Your Email Confirmation Page
Most marketers don’t give a second thought to their email confirmation page.
It doesn’t serve a purpose other than letting the subscriber know that they need to confirm their email address.
When your visitor comes to this page, you have their undivided full attention and they are ready to listen to you. The experience is still fresh.
If you are smart, you will use this opportunity for your advantage.
In addition to the confirmation message you should include a clear Call-To-Action, whether it be to check out a low-ticket offer, follow you on social media or to check out your reference library… or to simply just build more excitement and expectations.
Doing this will also help overcome the few minutes it may take your welcome email to arrive.
How To Handle Unconfirmed Subscribers
If you send emails, I am certain you will have a percentage where people don’t open your verification email.
There are a few possible reasons:
- They use a fake email to try to get access to whatever you’re giving away as a bribe to join your list
- Your confirmation email went to their spam folder
- They have an email address for their own domain that isn’t working or they just don’t check.
Some email providers have a re-send confirmation email feature, while other providers consider this spam.
What you can do in this case is to verify if the email address is valid with this email checker. The free plan lets you check 5 emails per hour.
It may say that the email is in order, or it may say that the server is taking too long to respond.
If the email you correct, you can try sending a friendly reminder like this, and this can actually save you lots of subscribers:
Hi Sara,
I have received a request from you to subscribe to the “Turn your blog into a business” email course, but seems like you didn’t confirm your subscription. (The email wasn’t opened.)
Could you take a minute and let me know what the issue is?
Did the email end up in the spam folder or did you change your mind?
Either way is fine, I am not forcing anyone to receive my emails.
I would really appreciate your honest feedback, it would help me a lot.
In case you didn’t receive it, here’s your free ____ download link:
……
I greatly appreciate your time.
Peter
FunnelXpert.com
You may wonder if you should use single opt-in instead, where the subscriber doesn’t need to confirm the email address.
The downside is, your enemies or bots may feed your opt-in forms with fake or “spam trap” email addresses that email providers use to detect spam senders. This could destroy your future email delivery rate.
The Welcome Email
One important thing about welcome emails is that they have very high open and click rates, because your website is still fresh in the subscriber’s mind.
Actually, reviewing several subscribers, there was a percentage that ONLY opened the welcome email and then became inactive.
Therefore in this case open rates are the wrong metrics to measure. Rather, you need to grab this opportunity to steer your subscribers into the desired direction.
The real purpose of the welcome email is to make a lasting first impression and move subscribers through your onboarding process.
- Welcome emails should begin with a warm introduction that reflects your blog’s personality.
- Welcome new subscribers and say “thank you” for opting in to receive your emails. Show your appreciation by sending a note of thanks.
- Share information about the type of content and the frequency your subscribers will receive it. This can help ensure that your emails don’t get marked as spam.
- If you are delivering an e-course they signed up for, then tell them how many emails it will consist of. This may help you get your emails opened…
- Introduce yourself or your business and your brand to start building up trust. Your welcome email is a great place to share who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Encourage a two-way conversation by asking subscribers to share a little information about themselves as well.
- If you promised an incentive upon signup, whether it be a guide, promo code or exclusive offer, this is the time to share it.
- While subscribers wait for your next email send, use this opportunity to link out to helpful resources and content that can get them to engage with your brand.
- Be sure to share contact information and encourage feedback, so if any questions come up, your new subscribers know exactly where to go to get the help they need.
- This is your first interaction. This is a key opportunity for you to highlight the quality of your products/website, telling your brand story, and reinforcing other things that set you apart from competitors.
- An effective welcome email has to look good — and work well — on mobile devices.
- It’s a good idea to reinforce a subscriber’s decision to sign up for your emails. One easy way to do that is to offer a quick “perks list,” which tells subscribers why joining your email list was a great idea.
- By offering a discount or some sort of gift, you create goodwill between your business and your new subscribers. It may even entice them to make purchase.
- Including links to your social media sites is another key component in an effective welcome email. New contacts are curious about your business; otherwise they wouldn’t have signed up. Fuel their engagement by sharing the social media sites your business is on.
The next step, depending on your software, blog, store, etc. could be encouraging users to complete their profile, download something, read your docs or something else entirely. Whatever that step is, it must deliver value.
How To Write Your Welcome Email Series
How can you care for your new email signups?
With an automated Welcome Series. It is an automated series of emails that you only need to write once and allows you to increase engagement and build trust with your new subscriber.
The best part is that you set up your Welcome Series once, and it works for you indefinitely. The experience is the same for your first email contact or your thousandth.
Having readers on your email list reply to your emails is just as powerful as them adding your email address to their contact list. When an email service provider like Gmail sees multiple emails being exchanged between two people, they treat that as a real conversation and give you a better chance at having your future emails land in your reader’s inbox.
Decide On The Key Messages
Start with what you need to say, and then determine how many emails it’ll take to say it.
If someone is new to your email list, what do they need to know about your brand?
If you sell a product or service, it might be this:
- How your product or service works
- How you’re different from competitors
- Stories of impact you’ve made
- Exclusive perks for members
- Education on your subject
Create A Framework For Your Messages
Set the number and schedule of your welcome emails.
It shouldn’t be an endless series. Think of it as a small email course.
The messages you outlined earlier will be the key factor in constructing them.
Make sure your emails are personal, exciting and interesting.
Your Main Email Series
Once you are done with your Welcome emails, you can start sending your main campaign.
