By Michael Evans and Emilia Rose on June 24, 2023.
The first 30 days of a reader’s membership are the most crucial.
If you can get a reader to sign up for your paid membership and stay for month 2, they are significantly more likely to stick around for future months and years.
And the first part of a reader’s first 30 days in your membership?
The Welcome Email.
Your subscription welcome message will likely have the highest open rate out of any email sent to your paid members.
On Ream, we see that open rates are often upwards of 80% for membership welcome messages.
Welcome Emails are automated messages sent out the moment a reader’s payment for one of your tiers is successful. This message should re-introduce your reader to your membership, remind them of the benefits they signed up for, and give them any directions, links, or advice that will help them succeed in the early days of their membership with you.
Sounds simple? Well here are 5 tips for creating a great tier welcome message.
Tip #1: Address Your Readers Personally
When you welcome readers into your membership, use a name that will make your readers feel like it was written just for them.
We recommend creating names for your Tiers that are associated with symbols, characters, places, and other things your readers would identify within your genre or books.
You can then use these same tier names to address your readers at the top of your Welcome Email.
For example, Emma St. Clair has different names for all her tiers that are super cute and personal to her and her readers. For her second tier called Nosy Neighborlies, she could introduce them as:
“Hello to our newest Nosy Neighborly!”
Tip #2: Explain the Benefits of Your Tiers
Have you ever signed up for something and thought, “Wait, what is this again?”
This is the part of your welcome email to answer that question for your readers.
What can they expect in being a part of your membership?
It is crucial, if you have multiple tiers, to customize this part of the message for each tier.
If someone upgraded to your highest tier, they want to know what they got in upgrading (even if your highest tier doesn’t have any other benefits besides extra support).
Tip #3: Give them their Rewards
Do you have specific stories and chapters new readers get access to in your subscription?
Better yet, do you have specific stories that you know most readers are excited for when they first enter your membership.
Send them the link to those stories/chapters directly!
That way they can get started with the good stuff right away :).
If you give your readers other downloadable awards or extras, it’s great to link to those in your welcome email as well.
Tip #4: Spark a Conversation
Ask your readers what they are looking forward to in your subscription or send them a link to a specific chapter or post that you’d like their thoughts on.
Many readers won’t respond — and that’s okay. Knowing that you care about your reader’s feedback and want to make your membership a place they love is meaningful even to those who don’t respond.
And for those who do respond… now you have awesome feedback on what excites your new members most and can make a connection with your newest fans.
Tip #5: Share Any Helpful Guides for Navigating Your Subscription
When a reader joins your subscription, they will have to learn how to navigate your membership to make the most of your experience.
Linking to any guides or helpful resources that can help them make the most of your membership can save your readers time, less stress, and make them happier :).
If you are using Ream for your subscription platform here are some great guides to send your readers:
And that’s it! We hope you enjoyed these tips and can’t wait to see you put them to practice in your tier welcome messages :).
If you enjoyed this blog, you may enjoy reading this one all about How to Onboard Readers into your Subscription.