How to Send a Custom Welcome Email to New Users in WordPress

As a WordPress site owner, making new users feel welcomed and valued is crucial for driving engagement and retention.

According to Statista, 51% of U.S. internet users say personalized web experiences influence their loyalty and purchasing decisions.

This is why implementing a custom welcome email for user onboarding is so important.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how WordPress pros leverage custom emails to:

• Give new users a fantastic first impression
• Set expectations about your community
• Increase engagement and reduce churn
• Automate messages to save time

Let’s dive in…

Why Personalized Welcome Emails Matter

Here are some surprising statistics that highlight the value of custom welcome emails:

• 82% open rate for welcome emails (Campaign Monitor)
• 28% higher click rate vs. other emails (GetResponse)
• 51% of users say personalized experiences increase loyalty (Statista)

It’s clear that welcome emails capture attention and influence customer retention when done right.

But the problem is that the default WordPress welcome message falls short.

It’s generic, untargeted, and misses the opportunity to get users actively engaged with your site.

That’s why implementing custom welcome emails is so important.

Here are the main benefits:

Set New User Expectations

A customized welcome email allows you to articulate:

• What your site, app or platform offers
• Key policies and guidelines
• How members typically interact

This establishes expectations, reduces confusion, and prevents issues down the road.

Drive Engagement

You can include highly targeted calls-to-action and links within your custom emails such as:

• Visit account settings
• Complete user profile
• Check out latest features
• Interact with other members

Kickstart Onboarding Process

Welcome emails allow you to share educational walkthroughs and checklists that simplify the initial onboarding process.

This gets users actively engaged right away when excitement is highest.

Deliver Personalized Experiences

By custom tailoring your messages and using merge tags to include the new user’s name, you make them feel valued as an individual rather than just another email address.

Now that you see why custom welcome emails are incredibly valuable, let’s explore how to set them up properly.

How to Send Custom Welcome Emails in WordPress

There are two recommended methods for sending targeted welcome messages to new WordPress users:

1. Use a dedicated plugin
2. Leverage email marketing automation

Next, we’ll compare the pros and cons of each approach.

Method 1: Welcome Email Plugin

Dedicated WordPress plugins like User Registration Welcome Email make sending custom welcome messages easy.

Benefits

• Very fast 5 minute setup
• No technical expertise required
• Great for simple generic welcome email

Downsides

• Limited flexibility
• Can‘t create email series sequences
• No advanced reporting

Method 2: Email Marketing Automation

Solutions like MailerLite allow you to create sequences, advanced targeting, track opens/clicks, and custom designs.

Benefits

• Create unlimited, personalized email series
• Segment users for targeted messaging
• Track interaction and optimize
• Beautiful templates to choose from
• Affordable pricing

Downsides

• More complex setup
• Multiple steps to configure
• Can get time intensive

So if you just want a single basic welcome message, use the plugin method.

But for multi-message sequences and customization stick with MailerLite or a similar ESP integrated with WordPress.

Next let’s walk through exactly how to configure custom welcome emails using both options…

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Now I’ll provide a step-by-step guide to get custom welcome emails operational on your WordPress site using both methods.

Follow along and choose the right approach based on your specific business needs and technical abilities.

Option 1: Configuring the Welcome Email Plugin

If you just need a simple generic welcome email, start with the User Registration Welcome Email plugin.

Here is how to configure it in under 5 minutes:

1. Install and activate the User Registration – Welcome Email plugin in WordPress.

2. In admin menu, click on Users → Welcome Email

3. Compose subject line and edit default welcome message body copy

4. Insert merge tags like {user_login} to personalize

5. Click Save Settings when finished

And that’s it — now a custom welcome email will be sent to new users during registration.

While fast to set up, this method lacks flexibility. Read on if you need something more advanced.

Option 2: Automated Sequences with MailerLite

For complete control and customization over your welcome emails, leverage MailerLite‘s automation workflow builder.

Here is how to set it up:

1. Install the MailerLite plugin

2. Visit Settings → MailerLite, and click Connect account

3. Select desired Subscriber Group to assign users

4. Click Automation Workflows and create new Automation

5. Define your Trigger as User registers on website

6. Build out sequences with custom emails and delays

7. Insert dynamic {fields} pulled from WordPress users

8. Activate and embed registration checkbox using MailerLite form widget

Now during user creation in WordPress, contacts will be automatically added to your Subscriber Group in MailerLite and enrolled in the custom welcome email series.

With this approach you can send unlimited follow-up messages like:

• Initial welcome & introduction email
• Getting started guide sent after 3 days
• Community tips and tricks after 1 week
• Recent features highlight after 2 weeks

Obviously this allows for a much more strategic welcome campaign.

Key Optimization Tips

Now that everything‘s configured, let’s discuss some best practices for creating high-performing welcome emails.

Follow these recommendations from Constant Contact email experts:

• Lead with value – clearly state key benefits users gain
• Keep first email short – highlight best content and features
• Add relevant CTAs – drive specific actions to accelerate onboarding
• Followup frequently – continue engagement beyond just 1 message
• Personalize content – use merge tags for names, interests, attributes etc.
• Leverage analytics – see opens, clicks and refactor based on data

Implementing these tips will boost engagement rates from welcome message sequences.

Let‘s wrap things up…

Conclusion & Next Steps

We covered a lot of ground around the importance of sending custom WordPress welcome emails and two methods to get set up fast.

Here’s a quick summary:

• Welcome emails see high open and click rates – they work!
• Default WordPress setup misses big onboarding opportunities
• Plugins enable basic custom emails fast, email services provide more flexibility
• Strategically trigger multi-email sequences to extend engagement
• Perfect and optimize over time to maximize impact

I hope you‘re now empowered to create targeted, automated welcome emails tailored specifically for your WordPress community.

For more support don‘t hesitate to comment below or schedule a strategy call if you have any other questions!

Let me know how it goes. Just remember – welcome emails are a crucial piece for driving new user activation and retention.

Get them up and running today using the steps provided in this guide!