You’re looking for the latest stats on welcome emails, and we’ve got them.
We know you’ve been searching for a list of these statistics, but we also know that it can be hard to find a comprehensive list of all the data points you want. That’s why we’re here—to give you exactly what you need.
If you’re looking to update your welcome email strategy or learn more about how others are using this tool in their marketing strategies, then this is the place for you. We’ve compiled a list of the most interesting and helpful statistics on welcome emails from around the web so that you can make informed decisions about how best to use them in your own business.
Welcome emails are the biggest marketing tool you have. They are an important part of your customer’s journey with your brand. They’re the first thing they see after signing up for your service, and they can help you keep customers coming back for more. However, there are a lot of statistics out there on welcome emails—so many that it can be hard to find the right ones and figure out what works best.
If you’re ready to learn more about what makes a good welcome email and how they impact customer retention rates or sales conversions, then continue reading.
General Welcome Email Statistics
1. 41% of companies don’t send a welcome email within 48 hours
(Ciceron Report)
Despite most companies agreeing that consumers are most engaged within 48 hours of subscribing to a newsletter, a Ciceron “First Impressions” study found around 41% of brands did not send a welcome email within 2 days. Around 27% of companies also didn’t send any emails at all within the first three weeks of gaining a subscriber.
The report also found that around 83% of companies either didn’t make a good first impression with a customer when they subscribed to their service, or they didn’t make any kind of lasting impact at all.
2. 84% of B2C welcome emails make it to inboxes
(Statista)
According to a report published by Statista on email inbox placement for B2C emails, welcome emails successfully reach the inbox around 84% of the time. This means they’re slightly less effective at reaching the inbox than abandoned cart emails, which have a 95% success rate. However, the inbox access rate is still relatively high.
Additionally, the report also found the B2C welcome emails which do reach the inbox have a 23% read rate. In comparison, around 20% of abandoned cart emails are read by customers.
3. Welcome emails have a spam rate of only 0.05%
(GetResponse)
The GetResponse email marketing benchmark study for 2022 found that most welcome emails make it to the inbox without being classified as spam. On average, welcome emails are only classified as spam 0.05% of the time, and have a bounce rate of only 3.94%. However, these factors can vary depending on the content included in a welcome email and the subject line.
GetResponse also found that the unsubscribe rate for welcome emails (measured by people who click on the unsubscribe option within the welcome message) is only around 0.84%. Notably, GetResponse found the use of “time travel” to send the email at the perfect time for each customer could reduce bounce rates to 2.35%.
Welcome Emails and Automation
4. A series of welcome emails yields up to 51% more revenue than a single email
(MailChimp, Omnisend)
Companies who use email marketing automation tools to send welcome emails will typically send more than one automated message. According to Mailchimp, sending a series of welcome emails (2 or more messages) generally leads to up to 51% more revenue than sending a single message.
This builds on research from Omnisend, which found that a series of 3 welcome emails could generate up to 90% more orders than a single message.
5. 47% of companies use email marketing automation tools to send welcome emails
(GetResponse)
The rising demand for real-time and trigger-based messages in email marketing has prompted countless companies to adopt automated marketing tools. According to a report by GetResponse, the majority of companies use this software specifically to send welcome emails.
The report found the majority of respondents (47%) used automation to send multi-send welcome emails for new contacts. The second most common reason to use automation tools was for sales-focused campaigns. In third place, 28% of companies used automation tools to send transaction emails about the details of a purchase.
6. Welcome email automation generates 168% more opens
(Omnisend)
Analyzing the data from over 128,000 email marketing campaigns in 2018, Omnisend found welcome emails were one of the most powerful tools in any brand’s kit. The research discovered welcome emails earned an average order rate of 1.15% in the Black Friday period.
However, Omnisend also discovered automation was more likely to improve the results achieved by welcome email content. On average, a welcome email in the study earned a 42.2% open rate, and a click rate of around 10.5%. However, when those emails were automated to arrive in customer inboxes at the right time, click rates increased by 222%, and open rates improved by 168%.
7. Single message autoresponders have a 90.09% open rate
(GetResponse)
According to GetResponse, shorter email marketing campaigns generally create the highest levels of engagement. Single message autoresponders, most typically used to send welcome messages to new subscribers, have an average open rate of 90.09%.
What’s more, these emails maintain a click-through rate of 27.06% – higher than any other email newsletter sequence.
8. Triggered emails are 2,770% better at generating results than batch emails
(BlueShift)
A study released by BlueShift, looking at 2 billion push notifications and emails to find out which messages drove the most engagement, found “triggered” messages always come out on top. Triggered emails include welcome emails, and other messages triggered by a specific event.
According to BlueShift’s report, sending a dynamic message after a customer completes a certain event, like purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter, improves engagement by 2,770%. Additionally, the same report also found triggered emails (including welcome emails) had a 381% higher click rate and 180% higher post-conversion rate.
Welcome Email Success Rates
9. Welcome emails have a 68.59% open rate as of 2022
(GetResponse)
A study conducted by the email marketing company GetResponse into email marketing benchmarks in 2022 found welcome emails achieve a 68.59% open rate on average. While this is a decrease from the 86% open rate found in 2021, it’s still three times higher than any other type of email newsletter.
Notably, GetResponse also found welcome emails achieve an average click-through rate of 16.05%, down from 25% in 2021. What’s more, welcome emails have a click-to-open rate of 23.41% on average, higher than many other messages.
10. Welcome emails have a 9x higher transaction rate than other promotional emails
(Experian)
According to an Experian study, welcome emails encourage up to 4 times as many opens, and 5 times as many clicks from customers than other messages. The report also found welcome emails could lead to up to nine times more transactions than other bulk messages.
Further study insights indicate real-time emails, sent as soon as a customer connects with a company by providing them with contact details, generate higher rates of clicks and opens on average. An email sent immediately after a customer action leads to an open rate of around 88.3%, compared to only 29.3% created by most bulk emails.
For a bulk message sent to every customer, the most common click rates start at 11.9%, while for immediate response messages, the click rate is 52.6%
11. Customers who read 3 welcome emails spend up to 62% more with the company
(Martech)
Martech’s research into the impact of welcome emails on customer lifetime value found that sending even a single welcome email could increase the amount a customer spent with a company.
On average, customers who read no welcome emails would place up to 46 orders, with an average total spend of $1,627.50. Alternatively, customers who read a single welcome email made an average of 55 orders, with a total spend of around $2,150.85. The customers who read 3 or more welcome emails placed fewer orders (52) but had an average total spend of $2,640.27.
12. Welcome emails have a 196% lift in unique click rate
(Smart Insights)
According to an infographic created by the Smart Insights team on behavioral email marketing strategies, welcome emails generally out-perform all other promotional emails. The infographic notes that welcome emails earn around an 86% higher unique open rate among customers than other messages.
Additionally, the same report found welcome emails have around a 196% increase in “unique click rate” among customers, and a 336% increase in transaction rates.
Smart Insights also found that using certain words in an email subject line for welcome messages can increase open rates. For instance, using the word “sale” in a subject line can increase open rates by 23.2%.
13. Welcome emails with free shipping offers have the highest transaction rates
(Experian)
According to an Experian study into the impact of real-time and bulk welcome email messages, adding an offer to a welcome email significantly enhances purchasing rates. Crucially, offers like free shipping on an email sent immediately after a customer engages with a company by filling out a form can increase average revenue to $6.89 from $3.07.
Additionally, when emails are sent on a bulk basis, they still have a higher transaction rate when offers are included, increasing from $0.58 to around $0.78. The report also discovered delivering free shipping was the best way to encourage higher purchasing rates, followed by a 15% discount.
14. Consumers who read welcome emails are likely to read about 18% of future messages
(Martech)
According to a Martech study into the impact of welcome emails on customer value, the number of welcome messages a customer reads can indicate how likely they are to engage with the company in the future. If a customer read no welcome messages in the study, they were likely to engage with only 5% of future emails or less.
However, if a customer read one welcome email in a series, they would be more likely to read 18% of all future messages. If customers engaged with 3 welcome emails in a series, they were likely to consume around 69% of all the future email messages sent by the same brand.
Customer Perception of Welcome Emails
15. Welcome emails have a read rate of 34%
(Martech)
A study by Martech and Return Path examined the welcome emails of 100 retailers for insights and found only around 75% of the retailers send welcome emails in the first place. The study also found for those who did send welcome emails, the read rate was higher for these messages than most others.
The average read rate for welcome emails was approximately 34%. However, when companies added a discount to a subject line of 25% in their welcome emails, the read rate increased to 53%.
16. 75% of customers expect to receive a welcome email within the same day they subscribe
(Return Path, Privy)
An often-quoted study by Return Path into customer contact and subscriber preferences found around 75% of consumers expected to receive a welcome email from a brand within the same day they subscribed to a newsletter, or purchased a product. Only 13% said they expected to receive an email within 1 day, and 5% said they expected to see emails within 3 days.
This builds on research by other companies, which suggests customers are most engaged by brands within the first 48 hours of signing up for a new service.
17. Personalized subject lines in welcome emails can boost open rates by 26%
(Experian)
Experian research discovered every email, including welcome messages, are more likely to be opened by customers when the subject line is personalized to the specific customer. The report revealed personalization in the subject line created a 26% higher chance of clicks.
What’s more, marketers could expect up to a 706% higher return on investment from email campaigns with good segmentation.
18. Subscribers who receive welcome emails are 33% more engaged by brands
(Inbox Army)
According to Inbox Army, welcome emails are the first step in building a strong relationship with customers. According to the company’s insights, subscribers who receive welcome emails show an average of 33% more engagement when interacting with the brand in the future.
Despite this, Inbox Army also found that only 57.7% of brands connect with their news subscribers using a welcome email message or series.
19. Emails with whitelisting instructions at the top achieve higher engagement from recipients
(Experian)
Experian’s study into welcome emails found asking customers to whitelist the email address of the company at the top of the email, rather than at the close of the message led to higher transaction rates and click-through rates.
When emails included messages for whitelisting at the bottom, the click rate was around 14%. Alternatively, clicks increased to around 18% at the top of an email.
The transaction rates also increased from 0.8% to 1.3% when a whitelisting guide was placed at the top of the page rather than at the bottom of the email.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve found this blog post useful. We know that the statistics are a lot to take in and can be overwhelming, but we wanted to provide you with the most up-to-date information so that you can make informed decisions about your welcome email marketing strategy.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Start with a welcome email that has a clear subject line and a compelling offer.
- Make sure your welcome email is personalized, but don’t overdo it. You want to give enough information so that people feel special, but not so much that they feel spammed.
- Use a powerful call to action in your email copy and make sure that it’s easy for readers to take action.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on how you use welcome emails in your business or how you plan to use them in the future. Let us know what you think!
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