In this guide, you'll see how to create a compelling welcome message for customers to make a strong first impression and foster engagement.

You'll see some of the best examples of welcome messages for customers from successful businesses shared in emails, popups, onsite notifications, and live chat widgets.

Find out:

• What a welcome message is

• Benefits of having a welcome message

• How to share welcome messages with customers

• 15 welcome message examples

What is a welcome message for customers?

A welcome message is a short, friendly message used to greet new customers for the first time when they arrive at a website or subscribe to a newsletter. The best welcome messages create a positive first impression and encourage engagement with incentives or helpful resources.

Welcome messages are an important initial component of customer journey-based marketing communications because they give the info and incentives needed to evaluate a business and its products or services.

Benefits of welcome messages

Done well, welcome messages have many benefits for businesses:

• Make a good first impression. A warm, inviting welcome message will go a long way towards making a customer feel valued and appreciated

• Introduce your brand. You can describe your brand's values, mission, and unique value of your products to communicate what your business is all about

• Motivate customers to engage. Welcome messages may contain links to product categories or customer support or give incentives to encourage customers to explore your website

• Convert first-time visitors. Discounts, free shipping, free samples, limited-time offers and other incentives can help you convert new visitors (welcome emails, for example, have an average open rate of around 30%, which is 202% higher than other promotional emails)

• Collect customer segmentation data. Welcome messages in popups, for example, may contain checkboxes for customers to choose preferred product categories (eg. men's or women's)

• Help customers find the right page on your website. You can include helpful links in welcome messages, including to pages with sales, best-sellers, and FAQs

• Let visitors know they can get support easily. Having a welcome message for customers in a live chat is a good way to let them know that you're available in case they have questions

How to share welcome messages with customers

Here are a few proven ways to welcome new customers to your website and introduce your brand the right way.

Welcome message examples for customers

• Yespark — Give a promo code for the first subscription

• OMAJ — Share brand values

• Vai Vai Visby — Give a short intro to your brand

• NEOM — Provide value right away

• Hardgraft — Include a link to customer support

• Cuisinart — Be short and to the point

• Discover Siskiyou — Create a sense of urgency to engage

• Partake Foods — Share a reason why you started your business

• King Arthur Bakery — Promise to improve your customers' skills

• Gucci — Repeat your promise to customers

• Jean Paul Gaultier — Highlight exclusivity

• Blume — Show customers that they are a part of a community

• A1 Supplements — Add some power words

• Window Seat Coffee — Associate your brand with positive experiences

• Ideal of Sweden — Invite to engage right away

Yespark — Give a promo code for the first monthly subscription

This is a typical welcome message for customers from a SaaS business. Yespark is a parking subscription service, so they focus their welcome message on the main benefit: a €15 coupon for the first monthly subscription.

This welcome popup helped Yespark collect 3,492 emails from new visitors (you can also read the case study to learn more:

If you'd like to greet customers on your website with a similar campaign:

Follow these steps to create a welcome popup

Get a free account in our popup builder (rated 4.9 stars on Shopify and Capterra) to make the campaign:

No cc required, 14-day free trial with all premium features

OMAJ — Share your brand values

About 44% of customers prefer to buy from businesses with a commitment to sustainability. If your brand has the same goal, you can also highlight it in your welcome message. OMAJ does exactly that—the brand describes its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint and fighting consumerism.

Though this welcome message may seem long, it covers all important details and encourages visitors to explore the website. And it's warm and friendly—a perfect tone to write the best welcome message for customers.

Note that OMAJ uses onsite notifications to share this welcome message—a social media-inspired feed for websites:

If you'd like to share welcome messages with onsite notifications on your website, you can try them for free:

14-day free trial with all premium features

Here's how to create a notification.

Or learn more about onsite notifications first (see examples and ways to use them).

Vai Vai Visby — Give a short intro to your brand

This welcome message briefly describes how Vai Vai Visby started and why. As you can see, it comes from a brand's mascot: a chihuahua named Willow—it's a cool way to introduce your brand and encourage visitors to learn more.

According to Teodor Malmborg from Vai Vai Visby, the goal behind this welcome message was to simulate the in-store experience on the website:

"The goal is to simulate the kind of friendly advice and insights we can give to our customers when visiting our physical store."

Learn more about this welcome message example: The Notification Feed Contest: Participants

Hardgraft — Include a link to customer support

Hardgraft, a high-quality lifestyle brand, shares this welcome message in a popup on its homepage. They give a short brand history and invite visitors to get in touch if they have any questions.

One important thing is that Hardgraft shows this message after a time delay, meaning they let customers check out the products. That's a good idea—showing a popup with an invitation to ask questions before one even had time to browse around would be, well, annoying.

NEOM — Provide value right away

NEOM, a skincare brand, gives this warm welcome message to all new visitors. Besides the welcoming message itself, the brand invites new visitors to join their community to get 20% off the first order as well as helpful skincare content. Also, there's free shipping for orders over £50.

This tactic is, of course, nothing new, but having a discount and free shipping mentioned in a welcome message can be powerful. Ecommerce research says that 91% of customers look for discounts before making a purchase.

Cuisinart — Be short and to the point

Cuisinart's welcome message is essentially a shorter version of NEOM's. It includes only one sentence with the brand's value and goes straight to the discount and how to apply it. Note that this welcome message was a part of a larger email.

One cool thing about this welcome message example is that CTA button. Not only does it take the new subscribers directly to the products but also mentions the discount to highlight the good deal. That's a good move since welcome emails are very effective at generating sales.

Discover Siskiyou — Create a sense of urgency to engage

Discover Siskiyou is a website that offers getaways in the amazing nature of California's Siskiyou County. In this welcome message, they create a sense of urgency by recommending to book a stay today. The message strikes a perfect balance by not being pushy, too.

Consider this tactic for creating welcome messages if you're a hospitality business, too. But the main thing here is to creating a sense of urgency without sounding too pushy.

Partake Foods — Share a reason why started your business

Denise Woodard struggled to find healthy snacks for her daughter, who was diagnosed with severe food allergies. Frustrated by the limited options available, she decided to launch her own company, Partake. Now, she helps parents and kids with food allergies to enjoy delicious snacks without any worries.

A great cause, truly worth mentioning in a welcome message, wouldn't you agree? Reading this text will definitely make many people trust the brand more because Woodard has managed to tackle similar challenges they might be going through.

King Arthur Bakery — Promise to improve your customers' skills

Another welcome message made in the style of a letter. The employees of King Arthur Bakery make a collective promise to improve baking skills of their customers and inspire them with exceptional products and recipes.

This is a good example of how you can start building trust right from the welcome message. By making a promise to help customers improve their skills, you can also show that you are invested in your customers' success and not just selling products.

Gucci — Repeat your promise to customers

Note the first sentence in this welcome message—Gucci reiterates that we will be the first to get updates on new product launches and so on. It's a good way to remind subscribers of the value they will receive by being on our email list.

Consider doing the same in your welcome emails and try to mention as many cool benefits as possible to get their attention right away.

Jean Paul Gaultier — Highlight exclusivity

Jean Paul Gaultier uses a welcome message that conveys exclusivity and prestige to entice new subscribers to make the first purchase. The message hits that the brand takes the experience of their subscribers seriously, and shares great emails often.

This approach to writing welcome messages for customers can be particularly effective for luxury brands that want to make their customers feel special and valued right from the start.

Blume — Show customers that they are a part of a community

Being a part of a brand community improves engagement and loyalty. That's why mentioning some details about your brand's community in welcome messages can be a powerful way to instill a sense of belonging in new subscribers.

Blume does exactly that—their welcome message (this one sent in a welcome email) mentions the brand's impressive community of over 500,000 members.

A1 Supplements — Add some power words

A1 Supplements mentions that their products are a trusted and proven tool that helps meet the most common needs of their customers. There are a couple of power words (words that trigger emotional response): "trusted" and "science-based," which are an effective way to build customer trust.

Using power words is one of the best practices in ecommerce copywriting, but for businesses in the health, wellness and beauty industries, this tactic is a must-do. Consider this guide to power words if you'd like to know more.

Window Seat Coffee — Associate your brand with positive experiences

Window Seat Coffee... That sounds a bit like good times, right? This welcome message is all about that—forgetting about the stresses of daily lives for a minute and creating relaxing moments. The goal here is to associate the brand with such experiences.

So, if you'd like to associate your brand with positive experiences, consider this tactic in welcome messages for your customers. Add some imagery like Window Seat Coffee does here: a cup of coffee, a beautiful landscape, and a warm sea are all things that can bring relaxation and joy.

Ideal of Sweden — Invite to engage right away

This is a typical welcome message for customers that ecommerce stores have in live chat widgets. It's short, to the point, and invites visitors to engage by giving a few links to important resources like order tracking, product information, and refunds.

If your online business uses live chats or chatbots for customer support, then writing a welcome message like this would be a good idea to encourage customers to find the help they need.

Summary

Welcome messages are an important tool for businesses to engage and build trust with customers. By sharing a personal story, making a promise to improve skills, and highlighting exclusivity or community, you can create a strong connection with your customers right from the start.

If you'd like to learn more about how to engage new customers:

• B2B lead generation strategies [+examples]

• How to increase ecommerce sales [guide]

• 8 email list building tools for online businesses