Welcomes that work: 4 rules for onboarding emails
Onboarding emails are powerful relationship-building tools, but they are too often overlooked or developed without a real strategy. With over 75% of people handling their banking online, onboarding emails are not just a nice gesture; they are a key marketing strategy.
86% of people have a high likelihood to remain loyal to a business that welcomes and educates them during the onboarding process. Welcome emails have an average open rate of 68.6%, compared to the standard email open rate of 19.7%, making them the most-read emails you'll ever send. That’s an amazing opportunity to highlight your value, introduce services, and set the tone for ongoing engagement.
Here are 4 ways to maximize the impact of your onboarding emails:
1. Build a series, not a single touch
You don’t want to wave hi to someone new, and then immediately walk away. Instead, use marketing automation to structure a series of well-timed emails that build trust step-by-step, and cross-sell other products and services. New members are curious about what they just signed up for, and potentially open to opening more accounts, but they will move on if they aren’t given easily digestible information. Structured onboarding email sequences generate 51% more revenue than a single welcome email.
2. Creativity works
In crowded inboxes, don’t let your emails look like a Craigslist post with a plain white background, boring text, and zero personality. Your emails should be on-brand and interesting.
Try these tips:
Use bold visuals and clear CTAs to guide attention and drive action.
Boost engagement with GIFs and videos.
Make content scannable by using bullets, short paragraphs, and succinct headings—the email is your hook, not your landing page.
Sound like you. Reflect your brand’s unique voice and personality.
Design for mobile-first. Over 60% of emails are opened on phones, so test on small screens and make sure it looks (and works) great.
Use humor and storytelling. 45% of consumers like brands that do not take themselves too seriously.
3. Go beyond "Hi, [Name]"
Personalization isn’t just about inserting a first name (although that’s a great start). It’s about overall relevance and timing.
For example, when Security Plus Federal Credit Union launched their new brand, they knew their onboarding emails needed to reflect their new look, appealing to a younger generation while still engaging long-standing members. The solution was segmenting the journeys by generation. Performance even in the first 90 days proved the value of this approach, with 23 direct new accounts opened from the welcome emails ($85K in balances) and 199 total new accounts opened by the recipients ($34M in balances).
4. Come for value, stay for connection
Within the first 30 days, new members are most engaged and most likely to sign up for additional products and services. Use this window to:
Highlight benefits (and how to access them).
Provide tools and tips (especially digital ones).
Reinforce your values and mission.
Make members feel like insiders, not just account holders.
After the first 30 days, keep nurturing the relationship. Engagement shouldn’t only happen when you want deposits. Lemonade Insurance does an excellent job of this in a very simple way: every year on my birthday, they send me “Happy Birthday Ashley,” handwritten on a sign, with their real team standing around it smiling. No promo. No upsell. Just people (and sometimes a cute dog). I genuinely look forward to it, even more than the coupons in my inbox.
That’s the kind of emotional connection that you can build, with nothing more than an email. So don’t be that friend who only reaches out when they need something. Be the one who checks in, shows up, and stays in touch.
Nothing happens by accident. It takes planning, creative collaboration, and data-backed decisions. So whether you’re starting from scratch or reworking what you already developed—when it comes to onboarding emails, it’s worth doing well.
This article was first published by CUInsight.