Hello and welcome to this blog, we're so happy to have you here!

It's always nice to have someone acknowledge you, isn't it? Whether you're arriving for a job interview or rocking up at a dinner, an enthusiastic welcome can set the tone for the whole event. Conversely, a poor welcome can make you feel out of place. Unwelcome, even.

If you want your email subscribers to form a positive perception of your business, one thing that helps is having a warm, cheerful welcome email waiting to be triggered when they hit that "Sign Me Up!" button. Sending new subscribers an email to say "we're glad you've joined us" is a low-cost, low-effort way to get their relationship with your emails off to a good start.

Targeted, personalised welcome emails, sent when the subscriber opts in, work far better than ones sent later on as part of a batch mail-out. Real-time welcome emails serve as an immediate reinforcement of the subscriber's interest in your brand and are ten times more likely to result in a transaction than batch welcomes.

Welcome emails also let you set expectations about your emails' content and the frequency with which you will send them. When your subscribers know what to expect, they are less likely to feel bombarded by your "Thing of the Day" emails, or neglected in between your less-frequent campaigns.

When creating your welcome email it's important to keep in mind what, beyond creating a good impression, you want it to achieve. You could encourage subscribers to connect with your brand's other channels, provide an introductory offer, share your latest content, or let them tune their subscription preferences.

The content of your welcome email is obviously important. You can do so much more than just saying 'thanks for joining, please add us to your address book.' The subscriber obviously has your service or product on their mind if they've signed up. Encourage them to imagine using it. Personalise the email with the information you have gathered from your sign-up form, such as name, gender, and location. Tell the story of your brand and tell your subscriber how they fit into it.

If you're worried about overloading new subscribers with too much information consider sending a series of welcome emails, each delivering key messages, spaced out so that your subscriber has time to get to grips with one email before the next one arrives. You might want to point out product features, or direct the subscriber to your brand's nearest brick and mortar location.

Sending a good welcome email can help subscribers form a good impression of your brand, understand your range of available products, and reinforce their decision to opt in. And email, as in life, being polite is its own reward.