Cool Email Idea: A Truly Welcoming Welcome Message

What: A Truly Welcoming Welcome Message

Who: Sephora.com

Why we love it: We are always shocked how many marketers miss the boat with their Welcome messages. Some don't even bother to send them, which is just a huge missed opportunity. Others send them, but do so in a desultory fashion, using plain text messaging with little more information than "You are on the list." Not Sephora. Their Welcome message does what a Welcome message should - confirms the sign up, makes the subscriber feel delighted to have signed up and gets recipients shopping. And it does all this in a well-designed format that is similar to the regular messages Sephora sends.

What would make it better: Make it a series! Sephora has a lot to offer and beauty addicts love advice, reviews and more. Sephora could send a series of three to five messages highlighting different categories of product (skin, eyes, lips), different kinds of content (expert advice, how-tos, reviews) or different trends (bold lip color, new neutrals, dewy cheeks). Because makeup is time-sensitive and fashionable they would need to change the offerings up on a seasonal basis. But this strategy still allows them to create one set of messages to be used numerous times.

Bonus points: A little personalization goes a long way. Adding first name here makes the email feel like a visit to a store where the clerk knows you.

Check it out: sign up now at www.sephora.com.

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