Welcome Email Examples and Best Practices

A welcome email is one of your first opportunities to make an impression on your website visitors. Welcome emails usually go to people who subscribe to your mailing list or make a purchase from your shop and entail a brief hello, potentially with some useful links or information.

Sending a welcome email lays the foundation for a connection between you and your site visitors. Whether you’re sharing content or selling something, making those visitors feel valued and noticed will help you build community and make them feel more invested in what you share.

To write a successful welcome email, keep your end goal in mind, use your authentic voice, and make your subject line eye-catching while keeping your message simple.

How do you write a welcome email?

Every email, including welcome emails, has a few key components.

1. Subject line

2. Preheader (appears in inboxes after the subject line)

3. Images 

4. Copy

5. Call to action (CTA)

Welcome emails can be pretty straightforward. For the body copy, start with a hello and thank them for signing up to hear from you. You can take a couple of sentences to share about yourself and/or your business. 

Or briefly introduce a couple of pieces of content or products you think your new subscriber would like. If you run a shop, consider including a welcome discount code.

If you feel stuck, use an email marketing template. That’ll get you started on the design and give you some sample text to work with. Or use an AI content tool to help you create your first draft.

Learn how to use AI for your email marketing

Best practices for welcome emails

A good welcome email is engaging, warm, and brief, and makes a first impression that brings someone back to your website. Keep these best practices in mind as you’re writing your first email. 

• Use your subject line and preheader to encourage opens. The subject line and preheader help you stand out in a crowded inbox and let subscribers know reading the email is worth their time. Try a combination like “Welcome to the club! / 15% off inside” or some other promise of value to boost your open rates.

• Have a goal in mind. Do you want email subscribers to shop in your store, read or watch your content, or trust your expertise? Pick one goal and design your CTA to point subscribers there.

• Make it feel true to you. Remember that email is also a way to build relationships with your subscribers. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine in your note.

• Choose a complementary image. Imagery helps break up your email design and draw the eye. If you don’t have images handy, you can license a free stock image.

• Make sure it’s accessible. Accessible emails are welcoming emails. Keeping accessibility in mind means all of your subscribers can enjoy your emails. 

Get our email marketing checklist

4 welcome email examples and templates 

Here are some welcome email examples and templates to use as inspiration for your own. These are purely for educational purposes. How you apply them to your own email templates is up to you—remember to customize them for your audience and a tone of voice that feels natural.

Welcome email with a discount

Here’s an example of email copy and an email template for an online shop that gives new email subscribers a discount to encourage shopping.

Subject: You’re on the list!
Preheader: Start with 15% off
Hi [NAME],
Thank you for joining the [BUSINESS NAME] email list! Here’s 15% off to show our appreciation. 
[CODE]
[CTA Button] Shop Now

Welcome email with links to content or products

Below are two examples of welcome emails that encourage the reader to click through to a specific item or piece of content on their website. The first is for a content creator who focuses on plant care and the second shows a similar welcome message from a plant store owner.

Subject: Welcome to [BRAND NAME]
Preheader: Plant tips inside!
Hi [NAME],
Welcome to the [BRAND NAME] family! I launched this website in 2017 in hopes of sharing my passion for plant care with a like-minded community—green thumb or not. As an email subscriber, you’ll be the first to hear about new content and collaborations, directly from us.
In the meantime, check out our guide to winter houseplant care.
[CTA button] Get The Guide

Here’s a version of the email where the brand owner owns a plant shop and wants to showcase a few top products.

Subject: Thanks for joining us!
Preheader: Your next plant is waiting
Hi [NAME],
Welcome to the [BUSINESS NAME] family! This store has grown from a small passion project to a full-time business thanks to customers like you. As an email subscriber, you’ll be the first to hear about new plants in store, events, and discounts.
Ready to make your life a little greener? Check out some of our bestsellers below.
[Linked products + images]
[CTA button] Shop More Plants

Here’s what the design of this email might look like.

General welcome email

Sometimes you might not have somewhere specific to send subscribers, especially if your website is newer. It’s still worth creating a welcome email to start building a relationship with customers. For example, someone running a flower shop might write:

Subject: You’re on the list!
Preheader: Welcome to [SHOP NAME]
Hi [NAME],
Thank you for signing up for my email list! Customers like you are why I started this shop in 2019 and why I’m able to keep sharing my love of all things floral with this community.
Stay tuned for updates on events at the shop, sales, or recommendations on seasonal blooms. In the meantime, you can always visit the site for flower care advice and to see what’s new stock.
[CTA button] Visit The Shop

Here’s an example of a welcome email from our email template library.

Squarespace Email Campaigns subscribers can create a welcome email and set up an automation for new subscribers. That way, the welcome email goes out automatically when someone signs up for your mailing list, saving you time.

What is a welcome email series?

A welcome email series is a pre-designed sequence of emails that you send to new subscribers over a set period that helps them get more familiar with your brand or products. The idea behind the strategy is that the more familiar with you and how you can help them a subscriber is, the more likely they are to convert into a loyal follower, customer, or client. 

A welcome email sequence is a good marketing strategy if you’re a little further along in your business or brand or if you have a lot of content ready to share with your subscribers. Before starting a welcome email sequence, have a clear idea of the following.

• The end goal of the email series: Do you want subscribers to read or watch your content, reach out to work with you, or make a purchase?

• What questions or objections someone might have: Consider what someone might need to know about you and your brand to take the action you defined above.

• How you can answer those questions or objections: Do you have content or products that would answer the questions subscribers might have?

For example, a personal stylist might have a welcome email series that includes:

• A first email with a welcome message and a CTA to read a blog post about how to do a closet cleanout and upcycle old clothes

• An email a few days later a guide to finding your body shape

• Another email the following week with tips for defining your personal style

• A final email a few days later with a few tips on how to build a wardrobe and a CTA to book a style consultation

Read our guide to building your email list