The loveliest welcome email I’ve ever received.

The Digital Picnic welcome email appraisal. The first line of the email is "Zoe you're the best!"

I want to tell you about the loveliest welcome email I’ve ever received, which was a heart warming surprise.

(To watch or listen to my take on this exceptional welcome email instead of reading, you can view the Loom video here)

About the email’s sender: The Digital Picnic

The Digital Picnic is a social media management and social media training company based in Melbourne, owned by Cherie Clonan.

I saw Cherie speak at CopyCon in 2018 (a conference for copywriters!) and I’ve been following The Digital Picnic on Instagram ever since.

They produce amazing social content, as you’d expect, and I love Cherie’s copywriting style on social.

The customer journey moment that triggered the welcome email

This weekend, I made my first purchase when I signed up to The Digital Picnic’s 7 day Instagram Challenge. 

It was super cheap – just $50 for a week of Instagram tips and setting my Instagram strategy, with live lessons and Facebook Group support.

When I paid my course fee, I created an account on their portal. I got the usual automated emails: the sales receipt and a “thanks for creating your account” email.

So here’s where it gets interesting. The third email was unexpectedly lovely.

This welcome email warmed my heart. 

You see, this email is automated, but it feels incredibly personal.

Cherie introduces herself as the Founding Director, and paints a story of how grateful she is that I bought from her business.

Screen shot from the welcome email (a section; not its entirety) includes the text: When you just purchased TDP's 7 Day Instagram Challenge, my husband was likely sitting on the couch screaming at [insert football team’s name here], and my kids were likely making their eleventy billionth batch of slime, and I woulda heard that all-familiar ding that says, “someone just purchased something from TDP” to my business-owning brain [and I woulda likely snuck a quick glimpse of my phone in, too]. Every time I hear that sound? … I feel honoured. Relieved. Belief in myself [and this brand] reinstated. Grateful. And most importantly? I feel reminded to give back, which is what this here business is built on, i.e the life changing magic of social media for social good. When you buy from us? I get to advance my internal team’s salaries beyond industry bandwidths. I get to pay our rent to Indigenous organisations we passionately support. And I get to flex my generosity muscle any way I see fit.

How this welcome email made me FEEL.

For my tiny $50 purchase, Cherie’s thank you email gave me a thrill and put a smile on my face, thanking me with as much enthusiasm as if  I’d bought a $5000 social media management package.

Cherie’s writing is conversational and it feels personal. I know it’s an automated email, but it didn’t feel automated. It felt genuine. And it was a real delight to receive, because it was unexpectedly lovely.

Now, I probably should have known that Cherie would have a lovely and personal welcome email set up, because that’s how Cherie shows up online every day.

But in an eCommerce world of bland email receipts and robotic emails about “here’s how to access your content”, this welcome email was a delight and a surprise.

Small businesses that use brand voice in their emails win more love from customers

This is a lesson for all eCommerce brands to use your brand voice, even in your transactional emails. And especially in your early emails because they set the tone for the relationship with your customers.

Especially for small businesses and family businesses, it’s lovely to tell your customers what their purchase means to you and your family.

I already loved what The Digital Picnic does, and now I think I love them even more.

So, big shout out today to The Digital Picnic for a 10 star welcome email, and I look forward to learning more about Instagram from you this week.

For more information about The Digital Picnic, follow their swipe-worthy content on Instagram, or check out the TDP website.

If you want to make your own welcome email as delightful for your customers as this one, get in touch with me. I’m an eCommerce email strategist and copywriter, for Australian retailers selling products for children or products for the home. I love helping businesses reach and delight more of their ideal customers.