding value versus fluff, this is a great example.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and has been updated for completeness.

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