Free HTML Email Template - “Welcome” - Inbox Ideas: Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Free HTML Email Template - “Welcome”

Posted by Bob Ricca

With over 75 proven HTML email templates under our belt, I got to thinking…

“…what would really set our new email templates apart from the rest?”

Well, I have a couple ideas on this (and I want to hear yours too!). Here’s the first one…

Our latest HTML email template is designed to help you quickly and easily create one of the most critical (and often-overlooked) messages: the welcome email.

Our Newest HTML Email Template: “Welcome”

This is the first in a line of “functionally themed” templates that we’ll be releasing.

Specifically designed to be a welcome message for new subscribers, the “Welcome” template incorporates the elements we believe should be included in your first correspondence.

New to AWeber?

We’re offering this template free of charge for you to use however you’d like:

AWeber Customers:

Log into your account to try out 5 color variations of this template when you create a new message:

Create Effective Welcome Emails Using This Template as a Guide

Just for good measure, lets go over what makes a welcome message successful:

Confirm the subscription was successful
What good is a welcome email if you fail to mention that the user has successfully subscribed?

I recommend making this the most prominent piece of information in the email.
Re-iterate what your subscribers should expect to receive
Using bullet points to display this information not only makes it easy to spot but easy to read.
Includes a return link(s) to your website
Although we incorporated this into our new email template you could easily expand on this.

Providing some interesting links to some recent content might help prolong the users interest and intice them to wait diligently for your next broadcast.
Encourage subscribers to add you to their address book.
When a subscriber adds you to his/her address book, it not only helps with email deliverability but also increases the likelihood that images will be enabled in your future broadcasts.
Provokes user interaction.
Showing that you are easily accessible by hitting the reply button builds a stronger relationship between you and your subscribers.

You also may want to refer to the example of an effective welcome email (although not as good-looking as this template!) that we blogged recently.

So What’s Our Next “Functionally Themed” HTML Email Template?

There has been a lot of talk regarding what type of messages our customers might get the most use out of.

Here are some possibilities:

Templates for Downloadable Files.
Whether its regarding a PDF file, audio file or video, I could create a template for specific types of media to be downloaded.
Template for Podcasts
This template might incorporate a mock player for click through, a place to summarize recent podcasts, and/or a recommended set up to display the transcript for your latest podcast.

Have a Theme Idea for a Future HTML Email Template?

I’d love to hear some feedback on the templates I’ve created and any ideas I could possibly pursue in the future.

Share your thoughts on the “Welcome” template, and your ideas for future templates, below!

Tags: HTML email templates, New Features

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15 Responses

SriHari HS
September 25th, 2008 at 1:16 am

But using these html templates trigger spam assasin?
what good would a great welcome email be if it ends up in the spam folder?
Jonathan Senior
September 25th, 2008 at 4:57 am

Nice one Bob,

we have just switched over to the html templates recently

A like the idea of reminding the customer to add the address to their address book.

I am working my way through all the email clients & doing a short camtasia showing how to add someone as a safe sender

Done outlook & googlemail

Still to do

Thunderbird, hotmail, aol etc

are there any figures on the client software used by recipients?
Justin Premick
September 25th, 2008 at 8:18 am

SriHari,

I haven’t seen the email you created in your account for which you’re concerned about your score, but I can offer a couple general points on HTML email and SpamAssassin:

1. SpamAssassin is a guide designed to help you identify emails that may be likely to be filtered. It’s not a set of absolute, "you-must-never-break-these" rules.

2. Be careful not to micromanage your score (there’s really not much difference between a score of 0 and a score of 2, for example).

Unless your score is especially high (at 5 or above), your message is not considered "spammy" by SpamAssassin and I wouldn’t spend much time/effort on reducing your score.

3. Sending HTML emails typically does not in and of itself cause filtering problems.

The problem arises when you either:

(a) send HTML emails without including a plain text version; or

(b) use HTML to create emails that are indeed "spammy" - emails that consist of one gigantic image and no text, for example, or where all text is in 30pt bold red caps (I’m exaggerating here for effect, but hopefully my point is clear).

Email deliverability consists in far more than just the content of your messages, and while SpamAssassin is a helpful tool, don’t place more emphasis on your score than it deserves.
Jonathan
September 25th, 2008 at 8:29 am

I used the sample with the colours changed and it scored 0.7 on the spam assassin reading
Tobias Fransson
September 30th, 2008 at 4:09 am

I love this welcome message template.

Very functional and useful. I for one know just how hard it can be to
create a good html template since I have designed one myself that didn’t
up to good.

now if we can get a standard template that has similar functions inside it
and built the same way as this welcome template, including the
send this to a friend / did a friend send this to you subscribe thing

that you guys at aweber use in the template it would be sweet

now that I have set the "visual" tone for my newsletter through the
welcome message I would like to continue using it.

Thanks for a great template
nich
September 30th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

Great welcome template. I’d like to see a ’success story’ template for my business profiling case studies or success stories of businesses we consult for.
Hope
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm

Great job!

When will the next template come out? As Tobias stated, I’d love to keep the same visual theme for the follow-ups I just created.
Steve Arsenault
October 8th, 2008 at 2:53 am

Hi Jonathan,

This company shows users how to whitelist their email address for a variety of email clients.

http://www.intrawest.com/whitelist/index.htm
Justin Premick
October 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am

Hi Hope,

New templates come out every couple weeks. This one came out on Sep 24th so the next one will be coming shortly.
Jonathan
October 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am

Hi Steve, top link - thanks

Just a few more camtasia files to do then….
Fiona Allen
October 10th, 2008 at 6:58 am

Thanks Bob, I have used Aweber before but got no response past the first email, if that! Now I know why… I will most certainly be using your "Welcome" Email template in my new campaign. I knew there was a reason why I didn’t go with your competition!
Tami Close
October 19th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Hi,

I would love some special assistance with creating e-mail to subscribers. This is all new for me and would appreciate it until I fully understand it.

What’s the best plan for me to do this?
Tanmay
October 28th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

Hi,

Thanks for putting up a clean template and the ‘free’ download. It does saves a lot of time and effort to modify than to create new.
Free HTML Email Template: “Download” - Inbox Ideas: Email Marketing Tips by AWeber
October 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am

[...] the positive response to our last free HTML email template, “Welcome”, I set out to create more HTML email templates to suit specific common types of emails you [...]
Cassandra Rae
October 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am

Oh my heaven this is fabulous! Thank you