Welcome Email Case Study: How a Flow Achieved a 12% Conversion Rate
A welcome email turned nearly 12% of new leads into paying customers for one of IMP Marketing’s clients and brought in more than $16,000 in email revenue in the first 2 months. To get there, IMP Marketing changed three things: how the store collected emails, how the welcome email looked and read, and how the email asked people to buy. Below, you’ll see what IMP Marketing changed and what you can apply to your own welcome email.
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| Industry | Streetwear Fashion & Apparel |
|---|---|
| Platform | Email Marketing Automation |
| Capability | Signup Popup + Welcome Series / Email copywriting & design / Email tracking & optimization |
| Client Market | United States |
| Key Result | ~12% of leads converted into customers$16,000+ email revenue in 2 months80% open rate~20% click rate |
The Context & Challenge: Why Is Welcome Email Not Converting?
A welcome email is an automated email sent to someone right after they join your email list. For an eCommerce store, the welcome email usually delivers a first-order discount, introduces the brand, and gives the new subscriber an easy way to place their first order.
The welcome email turned 2.11% of recipients into orders, while one-off campaign emails turned just 0.16% into orders, according to Klaviyo’s email marketing benchmarks of more than 183,000 brands.
The brand already knew how important a welcome email is, which is why it offered new visitors a 15% discount code on their first order for leaving their email address. But the welcome email wasn’t performing as well as the brand expected. So the brand came to IMP Marketing, and we helped them see that the problems sat at three stages of the customer journey:
- Visit the website: The 15% discount was easy to miss, so not enough first-time visitors noticed the offer and signed up.
- Open the welcome email: New subscribers received a welcome email whose content and design didn’t fully reflect the brand’s image.
- Place the first order: The welcome email had no standout button pushing subscribers to use their code and buy.
The Solution: How Did We Build the Welcome Email?
We rebuilt the welcome email by fixing each stage of the customer journey: visit the website, open the welcome email, and place the first order.
Visit the website: How did we get more first-time visitors to sign up?
IMP Marketing got more first-time visitors to sign up by showing the discount in a popup aimed only at people visiting the website for the first time. Klaviyo’s sign-up form guide, supports both parts of that setup. The forms that converted best offered a clear incentive, such as a discount, and the more targeted a form was, the better it tended to perform.
Figure 1 shows how IMP Marketing put both ideas into practice. Before the change, the brand’s 15% first-order discount was easy to miss. After the change, a popup puts the 15% discount right in front of first-time visitors.
Open the welcome email: How did we redesign the email content?
IMP Marketing redesigned the welcome email so its content and look matched the brand’s image. The sign-up form and the welcome emails that follow it should show the same offer, messaging, and branding.
Figure 2 shows how the welcome email changed. Before the change, the email’s content and design didn’t fully reflect the brand’s personality. After the change, IMP Marketing redesigned the welcome email to be on-brand and added a list of recommended products to give new subscribers ideas for their first order.
Place the first order: How did we make buying easier?
IMP Marketing made repeat buying more compelling by adding a standout CTA pop-up. Figure 3 shows how the CTA pop-up changed. Before the change, the welcome email had no incentives to push customers to subscribe. After the change, a bold message of “Receive 15% Off Your Next Order” with a fashionable image encourages customers to join the program.
If you’d like to see how we set up flows like this for other stores, take a look at our eCommerce email marketing automation service.
The Result: What Did the New Welcome Email Deliver?
The new welcome email converted nearly 12% of leads into customers and brought in more than $16,000 in email revenue in the first 2 months. The welcome email reached an 80% open rate and a click rate close to 20%.
The popup worked too. Up to 7% of visitors who saw the popup signed up for the discount code. Customers kept using the welcome code after the first 2 months, for a total of 6,000 uses.
Those numbers stand out when you put them next to the industry benchmarks
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| Metric | The brand | Kaviyo’s benchmark (clothing & accessories) |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome email open rate | 80% | 34.4% |
| Welcome email click rate | 20% | 5.54% |
| Welcome email conversion rate | Nearly 12% of leads | 2.15% |
| Popup signup rate | 7% | 3% |
Want a welcome email that turns more of your leads into customers? Contact IMP Marketing to see how a better welcome flow could work for your store.
Welcome Email FAQ
When should you send a welcome email?
You should send a welcome email right after someone signs up, ideally within a few minutes. A new subscriber is most interested in your brand at the moment they join your list, and they're often waiting for the discount code they were promised. If the code arrives hours or days later, many subscribers will have already left your website or forgotten why they signed up. Setting the welcome email up as an automated flow makes sure every new subscriber gets it on time.
What's a good welcome email open rate?
A good welcome email open rate is above 35.53%, the average Omnisend reported for welcome emails in its industry benchmarks. Keep in mind that Apple Mail Privacy Protection can make some emails look opened before anyone reads them, so open rates often look higher than they really are. Click rate and conversion rate give a more honest picture of whether your welcome email is working. For welcome emails, Omnisend's averages are a 3.94% click rate and a 2.11% conversion rate.
What's a good popup signup rate?
A good popup signup rate is 3% to 5% of the people who see the popup, and anything above 5% is excellent, according to Crazy Egg. On the same scale, a rate under 1.5% means the popup is underperforming, and 1.5% to 3% is average. This brand's popup reached up to 7%, after the discount was shown to first-time visitors. If your store has very little traffic, even a strong signup rate will only add a few subscribers a month, so grow your traffic alongside your popup.
Should you send one welcome email or a welcome series?
One welcome email is enough to get started, as long as it delivers the discount, shows your brand clearly, and has one clear button. Once that first email is working, you can add 1–2 follow-up emails for subscribers who haven't used their code yet, such as a reminder before the code expires. Check the order rate of each follow-up email, and keep only the emails that still bring in orders. Every extra email raises the chance of an unsubscribe, so each one needs a clear reason to exist.
