Don’t Skip This: What to Include in Your New Subscriber Confirmation Email

Every interaction with your subscribers matters. But have you thought about your very first interaction with new email subscribers?

Is it… the first live broadcast you send out since they joined your list? Or Email 1 in your welcome sequence? Or maybe it’s an automated RSS feed email?

And while I recommend every email list include a Welcome Sequence (even a simple one) as a formal welcome to your email list for all new subscribers — even this is not your very first interaction with new subscribers.

There’s ONE email that precedes them all:

The confirmation email.

Whether someone is…

• Confirming their subscription to your list

• Incentivized to download or access a free resource

• Signing up for a webinar or free training

This is a prime opportunity to be intentional with how you connect with your new subscriber — to make it less transactional and more personal.

Copywriting Examples for Your Confirmation Emails

Use the default language when you’re getting started

Now, I’m not going to slam simple, default copy for confirmation emails. When you’re just getting started, I’m more interested in you executing the process NOW (and then refining the copy later) versus feeling like everything needs to be perfect.

I’m sharing a few examples of what a couple popular platforms use as their default, confirmation email messaging. When you go to set up your forms in ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit (which is my #1 email marketing platform), this is what they’ve got set up for you already:

From ActiveCampaign:

From ConvertKit:

I share this as a “before” example, so you can see how a few, simple and intentional changes can really amp up the message and welcome your reader with the vigor of 100 hugs (give or take).

What needs to be in your confirmation email

Your boilerplate examples usually have three things:

• Thank you

• A button to click to “confirm your subscription”

• A link to unsubscribe (required)

And that’ll do for now.

However, what do we know about building brand loyalty with new subscribers? First impressions matter. We want new subscribers to be pleasantly surprised when they get your very next email — and every email after that.

The confirmation email gives them immediate context for who you are — and this gets logged away in their brain, continuing to build the kind of likeability and general awareness that new relationships require.

The confirmation email catches new subscribers right away, states what you’re about, tells them what to expect, and leaves no question about who you are and what they’ve signed up for.

So, when writing an intentional confirmation email, I always include a few core elements (especially before leading into my new subscriber welcome series sequence):

• A warm “thank you / welcome / yay, you’re here!” right off the bat. Follow suit with your brand’s personality, so make it genuine, but also don’t feel like you need to keep it super formal.

• Simply state your USP (unique selling proposition) so it’s clear who you/your business is and why that matters to the reader.

• If you’re using the confirmation button to also share a resource (i.e. an Incentive Delivery email in ConvertKit) restate what they will get when they click the link.

• Make it clear that when they click, they are confirming their subscription to hear from you again.

• State that they can unsubscribe from your list at any time (ahem, this is important for GDPR).

• On the button itself, swap out the generic “Confirm my Subscription” language for something a little more jazzy — and dare I say “conversion-focused.”

• Below the button, you can sign-off all casual and cool OR you can tease out a bit of what they can expect to hear from you next.

You can do all of these things in very few words, I promise.

Remember, the #1 goal is to get your new subscriber to confirm their email — so don’t distract them from that — but the #2 goal is to reinforce your brand and what they can expect from you down the line.

Examples of Conversion-Optimized Confirmation Emails

Joel Klettke of Business Casual Copywriting

Copywriter and community builder

Lindsay Ostrom of Pinch of Yum

Creator and chief recipe-maker of a prominent food blog

Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial

A personal finance author, speaker and content creator

Susan Schmitt Winchester of Healing at Work

Human resources professional, leader and author

What Will Your First Impression Be?

Take a look at the examples above, and maybe make some notes of what resonates with you. Then tweak your own confirmation emails. Explore what would most reflect your brand and connect with new subscribers from the very start.

Because new relationships? They need you to nurture them. So don’t drop the ball, and show your subscribers some love right off the bat.