15 Best Welcome Email Examples for New Subscribers - MailerLite (2024)

Welcome email newsletters are the first step in building a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers. So roll out the red carpet and make your new subscribers feel at home on your email list!

In this post, we'll share welcome email best practices that create lasting first impressions.

Along the way, we’ll explain why they WOW new subscribers and show you some welcome email examples and welcome email subject lines that will inspire your own welcome email templates.

Let’s dive in!

Engagement metrics for welcome emails are eye-popping. On average, marketers enjoy 4x the open rate and 5x the click rate when using automated welcome emails over standard marketing emails. When someone subscribes to your newsletter, they expect to receive a welcome newsletter immediately. They’ll even visit their inboxes just to find it.

An authentic “thank you” and “welcome” builds trust between you and your subscriber, which lays the foundation for a long term relationship.

If your email campaigns don’t deliver on your promise (i.e. providing valuable content), your subscriber will feel cheated and most likely unsubscribe immediately.

👍 What’s good?

• Birchbox establishes rapport by acknowledging the new relationship

• New customers understand what they can expect from their future newsletters

👉 Tip: Your welcome email is like a first date. It’s your chance to build trust. When you establish how that relationship will play out the first time you interact, your new subscribers will be more receptive to your future emails, resulting in higher engagement and fewer spam complaints.

👍 What’s good?

• CB2 explains what new members will enjoy from their email newsletters

• The CTA focuses on getting their new customers on social media

• Connecting with them online builds up social proof and, in turn, attracts new customers

👉 Tip: Instead of starting with the hard sell, deepen the relationship by inviting them to connect on social media. They’ll get to experience another side of your brand and learn more about your values.

Fostering a community of email subscribers and growing your email list is a process that requires more than one channel. The powerful synergy of email marketing and social proof helps build stronger relationships!

👍 What’s good?

• Beardbrand is all about introducing new customers to the community

• So rather than create a long welcome email newsletter explaining their values, they added a link to a video that covers all they want to say

👉 Tip: A great welcome email should be short. While the rule of thumb is to keep it around 100 words, you can probably get away with 200 if you break up the text with images and offers.

👍 What’s good?

• King Arthur Flour welcomes you into their community as a fellow baker

• There’s not a single bag of flour in sight! Instead, they sell the raw emotion and satisfaction of creating something from scratch

👉 Tip: You don’t always have to feature your product prominently in your welcome email. Sometimes it’s better to focus on the benefits or experience from using your product or service. This way new subscribers may be curious to connect the dots and try it for themselves.

👍 What’s good?

• Peloton's first email immediately engages you with photos of their instructors

• Their fitness wear reinforces the high energy workouts that you signed up for, remember?

• You're prompted to take a quiz to find your perfect coach—and start pedaling!

👉Tip: In MailerLite, you can use the survey or quiz block to embed an interactive survey or quiz right into your newsletter.

👍 What’s good?

• Glassdoor cuts to the chase with clear actionable steps to find a job now

• Their 3-step process leads your eye to a clear CTA button to contribute to their pool of employer and interview reviews

👉 Tip: When someone subscribes to an email list, they expect to receive a welcome email immediately. In fact, real-time welcome emails have significantly higher open, click and transaction rates than bulk welcomes.

👍 What’s good?

• Super Mario makes this welcome email newsletter instantly recognizable!

• The bundled perks is enough to warm the heart of any Nintendo fan

• Nintendo’s use of colors, icons and tone of voice communicate their unique brand

👉 Tip: Your new subscribers are receiving dozens of emails every day. When you establish a distinct look in your first email, your subscribers will know exactly what to look for in future emails.

👍 What’s good?

• PrettyLitteThing immediately feels like your BFF with their sassy headline, pink unicorns and lingo

• They nail it perfectly by speaking and appealing to their target audience

👉 Tip: Use colors, images and words in your welcome email design that your target audience can instantly identify with.

👍 What’s good?

• Bring out the pina colada! 🍹 A lot is going in this busy Ripples newsletter but their bright summer colors bring it all together nicely

• Their special offers and discount code make you feel privileged to be part of their email list (and give you an extra incentive to press “buy now” on your next order)

• The menu at the top of their welcome email seamlessly connects you with their online store landing page

👍 What’s good?

• Lovely Notes starts with a heartfelt note from the founders

• New users are reminded about what they signed up for by cleverly including the product in the onboarding email

• A whimsical welcome email design gives this effective welcome email a distinct personality

👍 What’s good?

• Groove uses a simple text email format and it feels like it was written just for you

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• New users are given a chance to pick the type of email content that they're interested in for the email series

👉 Tip: The more personal you make your welcome emails, the more engagement you'll get. But personalizing welcome emails goes beyond just using your name and your subscriber's name.

Make your emails more personal by integrating your subscriber data into your welcome email.

For example, if your signup form included fields for their interests, you can use that information within your welcome emails. When the subscriber sees that you know something about them, they will look forward to hearing what you have to say.

You can personalize your emails in MailerLite by using the custom fields feature.

But what if you don't have any data to kickstart personalization of your welcome emails? No problem. Just use the welcome email itself to get more valuable information from your email subscribers by simply letting them select their email preferences.

👍 What’s good?

• Videofruit sends a simple text email that could easily be from a good friend

• It doubles up as a confirmation email for something that was opted-in earlier

• Bryan signs off with a funny GIF to showcase his company’s quirky personality

👉 Tip: Humor is an unexpected tactic. When done correctly it’ll put a smile on your readers’ faces!

👍 What’s good?

• Memberful sits in your inbox with a purposeful and simple subject line

• The email’s helpful tone and voice speaks directly to you

• They’re humble and even willing to suggest another solution for your needs!

👉 Tip: A controlled sprinkling of emojis helps to break the monotony of a welcome email.

👍 What’s good?

• TradeGecko starts on a positive note from the get-go

• New users are ushered along the onboarding process with dry wit and humor

👉 Tip: Consistent use of a single color in your welcome email reinforces your brand image.

👍 What’s good?

• Zapier uses helpful content marketing to guide their new subscribers in their welcome email

• Their welcome series email is contains a demonstration of their marketing automation platform, with actionable steps to get started

• They maximize the email’s conversion rate by cleverly inserting a subtle CTA at the end

👉 Tip: Where possible, use your product to send the welcome email and you’ll instantly earn a lot of credibility for it.

Want even more examples?

You have a lot riding on your welcome email, so take some extra time to get the subject line just right. You want your personality to shine through, but at the same time, you want to be clear that the email is a welcome message to kick off something special.

So, how do you write an email subject line that WOWs like these examples of welcome emails?

Marketing emails with “welcome” in their subject line enjoy higher open rates and click-through rates.

We wondered about the effect of including “welcome” in the subject line of a welcome email newsletter. To satisfy our curiosity, we analyzed our data all the way back to 2017 or about 12,000 emails in all.

Unsurprisingly, email marketing campaigns that featured a “welcome” subject line enjoyed a median open rate 55% higher than those without. And their median CTR was almost 60% higher!

So, here’s a pro tip: put “welcome” in your subject line for a start.

Next, we analyzed several successful subject lines and noticed a common structure.

A welcome email subject line that WOWs has two parts – the welcome greeting + something special.

Subject line 1: Welcome to TULA! Enjoy 20% off your first purchase.

TULA uses an incentive to create interest. Offering a promotion or coupon is one of the most effective ways to improve open rates.

Subject line 2: Welcome to Holland & Barrett… Let’s get to know each other

Holland & Barrett follow up their welcome message with an invitation to share personal details. It’s unclear how they will do it, which is why you’ll open the email to see.

Subject line 3: Hi Dave, it's Thue from KISSmetrics

KISSmetrics combines its welcome message with a personal touch. This subject line uses both the sender and the recipient's real name.

Subject line 4: You’re In. Welcome to Adidas

Adidas augments their welcome message with an acknowledgment that the subscriber is now included in a special community.

Subject line 5: Welcome to the SEMrush family!

SEMrush’s welcome message adds a warm sentiment without getting too personal. This approach lets the recipient know that it treats every subscriber like a part of the family.

Subject line 6: Welcome! How can I make Indie Hackers more helpful to You?

Indie Hackers wants to help you. By asking a question in the subject line, the reader will open the email if they want to answer it.

Subject line 7: Welcome to my inner circle. Here's where to start

Syed Balkhi
 of OptinMonster takes an inclusive approach with a promise of insider information and advice. He follows the welcome message with a CTA.

Subject line 8: Welcome! What this says about you.

Nerd Marketing piques curiosity by explaining that signing up with them means something about you. What could it be? You’ll have to open to find out.

Subject line 9: Welcome to AdWords. Potential customers are waiting for you

Google uses a straightforward message, but it’s exactly what people who signed up for AdWords want to hear.

Subject line 10: Welcome to Sally’s Secrets: Baking Made Easy!

Sally's Baking Addiction invites you to open her email and learn about her baking secrets.

All of these subject lines do a good job establishing a welcome message while adding something a little extra to describe the email content.

Remember to A/B test your subject lines

We’ve written a guide about email subject lines best practices that you can apply to your welcome emails, but we also recommend A/B testing your subject line ideas to see what works best. In MailerLite, testing your subject lines is made easy with our A/B split testing feature.

Additional reading

Good emails are made up of the same basic anatomy. Use this cheat sheet of key takeways when creating your own welcome email templates to ensure that all your welcome emails have the structure they need to set you up for success.

• A warm “welcome” subject line

• A personalized greeting

• A short, fun or witty introduction to your brand

• A gift, discount or exclusive offer

• Direct instructions on what to do next with a clear CTA

Our drag & drop editors for newsletters and automation workflows make it simple to include these best email marketing practices in your campaigns.