In today’s media and broadcasting world, streaming service users are spoiled by choice. Given the competition, OTT broadcasters that make subscribers feel special automatically carve out a comparative advantage and become more memorable. To that end, the welcome email is an excellent tool for establishing connections with SVOD subscribers and prospects.
Statistically, 37% of respondents in a survey have stated that email is the most effective channel for generating customer loyalty and retention. In comparison, websites were named most effective by 13% and social media by only 11% in the same survey. Clearly, this makes email worth exploring to crush the OTT growth objectives.
This blog examines how to use an email marketing strategy to nurture subscriber relations for the media and entertainment industry. Specifically, we talk about what a welcome email sequence for new customers and potential customers should entail. We also provide a direction to execute an email marketing strategy practically.
What are welcome emails?
Welcome emails are one of the most powerful email marketing campaigns for brewing well-nurtured subscriber relations. These emails are often the first point of contact a broadcaster makes with a subscriber or a new user. It is this communication that often shapes the course of the relationship with them.
As a broadcaster, you can make your customer feel appreciated if you send out a series of carefully thought out welcome emails by launching an automated welcome email campaign during onboarding.
Further, it’s seen that welcome emails are most effective when combined with specific targeting. In other words, your messaging is most likely to hit home when it’s personally tailored to your audience. Let’s explore that in detail in the next section.
How to prepare the welcome email templates?
Whether your new streaming service contender operates on a free trial or is a paid subscriber, the same basic set of key messages apply at this stage.
Your starting goal should be to plan how you wish to send out the messages and then prepare different variations of email templates. It’s advisable to have multiple variations of the email to test out, see what works best for you, and iterate accordingly. This testing doesn’t just apply to your primary email message but also to the subject line.
Below are some welcome email examples to get you on your way:
Email 1: Welcome email
As soon as your new email subscriber confirms their account, you can send them the first welcome email. You can use this as an opportunity to thank them for registering for your OTT platform and extend a warm welcome to your streaming service.
Inviting them to explore your platform, explain your streaming services, and encourage them to discover your offerings is a good practice at this stage. It’s also an excellent place to highlight some key features and inform them that you’ll be in touch again shortly with future emails. Having said that, it’s essential also to provide the option to opt out of marketing emails to comply with user privacy rights.
Tip: For maximum engagement, ensure that your welcome email subject line incites some curiosity as to the contents. Content hints and personalisation with names can both enhance a subject line.
Email 2: Introduction email
One or two days following the welcome email, it’s a good time to send an introduction email. This is the moment to reach out to your new members again and warm them up by providing some extra information. These could be on topics that:
a) Remind the new subscribers why they signed upThis is where you have a great chance to elaborate on your unique value proposition. Thus, your email content at this phase can cover what makes your streaming platform special or what is so great about being subscribed to your product or service. Usually, for most media companies and streaming platforms, this is about:
- Exclusive content
- New/recent releases
- Loyalty benefits
- Bundling benefits
Another useful direction to take is to make your subscribers feel hopeful and get them interested. For that, you can provide insight into the future.
Your email can reflect messaging around what content they can expect from you or how often you will be in touch to highlight new content or releases. Also, feel free to use beautiful visuals to charm them at this stage.
Email 3: Engagement Email
With your first two welcome emails, you cover the basics and create a great first impression. The next step is building a solid relationship with your subscriber. That’s what will eventually generate loyalty.
The ideal time to focus on these aspects is two or three days after you send out the earlier emails. In this third email, you can share helpful resources or a rundown of your most popular or exclusive content. It’s also an excellent stage to drop links to your social media pages. With that, you can point out any fun brand community touchpoints, such as:
- Twitter threads for fans of the same show
- Extra behind-the-scenes content on Youtube
- Giveaways or competitions on Instagram
BONUS Email 4: Significant benefits like coupons
We all know that one proven way to elevate the customer experience is to go the extra mile. Getting unique benefits or discounts is something everybody appreciates. So it’s a good idea to make your fourth email about that.
So once you’ve fully onboarded a new subscriber, why not surprise them with a discount code coupon? Nothing says we’re happy to have you here, like a 10% discount!
Now that you know how to write a welcome email, let’s get to the technical how-to.
How to execute email marketing using customer segments
If you’re using Cleeng’s stack for managing your SVOD subscribers, you can follow these steps to create segments and execute your welcome email campaign to perfection.
Navigate to the ChurnIQ Segment Builder:
- Define a segment of followers or subscribers with a subscription lifetime of 1 day. You can title this segment “New Subscribers.”
- Schedule this segment to be delivered to your preferred email platform of choice through Zapier at a repeating interval.
Within Zapier:
- Link your email platform account to the webhook you have just created for your new segment.
- Connect the segment to your designated New Subscribers email list or audience within your preferred marketing channel platform.
Within your preferred marketing channel platform:
- Draft three (or four) emails focusing on the communications messages above.
- Create an automated workflow from your New Subscribers email list so that a new contact arriving in the list triggers the start of your email series.
Once this workflow is in place, every new subscriber will automatically receive your welcome emails without you having to lift a finger. These tools will also give you essential insights for a future welcome email campaign, including signup through CTAs and open rates.
Once this workflow is in place, every new subscriber will automatically receive your series of welcome emails without you having to lift a finger.
Want to learn a bit more about putting your subscriber data to work?
Check out this free step-by-step guide to subscriber segmentation.
